department for work and pensions on watchinga4e.blogspot.com

something called " Plymouth Works Plus " which has an interesting website homepage. Under "Who we are" they say, "Plymouth Works Plus is a European Social Fund (ESF) and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) funded project. The organisations Working together to provide this support are A4E, The Neighbourhood Learning Consortium, Pluss and RITE Associates Ltd. Our Team consists of trained advisors, consultants, employment engagement advisors and trainers." Fine. But the next paragraph,

Emma Harrison on Working Lunch Emma Harrison was on BBC2's "Working Lunch" today. The theme initially was unemployment among older people. There was a brief interview with Ian Mulheirn of the Social Market Foundation about why older people need more help to get back into Work. Why do they stay out of Work longer, while their skills and experience are wasted? Mulheirn said that they needed more skills training and "employment schemes" (I think he meant Work placements).

of a range of welfare to work provision. On those contracts where we count job outcomes, during the period 2008-09, 20 per cent. of people starting provision delivered by A4e have started work. Some customers, however, will still be on provision. The delivery of provision is monitored by the Department and is also subject to external inspection by Ofsted in England, and Estyn in Wales. Areas for improvement identified at inspection are addressed through the Department's contract

the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: - how many hours of training A4e staff Working on contracts let by her Department undertake annually. The answer came back from Jim Knight MP: - " Staff training is an internal matter for A4E and therefore not one that the Secretary of State can offer information about, or comment on." And yet A4e recently got a grant from the Dept. for Business, Innovation and Skills : "A4e will be Working with employees to establish processes for

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.

participating in welfare-to-work programmes" and can be read on the Jobcentre Plus website. It "was developed by ERSA, the representative body for independent providers of publicly funded welfare-to-work programmes and is supported by the Department for work and Pensions, including Jobcentre Plus, the Association of Learning Providers (ALP) and the British Association for Supported Employment (BASE)" and was launched by Jim Knight MP. All the providers, including A4e, have signed up to

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

they have "organised" a networking conference . I say "organised" in inverted commas, because if you look closely it's clear that it's Premier Inns who are paying. "We are looking to work with city partners to promote our Employability Skills Provision in the city" says Kevin Kelway. Ignore all the bad publicity. It's business as usual. And if you're looking for work, why not work for A4e? They're looking for people in London. Here's the advert . Posted by historian

something called " Plymouth Works Plus " which has an interesting website homepage. Under "Who we are" they say, "Plymouth Works Plus is a European Social Fund (ESF) and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) funded project. The organisations Working together to provide this support are A4E, The Neighbourhood Learning Consortium, Pluss and RITE Associates Ltd. Our Team consists of trained advisors, consultants, employment engagement advisors and trainers." Fine. But the next paragraph,

is shortlisted in 17 areas; Working Links in 16; Pinnacle People, a newcomer, gets 14; Work Directions gets 10; and Seetec gets 9. (Seetec's website proclaims, with no doubt conscious echoes of A4e, that it is "one of the UK’s leading providers of Employment, Training and IT services. Working in partnership with the Department of Work and Pensions, Jobcentre Plus, the Learning and Skills Council. employers and partners we are passionate about moving people into sustainable employment,

supplier my organisation has worked for many public sector clients in different departments. Perhaps if we were better people we would walk away from the work. However we had a payroll to meet so we simply shook our heads at some of the things we saw and got on with it. This was not an occasional situation; I struggle to think of a public sector client where we were impressed by all aspects of the engagement. Irrespective of the idiosyncracies of the project my colleagues worked extremely

started for the welfare-to-work contracts there. The implication, of course, is that the private meetings influenced the destination of the contracts. Perish the thought! A4e wouldn't do anything like that, would they? Despite all the meetings that went on, the government department denies that there was anything wrong. But the article, which points out that "A4e has strong links to the British Labour Party and is being investigated by the UK Government for alleged fraud involving work

reassured her that I wasn't working on a specific project - at the moment; I said that I was interested in comparing the CLACs with what they had replaced, and that I looked forward to getting the report. Naturally, I was interested in this PR company. I'm sure it's pure coincidence that the CEO is called Chris Lovell and A4e's executive chairman is Mark Lovell. Golley Slater work not only for private companies but for government quangos. And there's a description of t heir work for A4e

