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.

Learning from Israel?

In Israel A4e is known as Amin. A group of British Labour MPs has been in Jerusalem looking at how they run Israel's welfare-to-work programme, says the Jerusalem Post. You may recall that A4e got the contract in Israel despite the fact that it was against British government policy but with official help. Read the details here. Now A4e's Rob Murdoch (the guy who did such a dismal job of defending the company on the Radio 5 Live programme) has been showing off A4e-Amin as a model for Britain to follow. And, ironically, the MPs seemed proud of the fact that A4e is a British company. ' "It was fascinating to see how welfare-to-work programs are being carried out in such a diverse society as Israel," added Andrew Gwynne MP, parliamentary chairman of Labor Friends of Israel. "And it's all built on a number of the initiatives first implemented by the Labor government in the UK." In addition to Gwynne, the group included MPs David Cairns, Jane Kennedy, Anne McGuire, Meg Munn, Jamie Reed, Derek Twigg and Malcolm Wicks.' Perhaps we should explain to them what the "Wisconsin model" actually means - making welfare benefits time-limited, tieing them to job-seeking activities, then throwing people into the gutter to be picked up by charities. Is that what these MPs envisage for Britain?

A Socialist Reaction

You would expect the Socialist Party to be hostile to private sector involvement in welfare to work. And an article on their website, headed Private Companies Caught in Jobcentre Scam, sets out the antipathy that they, and the PCS union, feel about it. Particularly interesting is the reference to A4e's involvement in Israel. You may recall that A4e got its contracts in Israel in a welter of criticism in 2005 that they had been helped by the British government despite the fact that working in occupied territory was against the government's policy - see EI Exclusive: Britain's Double Game. Now well ensconced in Israel, A4e are known there as Amin. Those who have been clients of A4e in Britain may like to look at Amin's web page on the rights and requirements of a participant there.

History of the company

In the 1980s a small engineering training company was set up in Sheffield to take advantage of the Conservative government's willingness to pour money into such companies for uncertain returns. The owner, Harrison, took his daughter, Emma, into the company, then quickly skipped to Germany. This part of A4e's history has acquired the aura of legend. Emma Harrison was a young graduate, suddenly landed with a company to run, and an absent father who was busy draining it of money. In 1991 Emma renamed the outfit Action for Employment (quickly abbreviated) and set about making money. She remains almost the sole owner.

The breakthrough came with the Labour government's New Deal programme. A4e rapidly became the "preferred bidder" for contracts to provide back-to-work training. Their success baffled their competitors, who knew they were putting in equally good bids. This led to rumours that it was Emma's connections who were responsible. Someone high up in government, perhaps? A Sheffield MP name of Blunkett, maybe? But there was no evidence for this, and rival training companies went out of business as A4e prospered.

Business Link - questions in the House In 2001 the Business Link organisations, which had been formed locally, were put out to tender by the government. A4e bid for all of them. In their determination to get the contracts they were prepared to stretch the truth. In Somerset they had stated that local leaders, including the leader of the Council, supported the bid. That was news to the gentlemen in question, and the bid had to be withdrawn. In Humberside it was felt that something similar was happening, but government ministers seemed intent on awarding the contract to A4e. The company scooped up the majority of these contracts nationwide. They lost many of them in 2007.

EI EXCLUSIVE: Britain's double game In 2005 suspicions were heightened when A4e was able to work in Israel, in contravention of British government policy but apparently with British Embassy assistance. The contract also marked the beginning of A4e's expansion into the international market. They have been able to boast of their success in Britain in "reforming" public services, and by 2008 were being described as a £120m global organisation. In Israel, business appears to be going well. See an article in the Jerusalem Post, where A4e's genius for propaganda is well demonstrated. The company is now known as Amin in israel.

A4e operates in a growing number of countries, trading on their claim to be "the UK’s largest private provider of public services in the labour market and social integration sectors, including the welfare to work programme ‘New Deal Prime Contractor'". They are established in France, Germany and Australia. We also learn from a Polish journal that it "currently manages two projects in Poland, in Szczecin and in Zabrze, supporting 550 people back into work by the end of 2008". Another developing market is India, where A4e have a foot in the door. Turkey looks set to be the next opportunity, and they are trying to establish themselves in South Africa.

A4e's philosophy is now simple: bid for everything. Currently they employ over 60 professional bid-writers. The drive to diversify in the last few years has been partly the result of a drop in profits. In 2002 -03 A4e was worth £50 million on the basis of profits of £4m and sales of £60m. In 2004 - 05 the figures were £3.9m in profit on £75.7m sales. Note that these "sales" are the money spent on meeting the contracts; profit is what they manage to keep. Profits declined sharply in 2007, as a number of contracts were not renewed. Undaunted, Emma said that she was "proud that the company has sustained pure organic growth at a phenomenal rate" and forecast an increase in profits to a £500 million turnover by 2014.

A4e has set up the Foundation for Social Improvement, which apparently aims to encourage the "third sector", especially smaller charities, to depend on them for training and access to government. They are "proud to be working in conjunction with Communities and Local Government (CLG) to deliver Connecting Communities Plus scheme". The FSI is a "social enterprise", an organisation which blurs the line between the voluntary sector and for-profit businesses. It's another example of the company's ability to infiltrate all aspects of the government's dealings with the most disadvantaged.