The Work Programme: Your Thoughts - comment online
The Government has announced plans for radical reform of the welfare to work system and the implementation of The Work Programme. The Work Programme will be an integrated package of support providing personalised help for people who find themselves out of work based on need rather than benefit claimed.
To enable suppliers to propose and discuss ideas on specific areas of The Work Programme, we ran discussions on a number of themes from 19 July 2010 to 13 August 2010.
These discussions are now closed.
Themes for discussion
We invited comments on the following themes which you can read at:
DWP are currently considering all ideas raised.
Capital raising
Ideas included:
- providers accessing up front funding via government loans or advance payments to help alleviate difficulties in raising working capital
- providers having guaranteed minimum numbers of referrals to enable robust cash flow modelling to secure working capital.
Payment models
A variety of thoughts were received on paying providers for outcomes achieved, including:
- providing early funding to assist cash flow
- having staged payments
- higher payments for customers deemed harder to help or where customers remained in employment for longer
- bonus payments were also suggested, payable where job sustainment was beyond a set period (for example, over 18 months).
Customers
A variety of ideas were received on how suppliers could provide customers the help they need whilst on the Work Programme, these included:
- ensure customers requiring the greatest support actually receive it
- provide customers with in-work support.
Efficiency
A number of ideas were received on how DWP can do things more efficiently, such as:
- simplification and consistent reporting requirements across supply chains
- a single designated point of contact within DWP for Primes to raise any queries with
- ensure management information is as accurate as possible to inform provider performance meetings.
Implementation
Some of the ideas received on how DWP could support suppliers with any implementation challenges:
- TUPE implications need to be clearly articulated
- ensure contracts are provided on time
- eligibility criteria needs to be applied consistently.
DWP wishes to thank all contributors for the wide range of comments received on these themes via The Work Programme: Your Thoughts.
