[Tony]

Over the past few weeks, there has been some talk going around about Dering - money problems, job cuts, etc and no one knew exactly what is going on.

Well, the Chief Executive of Dering - Stephen Dering - has explained what is happening... hopefully this will answer your questions:

There are a lot of rumours going around in relation to the company I set up 4 years ago. Because of a number of legal processes, we have not been in a position to respond to these rumours and put these right until those processes have completed.

In October 2009 we started a number of new contracts where referrals are to come from Jobcentre Plus - we cannot refer people directly onto programme. By Feb 2010 only 7% of the actual referrals were coming in that was expected. This is common to all companies in the same sector, we are not the only ones affected – every other organisation has a similar experience of low referral levels.

Therefore we had to undertake a review of which services are viable and which are not and to focus on those which are viable. In our market sector we receive fees for job outcomes achieved. No job outcomes = no fees therefore in some areas it is not viable to operate if job outcomes are very low.

Unlike charitable organisations we do not get grants or legacies to deliver services. We have to make a profit.

We have therefore made some changes to remove or suspend the non-profitable elements and to focus on the areas that are profitable. That means in some areas like Melbourne, we have handed our service over to another provider who has the resources to carry on the work. In Cheshire we have terminated the service where the volume of customers was too small to be viable. In Brisbane we have entered into a joint agreement with partner organisation Interwork to deliver employment services together.

In many areas such as Birmingham, Derby, London, South East, Northern Ireland and France, our services are not affected at all and we continue to exceed expectations in the level of job outcomes. For example, we started delivering Employment Services for the first time in Devon & Cornwall in December and are delivering job outcomes that exceed contract requirements. In 2009 we worked with over 1,000 people and supported 244 into work. So far in 2010 we are on course to achieve a similar level of people into work through a tighter, more focused team working in areas which are the most viable.

Our Operations Manager is indeed leaving us at the end of March – however, she is going to Remark to manage a new service in April that is going to compliment the services that Dering provide by providing support in the workplace once Dering has supported a person into work. Therefore this is something that we welcome and look forward to working with her on in due course.

Regards,
Stephen

[MM.]

Over the past few weeks, there has been some talk going around about Dering - money problems, job cuts, etc and no one knew exactly what is going on.

Well, the Chief Executive of Dering - Stephen Dering - has explained what is happening... hopefully this will answer your questions:

There are a lot of rumours going around in relation to the company I set up 4 years ago. Because of a number of legal processes, we have not been in a position to respond to these rumours and put these right until those processes have completed.

In October 2009 we started a number of new contracts where referrals are to come from Jobcentre Plus - we cannot refer people directly onto programme. By Feb 2010 only 7% of the actual referrals were coming in that was expected. This is common to all companies in the same sector, we are not the only ones affected – every other organisation has a similar experience of low referral levels.

Therefore we had to undertake a review of which services are viable and which are not and to focus on those which are viable. In our market sector we receive fees for job outcomes achieved. No job outcomes = no fees therefore in some areas it is not viable to operate if job outcomes are very low.

Unlike charitable organisations we do not get grants or legacies to deliver services. We have to make a profit.

We have therefore made some changes to remove or suspend the non-profitable elements and to focus on the areas that are profitable. That means in some areas like Melbourne, we have handed our service over to another provider who has the resources to carry on the work. In Cheshire we have terminated the service where the volume of customers was too small to be viable. In Brisbane we have entered into a joint agreement with partner organisation Interwork to deliver employment services together.

In many areas such as Birmingham, Derby, London, South East, Northern Ireland and France, our services are not affected at all and we continue to exceed expectations in the level of job outcomes. For example, we started delivering Employment Services for the first time in Devon & Cornwall in December and are delivering job outcomes that exceed contract requirements. In 2009 we worked with over 1,000 people and supported 244 into work. So far in 2010 we are on course to achieve a similar level of people into work through a tighter, more focused team working in areas which are the most viable.

Our Operations Manager is indeed leaving us at the end of March – however, she is going to Remark to manage a new service in April that is going to compliment the services that Dering provide by providing support in the workplace once Dering has supported a person into work. Therefore this is something that we welcome and look forward to working with her on in due course.

Regards,
Stephen

We know the Australians are very angry about Derring, they feel a lot of people were led to believe there was work and it all went belly up with no explanations as such. 'The Rebutal' blog has an in-depth OZ view on it. I have some sympathy with Derring, they face very unfair 'competition' from charities who get tax breaks and so can undermine deaf endevour. Frankly I support deaf business's to get the same tax breaks as charities to level the playing field, given all the 'deaf' charities here are hearing run, it tantamounts to jobs for the hearing boys. I've covered these aspects at considerable length (even although it annoys some!) on my blogs elsewhere. You have the 3rd and charitable business sector (Now charities are called 'companies'), are backed by the charity commission aka the state, who are only to willing to allow hearing run deaf charities to zero deaf doing it for themselves, because deaf business wants profit obviously to operate. For charity to do the same means the government would be better off ceasing to unload support for deaf onto charity and taking it back over themselves, which again I would prefer on the grounds we CAN lobby on service improvements with them, we appear to not be able to raise concerns with a 'charity'.

It's all about money basically, charity with tax concessions can do it on the cheap, and can also sell at profit 40% of their 'output' legaly. It is why they dumped work and benefit advice at one major charity, because no 'profit' was there for them, Derring could take that over, or the BDA, but haven't the financial means, you need a national set up for that. Deaf can't compete because they pay the full tax rates, where is the monopolies commission when you need it ? While Derring has a fair case, their PR was very poor and this is why rows are going on, I'd prefer deaf target the real culprits, charities operating as a bona fide business avoiding the taxes, and the state colluding with them so they don't have to foot our access and empowerment, which is ours by law but we don't get.

This post has been edited by MM.: Mar 9 2010, 10:00 AM