Training providers report that service delivered by the ILA
helpline did not reach an acceptable standard
IT outsourcing company Capita came under renewed pressure this
week, as training companies urged the Government to block any new
contracts to the firm until its performance in the ill-fated
Individual Learning Accounts (ILA) programme has been
investigated.
Colleges and training providers have accused the company, which was
responsible for managing the business and IT processes for the
flagship learning scheme, of providing services which fell below
acceptable standards for a multimillion-pound programme.
The claims will cast a shadow over Capita, one of the biggest
beneficiaries of public sector IT contracts. Its portfolio includes
local authority housing benefit programmes and a 10-year contract
to develop IT systems for the Criminal Records Bureau.
Capita was responsible for handling enquiries from 8,000 training
providers and 2.6 million learners taking part in ILA schemes as
part of its services contract with the Department for Education
& Skills, through helpline centres in Darlington and
Coventry.
But learning providers say the service fell far below the quality
that they expected. A dossier compiled by Computer Weekly lists a
catalogue of complaints:
- Call centre staff regularly could not answer questions
- Staff refused to pass callers on to more senior colleagues when
they could not answer questions
- Staff did not return phone calls after promising to do so
- Different individuals often gave conflicting advice
- At times it took between six and eight weeks to deliver ILA
numbers to students, when it should have taken two or three
weeks.
Some training companies resorted to asking each question three
times because they were not able to get clear responses from
Capita's helpline staff. "Each time you would get a different agent
and each time a different answer. Between the three answers we
would decide the course of action," said Susan Todd, managing
director of Hexagon training.
The Association of Computer Trainers (ACT), which represents the
three largest training companies involved in the ILA scheme, said
stories like these were typical.
"The government should not award Capita any further contracts,
until the ILA scheme has been properly investigated and the lessons
learnt, let alone award it the contract for the revised ILA
scheme," it said. "The quality from Capita was always very poor.
They were not authoritative. We got conflicting answers. We gave up
using them and went straight to the Department for Education," said
Ian Watkinson, marketing manager at Pitman Training, an ACT
member.
Further education colleges have also expressed "considerable
concerns", said David Gibson, chief executive of the Association of
Colleges. "It was difficult to get answers. It was difficult to get
through. Frequently you were told they did not know so they would
ring you back." On many occasions they did not, he said.
The complaints have been seized on by Alistair Burt, Conservative
shadow minister for life-long learning, who plans to raise the
matter in the Commons. Burt said, "The scale of the ILA fiasco
seems to grow, as stones are lifted away one by one.
"These latest expressions of concern from those responsible for the
delivery of tuition confirms our impression of an ill-thought-out
scheme, put together with the sole intention of reaching a target
figure of account holders, with no quality control whatsoever."
Capita came under scrutiny last year over its contract to run the
housing and council tax benefits service for Lambeth Council.
Lambeth cancelled the deal and took the work in-house after Capita
sought extra fees to tackle a backlog of 30,000 claims.
The company is due face questions from MPs on the education and
skills select committee over its performance in running the ILA
programme next week.
In a statement to Computer Weekly Capita said that its call centre
staff were given a two-week intensive training course with periodic
refresher sessions.
Although it did not comment on the learning provider call centre,
it said that a survey by York Consulting in May 2001 reported that
an "overwhelming majority" of ILA students were very positive about
the service provided by the separate student helpline. High volumes
of calls, particularly following the announcement that the
programme would be closed, stretched the capacity of the call
centre, it said. "During this period the level of customer service
may not have been as high as we would have liked."
What the training providers had to say about Capita's call
centre service
- "I found the ILA helpline became unhelpful and set a policy
that three calls were to be made about the same question. Each time
you would get a different agent and each time a different answer.
Between the three answers we would then decide our course of
action." Susan Todd, managing director, Hexagon Training
- "The quality from Capita was always very poor. They were not
authoritative. We got conflicting answers. We gave up using them
and went straight to the Department for Education." Ian Watkinson,
marketing manager, Pitman Training
- "The call centre staff sounded young, impersonal, although not
impolite. It just seemed that they did not have a complete grasp of
the job they were doing, or perhaps just had not received adequate
training. It was difficult to believe they were our contact into a
multi-million government scheme." Keith Humphries, director, Data
Plus
- "It wasn't a helpline. No criticism of the people on the other
end because they did not know what was going on. They just did not
have a clue. All they could say was, 'We don't know, we don't
know.' It was a waste of time having people there." Terry Wickham,
director, Learn Direct Computer Training
- "I think Capita should be stopped from running any more
contracts until the whole process is sorted out. It is difficult to
say at this stage whether it is Capita, the whole process of
outsourcing, or whether it is the management by the government
department concerning the outsourcing process. But the end result
in this case has been absolutely diabolical." Roger Tuckett,
director, Henley on-line
- "They were reluctant to say who they were. They were reluctant
to put you through to anybody. In fact it was almost impossible to
get through to speak to anybody other than the person you were
speaking to. Which was infuriating, particularly, if they turned
around and said, 'I don't know the answer to that,' which happened
often." Heather Binning, operations director, Internet
Exchange
- "Colleges expressed considerable concern that the service had
been difficult. It was difficult to get answers; it was difficult
to get through. Frequently you were told they did not know so they
would ring you back. On a large number of occasions the promise to
ring back was not kept." David Gibson, chief executive, Association
of Colleges
- "We were taken aback by their simplistic, prescribed approach.
If we had any queries we would ring the centre and would be given a
yes or no answer - little or no explanation. We were given the
impression that any further questions were unwelcome. Sometimes we
would be given an answer which seemed so improbable we would ring
again - and get a different answer." Barbara Walsh, Longbridge
Training Centre