number of employment tribunal complaints against Alcohol Recovery Project or ARP Charitable Services since computerised records began

The request was successful.

Dear Sir or Madam,

How many employment or industrial tribunal complaints against ARP have been received each year since computerised records began?

The company's 100 staff work in most parts of London and may have submitted claims to London Central or London South tribunals.

The formal name of ARP has been

- Alcohol Recovery Project, then

- ARP Charitable Services Ltd since 2007

The registered office has been at

68 Newington Causeway, SE1 6DF, then at

7 Holyrood Street, London SE1 2EL since 2005

Branch addresses that complainants may have used include

318 NEW CROSS ROAD LONDON SE14 6AF

3-5 CYNTHIA STREET LONDON N1 9JF

174 KENNINGTON PARK ROAD LONDON SE11 4BT

75 KNATCHBULL ROAD LONDON SE5 9QU

140 STOCKWELL ROAD LONDON SW9 9TQ

8 CAMBERWELL GREEN LONDON SE5 7AF

130 PENTONVILLE ROAD LONDON N1 9JE

Yours faithfully,

P. Terry

Sidgreaves, Paula (TS, Manchester),

1 Attachment

Dear Sir/Madam

Please find attached a letter in response to your recent request for
information.

Yours sincerely
Paula Sidgreaves

<<Terry P 26 Feb 09.doc>>

Policy Officer
Finance and Commercial
Tribunals Service Employment
Alexandra House
14-22 The Parsonage
Manchester M3 2JA
' 0161 833 6316
7 0161 833 6310
8 [email address]

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P. Terry left an annotation ()

100 staff work at ARP, the question said.

Staff turnover in some jobs at ARP is high so much less than 100 people have a theoretical right to complain to a tribunal.

Realistically, only staff at the ends of their careers are likely to complain, although re-instatements do happen.

Realistically, a recognised union quoted as charging referral fees to lawyers will discourage low-value employment claims. It will not back them. So at a unionised employer, more people may have wanted to make claims than eventually did.

Just after defending itself against its own ex staff in court with city lawyers and council, the firm told the world what else its directors and trustees had been doing:

[http://www.arp-uk.org/index.php?id=72]
Change of name for Alcohol Recovery Project
Publication date: 20 March 2007

Leading London-based charity ARP re-branded itself this week with a new name and corporate identity.

Formerly known as the Alcohol Recovery Project, the charity’s new trading name is now ARP. ARP worked with Sauce Design to develop a new name, logo and strap line to reflect the wide range of services it provides to people affected by alcohol and drug issues.

The decision to change ARP’s name followed a survey of key stake holders – service users, commissioners and staff, carried out last summer. This concluded that the old name was out-dated, both because of the language used, and the fact that it no longer reflected the full range of services ARP provides. A steering group of service users, trustees and staff was set up to oversee the development of the new identity.
---ends

I doubt the legitimacy of a management structure made up of volunteers, (ex) drunk people, and career council social services types, to manage any agency of this kind without staff involvement, and that to continue is bad value for service users and tax payers, as well as some of the staff.

I suspect an unwritten rule that - as at Harringay Social Services during the Victoria Climbie affair - anyone who can achieve results will be hired somewhere half way up the management line to prevent trouble:
http://www.victoria-climbie-inquiry.org....

I suspect that this is expensive to taxpayers who pay a lot and service users who get very little from a badly managed service and that, as at Harringay, those involved will get references and continue their careers.

P.T.

P. Terry left an annotation ()

Summery of reply:
Complaints from among 100 staff, peaking in 2006
.
.
1996-2 Tribunal complaints against ARP
1997-0 Tribunal complaints against ARP
1998-0 Tribunal complaints against ARP
1999-0 Tribunal complaints against ARP
2000-0 Tribunal complaints against ARP
2001-0 Tribunal complaints against ARP
2002-0 Tribunal complaints against ARP
2003-1 Tribunal complaints against ARP
2004-0 Tribunal complaints against ARP
2005-1 Tribunal complaints against ARP
2006-3 Tribunal complaints against ARP
2007-1 Tribunal complaints against ARP
2008-0 Tribunal complaints against ARP

P. Terry left an annotation ()

192.com lists the company as employing "50-99 employees":
http://www.192.com/search/details.cfm?ac...

P. Terry left an annotation ()

P. Terry left an annotation ()

Foundation 66 or Foundation sixty-six is the new name for Alcohol Recovery Project: it has the same head office and human resources contractor, some of the same trustees and the same chief executive. It is still capable of the same rather extra ordinary language, which is more about status and keeping up appearances than problem solving. This is a quote from the web site: " FOUNDATION66 runs 30 services across 18 London Boroughs.
Our services include:
* Community Services
* Floating Support
* Housing Services
* Residential Care Services
* Specialist Services
* Training and Development Services"

Vicky Gray left an annotation ()

If anyone is experiencing any form of bullying either in the workplace or elsewhere the following sites are helpful:

