Privatising your local council

Exciting times for the private sector. Essex County Council has privatised itself. Well, not quite. But it has "signed a pioneering deal with IBM worth up to £5.4 billion to manage and provide public services in a new wave of privatisation supported by David Cameron" (reports the Times). It's not disclosed whether any UK companies tendered for this massive contract; one would have expected the likes of Capita and Serco to be interested - perhaps even A4e - but it went to the US firm because it had done similar work in Canada. IBM's contract "will cover almost all the authority’s services, including schools management, social care, highways and libraries in stages." They will review existing contracts, and every service will be up for grabs. If things can be done cheapest in-house, fine. But inevitably loads of jobs will go altogether, and others will become "flexible" i.e. insecure and worse paid.

Expect much more of this if the Conservatives form the next government. And expect a feeding frenzy as the private companies seek their share of the spoils.

From Britain to Israel and back again

Readers may remember the controversy that surrounded A4e's venture into Israel. It's summarised here. But the UK government and A4e have long since distanced themselves from this controversy. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office's website UK in Israel carries a newsroom piece proclaiming that "A4E - improves people’s lives and delivers social change (14/12/2009)" As an advert for A4e, this is great stuff. And, of course, it's the job of the Foreign Office to promote British business interests abroad. But this is hardly what you'd call objective.

Back in Britain, there are more PR pieces masquerading as news items in local papers. The Stourbridge News carries a piece entitled: "Help for credit crunch casualties" which tells us that "A4e - Action 4 employment - has found permanent jobs for 17 clients since bringing the Government’s Flexible New Deal programme to the borough in October." Out of how many clients? The Stourbridge man who is cited as one of the successes got a job with ..... A4e. Some unemployed people might take issue with the main thrust of this piece, which is that clients need "coaches" who can "work on a one-to-one basis with each customer, identifying their goals and, if existing, their barrier to go to work [sic]. These barriers can be anything from childcare, debt issues, substances abuses, housing problems etc." Well, some do. Many, however, have no "barriers" other than the fact that they can't find work. They may well be qualified and experienced. The piece continues: “Once these individuals are ready to work, they work exclusively with an assigned employment coach who will focus on preparing them for work, helping them with their CV, job search, interview techniques and so on.” This is tarring all the long-term unemployed with the same brush.

"Emma Harrison: Delivering on a Dream, The 30 Million Woman Who Won’t Get Out of Bed For Less" is the heading of a piece on the Oriona Ltd business website. You've heard it all before. But one statement, which has been repeated elsewhere is "There is no budget attached to each person." Emma is talking about current contracts, presumably FND. But it's puzzling. Each client comes with a payment from the government, the bulk of it to be paid if s/he finds a job. There's a minimum and a maximum. So it's not clear what she means.

Zimbabwe - and closer to home

A4e's African arm is now involved in education in the troubled country of Zimbabwe. The company, described as "an international non-governmental organisation", has joined up with Teaching Zimbabwe in a project to set up two academies as centres of excellence and to "lure other local and international investors to pour resources into the country’s education sector". The project is described on the website of the Education Minister, Senator David Coltart. The venture could increase speculation that A4e would seek greater involvement in education in Britain if a Conservative government pursued its plan to allow parents' groups and other organisations to take over the running of schools.

Meanwhile, back in Britain, there's an interesting use of statistics from Jo Britto & Associates, a firm which provides, among other things, Employability Coaching. A4e have used their services with some success. “When Joe came to A4e, we were struggling to meet our outcome targets. Within six weeks, as a result of his motivational coaching, client outcomes in terms of work trials and jobs went from 25% to 55%” says a testimonial from A4e. We are not told where this happened or how many clients were involved.

