A4E Embark On New Arts For Emma Competition - Rudolph Sues - Pathways To Work In Trouble

"Art For Emma " or A4E - the one time Action For Employment broker of Welfare To Work is now in legal arguments with several well known fantasy personalities .

"Rudolph is fuming" Says Steve Claus of the well known Christmas Unlimited firm who are always in the red .

"His nose is his brand !" Says Steve loudly .. "He is having therapy at the moment for his feelings about nasal identity theft . "

"And Emma's mixture of Oz wings , bats and fairy persona does not fool him "

He knows he has been targeted ..

Another character from Oz known as Ms Wicked W. O' West is putting posters up about yellow brick roads and Pathways to Work and screaming bitterly about being outdone on the dark oppressive magic front ...

We can reveal exclusively she has threatened to open up a new competitive front shop to "Poundland" - known as "Wickedland" where people can be turned into bats or toads as they work

Meanwhile back to Really- real- Land in the world of corporo-weave lets have a look what "Third Sector say about Pathways to Work and the response of some charities who associate into A4E .

Uh oh :

Full credit goes to John Plummer on "Third Sector" for the report below :

Job cuts at major charities including the RNID

Several large charities have withdrawn from key government welfare-to-work programmes because they are not proving financially viable.

The RNID has pulled out of eight New Deal for Disabled People programmes and three Pathways to Work programmes, worth £500,000, following a review of sustainability. Fourteen staff have been laid off.

The Department for Work and Pensions established the initiatives to help people on incapacity and disability benefits find work. But rising unemployment has made targets difficult, the charities said.

Michael Adamson, executive director of individual services at the RNID, which had subcontracted work from prime providers, said the problem was compounded for charities because they dealt with the most hard-to-reach groups.

"We could not sustain the contracts at the prices available," said Adamson. "We need to get a fair price for what we do and recognition of the distance from the labour market of some of our clients."

Action for Blind People shed nine staff last week after ending Pathways subcontracts with private providers A4e and Work Directions and employment charity the Shaw Trust.

Elizabeth Percy, acting head of regional services at Action for Blind People, said the contracts could have generated £121,000, but the recession and the complex needs of its beneficiaries left it with no choice.

"It's a fair blow," she said. "It's income that we rely on but it just wasn't achievable."

The RNIB, which passed on Pathways contracts in England to Action when the two charities formed an associate agreement, has abandoned one Pathways subcontract in Wales.

Last month the Shaw Trust, the largest voluntary sector provider of employment services for disabled people, blamed the DWP funding structure for its £2.8m annual loss.

Employment minister Jim Knight said prime providers were responsible for managing subcontractors.

"Providers may have underestimated challenges and set high targets but we are working to improve performance," he said. "Many of the contracts run for three years and, due to start-up costs, providers would not be expected to make a profit immediately."

Special Note : Mental Health factors in Pathways To Work type projects includes a programme being rolled out by Mental Health Foundation 's David Crepaz Keay in Wales . That is one to watch for those interested in auditiing how grants are used and to what beneficial effect. Who benefits ? Is the tool of enquiry and question to form .

We think there are other ways to achieve social inclusion through skilling up Users in mental health without major money going to administrators. That is all too what happens with so many projects that use various forms of the lottery or other grant streams .

From Issue No 7 by http://www.cypswansea.co.uk

"David is an eloquent and passionate campaigner against discrimination on the grounds of mental health history. With over twenty-five years of involvement as first a user of mental health services and later as a campaigner, he is also an advocate of service user voices being included in mental health service planning and delivery. He is currently leading a major self management initiative for people with a severe psychiatric diagnoses which aims to train approximately 900 people across Wales. He is also amongst a small group of service users/survivors leading the development of an England-wide service user network"