White Mentoring program
for Black boys
by Lee Jasper
Paul Lawrence
is the founder of a leading life skills training consultancy. Born
in London, but raised in Jamaica Paul has a unique perspective on
underachievement among our black boys and firmly believes the UK
education system has much to answer for. His life skills courses
are designed to provide a leg up not just for those who fail academically,
but to strengthen the prospects of those who find their academic
qualifications are often undervalued purely due to their race. Paul
was a part of a black bidding consortium for the Mayor of Londons
mentor scheme.
Mayor ensures
a £1.3m contract is awarded to a charity he is Patron, fails
to declare his interest and unfairly discriminates against black
businesses.
On July 20, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson launched The Mayors
Mentoring Scheme. Speaking outside the Epicentre in Leyton, the
Mayor told Londoners:
"Through no fault of their own there are some young boys in
our city in desperate need of a strong, male role model. I want
my scheme to reach out to those who may fall prey to the lure of
gangs and violence and place them with positive, hard-working males
who can help guide them,
....the influence of a positive role model can be immeasurable
and I'd like to thank all the outstanding volunteers who have come
forward and encourage even more people to get on board."
Now I, for one, welcomed the idea of a Mayor Mentor Scheme.
So much so that I ensured my organisation formed part of the consortium
that bid for, and was successful in, training the volunteers in
mentoring skills (Ill tell you about that later)!
I believed that
the idea of 1000 black mentors for 1000 black boys would provide
a much needed resource for black youths in London and would represent
a financial shot in the arm for hard pressed groups already delivering
frontline services.
I publicly applauded Boris Johnson for his intention to deliver
the scheme and for his choice of Ray Lewis as Mayors Mentoring
Ambassador to lead his flagship project.
Add to this
the inclusion of football legend Ian Wright, and the fact that 1700
people have already signed up as volunteers, you would think that
this would be a good news day for black Londoners and
for community groups working with at-risk black youths... that is
until you get to the sticky issue of who has won the contract for
delivering the scheme.
So is it an
established organisation with a proven track record of working with
black gangs and disaffected youth in the community? You would think
so, wouldnt you, but no; the Mayor has awarded the Greater
London Authority mentoring contract of £1.3m to the University
of East London (UEL) and London Action Trust (LAT), neither of whom
has any extensive track record of working with black gangs or the
black community in general in London.
Further, and
more worryingly, Boris Johnson is Patron of the London Action Trust
(LAT) sitting on the board alongside old friends such as Nick Griffin
(same name different guy) the Mayoral Advisor on Budgets & Performance
alongside Conservative Steve Norris who is also, by happy coincidence,
Chair of Ray Lewis East Side Academy.
Also sitting
on both the LAT and East Side Academy boards is Fitzroy Andrew.
Now, as far
as I understand it - and I am happy to be corrected isnt
the Mayor of London duty bound to declare an interest as patron
of London Action Trust? Especially when £1.3m of public money
is heading their way? So just to be sure that I had my facts right,
I checked the Mayors Register of interests and found that
he has made no declaration regarding London Action Trust. I also
checked with LAT who confirmed in writing that Boris Johnson is
still their Patron. The Mayor - who came into power promising crystal
clear transparency - seems to have failed to comply with the GLA
rules relating to declarations of interest.
Here is what
the GLA says on this matter
The Mayor
of London is required to declare personal interests in the Standing
Register of Interests. He/she must register these details with the
GLA's Monitoring Officer within 28 days of the commencement of his/her
term of office, and must submit an updated notification within 28
days of becoming aware of any change. The Mayor has stated that
the Register of Interests for Mayoral appointments will also be
published in his promotion of openness and transparency.
Leaving that
to one side for a moment, the question of the suitability of the
chosen contractors to deliver is a key issue. As a member of the
consortium of black-led organisations that by all accounts gained
the highest marks in the tender process, I was obviously keen to
establish the facts. My eyes have been opened to a catalogue of
questionable practices and major discrepancies in the Mayors
tender procurement process. The official record of this process
is published on the Mayors web site.
I checked the
UEL and LAT web sites to see if either had a track record in relation
to community mentoring of black boys involved n (or at risk of)
serious youth violence. There was no mention anywhere of them having
doing any work in this area. I then asked around and found that
no organisations working on the front line of mentoring schemes
have heard of either of these two organisations doing any work in
the field.
So how could
they have won such a huge contract especially when bidding in direct
competition with experienced black providers the same providers
(us) who had been commissioned by the GLA to train the volunteers
in mentoring skills essentially, equipping them with the
tools to undertake the challenging interventions required to ensure
that these young black boys conceive and feel able to achieve their
potential.
Our consortium
was made up of top black led organisations (100 Black Men of London,
Freeman Oliver, Life Skills Training Consultancy and Foundation
for Life all of whom have significant, proven and successful
experience in the field of mentoring and talent management.
Our mentoring
training was deemed unanimously as a success by the 200 volunteers
we trained and we were also applauded for our innovative approach
and hard-hitting impact by the commissioning officers. Since
the decision to award the contract to white mainstream organisations,
we have been contacted by a significant number of the volunteers,
many of them stating their concern that a top class, black
led consortium has been ruled out from managing the remainder
of the programme.
