I can't say I'm surprised to hear A4E in the news and fraud mentioned in the same sentence. I think we're all aware of the concept of something that just sounds too damn good to be true. You know the sort of thing, the telephone call out-of-the-blue informing you of a valuable prize waiting for you if you just ring this number, the investment with 'guaranteed' returns or even the free tickets to New York if you buy a vacuum cleaner.
A4E, and other similar private government contractors, agree to take on some of the hardest and 'most difficult to place' people in terms of employability, in return for shed-loads of our money. In the process these private companies have become hugely successful in terms of dividends returned to their now very wealthy owners, and we're led to believe that along the way the seemingly impossible has happened. The previously unemployable have been found jobs. That's great isn't it? But how do they do it?
Well in true private capital style the staff are 'incentivised' of course, or rather are target-driven. Fail to reach your target and your future with one of these companies is rather short-lived and you find yourself joining the queue of people you were trying desperately to help. Faced with some of the most 'unemployable' people imaginable through health, educational or environmental issues, I don't think it's too difficult to imagine a culture developing amongst staff where shall we say massaging some figures or adjusting some criteria or just plain fiddling might not become a priority, for self-preservation if nothing else.
The astonishing thing is that we've been here before. Remember the Training and Enterprise Councils set up by previous governments? They were established to try and deal with the same problem and were rewarded with lavish amounts of government money, supposedly based on success. A sort of precursor to the latest fad Payment by Results. The only trouble was that the books were being cooked, figures fiddled and the whole charade was eventually dismantled.
But isn't this sort of thing bound to happen when public services are replaced by private contractors? Another classic attempt at a quick and easy political fix for entrenched social policy failings.
Not so obvious that it's public vs private. It seems to be about setting up an organisation to turn straw into gold, and then driving staff with big incentives for success and harsh penalties for failure. Also it must be possible to cook the books, but given human ingenuity, that is usually the case.
ReplyDeleteI must be getting old - I can remember when PSOs, employed specifically for the task, used to do the finding employment bit and did it pretty well and without book cooking. I don't recall them getting huge government bonus payouts through (but maybe they chose not to share that bit in supervision with me)
ReplyDeleteLol - yes you're right! In fact go back a bit further and PO's all had little black books - jealosly guarded - that held the phone numbers of local businesses willing to take on clients. I know this because my father was one of those small employers in the East End of London who was regularly telephoned throughout the 50's 60's and 70's. Some only lasted a week, others decades.
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