watching Watching A4e

Is it time for historian to hang up her boots? Was a good sport..

As Watching A4e hits all time lows, this has lead to one of the largest independent groups sticking up for unemployed rights, Ipswich Unemployed Action, criticising Watching A4e and the direction its heading.

“Internet-imperialism” aside, Watching A4e isn’t the site it used to be. What was once an impartial criticism site of A4e has now become A4e’s press office. Widespread refusal to publish comments as an extreme form of moderation/internet censorship to paranoia of legal action from past threats received. Watching A4e appears to be a combination between an  arms-length  extension of Indus Delta and some form of official  partnership  with A4e.

Let me quote half of their most recent article:-

When A4e’s main website went down recently there were some of us who felt that it was the result of a decision to revamp the site as part of an image makeover. But no. It’s back, with no changes. Even the link to “Emma’s blog” is there on the home page, even though it hasn’t been updated since last November.

Andrew Dutton has posted a response to the various accusations, and he ends with a note on “A4e and Emma Harrison”. “As a result of Emma Harrison’s resignation, announced on 24 February, she is no longer a Director or Chairman of A4e which means she cannot participate at Board meetings. The governance of A4e has therefore changed with immediate effect and decisions relating to future dividend policy will be determined by the Board under a new, independent non-executive Chairman. In addition, Emma’s salary as Chairman and Director and payments made by A4e in respect of Thornbridge Hall have ceased.” So who made the decisions about dividends before? And that last bit about Thornbridge Hall is interesting. The Board are really seeking to distance themselves from the woman who still owns most of the company.

But back to the websites. The MyA4e site looks like something designed by professionals who have no clear idea of who their target audience is. One could say the same about the multitude of other sites set up by A4e. There’s A4e Voicewhich is a blog for good news items. The latest, posted on 2 March, is aimed at refuting the criticisms of A4e for using clients in work experience roles in its own company.

Then there’s A4e Transitions which is an arm of the company which provides services to companies which are making lots of people redundant. Very different is A4e Careers which apparently seeks to recruit people to work for the company. It’s a mess, with cartoons, handwriting-style fonts and all the familiar slogans. Much more sober is the Direct payments for social care site. Eleven local authorities contract with A4e to deliver this service.

Then there’s A4e Skills which is “the direct delivery arm for vocational learning, delivering Apprenticeship programmes, work based learning (QCF & NVQ’s), in-house training and vocationally related courses, accredited courses including e learning courses. Most training takes place within the workplace, working flexibly to meet the needs of both organisations and individuals.”

Finally there’s A4e Insight, their “research and consultancy arm”. This is where the line between private company and public sector becomes dangerously blurred.

What annoys me was, after A4e took down their main website (whereas historian even acknowledge about the released figures) she assumed, and wrongly stuck it out there that the site was going to be redesigned? What the fuck gave you that impression?  Obviously not leaked information or a rumour from a reliable source. Lost many friends over the years? 

Sounded so much like an excuse to cover up a data protection breach (which historian hasn’t mentioned) in defence of A4e to which you emulate to be criticising: how does that work?  With no statements made to the media or on social networking, it appears Watching A4e was the ones to pick up on the hundreds confused why they cannot access the A4e website.  Someone had mentioned in a comment that a redesign would be left with a splash page. In reality, a web design company would test it on a test machine, then the previous site will be replaced within minutes. No downtime.

Historian (someone correct me if I am wrong) used to work in welfare-to-work and is a fan of that “concept” – probably working for A4e once? (assumption) Has she been offered a job (or have a job) working at A4e now, so cannot step out of line?

Not watching A4e too well?

She reports Andrew Dutton’s blog comment… this is NOT a new change on the website… It has been there for a few days. We reported this on February 27th 2012! We aren’t sure how long this has been up prior to us reporting it but A4e website states “Posted on February 26, 2012 by admin“. This is just very sloppy. The reasons they ceased the payments for Thornbridge Hall is (like we reported) due to damage limitation. If, fraud is widespread… that money is illegal money (“proceeds of crime”)… pouring it into a different account (business, personal, or overseas… whatever it doesn’t matter…) is money laundering.

I agree about the lack of target market comment, however, was it 1 + 1 = 3? You hate a website, it goes down… you assume its being redesigned. We were first to report it was due to the DNS records for mya4e.com (and the www version) being set to 127.0.0.1 (loopback address). Someone tried A4e’s website by changing mya4e.com in their hosts file to point to the IP address that the website is hosted on. This apparently (we didn’t confirm it) resulted in a password protected page being displayed, not a new site – suggesting it was down for security reasons. Rumours were made that it was down due to such instructions being ordered by DWP.

Anyway…. A4e Transitions used to be A4e Tomorrow apparently. Then talking about A4e Insight. Old news, I think you already reported about them anyhow and is inconsistent with the “attack the design” theme, to which you mention nothing about.

What we are getting at

Since the latest claims of A4e fraud has been released, Watching A4e has been very quiet. Too quiet. Hundreds of people visiting the website for latest news… me included, nothing other than links to Financial Times requiring a subscription, and relaying information already reported in the press knowing well that the newspaper etc. would have checked the sources first to minimise any risk of legal action.

We reported more on A4e than Watching A4e in the recent month… it shouldn’t be that way at all!

To report a statement almost a week late is just pathetic. To make silly claims of a website redesign because it was shit before it went down is also pathetic. I am annoyed at A4e, as unlike the majority of websites using an open-source blog system like wordpress (this site uses it, so did WPN etc.) who have the decently to keep the credits in the footer intact… multi-million pound profit business A4e, who doesn’t want to spend money on a commercial alternative, removes such credit.

Assuming Historian isn’t working for the devil lol… you cannot fear legal threats. You report facts and opinions, not vexatious or false, with evidence to support it. You cannot be sued for giving someone bad press if its accurate and truthful. If A4e has sent you a Cease and Desist (not the case with PHA Media, they don’t know what one is, they are a PR firm), remove your personal details, and upload it… you will have the support of ALL the like-minded individuals on the internet.

Seems rather pointless for such a website to clamp down on free speech and limits its reporting in such a way. I would go as far as saying Watching A4e is a traitor to the online movement of justice amongsts jobseekers and taxpayers alike. Personally, I don’t think there is any longer a need for Watching A4e, how it currently is. I hope this is a wake up call. Your thoughts on the site truly welcomed!!