Just two of the 18 prime contractors on the government’s new Work Programme are voluntary organisations, one in the UK and the other in Ireland, while 289 charities, including Mencap, the Citizen’s Advice Bureau and the Prince’s Trust, will be sub-contractors.
UK welfare-to-work charity Careers Development Group (CDG) will be a prime contractor in east London, in partnership with employment and training firm Maximus.
The CDG will also be part of the Work Programme delivery for two successful Maximus bids in West London and the South-East.
A CDG spokesman told Civil Society that it would support the charity sector in its East London programme:
“We will have 15 sub-contractors,” he said. “Out of these nine will be charities. We have a great opportunity to show how the charity sector can help people back to work. It is important as a charity to support other charities in this field.”
The other charity prime on the Work Programme is Dublin-based Rehab JobFit, who will work with support services firm Interserve in Wales and south-west England.
An Interserve spokesperson said its contract with Rehab JobFit would be worth £130m over five years. The total value of the Work Programme contract is likely to be between £3bn and £5bn over seven years, based on a payment-by-results structure.
The Shaw Trust, the Wise Group and BTCV all failed to be appointed prime contractors but will play a role as sub-contractors.
Environmental charity BTCV said the news was a disappointment for the civil society sector. Deputy chief executive Ron Fern commented:
"BTCV is a beacon of creativity and ambition in difficult times and we are obviously disappointed that the government has not given BTCV, and the voluntary sector in general, the opportunity to demonstrate its ability to lead on these types of contracts."
The big private-sector winners were Ingeus Deloitte, Serco, A4E and G4S.
The organisations named as preferred bidders will now go onto contract signing and the Programme will begin in June when the first customers are referred from Jobcentre Plus.
