Schools and Learners Minister Jim Knight admitted in a written statement last week that an estimate a week earlier claiming that 12,016 applications for Education Maintenance Allowances (EMAs) remained unprocessed should be updated to 26,000 following a full count of the applications.
Emerging concerns
The correction was a result of “emerging concerns about the methodology being used by Liberata to calculate the work in progress statistics” in advance of the transfer of the EMA contract to the rival company, Capita, the Minister said. This follows the government’s announcement in November that Liberata would lose its lucrative six-year contract worth £80 million, following catastrophic processing delays that at one point left 200,000 learners’ EMA applications unprocessed and without payments in time for the start of the academic year.
Cleared in three weeks
The announcement followed a House of Commons debate the previous day in which MPs raised concerns about the backlog. Speaking at the debate, Mr Knight said the processing backlog would be cleared in three weeks. Noting frustrations in delays to grant processing, the Minister said 26,200 applications were being finalised as of 21 November, with the backlog due to be cleared at a rate of 6,000 applications a day.
The House heard that the Minister had written to Mark Haysom, the Chief Executive of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) for an explanation of the delays that were incurred and details of the action that would be taken. Financial penalties would not be imposed upon Liberata, the Minister said, as the Treasury and LSC had judged that the company had already incurred significant costs to rectify the situation.
Temporary workers
On the issue of temporary workers, the Minister said that he understood additional staff was hired on a temporary basis, adding that this would be a decision for contractors to make in the future.
Bringing the debate, backbench Labour MP Gordon Prentice, criticised the failure to enforce penalties on the failed company, arguing that the public purse should not have to pay the £4m cost incurred in transferring the contract.
Referring to the expose on the BBC’s Newsnight programme, Mr Prentice said the company had long been aware that they were not going to meet the terms of the contract and called for greater accountability.
Mr Prentice said both the company and the Office of Government Commerce had a role to play in the confusion, and stated that they should be answerable for their actions.
Labour MP and former Treasury minister Andrew Smith, called for better monitoring and management of successor arrangements.