Work Programme: Outline Released.
The Government has published some specifications of the Work Programme.
Full document, or ‘prospectus’ (as if it’s some kind of brochure for a degree course) , here.
Watching A4E has already underlines the main points here.
From day one on the Dole there will be job clubs (groan, ‘voluntary’ work (groan and groan), ‘and peer-to-peer support (groan, groan, and groan).
The lengthy potential time-scale people are ‘referred’ to the cowboys running these schemes, – five years and two more there is a cause of concern.
There is also this:
35. The government is clear that providers are best placed to know what works for customers and as such we will not specify what providers should deliver. However, customers should know what level of service they can expect.
As a result, bidders for Work Programme contracts will be asked to provide a summary in their tender of the minimum service they will offer to all customer groups. These minimum service levels will be translated into a small number of Key Performance Indicators within each contract and will be articulated to customers at the point they start the provision. These promised service levels will be made public so that customers and their representatives will be able to judge whether providers are delivering what they have promised. If the providers fail to deliver these minimum
What are these minimum levels?
We should like to know.
Ipswich Unemployed Action. 
Yike sounds more like the whoile inflexible new deal only more hideous in nature.
One questiong ? who in gods name wrote this document ? The government or the providers ? KERCHING KERCHIN MO MONEY MO MONEY
Kyron
November 30, 2010 at 10:27 am
5 years with a f!ӣ$%^& provider!?
Brenda Buttlebarn
November 30, 2010 at 11:38 am
It is official lol… 90% job outcome rates (but over 9 years – yes extended further lol)
Work Programme
November 30, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Or could be SEVEN (7) years! (5 + an additional 2).
Brad Pitt
November 30, 2010 at 11:43 am
A very busy Se7en years ahead for the Homicide Department.
Morgan Freeman
November 30, 2010 at 11:55 am
Earnest Hemingway once wrote, “The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.” I believe the second part.
Morgan Freeman
November 30, 2010 at 11:56 am
Lets face it the ConDems are a joke. They have absolutely no idea about the Work Programme.
It is Flexible New Deal with a tweak back to New Deal. Payments upfront as with FND but per person per start like New Deal service fees were per attendance. There is no mention about how much the start fees are for each jobseeker.
Work Programme
November 30, 2010 at 12:02 pm
what the hell is a job club?
Samuel L Jackson
November 30, 2010 at 2:21 pm
A job club is a motha fucking piece of shit.
Will Smith
November 30, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Have you seen the estimates for the number of customers likely to be referred to the Work Programme (Annexe B, Indus Delta pdf)?
580,000-870,000 in 2011/12 alone!
Crystal Balls
November 30, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Very ambitious! But the Nazis managed to kill exactly 870,000 (approx) Jews (etc.) in the Treblinka camp in just over a year.
Work Programme
December 4, 2010 at 7:01 pm
It is completely unworkable, eveyrone is different, people will be complaining bby their droves. People should complain more and more, the moment they have to write back is the moment they start to loose
Kyron
November 30, 2010 at 6:57 pm
Seven years with Work Programme providers ? I don’t remember breaking any mirrors. They kept that quiet. As far as I am aware this is the first time this measure has been mentioned.
I have just finished writing to Mr Grayling, the Minister responsible for the introduction of this nonesense, asking him whether this seven year hitch requires new legislation and, if it does, whether it should have gone through a consultation process
prior to the introduction of any new legislation.
Maybe I’ll get a reply sometime in 2011.
paulyg
November 30, 2010 at 8:25 pm
[…] Ipswich’s Leninist Blogger Comrade Coates has posted an article at Ipswich Unemployed Action here. He supplies a link to the Work Programme Prospectus- November […]
Work Plan Prospectus-November 2011 | A riverside view Blog
November 30, 2010 at 10:17 pm
You can say what you like Kev, but one thing I am not is a Leninist.