1/ http://www.lawcentres.org.uk/

2/ http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Workplace_ bullying

3/ http://www.bullyeq. com

4/ http://www.skillsoft.com/bullying

5/ http://www.banbully ingatwork. com

6/ http://bullyinginst itute.org

7/ http://www.overcome bullying. org

8/ http://www.bullyoff line.org

9/ http://health. groups.yahoo. com/group/ workbully- support/files

10/ http://etclaims.co.uk/

11/ http://www.runboard .com/bnarcissist icabuserecovery

12/ http://thepsychopat h.freeforums. org

13/ http://www.dignitya tworknow. org.uk

14/ http://www.jfo. org.uk

15/ http://www.mygrievance.co.uk/

16/ http://bulliedacade mics.blogspot. com

17/ http://www.glasgowsteps.com/

Bullying in the workforce is endemic. The law does not protect the worker we need a change in legislation http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/09Bully... Only about 2% of bullying cases make it to employment tribunal due to the inadequacy of UK law When you complete the petition - it will email you a link which you have to click to actually have your name added to the list. Please do remember to check your spam folder if your email doesn't appear and make sure your name is on the list! Thanks

John Robertson left an annotation ()

After writing the post two paragraphs above...
"Our services include:
* Community Services
* Floating Support
* Housing Services
* Residential Care Services
* Specialist Services
* Training and Development Services", Foundation 66 fixed the front page of their web site to try and help searchers. Searchers want to know what services are provided by what agency in what borough - often some type of access to housing that doesn't exist in any borough, or something like group self-help and training, qualified supervised 1:1 counselling, residential or home detoxification, or books and booklets of information as well as the softer services such as an invitation to drop-in and read the paper amongst others who are trying to stay dry.

In any case, vague information and pictures of people smiling is annoying. It's easy to imagine sadism in an agency that writes "we provide housing" when they basically don't for most people in most places and situations, and the impression is confirmed when a badly trained locum does assessments, such as one hired to cause trouble for a manager in order to quicken the departure of that manager, but the problem is basically an inward looking group of directors and a pretty horrible job and career ladder.

Unfortunately the site has got worse again.

If Foundation66 want to improve their website more, a few differing flow-diagrams of what help is useful for what type of drinking problem and in what postcode would be good: ask people who do the assessments what flow diagrams they use. There is no one clear answer to unhappiness but most good assessors' flow diagrams have a lot in common. Given information, clients can do some of the work themselves instead of having to pour out their life story in a fuggy little room to someone who is trying to fill in a mysterious form and says "you need this" or "sorry: wrong borough" at the end, even if they are concentrating well, fit for the job, trained and keep themselves well informed. Usually the fuggy little assessment rooms do not have internet access so the assessor cannot tell the potential client that X agency provides Y service in Z borough even if there's a service that could help and the assessor knows it.

If Foundation66 want to get their website back to being as good as it was in 2009, consider the London Drug and Alcohol Network link to a map of boroughs. That is basically what people want on the front page top. There are some similar links which are now dud, so some way that someone who knows the field can update this web site would be good.

Secondly, there is a problem of flow diagrams. All have a lot in common but not everything and the assessor's job or job of the host at a drop-in is to try to navigate the contradictions, which are often emotionally important to someone who is keen on the AA model or someone else who has asked Frank and a third person who never had a drug or alcohol problem at all but is there because someone else thought so or because housing is scarce. So to put the AA link right at the top of the list is best avoided; maybe off the list altogether or amongst a list of models acknowledged to contradict would be better.

Thirdly, the pictures of people smiling are distracting: London Drug and Alcohol Network is confined to a back page on the date I write this, beneath a most impressive picture of a staff member from a minority but if they were the other way around: information first and pictures of people smiling next, everyone would be happy

John Robertson left an annotation ()

Interesting to see P Terry's and Vicky Gray's comments.
Working for Lambeth's tenancy support service years ago I should know what this website quote means:
"
•Help prevent tenancy breakdown
•Encourage settled, independent living
•Promote healthy communities
•Minimise antisocial behavior
•Enable service users to address the underlying causes of their substance misuse.
•Help people to access meaningful occupation and employment
"
I found the page from the LDAN database which quoted the right provider of tenancy support for Lambeth and linked to foundation66.org.uk from where I searched again for tenancy support in Lambeth.

The page is odd in saying "what" where "why?" makes more sense. Staff do whatever it is they do which may be mundane, stressful, and done without anybody sensible to ask (this clinical supervision job is dropped on the team leader, who is the only person willing to work for a regional manager responsible to a committee of grant artists).

I suggest "why" as a heading and "what" as an extra heading, because some staff my have no better idea than anyone else reading this what words like "floating support" or to exaggerate "community assertive matron", "outreach liason and referral worker", "key community lynchpin sentinel" mean in a way that can honestly be done.

marlene packwood left an annotation ()

I was one of the original workers at the Womens Alcohol Centre in St Pauls Road Islington which was set up by ARP in 1983. They were a bad company to work for because they did not value the expertise and experience or qualifications of their employees. I had a tough time with them due to the Director at that time. I was glad to get out of there. However they had a board of trustees. It is these mysterious and invisible figures that ruled ARP and called the shots. Due to the nature of how the organisation was set up legally they probably still do. M Packwood