A4e and the PADA

Ever heard of the PADA? I hadn't. It's the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority, a body set up by the DWP to "set up a national, trust-based pension scheme called ‘personal accounts’ that will help millions of people on low and moderate incomes, who do not have access to a good-quality workplace pension, save for their retirement." What better way to get this worthy organisation off the ground than to give out £3m worth of contracts to the private sector? According to a news information system, "A4E Ltd., Sheffield, United Kingdom, won a 3 million GBP multiple awardees contract award from Personal AccountsDelivery Authority to provide social, economic and market research services. (Official EU Ref. No 305010-2009)." If you're wondering what a "multiple awardees contract" is, so did I. But according to the PublicTenders.net site, there are 35 companies, many of them recognised research companies like Yougov, which have a slice of that £3m contract. Still, 1/35th of £3m is nearly £86,000.

"Our Shared Promise on Customer Care"

It's headlined "A shared promise to those participating in welfare-to-work programmes" and can be read on the Jobcentre Plus website. It "was developed by ERSA, the representative body for independent providers of publicly funded welfare-to-work programmes and is supported by the Department for Work and Pensions, including Jobcentre Plus, the Association of Learning Providers (ALP) and the British Association for Supported Employment (BASE)" and was launched by Jim Knight MP. All the providers, including A4e, have signed up to it. "It includes commitments from providers to:

• Listen to customers and provide support based on each customer’s circumstances and needs
• Help customers identify and make the most of their strengths
• Make the best use of the customer’s time, taking account of personal circumstances and by being clear when things need to happen"

and there are equally unexceptionable commitments required from customers. Nothing wrong with that. But I can't help wondering why the providers need to state this, when one would assume that it was required in their contracts.

Must try harder

For reasons best known to themselves, A4e have a blog called A4elivenews on a free blogsite. Whoever is responsible for it should bear in mind that a company with interests in education and training needs to avoid basic grammatical errors such as "Whose getting bored of TV?" (should be "who's", of course, and "bored of" is dubious) and "The media of late has been quick to voice parental concerns" ("media" is plural, so the verb should be "have", not "has").

And there's an interesting post on Realbusiness.co.uk from Jan Cavelle, who runs a furniture company. Jan went to the Enterprising Women Awards and heard Emma Harrison speak. "Now, Emma," she writes,"is clearly an amazing lady – a sort of cross between a female Lord Sugar and Sheffield’s answer to Mother Theresa – and no doubt the most phenomenal success story. Her talk was natural, fascinating and funny." But she was less than impressed with her speech. Emma was dismissive of people whose lack of self-confidence stops them doing something; and of those who don't have a mentor and are therefore bound to fail. Jan Cavelle concludes, "But I know that even though I am mini-league business-wise, I have – without a mentor – made a success of things in many people’s eyes, against some odds. In doing so, I provide employment for 30-odd people. I am sorry, Emma, but if I can keep progressing on working on myself and at least ensure security for them, overall I reject your tag of failure."

A4e and healthcare

A4e and healthcare - the terms don't go naturally together. But yes, A4e is involved in healthcare.

NDCs (New Deal for Communities) were set up by the government in some of the most disadvantaged parts of UK cities to provide regeneration and improvement. Large sums of money were pumped in to improve housing and, often, to build large facilties for community services. One such NDC is Aston Pride, and part of it is the Community Outreach Family Support Service. Now, search the site and you won't find any mention of A4e. But there's a document online which tells us that they "Successfully commissioned all Primary contractors for the COFSS Programme, including the Health and Regeneration Management Team awarded to A4e Ltd following an open competitive tender".

Not that A4e is reticent about it. On its own website the company tells us that "If you live in Aston, A4e can deliver healthcare to you and your family in the heart of your community". Services include "Support for pregnant women and expectant mothers" (Pregnancy, Birth and Parenthood Workshops, Ante Natal classes and ‘Meet your Midwife’ sessions) and "Wellbeing support that offers much more than healthcare…" which consists of Family cookery lessons, Welfare benefit & debt advice, and Confidential domestic violence support. And on an A4e blog site we learn of an event they're holding on 5 December which "will offer the community free help, support and information on: Immigration, Asylim [sic] claims & status, welfare, debt, pregnancy, birth, health and wellbeing to mention only a few."

Again, one is reminded of the super-contract idea, where every conceivable service is rolled into one contract.