NCVO and the Employment Related Services Association have warned that the sustainability of charities involved in the Work Programme is under threat, as they are not being adequately shielded from financial risk or getting enough referrals.
NCVO surveyed over 100 voluntary sector subcontractors on the Work Programme. Some 79 per cent said that their prime contractor was not shielding them from financial risk at all.
In response, NCVO’s special interest group for Work Programme sub-contractors is to meet employment minister Chris Grayling today to air the concerns.
The survey also found a lack of faith in the Merlin Standard, a code of conduct for ensuring that subcontractors are treated fairly by their prime contractor partners. Seventy-one per cent said that they did not think the Standard is adequately regulating prime contractor behaviour (39 per cent answered ‘not at all’, 32 per cent ‘not really’).
Many subcontractors have also fed back that they are not satisfied with the level of Work Programme referrals they have received from their prime contractor. Fifty-eight per cent of Tier 1 Providers and 72 per cent of Tier 2 Providers said they were not at all satisfied with the current level of referrals.
The voluntary sector typically supports Employment Support Allowance (ESA) clients, who often have specialist needs. However, the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA), a trade body for the welfare-to-work industry, believes that only 3-5 per cent of referrals on the Work Programme are ESA customers.
Delays are thought to be due to a delay by government contractor, Atos, in carrying out Work Capability Assessments and a much lower-than-expected level of referrals of ESA customers by Jobcentre Plus.
It was estimated that between 20 and 25 per cent of referrals to the Work Programme would be customers in receipt of ESA.
ERSA is calling on government to take urgent action to increase the number of referrals of customers on Employment Support Allowance to the Work Programme.
Kirsty McHugh, ERSA chief executive, commented: "It is extremely worrying that, six months into the Work Programme, providers are still not seeing the predicted number of Employment Support Allowance customers on their books.
"These are the people who need the most support and it is unacceptable that, to date, too few of them have been able to access specialist Work Programme employment services.
"This failure to refer customers also has important knock-on effects on voluntary sector subcontractors to the Work Programme, many of whom disproportionately offer the type of specialist employment support these customers need. Many charity employment specialists will have been banking on a greater flow of customers, putting them under increasing financial pressure."
A Freedom of Information request in September 2011 indicated that Atos has completed 56,000 Work Capability Assessments since the commencement of the national roll out. This is against an expected figure of 11,000 cases being assessed each week.
