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RPA to cut jobs at Newcastle site
THE Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has announced that Single Payment Scheme processing will no longer be carried out at its Newcastle site, resulting in the loss of 31 jobs.
The agency said improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of SPS processing mean the work is being consolidated to RPA’s other northern sites at Northallerton, Carlisle and Workington.
A total of 31 temporary agency workers and fixed term appointment employees will be released when their temporary contracts come to an end during the next two months.
RPA is seeking to re-deploy the permanent staff working on SPS. The Newcastle office will continue to carry out other RPA business activities as usual.
Those includes administering 30 CAP schemes and operating the customer register, although a further 31 temporary and fixed term appointment staff working on it will be released once their contracts come to an end.
RPA chief executive Tony Cooper said: “We are continuously looking to improve our service to farmers and want to build on the steady improvements made in recent years.
“We stopped processing SPS claims in Reading last year and by further streamlining our processes we are now able to reallocate the work of the SPS team in Newcastle to our larger processing sites in Carlisle, Northallerton and Workington.
“We wholly acknowledge the contribution made by all fixed-term and temporary colleagues while they have been with us at RPA and would like to thank them for their commitment.”
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Readers' comments (10)
Anonymous | 5 February 2010 5:49 pm
They are on a fast track to failure.
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Anonymous | 7 February 2010 8:37 pm
“We wholly acknowledge the contribution made by all fixed-term and temporary colleagues while they have been with us at RPA and would like to thank them for their commitment.”
Thanked us so much they ripped us off for £100 from our final pay packets in Carlisle, thanks Tony! :)
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Anonymous | 7 February 2010 8:48 pm
They are simply rearranging the deckchairs on the titanic. It speaks volumes when the current Chief Executive is on half the wage of his supposed deputy - the Chief Operating Officer - Steve Pearce. And get this taxpayers, he's only there on a temporary contract! Only at the RPA.
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Anonymous | 8 February 2010 1:53 pm
To the person from Carlisle. I would speak to the union or HR about the missing £100. If you're one of the FTAs that left last month then you should get a full months wage because the 30th/31st was a weekend.
To the anonyous person above. Yes it is like the Titanic. I think Steve Pearce is making things worse.
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Anonymous | 8 February 2010 5:45 pm
To announce further job cuts . The RPA Inspectorate is to lose 100 perm jobs in the near future . Full details announced to affected staff on 08/02/2010.
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Anonymous | 9 February 2010 9:54 pm
The inspectorate are the face to face people you deal with on your famrs. Usually from a farming background and usually not the idiots you get on the phone. They are the people who put your books/fields/tags in order. Yes they have to report back non compliance but they don't like it. Losing 100 inspectors, you better hope the ones taking up the backlog are the better ones.
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Anonymous | 10 February 2010 10:16 am
are we now in the clutches of another mapping fiasco ? mine sent in over 2 months ago and no idea when they will return- RPA can e mail mapping department but it will be 2 weeks before they get it !
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Anonymous | 10 February 2010 11:28 am
there is a lot of uncertainty for RPA staff at the moment. I think the attached doc may be of interest...
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmpubacc/uc1064-i/uc106402.htm
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Anonymous | 12 February 2010 0:55 am
The money RPA has spent on consultants should be challenged. Dictionary definition of a consultant - "someone who will borrow your watch to tell you the time". The only part of the RPA that has never employed consultants is the Inspectorate. What part of the RPA has the highest customer satisfaction scores? The Inspectorate.
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Anonymous | 14 February 2010 10:52 pm
RPA is a waste of time and I'm glad I've left. I don't even mss the place one bit.
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