Friday 6 September 2013

Concerns about the Work Programme - implications for the providers

Back in May the Work and Pensions Select Committee reported its concerns about the Work Programme.  The DWP has now responded.  You can read a useful summary on the Indus Delta site.  It's all interesting, but there are two points which are particularly relevant for the providers.

1) Market share shift.  This is the penalty providers are supposed to pay if they fail; a shifting of some of their share of referrals to other providers.  The committee wanted this shift to be "carefully and transparently applied" and wanted to know what work had been done on its likely impact.  The reply is that the DWP has already "adjusted the shares according to performance levels over 12 months".  So who has lost and who has gained?  There wasn't a great deal of difference in performance among all the providers.

2) Attachment fees.  These are due to stop in April 2014.  The committee thought they should be retained beyond that date "to protect service delivery".  The reply is non-committal: "The department will monitor the success of incentives under the payment by results model and make changes if it deems them necessary."  Now, this appears to mean that if the incentives are not successful, i.e. the providers don't make enough profit, the attachment fees could be retained.  And that's crazy.

One other "concern" will interest those who are coming to the end of their stint on the WP.  The committee wanted to ensure that people who hadn't got work should be provided with specialist support or "allowed to extend their time on the Work Programme".  (They didn't, apparently, see any irony in this.)  The response is that the Mandatory Intervention Regime (a phrase that's new to me) is already dealing with this, and that "post-work programme support remains flexible and tailored to individual needs."  So you've no need to worry.

16 comments:

  1. ''flexible and tailored to individual needs.''

    I imagine everyone, like me, is sick of hearing this blatant lie by now.

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    1. Tailored support? I have to constantly chase up my Adviser(s) to remind them off my appointments,what worries me is if I don't show up every 2 weeks they will claim I have missed one,more worrying is that we spend more time refunding the bus fare than anything else,I have asked what am I doing here? other than proving that I do not have a job on the side,what can you do to improve/help me get employment?..Blank stare and see you next time,we will notify you when(Right) like last time?

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    2. "Flexible and tailored support" is what I'm going through now post-WP. It basically consists of a series of edicts and directions, such as "you will apply for this vacancy", or "You will attend that job fair". I wouldn't mind, but I'm sick of the mandation and the threat of sanction that's behind everything.

      Living life with the Sword of Damocles over your head is exhausting.

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    3. For many client's, tailored support means not being seen by their provider for for MONTHS at a time! Even though the previous (and useless) Employment Sec., Chris Greyling blatantly refused to accept this was happening during a BBC R5L interview last year.



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  2. After reading the ID article,it seems that they want another bite at the Apple in order to keep the cash flowing,while still providing no more than a place to hide the unemployed.

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    1. Seems to me the attachment fees will be continued beyond 2014. I had hoped that if they were stopped the WPs would have tried harder to help the longer term unemployed. I know I would not have been helped and am glad I do not claim JSA and have to be on the WP. Looks like whichever party is in Government the WP rolls on 'till 2017. Gutted...

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  3. Mandatory Intervention Regime is effectively Ongoing Case Management, as piloted in the 'Support for the Very Long Term Unemployed' trailblazer. Evaluation here:http://www.natcen.ac.uk/study/svltu-trailblazer - inevitably, its results were unimpressive. Soft outcomes claimed but not much in the way of actually increasing job entry.

    With regard to DWP's response to the Select Committee, it can be summed up as everything accepted was being done anyway or was working well all along, and anything rejected was either a mistake on the part of the Committee, or else the providers' business. Pretty underwhelming - they completely failed to address the issue of minimum performance levels.

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  4. Does anyone know if any figures been published which gives shows a direct comparison between the amount of money paid out to WP providers against the savings made in Jobseekers Allowance to people who have found work whilst on the programme? Apologies if they have and I have missed it!

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  5. The Mandatory Intervention Regime (MIR)is not a Russian satellite but is Hoban's "Hit Squad". During the traiblazer it was called "ongoing Case Management". It was trialled against the "Community Action Programme" in a number of regions. The OCM (now MIR) was the JCP approach and the CAP the possible alternative private sector intensive treatment dished out by such companies as A4e. The trial was inconclusive as to which (private/public sector)approach was best but the CAP was dropped leaving us now with the MIR - or the somewhat confrontationly titled "hit squad".
    I see the WP haven't given up pleading for more dosh. Nothing succeeds like failure eh?

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  6. Their is an item in today's paper that is truly bizarre,the DWP/IDS/Hoban are now going after the under employed,those making between £350-950 per Month will now have to report to JCP to explain why they are not working more hours and they will be subject to Sanctions if they do not appear to be trying hard enough to work more.

    The first thing that springs to mind is how will they service this inflow? Zero hour contracts? most people do not know day to day how many hours they will work and as the WP has not met targets will they get a new contract to "Help" these new victims?

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  7. OFF TOPIC - The Sunday Mirror has articles on Zero-Hour Contracts (the headline suggests 5.5 million), the TUC think unemployment could actualy be "double the official amount", and that the DWP will no longer use 0845 tel numbers but cheaper 03 ones.

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  8. Few observations:

    - http://www.shu.ac.uk/research/cresr/sites/shu.ac.uk/files/real-level-of-unemployment-2012.pdf - this is good on the 'real' level of unemployment. Good, but worrying.

    - In-work conditionality. I'm astonished that the media (and consequently the public) have just picked up on in-work conditionality now, when it's effectively too late to do anything about it - it was in the legislation and was always explicitly part of UC. The Resolution Foundation published a very decent report about it almost a year ago: http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/media/media/downloads/Conditions_Uncertain.pdf

    Common sense would suggest that with underemployment and involuntary PT working high, there's little point in badgering those who don't want to or can't take on more hours to do so, but common sense left the building some time ago. Given that in both cases we're considering people already in employment, hysteresis probably doesn't apply.

    - Community Action Programme - I wouldn't jump to the conclusion it's gone away permanently.

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    1. @Badger
      "- Community Action Programme - I wouldn't jump to the conclusion it's gone away permanently"
      I agree. I bet the likes of A4e are frenetically lobbying for the CAP (or something very similar) so that Emma's coffers don't get too depleted.

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  9. From www.fenews.co.uk - "The Employment Related Services Association (ERSA) is calling for ideas to help develop the future of mainstream outsourced welfare to work provision. Prime contractors, subcontractors and partners with experience of the Work Programme are being encouraged to share their input to establish a clear and representative view on the new system.

    ERSA chief executive Kirsty McHugh said: "As an industry, we have a huge amount of knowledge about what works and doesn't work – not only drawn from the Work Programme, but also previous welfare to work programmes.

    "We now need to get the best brains together to develop our recommendations to government on the shape of future welfare to work provision. This needs to offer the best possible support to the long term unemployed, while being viable for providers of all sectors and giving value for money to the taxpayer."

    ERSA will host a number of consultation events across the country over the next two months, and aims to unveil the results at its annual conference in London on 2 December."

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  10. Does anyone know when the sanctions data is due to be released by the DWP. Is it Wednesday?

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  11. www.fenews.co.uk "As an industry, we have a huge amount of knowledge about what works and doesn't work"

    That doesn't sound encouraging. Particularly if the majority of that knowledge is about what doesn't work and very little of it pertains to what does work.

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