Baroness Headhunter Company Making Money from Her Vote

New research conducted by Social Investigations has revealed a Head Hunter firm with financial links to a Conservative Baroness has been able to gain revenue directly from changes that took place because of the Health and Social Care Act on which the Baroness voted. Furthermore, the Chairman of the company has funded the Conservative party in a process that changes the NHS from within.

Baroness Bottomley is the Chair of the Board and CEO practice of Odgers Berndtson and also holds shares in their holding company Broomco Ltd.

The head hunter company works in thirteen industry areas including Healthcare, and been heavily involved in vetting key personnel into the new NHS

Their website boasts of their ‘unparalleled reach across the NHS, (and) private sector healthcare...(which) enables us to attract inspirational candidates others might never find.’

A key part of the Health and Social Care Act was to move commissioning responsibility for NHS services from Primary Care Trusts to the newly formed Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs).

In early 2012, Odgers produced a report titled ‘Leadership and management Challenges in Clinical Commissioning Groups’, which stated how ‘Making intelligent appointments to (CCG)…Boards, and, subsequently to management teams, through open and rigorous processes, will be the major determinant of success in the effort to develop leadership cultures in CCGs.’

The new ‘intelligent appointments’ vetted by Odgers & Berndtson and accepted by the relevant departments will act as the new drivers in the CCGs and change the NHS from within. ‘Through thought-leadership seminars and networking’ they claim to ‘bring the rising stars of the NHS together to inspire best practice and help shape a vision for the future.’ 

CCGs

Despite having only been in existence since April, several CCGs have already spent over £350,000 on recruitment services provided by Odgers & Berndtson. These revenues, which were made possible due to the changes imposed by the Health and Social Care Act, occurred in part thanks to the vote of Baroness Bottomley.

The tentacles of Odger’s influence stretch across the NHS spectrum and they will be finding the replacement ofr current NHS Chief, David Nicholson. Odgers is part of the government’s recruitment framework and have been involved in four appointments in the Department of Health. A further freedom of information request revealed they were also involved in the recruitement of David Cameron’s former special policy adviser on health, and ex-McKinsey consultant Paul Bate to the beleaguered Care Quality Commission. Furthermore, Odgers have been used to fill seven appointments in the North-West London Commissioning Support Unit at a cost of £66,000.

Monitor

In addition to the CCGs, a freedom of Information request has discovered that many of the key positions in the new NHS regulator Monitor, have been filled using Odgers Berntdson. In total 12 senior personnel have been sourced and vetted by Odgers at a cost of nearly £200,000 of taxpayers money.

Positions filled by Monitor through Odgers Berndtson
1	Compliance Manager
2	Director of Public Affairs and Communications
3	Policy Director
4	Head of External Affairs
5	Policy Adviser
6	Policy Adviser
7	Policy Adviser
8	Non Executive Director
9	Non Executive Director
10	Non Executive Director
11	Costing Specialist
12	Medical Adviser
Total cost of services provided (excluding advertising)	£195,018.15

Since becoming a life peer in June 2005, Mrs Bottomley’s attendance rate has been just 20%, yet somehow she managed to turn up for every day of the Health and Social care bill and voted to help turn the legislation into an Act.

Richard Boggis-Rolfe

Furthermore, the Chairman of Odgers & Berndtson, Richard Boggis-Rolfe has given £207,500 in donations to the Conservative party between 2006 up until the General election. In an interview with City newspaper CityAM, he revealed the benefit of having the baroness and ex-health secretary on her books when he said ‘Everyone takes her call.’ When Baroness Bottomley rose to speak in the Health and Social Care bill second reading, the former Conservative health secretary said to her fellow peers “The role of Monitor has been excellently refined. It has allowed the transitional phases to develop, but the health service needs a bit of muscular intervention...I give this Bill an unequivocal and extraordinarily warm welcome.”  No doubt a thought shared by her chairman.

Further healthcare interests

In April 1993 Virginia Bottomley as Secretary of State for Health in the Conservative party under John Major, announced her intention to increase private company involvement in the NHS. In a speech reported by the Independent to the Confederation of British Industry, Mrs Bottomley informed us that although NHS patients will still be treated free, ‘the service should 'buy' more care from private hospitals and health care companies such as Bupa.’  

Forward wind 14 years and on the 17^th of May 2007, Bupa announced the appointment of three new Non-executive Directors, one of which is Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone.

Although having just left her Bupa post in May this year, Mrs Bottomley’s healthcare interests don’t end there. The Baroness is also a non-executive director of medical technology multi-national Smith and Nephew, a member of the International Advisory Board for Tokyo-based Chugai Pharmaceutical Company Ltd a board member of Akzo Nobel, which is listed in the NHS purchasing directory as decoration suppliers.