Andrew Coates
December 1, 2010 at 9:58 am
Trot! 😀
Crystal Balls
December 1, 2010 at 11:14 am
Stalinist 🙂
Joseph Stalin
December 1, 2010 at 10:10 pm
Just part of my response on your blog…
Of course, the reality is although there will be “change” there wont be a great deal of support for the unemployed.
Welfare-to-work providers consist largely of employees who bounce around between different providers and employment agencies. Many of those on FND found it difficult to break free from New Deal ideology and the new peeps (typically from a sales background) found it difficult to get to grips with (although it was very relaxed).
This means, the same providers leeching taxpayers money, with the same management and front-line staff typically with prior experience of how things work… its the can’t teach an old dog new tricks scenario. The new sales type peeps just go along with advice from the more experienced plus add lies to trick people what the others don’t have the skills to get away with.
Funny enough, I have a blog on the Work Programme, and to date, I am yet to report about this “outline” being released. It is a mini insight into the Work Programme, but for me there isn’t enough information. Of course, it will remain this way until the contracts are signed.
It will probably be April 2011 before slightly more detailed information gets released and the information regarding how much fee upfront per persons tarting is likely to remain secret. Some speculate this is around £300 but I think its more likely to be closer to £1000. Providers can get finance as they have a Government contract but cash upfront without having to pay back interest, is so much sweeter!
Work Programme
December 1, 2010 at 10:28 am
http://ariversideview.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/work-plan-prospectus-november-2011/
ariversideview
November 30, 2010 at 10:19 pm
the usual gloss over the facts prevail as usual,recession to recovery and upbeat claims.
however all this pays little attention of the difficulties faced by the long term unemployed and the disabled who face health/skill shortage to say nothing of the current state of the labour market and the attitudes within it that often exist but impossible to prove,the main concern is any breakdown in expectations is once again taken out on the individual, when targets’/provider frustration starts to boil over are found impossible to deliver.this had a knock on effect as we know in the past, fraud against the taxpayer taking hold, and is a detriment to the whole exercise as controversy/scandal/rumor/credibility/confidence in begin to take hold once more.what measures are taken to prevent a recurrence are not so well published,the action that will be taken by wrong doing/bullying too.
this has the real potential of leading to the sanction if all else fails fallback as the brunt of failure is once more realised and vulnerable people are forced to bare the brunt and forced to disappear for up to three years for dubious reasons.
job clubs have a role when there is not a full blown economic failure,the current climate and the situation has badly deteriorated worse since those dire times’ .
once more as in 1992 when people began in february that year were still unemployed attending at christmas the same year,strangely this year also had the conservative chancellor norman lamont and the infamous green shoots of recovery statement when the facts were anything but,david cameron lurking in the shadows as an adviser,also “unemployment a price worth paying” we have been down this road before.
ken
November 30, 2010 at 11:46 pm
It is the same old crap tbh…
See an old post I did regarding New Deal… http://www.workprogramme.org.uk/20091020429/7260-new-deal-vacancies-advertised-last-year.html
If I recall, this is the same law with the same little piece of text that allows the Government to pump billions of taxpayers money into private businesses of these sham “employment courses” like New Deal, Flexible New Deal and (likely..) Work Programme.
It also gives the ability for people to be stuck on a training allowance.
Work Programme
December 1, 2010 at 10:09 am
Anyone realised the Conservative inspired Jobcentre Plus changes?
First, as Andy has previously stated… about people having a 30 minute time slot to sign on.
Secondly, you have to have an appointment to enter. JCP staff member on the door (with security – although security sometimes wonder off). Will not let in the same person twice. If you are lucky you can get to use jobpoints.
How are these changes helping people to find work?
1) they are reducing the numbers that go in JCP offices, assumingly allowing staff to provide a better service however stopping people being able to look for work
2) they thought giving a 30 minute timeslot to people gives them, erm, whats the word? FLEXIBILITY!! The reality this doesn’t change anything. There will still be long waits. It does allow a first come first served system, however, this is flawed because its no different then at current. If your ES40 signing on book is accepted early, you might be seen before your time. Other then that staff pick up “books” in a queue meaning someone with an later appointment could still be seen before you. If late, you are likely to be seen later than those after your appointment and arrival time.