So maybe I was
being naive but I genuinely thought that the contract would
go to one of the two black led consortia that bid for the work.
And this is not based on a simple argument of because were
black we should deliver it. It is premised on the obvious
assumption that to get the outcomes required, it is important that
the provider(s) have experience of working with black young people
involved in, or at risk of serious youth violence. These organisations
are best placed to deliver the type of scheme likely to resonate
with the hard knock black boys the Mayor is seeking
to target.
Add to that,
the fact that Boris Johnson fully accepted the Mayors Expert
Advisory Group on youth violence (MEAG) recommendation that the
Mentor contract should go to a proven contractor with relevant experience,
community credibility and a demonstrable track record of working
with gang members and black boys. Additionally, the Mayors
office held several community meetings where Boris and his team
repeatedly assured the community that they understood the importance
of the programme needing to be delivered by grass-roots organisations
to ensure credibility and thus, community co-operation.
The MEAG is
disarray with the resignation today of one its leading members,
Mr Viv Ahmun widely regarded as one the most strategic and effective
black men working in the field of youth violence. In his resignation
letter Mr Ahmun cites the Mayors lack of effective leadership. He
writes
Unfortunately
I have seen little in the way of leadership from you in regards
to this issue over the last 10 months despite my repeated emails,
and points raised at our monthly MEAG meetings with you regarding
my concerns.
Turning to the
Mayors mentoring and confirming his clear understanding that the
was Mayor fully committed to ensuring a black led mentor scheme
he adds,
The London
mentoring scheme, when initially launched over a year ago, had no
scope to it whatsoever. Consequently, its development was
supported by my colleagues and I alongside your officers, to ensure
that for once a provision intended to meet the needs of black communities
and more specifically, young black men at risk, would be led by
a group with all the skills and capacity necessary to deliver a
quality service. Unfortunately, for reasons best known to you, the
contract was awarded to a partnership led by two organisations that,
even when joined together, could not provide the credibility, capacity
and competence needed to deliver the service.
This represents a massive blow for the Mayor. Mr Ahmun will be a
significant loss of support for the Mayor and will impact significantly
on the Mayors attempt to engage with the black men community.
According to
the Mayors report the black consortiums were knocked out after
due diligence was done. This is inconsistent with the
Mayors own report, which states that the tender panel had already
had the due diligence information prior to the second interviews
and the black consortium bids still came first and second.
In any event
the London Action Trust does not appear in good financial shape.
Checking on the Charity Commission website regarding London Action
Trust I found the damning information in their accounts for 31/07/10.
So if due diligence
was done for all the organisations bidding for the contract, it
seems that the powers-thatbe have missed the fact
that Boris Johnsons favoured charity is in serious financial
trouble and looks like its currently insolvent or likely to go bankrupt
in the very near future. Furthermore, just to illustrate the extent
to which this whole process has been fixed, one of the two black
consortiums was backed by a multi million pound national charity
making any issues related to financial resilience redundant.
The other partner
cited in the UEL bid is a consultancy named ETHOS Consultancy. According
to their website their staff consists of a total of two Directors,
Martin Finegan & Dave Coker.
Information
on the Internet via Companies UK shows that their accounts were
overdue as of 17/07/11. It also shows that Martin Finegan has been
under notice of strike-off three times in the last few months (March,
May & June) and that he is going through his second notice of
strike-off action as a Director for another business Exit in Ltd
issued 17/05/11. He is not listed as a Director of ETHOS on Companies
UK.
So once again
we see a complete set of double standards and a clear breach of
GLA rules. How can it be that these companies with such poor track
records fiscally and in terms of administration were awarded this
contract when one of the black consortiums backed by a highly reputable
solvent national charity was turned down?
Let me be clear.
I believe that the real reason the black bids were knocked out is
that the Mayor did not want a black consortium bid to win. The Mayor
it seems does not trust black people. Without a proper explanation
- it really is that simple.
I also believe
that the Mayor has illegally, and in flagrant breach of GLA policy
and procedure, interfered with the tender process and ultimately
overruled the tender panels initial decision. UEL and LAT
initially came to the bidding process as two separate organisations,
coming third and fourth respectively and the Mayor, in complete
contravention of GLA procurement rules, invited them to join together
and then awarded them the contract, worth nigh on £1.5 million
pounds of public money, in an area in which they have no expertise
or track record.
No doubt more
detail will emerge over the coming months and there has been a flurry
of Freedom of Information requests from concerned parties demanding
answers. These include requests for the release of the sifting scores
at each individual stage of the procurement process, a response
to the Mayors undeclared interest in LAT and a copy of the
Race Equality Impact Assessment as required under the Equality Act
and much more detailed information relating to this tender process.
One of the black
consortiums has now formally appealed against the tender decision
and has submitted a race complaint against both the GLA and the
Mayors Office. In my opinion no reputable organisation or
individual should proceed with this contract or be associated with
it while these very serious questions remain unanswered and a formal
investigation is launched. It is very important that there is no
collusion with any of the blatantly racist practices or illegality
associated with this process.
For more visit leejasper.blogspot.com
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