On the other hand, there's an article in the Sheffield Star about the opening of the new Vox centre which would have you believe that A4e invented the idea of special provision for difficult school children. "A4e chairman Emma Harrison says the centres have been so successful that local councils have started paying for children to attend because it is cheaper than trying to control them at school, find them when they are truanting or seeking other solutions," she says. The "other solutions" could be the Pupil Referral Units which have been operating up and down the country under the control of local authorities for years. They are staffed by experienced, specialist teachers and overseen by management committees which comprise councillors, local head teachers and representatives of the community. They are funded by the local council, and many of them get very good results. Harrison says Vox have got attendance up to "in some cases" 85%. That's normal for the PRUs. So why would councils want to abandon PRUs and pay to put kids into A4e provision? Only because it could work out cheaper. That's how creeping privatisation works.
Friday, 28 January 2011
Guardian article and Vox
I'd like to point you to an article in the Guardian's "Comment is free" section, by Arec Balrin. He sets out his experience, as a sufferer from autism, with A4e. As always with such articles, the comments which follow show the range of reactions, but it's well worth reading.
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Last week on You And Yours, Radio 4 there were looking at the many large UK businesses like Vodafone who avoid paying taxes by having offshore bank accounts .....
ReplyDeleteNot sure, Simone, of the relevance of this to A4e.
ReplyDeleteJust that it wouldn't surprise me if similarly A4E were the same .....
ReplyDeleteA4e are not a public company, they don't have shareholders. We don't have any evidence of their tax situation.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to some of the new Work Programme contract clauses - Complaints can be referred to the Independent Complaints Examiner, and if the ruling goes against a provider, a fine is imposed. If this clause makes it in to the final contract, it might encourage the likes of A4e to improve.
ReplyDeleteOn the downside, the unemployed get seconded for two years and have one of three means of escape. 1) Secure long term employment. 2) Removed under instruction by DWP. 3) Die.
Getting independent advice is going to be tough with A4e taking over CAB roles as well as running the WP - Conflict of interests perhaps ?
Historian, can I point out that Arec Balrin states he is "diagnosed on the autistic spectrum" not "a sufferer from autism". Two issues with this, he does not says he's suffering, so we should not assume it. More importantly, being on the Autistic Spectrum of disorders, which includes syndromes in which the core difficulties manifest themselves in varying degrees of severity, language and intellectual abilities, is not the same as being diagnosed with Autism. It is unlikely that an individual with full classic Autism would be seen by a provider on FnD and if they were, I would question the fairness of expecting a welfare to work provider to be able to deliver complex behavioural interventions which require years of experience and training in the management of these disorders. We should also bear in mind that a person with an ASD is likely to have great difficulty in empathising, seeing or accepting another person’s point of view, due to the deficit in social interaction and imaginative thought. In my experience (and I have lots in this area) this, and the person with an ASD’s predisposition to take things very literally, makes the concept of ‘help’ and ‘advice’ open to immediate criticism, if it doesn’t fit with the person’s expectations, which are often unrealistic.
ReplyDeleteI take your point. I'm no expert (as you clearly are) but I've known a couple of adults "with an ASD" and they have the difficulties you describe.
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