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PeoplePlus, formerly known as Action for Employment or A4e, is a for-profit welfare-to-work company based in the United Kingdom. The company began in Sheffield in 1991 to provide redundant steelworkers with training so that they could find new jobs. They now operate in five countries, but retain a significant presence in the UK where they work with organisations in the public sector such as the Department for Work and Pensions. In the wake of various controversies and criminal investigations, MPs Fiona Mactaggart and former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Margaret Hodge urged the UK government to suspend contracts with A4e. In March 2012, following fraud allegations regarding an A4e contract, the Department for Work and Pensions began an independent audit of all its commercial relationships with A4e.〔("DWP Statement on A4e fraud allegation" ), DWP, 9 March 2012. Retrieved on 10 March 2012.〕 On 15 May 2012, Employment Minister Chris Grayling announced that the audits for the Work Programme, the New Enterprise Allowance programme and Mandatory Work Activity found no evidence of fraud in any of these contracts. However, while the team found no evidence of fraud, it identified weaknesses in A4e's internal controls on the Mandatory Work Activity contract in the South East and that this contract with A4e had been terminated, after deciding that continuing would pose 'too great a risk'.〔https://www.gov.uk/government/news/employment-minister-makes-statement-on-a4e〕 In March 2015 six former employees received jail sentences for forging files in a scam that was said to have cost taxpayers almost £300,000. Four received suspended sentences. In a telling aside, judge Angela Morris said it was not for her to decide whether more senior managers should also be held to account. 〔http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3020303/Government-work-contractors-forged-signatures-taxpayers-300-000-jailed-total-15-years.html〕 ==History== A4e was a company started by Emma Harrison's father. It was originally a Sheffield-based training company, putting unemployed steel workers through a getting-back-to-work course. Emma Harrison joined the company after graduating in engineering. After the Labour Party came to power in 1997, they introduced the back to work New Deal service for those on Jobseeker's Allowance, requiring claimants to attend vocational training or risk losing their benefit. In the mid 2000s the government withdrew funding from Jobcentre Plus' vocational training programmes and redirected the funds to "back to work" agencies, such as the Sheffield-based company A4e. A4e quickly became the largest provider of New Deal services in the UK, and had contracts for the New Deal worth £80 million. When the New Deal was wound down in 2010, A4e was paid a share of £63 million in "termination fees". A4e was awarded a contract for the Pathways to Work scheme in 2008,〔 with a target to get 30 per cent of participants into employment. In February 2012 the Public Accounts Committee heard the success rate was 9 per cent. Committee Chair Margaret Hodge questioned why A4e had been awarded new contracts to deliver the Work Programme despite this "abysmal" performance. Conservative Committee member Richard Bacon expressed similar concerns, asking why A4e's "dreadful performance in one of the immediate predecessor programmes" had not been taken into account during tendering. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「PeoplePlus, formerly known as Action for Employment or A4e, is a for-profit welfare-to-work company based in the United Kingdom. The company began in Sheffield in 1991 to provide redundant steelworkers with training so that they could find new jobs. They now operate in five countries, but retain a significant presence in the UK where they work with organisations in the public sector such as the Department for Work and Pensions.In the wake of various controversies and criminal investigations, MPs Fiona Mactaggart and former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Margaret Hodge urged the UK government to suspend contracts with A4e. In March 2012, following fraud allegations regarding an A4e contract, the Department for Work and Pensions began an independent audit of all its commercial relationships with A4e.("DWP Statement on A4e fraud allegation" ), DWP, 9 March 2012. Retrieved on 10 March 2012. On 15 May 2012, Employment Minister Chris Grayling announced that the audits for the Work Programme, the New Enterprise Allowance programme and Mandatory Work Activity found no evidence of fraud in any of these contracts. However, while the team found no evidence of fraud, it identified weaknesses in A4e's internal controls on the Mandatory Work Activity contract in the South East and that this contract with A4e had been terminated, after deciding that continuing would pose 'too great a risk'.https://www.gov.uk/government/news/employment-minister-makes-statement-on-a4eIn March 2015 six former employees received jail sentences for forging files in a scam that was said to have cost taxpayers almost £300,000. Four received suspended sentences. In a telling aside, judge Angela Morris said it was not for her to decide whether more senior managers should also be held to account.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3020303/Government-work-contractors-forged-signatures-taxpayers-300-000-jailed-total-15-years.html==History==A4e was a company started by Emma Harrison's father. It was originally a Sheffield-based training company, putting unemployed steel workers through a getting-back-to-work course. Emma Harrison joined the company after graduating in engineering.After the Labour Party came to power in 1997, they introduced the back to work New Deal service for those on Jobseeker's Allowance, requiring claimants to attend vocational training or risk losing their benefit. In the mid 2000s the government withdrew funding from Jobcentre Plus' vocational training programmes and redirected the funds to "back to work" agencies, such as the Sheffield-based company A4e. A4e quickly became the largest provider of New Deal services in the UK, and had contracts for the New Deal worth £80 million. When the New Deal was wound down in 2010, A4e was paid a share of £63 million in "termination fees".A4e was awarded a contract for the Pathways to Work scheme in 2008, with a target to get 30 per cent of participants into employment. In February 2012 the Public Accounts Committee heard the success rate was 9 per cent. Committee Chair Margaret Hodge questioned why A4e had been awarded new contracts to deliver the Work Programme despite this "abysmal" performance. Conservative Committee member Richard Bacon expressed similar concerns, asking why A4e's "dreadful performance in one of the immediate predecessor programmes" had not been taken into account during tendering.」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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