Is it enough that Virginia Bottomley simply registered her interests but was still allowed to vote on the Health bill? In doing so she has played a part in opening up increased revenue opportunities for her employer whose chairman also part-funded Conservative central party. Her sheer delight at the bill’s existence and her connections to companies that are already benefitting from the NHS, surely makes for an urgent need to change the rules and end the vote when there is a conflict of interest.

Councillors at local level are unable to vote with a ‘prejudicial’ interest and can debate at the discretion of their fellow councillors but no such restrictions exist MPs or Lords. The time has surely come to make them abide by the same restrictions.

There are several companies who have connections to Lords and MPs who have directlygained revenue or changed company position due to the Health and Social care Act. In totalover 200 parliamentarians have recent or present financial links to companies or individuals involved in healthcare, all able to vote on the Health and Social Care Act. This situation was recentlydescribed by the Labour MP for Easington, Grahame Morris as ‘nothing short of corruption.’

National Clinical Commissioning Conference Links Multiple Private Health Companies to Lords and MPs

A national conference for CCG leaders to air their ‘concerns’ over the implementation of clinical commissioning, is littered with companies who have financial links to Lords and MPs. The event, which is titled ‘Defining Our Future’, is sponsored by Capita, a private company winning contracts for developing the CCGs.  

The Capita partnership includes amongst it clients: Beachcroft, PHAST, NHS Alliance (Who are hosting the event), Foresight partnership, Ville & Company, and Penna.

Capita partner Beachcroft, is one of the largest commercial law firms in the UK and is widely regarded as the leading legal adviser to the health and social care sector. To their advantage, they have Lord Hunt of Wirral as a partner. In October 2008 when speaking in a healthcare debate in the Lords, the Peer stated: “A Bill is due to be introduced later this year which will attract considerable attention not only from within the NHS but from firms in the private health sector and from professional advisers.”

Lord Hunt is not alone in being involved in a company that has moved into a position where it can make money from the reforms; in which he voted; which he did in all the key areas of the debate as it passed through the House. Baroness Cumberlege positioned her company Cumberlege Connections, into an alliance led by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as she debated the merits of the bill in the House. The story of her involvement is well covered here.

Included in Beachcroft’s connections to power, is former Labour MP for Norwich South Charles Clarke, who was listed in the 2008 register of interests as a consultant to commercial firm Beachcroft LLP. When Mr Clarke was a sitting MP, he promoted the idea that the NHS should charge for 'peripheral treatments'. In 2008, he was also registered as a consultant to KPMG LLP, on the 'future of public service reform.' KPMG are heavily involved in implementing changes in the NHS and its commissioning groups.

Companies in the KPMG partnership with links to parliamentarians are UK law firm Morgan Cole, who have Conservative MEP Ashley Fox as their connection, who was an Associate to the company until 2009 when he was elected to the European Parliament. In addition, I.T. company McKessonInformation Solutions Ltd, have Lord Carter as their chairman. The Labour Peer is also the chairman of the NHS Co-operation and Competition Panel (CCP), a conflict of interest, which in a statement made by McKesson to the Guardian is avoided because he: "steps down from any investigation where there is potential conflict of interest.” 


So that’s alright then.

The list of companies in partnerships winning contracts to develop CCGs and having connections to Lords and MPs doesn’t end there. In 2008, Conservative MP for Bexhill and Battle Gregory Baker, had shares in Penna plc, who deliver HR services to the NHS and are in the Capita partnership. PricewaterhouseCoopers (Pwc) donated more than £100,000 worth of professional advice to some of the Conservative Party's most senior politicians in the first quarter of the year. A total of £102,950 was donated  in non-cash gifts, however it isn’t just the Conservatives. PwC have also donated in the form of research assistants to Ed Balls, John Denham, Caroline Flint, Chuka Umanna as part of their continual involvement in influencing government policy no matter who gets into power. 

Lord Darzi, a former surgeon drafted into government as a health minister by Gordon Brown when he was PM, is now an adviser to medical technology firm GE Healthcare, another ‘Approved Provider.' When speaking at a stage of the Health and Social Care bill when a proposal was put forward to prevent the reading of the bill going any further, he said: ‘he would find it 'difficult at this stage' to vote for blocking the Bill...'I am speaking as a surgeon, not a politician.'

McKinsey also involved in the CCG creations , and who have been accused of being a shadow government  in an article written by George Monbiot, gave £10,000 to David Milliband for a speech made at a Global Business Leaders Summit in February last year. The former foreign secretary also received a sum of £10,044 from the same company for travel expenses and accommodation for a meeting in Singapore in March 2011. In addition to this, Conservative Peer Lord Blackwell, was a partner with McKinsey and Company between 1978 and 1994.

The links to Lords and MPs in this conference, highlights once more the driving force of private companies in the changing state of the NHS.