Around 20 per cent of all referrals on the Work Programme are going to the voluntary sector, according to a government spokesman.

Yesterday, two events were held which focused on the Work Programme. The events, one a conference organised by the trade body for the welfare-to-work industry Employment Related Services Association (ERSA), and the other a summit in Parliament on the Work Programme, organised by shadow ministers, both brought up similar concerns around the Work Programme, especially worries about the number of referrals going to the voluntary and community sector.

The summit held in Parliament was organised by shadow employment minister Stephen Timms and shadow minister for civil society Gareth Thomas. 

A number of charities at the event said they were considering exiting the Work Programme, which they found badly designed and badly financed. 

Timms concluded, after hearing from the voluntary sector, that the main issues were that some charities were not getting any referrals on the Work Programme; a lack of communication – especially that data on the Programme was not being published; and a testy relationship between primes, sub-contracted organisations and Job Centres, who sometimes felt in competition with those on the Work Programme, according to charities.

Just an hour earlier, at the ERSA conference, minister for employment Chris Grayling had insisted that the mix of referrals on the Work Programme from across the public, private and voluntary sectors was in line with expectations.

He said there had been lots of “mumbling and muttering” in the voluntary sector on referrals, but he said there was “no evidence” that primes on the Work Programme had been treated subs as “bid candy” to make their contract more attractive to government, but then not use them.

However, Grayling did say that more people on the Work Programme were on JSA rather than ESA – a group which traditionally went to charities.

ESA - Employment and Support Allowance provides financial help to people who are unable to work because of illness or disability. While JSA - Job Seekers Allowance, is for people out of work.

No breach of Merlin

Later at the ERSA conference, one of Grayling’s civil servants, Alan Cave, contracted customers service director at the DWP, revealed that 20 per cent of all referrals on tiers one and two of the Work Programme had gone to the voluntary and community sector.

Cave said lots of referrals were still working through the system and there had been problems in unblocking ESA clients on the Programme.

He did say as a positive that 50 per cent of subcontractors on tiers one and two of the Work Programme were in the voluntary and community sector, when previously this had been 30 per cent on other similar programmes. 

Cave also said that the DWP had received no notified breaches of the Merlin Standard on the Work Programme.

However, a member of the audience complained that charities were too scared to use the Merlin Standard to air grievances about a prime on the Work Programme, for fear of being seen as a “trouble-maker”, resulting in loss of future contracts.

Cave said that the Merlin Standard was transparent, and anyone seen to be behaving badly would get lots of publicity.

Bubb highlights hard-to-help

Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Acevo, who also spoke at the ERSA conference, said more had to be done to tell charities about the Merlin Standard. He also brought up the issue of referrals to the charity sector.

He added the Work Programme would only succeed if organisations reached the hard-to-help, saying that charities were best placed to do this. Bubb also said primes on the Work Programme had to be transparent about data.

Speaking at the event, Andrew Dutton, group chief executive of A4e, said that he would gladly share performance data but he was prevented from doing so: “It will take around three to six months to get outcomes. In January we will be at the six-month point and will start getting performance on data.”

Private and voluntary sector organisations are investing £581m upfront in the Work Programme, which follows a payment-by-results model, according to government figures.