A4e in "mass email blunder"

Now here's a story about A4e.  It's appeared today on the Plymouth local newspaper site, but happened more than a month ago.  A4e has the contract in Plymouth for what used to be called direct payments for social care and is now known as Independent Living Services.  Most councils chose to keep this in-house, but A4e won a number of contracts to deliver the service.  This story concerns an administrative blunder when a mass email to 157 people included, by mistake, an attachment listing the personal details of service users, i.e. people with disabilities.  They've said sorry and done all the necessary things, but the council isn't best pleased, and neither are the service users and their relatives.
It's not the first time A4e has leaked data by mistake.

Spin

There's a fascinating example of spin this week in the tale of our favourite minister, Jim Knight MP, and his visit to Plymouth. The local paper, the Plymouth Herald, reports it in a straightforward way, no doubt aided by a hand-out from the minister's press secretary. There is something called a "Backing Young Britain roadshow" which is "touring Britain's cities, encouraging employers to give jobs to people aged 18 to 24." There is no mention of Flexible New Deal or A4e.

The local MP, Linda Gilroy, has her own spin on this event on her website. Here we learn that "the Minister also called in to A4E Plymouth." To prove her interest in the topic of young people and unemployment she cites a speech she made last year and provides a link to it. The only mention of A4e in that speech is: "I want to mention the work that the local strategic partnership has developed, bringing together the public, private and voluntary sectors to identify our strengths and to develop action plans that play to them. The DWP values its work. Partnership working between the DWP and organisations such as Working Links and A4e in my constituency is important, and making common cause with the Learning and Skills Council is also part of the recipe."

So far A4e is hardly central to the story. But the company's own website sees it differently. Mr Knight, we're told, had a brief meeting with Paul Dingle, A4e Pathways operations Manager, who said that, "The Minister told local A4e bosses he was very positive at the work being done across the region & especially Pathways to Work." Then Linda Gilroy is quoted: “A4e are delivering some fantastic programmes in the city and I wanted the Minister to hear directly how unemployed people are being helped to find sustainable job opportunities through training, educational and work placement schemes being organised by A4e.”

Same story, slightly different interpretations.

Not-for-profit?

Local newspapers have always been happy to print PR pieces as if they were news, providing free advertising for companies, and A4e have been quick to take advantage of this with "news" items such as this one in the Warrington Guardian.

But a story in the Plymouth Herald today is not so much A4e spin as the paper's carelessness. A chap called Kevin Kelway is the star; he's doing a cartoon strip for the paper about penguins. "The penguins' fictional impact on Plymouth is almost matched by their author's own profile in the city. He was constantly in the headlines as a campaigner on issues ranging from curbing loutish behaviour by binge-drinkers in the Barbican to restoring Tinside pool. Now aged 47, he has stepped away from politics and is a media co-ordinator for A4E, which is contracted by the government to help people on benefits get back into employment. The not-for-profit company's work includes boosting some clients' literacy and Kevin believes the Rockhoppas might help get the next generation hooked on reading. "Children need to be encouraged to read," he said." Have you spotted the mistake? There's no excuse for this kind of "journalism".