-----
Original Message -----
From: dave.mortimer@tiscali.co.uk
To: paula.jones@nao.gsi.gov.uk
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 2:57 PM
Subject: Mismanagement
Dear
Paula:
Complaint
Against the DfES: the Miscarriage of Family Policy
Please
find enclosed a formal complaint filed on 26
April 2005 with the DfES Permanent Secretary, Sir David Normington,
and five relevant Ministers.
The
complaint flows from DfES mismanagement of family policy.
You
will see from the response (28th April - attached) that the matter
is under formal investigation. We have since had a further communication
from Sir David requesting additional evidence.
The
attachment 'full text' is the original 26th April submission;
the file 'covering correspondence' contains the covering letters
.
I
would be grateful if you would:
-
acknowledge receipt of this email and its attachments
- provide contact details of the person or section within the
NAO to whom this material has been forwarded
Would
you please ensure that this email accompanies your internal NAO
forward.
Could
I, in particular, draw your attention to the letter scheduled
for release on 20 May in 'Covering Correspondence'?
Your
thoughts would be appreciated.
I
append a brief summary below.
Yours
sincerely,
David Mortimer
Summary
This
complaint is, in the first instance, against a DfES Civil Servant
who wasted two years and £1,000,000 on an unauthorised family
law project.
The
matter runs a little deeper.
It
seems that the civil servant in question (a Mr Bruce Clark) may
have a track-record of commandeering initiatives, twisting them
to his own purpose, assuring Ministers that he continued to work
on the originally approved project - and then producing something
different.
One
thing is ordered, another delivered.
Hence
the 'Early Interventions' complaint, where an agreed reform (8
years in development) was covertly replaced by Mr Clark in favour
of a personal venture to which no proper thought was given, and
which seems to have crashed-on-launch, after the wastage of a
million pounds and two years of phantom-work.
You
will see that, in the process, a Green Paper ('Parental Separation')
was diluted to the point of inutility.
You
will further note that something similar happened - involving
the same civil servant - on a wider bundle of issues which went
through on the sly 2000-2001 and which are now wreaking a baleful
harvest regularly reported in the Press.
I
paste below a recent item from the Sunday Telegraph.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/04/03/nmed03.xml
Only
six couples sign up for Hodge's 1 million pound mediation scheme
PATRICK
HENNESSY - Political Editor
”A
one-million pound government project aimed at mediating between
warring parents has attracted just six couples in its first six
months. Margaret Hodge, the children's minister, now faces accusations
that she introduced the Family Resolutions pilot scheme simply
to try to ward off protests from the Fathers4Justice pressure
group until after the general election, expected on May 5….
Ministers
expected at least 3,500 couples to join the scheme which, if successful,
was to be implemented in courts across the country.
A
parliamentary written answer from Mrs Hodge, however, has revealed
that only 25 couples were referred between September and March,
with only six of them attending the "parent planning"
stage.
The
scheme, which cost an estimated pounds 1 million to set up, now
appears close to collapse…”
The
above relates to the spoiler project (Family Resolutions) which
Mr Clark swapped for the Early Interventions project.
