Latvia and mutuals

Roy Newey's trip to Riga in Latvia got a write-up on a Latvian website which, thanks to Google Translate, gives us an insight into what A4e, and, apparently, Scottish employers, really think of the unemployed. "In his [Newey's] view, the main task is to teach the unemployed new skills, but to help them regain self-confidence and a belief that they can find work and be useful to employees. A4e even helping people clean up their appearance. [Newey] tells about some of the experiments conducted in Scotland, where a single action along been to bring together long-term unemployed and employers. 'Later, employers were asked whether they would like to employ these people, and if not, why not. Initially they said that those unemployed lack the necessary skills and experience, but after a few glasses of wine confessed that the real reason is the external effect - people are too fat, bad smell, he is unseemly tattoos, etc.. Appearance is very important.'" Well, well.

Back home, Jonty Olliff-Cooper has been tweeting to drum up business for a conference. "Looking forward to our A4e mutuals conference next week. If you are interested in starting a public sector mutual, come along." Mutuals are part of David Cameron's strategy for abolishing the public sector. Groups of council employees will form themselves into co-operatives and then bid for contracts for the work. So what has that got to do with A4e? These "mutuals" will need advice and help in setting up their companies. They may well find it useful to be attached to a private company. After all, even if they get the contracts the first time around, they will lose out thereafter to the likes of A4e.

At home and abroad

A4e boasts about its presence in 10 countries, and now the British Embassy in Latvia is pushing for business there for the company. There's nothing unusual in that, of course; embassies promote trade. Roy Newey is giving a seminar in Riga today. On Monday he was sharing ideas with 20 Chinese visitors. Meanwhile, Mark Lovell has been dining with Kenneth Clarke (the Justice Secretary), hatching "some cunning plans" on global social entrepreneurship with Doug Richards, and working on "a new partnership to deliver ethically priced financial services to people on low incomes". (He did say he wasn't giving up on the bank idea!) Emma Harrison may be getting the publicity, but Lovell is working behind the scenes.

Local councils are currently busy setting their budgets, working out what to cut. Where they have contracts with private companies, they can't cut them without incurring big financial penalties, so it's the voluntary organisations which have to be axed. That's one of the many reasons why David Cameron's "privatise everything" plans are so misguided. Yet A4e bosses are signatories to a letter to Francis Maude dated 10 January, in which Maude "is urged to consider ‘critical means by which we could transform public services through a new shared endeavour between local authorities and private sector providers, in the context of the public’s changing needs and expectations, and the fiscal and service challenges’ facing the coalition," according to LocalGov.co.uk. Council leaders and many other companies have also signed the letter which "considers the role the private sector could play in ‘modernising’ public services, but recognises the important ‘role of the voluntary and community sectors as well as the wider public sector’." The points made in the letter are set out in detail on the LocalGov website, and No. 10 are said to have welcomed it.

Round-up, 4 September 2010

I don't know whether other business leaders do what Emma Harrison does: scatter self-promoting articles around the internet. The latest can be found on the Niche Volumes site and on a number of other obscure sites. But there's a glaring typo in the title - the "a" has been missed out of "Harrison" - which no one seems to have picked up on, and this rather detracts from the purpose. One can't imagine the bosses of Serco, Capita or the rest seeking the limelight in this ham-fisted way.

Emma told the Guardian that A4e finds "hidden jobs". Perhaps she had in mind a part-time job held by Mark Lovell, A4e's group Chief Executive, pointed out by the latest edition of Private Eye. Lovell is a non-executive director of the Sheffield NHS Board. The Eye says that the board meets 11 times a year, and members like Lovell are paid £7,800 p.a. Assuming that each meeting lasts 7 hours (which it almost certainly doesn't), that's £101.30 per hour. Not bad. And what do they do? "In close partnership with doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff and by listening to you, NHS Sheffield decides how best to spend nearly £1 billion every year. We do this with the aim of providing better health and better healthcare for the population of Sheffield."

Meanwhile A4e's chief salesman, Roy Newey, has been in Latvia. He tweets, "Latvia lovely, honest people who share a vision to reduce unemployment and poverty. Set up in 2011" and " Great visit to Latvia. Fine buildings, good people and warm welcome for A4e unemployment solutions. Thanks". Latvia is a small country (population 2,231,503) with a struggling economy. But every little helps.