Thursday 19 April 2012

Inadequate

David Cameron was made to look foolish in his dazzled admiration of A4e's Emma Harrison.  But, as the Morning Star points out, Labour had been just as convinced of A4e's ability to solve the nation's problems.  We know about David Blunkett, of course.  And the CBE.  And we have noted that A4e's Mark Lovell has been a guest of the Young Fabians.  But the article points out another connection with Labour.  A4e contributed an article to a Labour pamphlet last year meant to show how business-friendly the party is.  The article was about A4e's work at Blundeston prison.  But as Morning Star points out, Ofsted rated the company's work at Blundeston, and at another prison, "inadequate".  Yet A4e was recently awarded two new prison education contracts.

Some good news.  We've told the story of the fight by an Edinburgh group, ECAP, to get A4e to recognise claimants' right to have a representative with them at interviews.  You can read the story here.  They've won, and A4e have backed down, but not before people like Peter and Ram were put through huge pressure.  Congratulations to them and all the group.

Please remember that if you send me a comment which is critical of a named A4e office or identifiable staff member, I can't publish it.  It may be true, but unless I can back it up, it's libellous.  And to the anonymous poster who has twice pointed out to me the links between A4e, Carley Consult and the DWP.  Thanks, it's interesting, but not unusual, sadly.  I'm hanging on to your post.

2 comments:

  1. Another interesting article about fraud (you know, the kind of fraud that isn't fraud until it is 'systematic' fraud) in the welfare sector in Australia.

    http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/job-agencies-facing-fraud-inquiry-after-audit-of-fees-20120420-1xcfz.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. James ex A4e Manager

    I was at a DWP conference and unbeknown to me Jim carley (then A4e) was also there. I stood up and said that targets should not be part of an organisations infrastructure and the sooner they would go the better-reduce gaming. Jim scurried up to the DWP reps as quickly as he could perhaps to apologise for my outbust.

    BTW this makes for an interesting read - if its JPA and they are talking about A4e then where is the honour amongst thieves?

    http://www.jobsite.co.uk/job/learning-manager-942437316?jbe_click=1&jbe_email=michaelgrant1%40live.co.uk&utm_source=jbe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=jbe210412

    ReplyDelete

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