Charities say they have no say in financial negotiations with primes on the Work Programme

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Charities say they have no say in financial negotiations with primes on the Work Programme1

Finance | Vibeka Mair | 5 Apr 2011

Most charities say they had no choice in their financial negotiation with prime contractors on the Work Programme, according to new research from the Centre for Social and Economic Inclusion.

The Centre surveyed 217 charities from the Third Sector European Network on their involvement in the Work Programme due to start in June.

From this group some 68 per cent said they had expressed an interest to be sub-contracted onto the Work Programme. An overwhelming majority (84.5 per cent) approached bidders, while only 15.5 per cent were approached by primes.

Over half of the group interested in the Work Programme (53 per cent) said they had no choice in financial negotiations with prime bidders on the Work Programme, while 43 per cent said there was some leeway. Overall 56 per cent felt the deal they got was not great.

The finding conflicts comments made earlier this year by the employment minister Chris Grayling who said that charities would be in a strong position to make good deals with prime contractors on the Work Programme.

The survey also found that 64 per cent of charities felt they did not get enough financial information from bidders and 56 per cent of respondents felt that bidders were not open enough.

Most charities (38.4 per cent) said the process of establishing the Work Programme so far has been unreasonable, 35.1 per cent rate it as ok and 15.2 per cent say it is very negative.

The Work Programme, which will run for seven years, involves two voluntary organisations and 16 private sector firms as primes. Amongst the sub-contractors there are 289 voluntary sector organisations.

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Ferdie
5 Apr 2011

Most British charities that have programmes in developing countries are taken in for a ride by the PROCUREMENT MANAGER. Formal tender procedures may exist but somehow they are by passed.

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