Sunday 11 September 2011

Stop press - "utterly unacceptable"

A report in the Guardian today is a must-read for anyone interested in A4e.
"Emma Harrison set up firm to pitch for government cash on project she devised: The PM's 'families champion' helped to design job programme for troubled households for which her company has now bid" is the headline. It shows that Harrison, having said that A4e could not bid for the ESF contracts for helping workless families because it would be a conflict of interest, has set up a firm called "Families Unlimited", pitching itself as a potential sub-contractor for the work.

I await press (and your) comments on this - but read it!

3 comments:

  1. So she set it up, and presumably worked out how much money it would need from the government. Then promising not to bid.. she has turned about and bid as a sub contractor. "She said she had accepted the unpaid role but had been "shocked" to learn there would be hundreds of millions of pounds in funding.".. How much money did she think was going to be spent on it?

    But documents sent to private firms who did bid for the work reveal that Harrison's company had set up a "partnership" called Families Unlimited, with a former civil servant who until this year was running the Department for Education's "support services for families with multiple needs", to pitch for the cash. If this was anything and anyone else it would be investigated.

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  2. Reminds me of the all too close relationship between Murdoch's News International and our present and previous government. They are oblivious to a conflict of interest until it comes back to haunt them.

    But this is far worse, as you have multi-million pound contracts up for grabs. How the DWP can claim there is not a conflict of interest when A4e is the sub-contractor is absolutely ridiculous. I can see another House Of Commons Inquiry looming on the horizon before the next election - hopefully!

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  3. "Families Unlimited ....it suggests setting up family businesses to "engage the whole [household] in self-employment". By its own admission, a fifth of such family enterprises do not last more than six months.".. So what happens to these people who set up the businesses once they fail.

    "At this level of spending, the government's programme would cost £2.5bn a year" And guess who will get the lions share of that.. a provider with inside information (Families Unlimited, with a former civil servant who until this year was running the Department for Education's "support services for families with multiple needs", to pitch for the cash.") Its disgraceful.

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