Education and A4e

Remember Vox4Tots and A4e's vocational education centre in Mansfield? The Guardian carries a piece about it. One sentence which might surprise the reader is "A4E, which also runs work-related programmes for prisoners and the long-term unemployed, has around 700 secondary school pupils in six centres across the north and the Midlands." The extent of A4e's involvement in education is far less well known than its welfare-to-work programmes. It's summarised on the company's own website here and here. The heartland is clearly the Tees Valley, where A4e has the contract for the EBP - Education Business Partnership - run out of the Thornaby Community School. This contract includes the STEMPOINT programme (see its website) focussing on science, technology, engineering and maths. So far the media have taken little interest in these activities, because welfare-to-work has an impact on more people. But they shouldn't be ignored.

FND Phase 2

For what it's worth, the list has been published of those providers who have been successful at the PQQ stage of Phase 2 of Flexible New Deal - in other words, the shortlist. A4e has been successful in 8 areas, including West Yorkshire and London. That's fewer than some other providers like EDS, Reed and SEETEC. It's an unusual shortlist, because between 10 and 23 providers have been listed in each area instead of the customary 5 or so.

Of course, it may never happen.

Medex and the care home industry

An article in the Yorkshire Post tells of a deal between Medex Training and the care home multi-millionaire Lawrence Tomlinson to provide training for 500 new staff for 11 new homes. What has that got to do with A4e? Medex is part of A4e. It was originally formed in 2005 to provide courses like first aid and resuscitation to people who worked in various medical areas. In 2006 Emma Harrison made it "part of the A4e group of companies" and extended the sort of training Medex provided, focussing on the care industry. Presumably it was a good fit with New Deal, enabling A4e to put clients through short courses relatively cheaply. And it's an even better fit with FND, if the deal with Tomlinson is anything to go by. The article doesn't say whether the new staff are coming from the FND client list, but it would make sense.

Is FND finished?

The Flexible New Deal contracts have only just got under way, but already seem irrelevant. The Conservatives have said that they will "renegotiate" them to transform them into their (or David Freud's) idea of welfare-to-work. The Tory proposals would pay providers only for outcomes - and 12-month "sustainable" job outcomes at that. Anyone with a glimmering of knowledge of the current jobs market knows how scarce such permanent jobs are. FND providers were concerned that it wouldn't pay; and that was with 80% of the payment on job outcomes of 13 weeks or more. Who will want to bid for contracts with 100% on job outcomes of a year? Even if some up-front money is provided to help cover costs, will the only bidders be institutions like FE colleges, who have the necessary infrastructure anyway, and large companies like A4e and Serco which can bear the costs? We shall see.

Meanwhile, A4e continues to look to other areas of business. In Northern Ireland they've been awarded a £400,000, 2-year contract to provide a free debt advice phone line.

A4e's New Star

A4e have found a new person to be their media face - and she's good at it. Jo Blundell, their Group Development Director, was on BBC Breakfast and on Radio 5 Live this morning explaining FND as it goes live.

The TV item was brief. After a quick explanation by the presenter, she was asked what is the point of FND. It's so "no one gets left behind" and to "keep investing in them". Why do it with a private company? Because there are a "very vibrant and experienced set of providers". ("Vibrant"?) And 80% of their money will come from outcomes.

The Radio 5 Live interview was longer, but she coped well. FND is personalised, tailored to the individual. They'll be with their customers for a year, get to know them well, become like a life coach. Why not just give the money to people? Because they need motivating, have issues which are not simple, need quite a lot of help. But there are no jobs. It depends where you are. The job market in London is okay, for instance, but it isn't in Hull. It's not the ideal time to be launching the scheme. Yes it is, because FND will give everybody a chance. Who are you targetting? isn't it a scattergun approach? No, it's individualised. What's the incentive for firms? Won't they just get rid of a current employee in order to take on someone from the scheme to claim the incentive, and keep doing so? Blundell didn't really answer this question but waffled valiantly. What about people who say that wages are too low and it's not worth working? Yes it is, even though it can be a close call at first. What are the targets for A4e? Across the 5 districts where they have contracts, it's 50% into 13-weeks-minimum jobs.

I was impressed. The slogans had gone; no "improving people's lives" or being "passionate". Blundell was articulate and personable. Now we have to see whether the reality of FND in A4e's hands matches the hype.

Tory policy - how new is it?

The Conservatives are making much of their welfare-to-work policy. But the BBC's Nick Robinson, on his blog, has pointed out that the plans are pretty much the same as Labour's, and that both parties are exaggerating the differences between them. One of those keen to make the distinction clear is James Purnell, the man who presided over the late, unlamented New Deal contracts and devised FND. On the Demos website he points out the "Holes in Conservative welfare plan". And for a view from the left of both of Tory and Labour, read Dave Osler's article on the Liberal Conspiracy site.

Meanwhile, FND is up and running. It was interesting to see that when the BBC's Working Lunch today wanted a view from one of the providers they looked to Serco.

Good news from the Tories

The Conservatives' plans for a "Work Programme" will hearten all welfare-to-work contractors. "Tories would force jobless to work" reports an article in the Times, describing a plan to "tackle the dependency culture". "The welfare plan is the brainchild of Lord Freud, the former Labour adviser who defected to the Tories earlier this year. It would abolish the Labour government’s New Deal programme designed to get the long-term unemployed into work. It would also effectively mean the end of Jobcentre Plus, where bureaucrats design training programmes for the unemployed." Presumably Lord Freud thinks private companies can design better programmes than "bureaucrats" - and I did speculate recently that JCP would be next for privatisation. As the article says, this plan is based on the American model.

People like Lord Freud are evangelical about the role of private profit in getting the jobless into work. Good news for A4e and all the other contractors.