Employment minister Chris Grayling issued a
triumphant-sounding statement to mark the announcement of the new Work
Programme providers.
It read: “For the first time, those
charities and voluntary sector organisations across the country with the
know-how to help people with real difficulties in their communities get back to
work are being given the chance to do just that.”
The press release, issued by the Department
for Work and Pensions, said two charities had been made prime contractors to
deliver the government’s flagship welfare-to-work programme and 289 were
sub-contractors.
The DWP’s picture is not, however, entirely
accurate. One charity, the Careers Development Group, is a prime contractor.
The other prime contractor that it labels a voluntary sector organisation is
Rehab JobFit, a partnership between the Dublin-based charity Rehab Group and
the private sector firm Interserve. The charity itself will not deliver any
services under the contract.
Such smoke and mirrors on the
detail is a minor concern compared to the worries of many in the sector when it
comes to the Work Programme. A lack of access to capital and the vagaries of
the payment-by-results system are much bigger reasons to worry.
But it will strike many in the sector, not
least those charities that failed to win prime contractor status, as an example
of the government over-claiming some of its achievements on the big society front.