Message boards index | Help | Search messages | Sign in

+ UKCAB + Public area + News, events, announcments + The Positive Place

The Positive Place

Print
Pages: 1

John Holland
Member
Posts: 21
The Positive Place
Posted on: September 5 2009, 12:43 pm

Recently the Positive Place issued a breach notice on Croydon PCT concerning the contract in process of being issued to it on behalf of the SLHP.  Two years after we started work on delivering to that contract we still had received no contract.  Indecision ruled.

After hearing no response and no efforts being made to remedy what we identified as 19 breaches (17 of which were serious breaches) the Positive Place terminated the proposed contract.  You may have heard Croydon PCT issuing statements with a different version.  The breach notice was served by hand  and also electronically on 1st June.  The termination notice was delivered by hand and also electronically on 23rd July.  Croydon PCT have never responded and they have never served any notice on the Positive Place.  The contract was a loss making effort and after closely examining it we managed to determine that the contract, if delivered as Croydon PCT had increasingly shown to wish it, would cost 7 times as much as the grant awarded.  In our opinion the contract as it eventually was turning out proved to be an "unfair" contract.  Given their significant breaches, admitted by their failure to respond, we took the opportunity to end the relationship.

The Positive Place has been pre-occupied recently dealing with a number of internal issues.  Not least of these relates to a very senior member of staff who we discovered had declared bogus qualifications when joining the Company some 8 years ago.  A thorough investigation, followed by a comprehensive and complete disciplinary process followed.  The member of staff was dismissed and on 4th September his appeal against that dismissal was NOT upheld.  The decision to dismiss for gross misconduct was upheld.  I am sure those involved in small charities will understand the crippling burden of such a process on a Company 90% staffed by volunteers!

Our problem is that the member of staff is a very popular person.  Dealing with this issue became, therefore a very difficult issue.  Furthermore he compounded his misconduct by canvassing our service users and members of the Company with a series of misinformation and disinformation and he is a signficant component of a campaign to discredit the Company and its principle officers.  That campaign has extended to creating a "shadow" administration which actively seeks to disrupt the administration of the Positive Place.  It seems he also involved external companies and agencies

The board of trustees has called an Extraordinary General Meeting of its members to be held in September.  The stark reality of the Company's situation will be explained to the members at that meeting and a critical decision will be made.

Those of you who have visited the Positive Place, over recent months, will be able to bear testimony to the transformation we managed to achieve since the new board took over at the end of September last year.  We stopped the torrent of money gushing out of the Company's reserves and had moved the Company to a situation where it was breaking even.  We have managed to bring in new funding but somewhat less than we had hoped.  Our efforts have been hindered substantially by the need continually to fire fight against the disruptive element.  The antics of this anarchist group, consisting mostly of people who are not members of the Company,  has had a very damaging effect on the Company and has left us with few choices.

The Board has opted for a mechanism that will ensure PLWHA in South London continue to have acess to appropriate facilities rather than the data gathering exercises organised by SLHP.  We shall achieve that if this malevolent group do not force us to spend our entire reserves dealing with their aggravation.

This post is provided for information only.  I should prefer it is left without comment.  For legal reasons I should probably not be able to respond.

Logged

Print
Pages: 1

+ UKCAB + Public area + News, events, announcments + The Positive Place