Report highlights flaws in Work Programme
2 July 2014
The providers tasked with delivering the government’s Work Programme are being paid millions of pounds of bonuses for poor performance, according to an investigation conducted by the National Audit Office.
Wed, 2 Jul 2014 | By Nicola Sullivan
The providers tasked with delivering the government’s Work Programme are being paid millions of pounds of bonuses for poor performance, according to an investigation conducted by the National Audit Office.
The watchdog’s report, published today [2 July], claimed that flawed contractual performance measures mean that the programme’s 40 contracts are likely to be entitled to £31m in incentive payments in 2014-15, compared to an estimate of £6m if an ‘accurate measure of performance’ was used.
In addition, the report stated that contractual performance measures have also made it more difficult to terminate the contracts of poor performing providers. For example, when the Department for Work and Pensions decided it wanted to ditch the Newcastle College Group, it was unable to do so because the contractor ‘had not technically breached the performance measures’, according to the report.
Auditors said that while performance levels in getting ‘easier-to-help’ groups had improved, with 27% of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance aged 25 and over moving into employment lasting six months or longer, performance for harder-to-help groups failed to meet expectations. Only 11% of people claiming Employment and Support Allowance have found a job, compared to an initial target of 22%, although there was acknowledgement that this was too high.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “This poor performance means that only half the number of sick and disabled people the programme was meant to help have actually found work.
“The Work Programme is a poor shadow of the job guarantee schemes that went before it. Unless the government takes the National Audit Office’s criticism on the chin and acts now, vulnerable unemployed people will be left far behind as the jobs market improves.”
Kirsty McHugh, chief executive of the Employment Related Services Association, which represents welfare-to-work providers, told Recruiter: “These are all long-term unemployed people. Jobcentre Plus hasn’t managed to get them into work – none of these programmes anywhere in the world have got more than 50% [of long-term unemployed] into a job.”
She maintained that the Work Programme had performed well in difficult circumstances. She said that of the 1.5m people that had been referred to the programme 300,000 are in sustained employment (six months or longer).
“The National Audit Office is also saying that performance is pretty much on par with predecessor programmes, such as the New Deal [introduced under Labour],” she said, adding: “It’s important to understand that there is 40% less money in the Work Programme than in predecessor programmes and that the economic backdrop over the last few years has obviously been much worse that it was over the 90s and the first half of the 2000s.”
The providers tasked with delivering the government’s Work Programme are being paid millions of pounds of bonuses for poor performance, according to an investigation conducted by the National Audit Office.
The watchdog’s report, published today [2 July], claimed that flawed contractual performance measures mean that the programme’s 40 contracts are likely to be entitled to £31m in incentive payments in 2014-15, compared to an estimate of £6m if an ‘accurate measure of performance’ was used.
In addition, the report stated that contractual performance measures have also made it more difficult to terminate the contracts of poor performing providers. For example, when the Department for Work and Pensions decided it wanted to ditch the Newcastle College Group, it was unable to do so because the contractor ‘had not technically breached the performance measures’, according to the report.
Auditors said that while performance levels in getting ‘easier-to-help’ groups had improved, with 27% of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance aged 25 and over moving into employment lasting six months or longer, performance for harder-to-help groups failed to meet expectations. Only 11% of people claiming Employment and Support Allowance have found a job, compared to an initial target of 22%, although there was acknowledgement that this was too high.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “This poor performance means that only half the number of sick and disabled people the programme was meant to help have actually found work.
“The Work Programme is a poor shadow of the job guarantee schemes that went before it. Unless the government takes the National Audit Office’s criticism on the chin and acts now, vulnerable unemployed people will be left far behind as the jobs market improves.”
Kirsty McHugh, chief executive of the Employment Related Services Association, which represents welfare-to-work providers, told Recruiter: “These are all long-term unemployed people. Jobcentre Plus hasn’t managed to get them into work – none of these programmes anywhere in the world have got more than 50% [of long-term unemployed] into a job.”
She maintained that the Work Programme had performed well in difficult circumstances. She said that of the 1.5m people that had been referred to the programme 300,000 are in sustained employment (six months or longer).
“The National Audit Office is also saying that performance is pretty much on par with predecessor programmes, such as the New Deal [introduced under Labour],” she said, adding: “It’s important to understand that there is 40% less money in the Work Programme than in predecessor programmes and that the economic backdrop over the last few years has obviously been much worse that it was over the 90s and the first half of the 2000s.”
