The government’s Work Programme has made “a substantial difference” towards getting the unemployed into work, according to Richard Toy, operations director of construction and infrastructure recruiter SkyBlue.

A key aspect of the Work Programme launched by the Coalition government in June is that welfare-to-work providers receive most of their funding only after the unemployed are placed with an employer.

Toy told Recruiter that the payment by results regime was “really forcing the training companies, the work placement organisations and the employers to really offer real opportunities that are fixed”. Actually seeing a goal at the end of it was crucial for the motivation of unemployed people, he added.

Toy said the changes in the Work Programme mirrored what SkyBlue has been doing for seven years. “We have always worked on job outcomes. It was clear from day one that if the process was going to work you had to have a final job outcome for somebody to work towards.”