Emma Harrison on Working Lunch That programme Cranking up the publicity Back to Work Tsar ►  February (14) Pathways - why it's not Working Famous, Rich and Jobless Contracts and Amin "We've got the funk!" Can this be true? Two new contracts Insight, prisons, quangos and unemployment Blunkett's Johannesburg trip Spin Report on the Jobseekers' Regime The Waiting Time

the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: - how many hours of training A4e staff Working on contracts let by her Department undertake annually. The answer came back from Jim Knight MP: - " Staff training is an internal matter for A4E and therefore not one that the Secretary of State can offer information about, or comment on." And yet A4e recently got a grant from the Dept. for Business, Innovation and Skills : "A4e will be Working with employees to establish processes for

the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions about unemployment issues, with a particular focus on A4e. On 25 January he asked " how many hours of training A4e staff Working on contracts let by her Department undertake annually" and was told by Jim Knight that "Staff training is an internal matter for A4E and therefore not one that the Secretary of State can offer information about, or comment on." Yesterday Mr Lancaster homed in on results, asking more or less the same question

reports: "The Welfare to Work Panel’s report 'Joined Up Moving Up' was launched today at a well attended and successful event in Central Westminster Hall. The Welfare to Work Panel’s report 'Joined Up Moving Up' was launched today at a well attended and successful event in Central Westminster Hall. Employment Minister Jim Knight spoke alongside panel chair Keith Faulkner from Working Links, Rob Murdoch from A4e, Chris Ledgard from Collinson Grant and CBI Director of Public

Emma Harrison on Working Lunch That programme Cranking up the publicity Back to Work Tsar ►  February (14) Pathways - why it's not Working Famous, Rich and Jobless Contracts and Amin "We've got the funk!" Can this be true? Two new contracts Insight, prisons, quangos and unemployment Blunkett's Johannesburg trip Spin Report on the Jobseekers' Regime The Waiting Time

of a range of welfare to work provision. On those contracts where we count job outcomes, during the period 2008-09, 20 per cent. of people starting provision delivered by A4e have started work. Some customers, however, will still be on provision. The delivery of provision is monitored by the Department and is also subject to external inspection by Ofsted in England, and Estyn in Wales. Areas for improvement identified at inspection are addressed through the Department's contract

participating in welfare-to-work programmes" and can be read on the Jobcentre Plus website. It "was developed by ERSA, the representative body for independent providers of publicly funded welfare-to-work programmes and is supported by the Department for work and Pensions, including Jobcentre Plus, the Association of Learning Providers (ALP) and the British Association for Supported Employment (BASE)" and was launched by Jim Knight MP. All the providers, including A4e, have signed up to

you guessed it - welfare to work. At the Labour conference there's a fringe event, ‘Making Welfare to work work in a recession’, at which both Yvette Cooper and Mark Lovell will speak. " A4e and Demos will also be hosting a roundtable centred around this theme with Rt Hon Jim Knight MP, Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform." If you're thinking that it's a bit much for this company to be in cahoots with ministers - if you think it smacks of touting for

Emma Harrison on Working Lunch That programme Cranking up the publicity Back to Work Tsar ►  February (14) Pathways - why it's not Working Famous, Rich and Jobless Contracts and Amin "We've got the funk!" Can this be true? Two new contracts Insight, prisons, quangos and unemployment Blunkett's Johannesburg trip Spin Report on the Jobseekers' Regime The Waiting Time

Emma Harrison on Working Lunch That programme Cranking up the publicity ►  February (14) ▼  January (12) Not-for-profit? Contradictions The Young People's Guarantee India, Cambridge and the bank Damning verdict on Train to Gain Don't mention New Deal - again "Plundering the Public Sector" Flexible New Deal - no choice In Search of the British Work Ethic, episode

have been announced for Work Choices, the new contract for supported employment. And A4e isn't one of them. We reported that A4e had been shortlisted in 11 of the 19 contract areas. Today's list shows 28 contract areas, and The Shaw Trust has won 16 of those, with Working Links getting 5. Is this the first time that A4e haven't been successful anywhere? But all that happy tweeting about India is confirmed on A4e's website . India is a massive market, so it's not surprising

Emma Harrison on Working Lunch That programme Cranking up the publicity Back to Work Tsar ►  February (14) Pathways - why it's not Working Famous, Rich and Jobless Contracts and Amin "We've got the funk!" Can this be true? Two new contracts Insight, prisons, quangos and unemployment Blunkett's Johannesburg trip Spin Report on the Jobseekers' Regime The Waiting Time

introduction." (See TheyWorkForYou.com ) Not that the table of figures he provided enlighten us about its success or otherwise. But perhaps that was the point. The DWP certainly keeps stats on outcomes, and it analyses them by provider. The information is published, but not in a constituency by constituency form. It appears that the Department is happy to provide information to MPs on participation in New Deal in their constituencies, but not on outcomes. Posted