Work Programme
December 1, 2010 at 1:42 pm
5 years at a provider, that’s inhumane!
Samuel L Jackson
December 1, 2010 at 3:02 pm
5 years at a provider! that’s inhumane
Samuel L Jackson
December 1, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Thre’s a Polish woman working at my local jobcentre. Has anyone else noticed this happening at thir jobcentre?
I know, I know, everyone from a EU country is free to live and work in any other member country. But I can’t help thinking this is a step too far. A slap in the face for the unemployed!
Funny A4e Photos
December 1, 2010 at 8:58 pm
How do you know that she is an import rather than someone born here?
I was a bit surprised at your comment at first, however, I think I see your point. Not a racist one but employing someone on the merits of ticking the equality box whilst shunting millions of unemployed people in the UK… to give a job to someone from the EU instead, is the two fingers.
I do think the Jobcentre job is a piss take. If it was another job then it would be fair enough… but its just an attack on you and others, saying that she could get a job, and you can’t.
Perhaps she is a temp?
No, I am not aware of that here. There is a short very cheerful woman at my local jobcentre… yeah, she loves saying phrases like “Good afternoon” as she notices its just become the afternoon when my sign on appointment was like 40 minutes ago in the morning… sort of like, I am late…. well I am not. lol
Work Programme
December 2, 2010 at 9:57 am
Almost certainly a piss-taking equality tick-box exercise. You got two boxes there: female and Polish. So many jobs are filled this way especially if the European Union have anything to to with this. I have worked in research for the EU with the most incompetent and useless staff: all of them female and Polish. I’ve even pointed it out to them why they are there when there are so many other more capable candidates available – that they are female and Polish: “Because it makes the stats look good.”
Polish Taste
December 2, 2010 at 10:23 am
Talking of job centre piss-takes – the last time that I was in a job centre the guy that filled in my forms was blind or something; anyway lifeless eyes that pointed constantly to the ceiling. There was also another staff member zooming around almost prostrate on a wheelchair. I agree, it was like, if these people have a job, why haven’t you got one.
Ex-Job Centre User
December 2, 2010 at 10:39 am
Work Programme: I heard her speaking, so I know she wasn’t born here. And someone else also commented on it.
I live in an area of high unemployment, so even if she is better qualified than me to do the job I’m sure there are many other unemployed in my area who have the necessary skills and qualifications to do the job.
I never had to wait longer than 15 mins to sign on and that when I had a set time. Because I’m on FND I’m also on flexi signing I can sign on anytime between 10-12 and 2-4. I’m glad I don’t sign on at your jobcentre, sounds awfull!
Funny A4e Photos
December 3, 2010 at 12:36 am
As far as I am aware, all these type of public sector jobs aren’t by qualifications, skills and knowledge etc. but by competency tests.
Generally speaking if you do well at competency test then you should be able to do the job to a satisfactory standard.
Of course, in reality, it doesn’t specifically promise any level of performance.
Work Programme
December 4, 2010 at 6:36 pm
What does this mean?
“We are introducing a reduction – not a complete withdrawal – of housing support. The measure may require people to reconsider where they live and modify their expectations if these are based on long-term reliance on state support. 12 months is a reasonable period to enable people to adjust to their circumstances and with the right help, to overcome barriers to finding and taking work.” Does this mean that if you are out of work that you will be required to move to find another job? I can foresee such a policy leading to mass homelessness.
Minny Mouse
December 2, 2010 at 11:08 am
“The coordination of the reduction in Housing Benefit and the
start of the Work Programme for some customers would
reduce their ability to find work, and cause customers stress;
We are introducing a reduction – not a complete withdrawal – of housing support. The measure may require people to reconsider where they live and modify their expectations if these are based on long-term reliance on state support. 12 months is a reasonable period to enable people to adjust to their circumstances and with the right help, to overcome barriers to finding and taking work.”
Minny Mouse
December 2, 2010 at 11:18 am