Jamie Oliver’s efforts to transform the lives of disadvantaged youngsters by training them as top chefs seemed inspiring. But an independent report concludes that the celebrity chef’s charitable venture, Fifteen, was distinctly undercooked.

It offered “hit-and-miss” training and patchy support and counselling for its often troubled recruits, and was distracted by the television cameras that were recording for a Channel 4 documentary.

Of the 106 young people who started apprenticeships with Fifteen since March 2002, only 54 completed the course and many of those who dropped out were never heard of again.

“It was assumed that everyone, inspired by Jamie’s example, would just get it and the training would work,” the report concludes. “The truth is that the start-up of Fifteen was messy and the boat left port without all its sails and supplies ready.”

But perhaps the most surprising aspect of this warts-and-all assessment is that it was commissioned by Jamie Oliver and Fifteen itself, who wanted to know exactly where they had gone wrong and how to improve. Few charities assess their work in this systematic and critical way.

Fifteen will publish the report, Life in the Present Tense, next month in the hope that it emboldens other charities to do the same.

In the foreword, Oliver is characteristically blunt about its findings. “We haven’t always got it right. But without taking risks we won’t make progress,” he writes.

Liam Black, director of Fifteen, is blunter still. All charities are under a moral and business obligation to undergo this sort of rigorous, independent performance measurement and make it public, he told The Times.

“There are two reasons why all charities and social enterprises should do this. One, they get support from the taxpayer in terms of Gift Aid or/and other tax relief so there is an obligation to the taxpayer to be able to say here is some evidence about what works.

“Second, there is a a straight business case. If you don’t understand what you are doing, if you don’t get someone from outside the culture to verify it, how do you know how to improve things?” he said.

“What we are trying to do is very difficult – to turn young people from very difficult backgrounds into chefs and we have to be honest about how well we are doing and I think our funders will prefer that.”

The rest of the charitable sector has a long way to go to catch up with the Fifteen example.

GuideStar, the online national database with information on all charities in England and Wales, has invited them to upload performance data on their projects on to its pages.

Out of the 168,000 charities on the database only 77 have chosen to do so. The big charities with most cash are among the worst offenders. Of the 765 charities with annual income of more than £100,000 a year only eight have chosen to post performance data.

Tris Lumley, senior analyst at New Philanthropy Capital, which assesses the performance of charities for donors, said most charities were aware of what was working and what was not, but needed to bring together the information in a more methodical way. “Frontline staff and volunteers see what works and what doesn’t on a daily basis, but they are not very good at feeding it up the chain in a systematic way, and management are even less good at telling their major donors about it or putting it in their annual reports,” he said.

“At Fifteen they obviously felt things were not working out as well as they wanted. Following this report they are making changes. I hope this opens the door for more honesty in all charities.”

Fifteen is now overhauling its operation as a result of the review and wants 70 per cent of apprentices to graduate in the future. From now on, the recruitment of apprentices will focus far more on their potential rather than on how bad their background is.

“I think we spent too much time making sure the candidates were really disadvantaged and not just middle-class drop-outs. We are spending more time now establishing which of those eligible for the apprenticeships are the more likely chefs – how will they perform under pressure and work with people they don’t like, for example,” said Mr Black.

The time spent at catering college will be phased out and the training done on site. The school-like atmosphere of catering college was the last straw for many of the drop-outs, who were already struggling with the discipline of training.

Counselling and support will become part of the curriculum. Many of the recruits – the former prisoners and drug abusers in particular – often end up having to ditch their entire network of friends once they sign up and need more pastoral care.

Finally, apprentices will be better prepared for the often brutal atmosphere of a regular restaurant kitchen after Fifteen.

The report covered the work of the original Fifteen in London, but its findings will extend to the group, which has now extended to Cornwall, Amsterdam and Melbourne.

But with its high-profile founder and numerous wealthy backers, is Fifteen able to be daring and honest where other charities cannot, in case their reputation is damaged?

Mr Black says no, and points out that he still has to raise £500,000 a year to keep the Fifteen Foundation going.

“Donors, especially those from the business world, know ventures like ours are not without risk. But a conspiracy of silence has grown up where charities say, ‘Give me your money and I will do fantastic things’ and no one talks about the risks,” he said.

“I really believe that funders will trust you more for being honest, for saying on this one, we missed the mark.”

Charities often argue that they do not want to spend their scarce cash on external assessments when it could be going on the good cause itself.

Indeed, Fifteen’s report, paid for by Barclays, was not cheap at £50,000.

Mr Black said it took the decision to pay extra for good design and pictures. “We are in the public eye so we wanted a nice-looking report, and we are printing 5,000 copies. But for lots of organisations it doesn’t have to be so fancy.

“About £10,000 would probably cover an external assessment and I think charities would find this is something business donors in particular are keen to pay for.”

‘I was horrible . . . it was a huge adjustment’

Ben Chapman, 24, became an apprentice during Fifteen’s second year in 2003. He had been a car thief and drug dealer in his teens, but ended up going to prison twice. “I was a horrible git,” he says of that time.

His aunt applied to Fifteen on his behalf. “I couldn’t believe when I got through the first interview. I couldn’t believe that something so great had happened to me,” he recalls.

“For me, it was a huge adjustment. I discarded every one of my friends in the end. I found going to college really hard. I didn’t really go to school very much. And I was really angry. I had to learn to keep my mouth shut.”

He stuck out the apprenticeship as, one by one, others gave up. Out of his group, only eight lasted the distance. “I think they couldn’t take the change. They went back to their old life.”

But it was not all plain sailing. After a bad day at college, he stole a car to get home and was stopped by police and sent back to prison. However, Fifteen held his place open and he returned a month later.

Since graduating he took a job at a start-up gastro pub in Billericay, Essex, although it did not work out. He is now back at Fifteen working as a paid chef and living in the East End of London.

“I know they are making changes to the course, but I hope they don’t make it too soft. To make someone a great chef you have got to be strict, tell them if they have done something wrong and make sure they don’t get a big head,” he said.

Where are they now?

Fifteen disadvantaged youngsters with little or no culinary experience were taken on as apprentices by Jamie Oliver to run his original restaurant in 2002. Seven (marked below with an *) completed the course, graduated and some of them are now working in top restaurants from London to New York. Others are doing something completely different

Dwayne Working at Pizza Express
Kerryann Now has two children and is working at a supermarket cheque-out, but would like to get back into cooking
*Ralph Chef de partie at Spotted Pig, New York’s first gastropub
Johnny Has set up his own catering business in Australia
Michael Lost contact
Jules Lost contact
Nicola Lost contact
Lindsay Living in Cornwall
*Tim Chef de partie at Moro restaurant, London
*Ben Chef de partie at Theo Randall, InterContinental, Mayfair, London
*Elisa Journalist on the Daily Express
*Warren sous chef at Hope & Anchor, a gastropub in Waterloo, southeast London
Roberto working for the family business
Nicola lost contact
Jamie Grainger Smith Restaurant Manager at Fifteen

Source: Fifteen

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