Prime contractors on the Department for Work and Pension's Work Programme will be assessed in May and June to ensure they meet the Merlin Standard’s requirements, providing they have signed up first.

The Merlin Standard is devised to promote positive partnerships between prime and sub-contractors in the Work Programme and promotes best practice within the scheme. The Department is advising that prime contractors should register for assessment on its website as soon as possible.

The two-year pilot for the scheme involving several hundred organisations has now completed and the assessment and accreditation service for the Merlin Standard was launched on 15 March 2012 by minister for civil society Nick Hurd and Chris Grayling, minister for employment at the DWP.

Following a competitive tender, the DWP chose independent standards assessment company EMQC in January to deliver the Merlin Standard assessment and accreditation services.

The Merlin Standard principles - commitment, conduct, supply chain design and review - will be used to assess whether providers will achieve Merlin accreditation in the upcoming assessments.

Evidence collection will focus on interviews, with a lead assessor assigned by EMQC to guide each organisation through the process, including reviewing its self-assessment questionnaire, deciding on dates for the pre-assessment planning meeting and the onsite assessment.

A list of organisations which currently have assessments pending is available on the Merlin website. Guidance for prime contractors can also be found here.

The DWP won the now-abolished Commission for the Compact’s national partnership award for the Merlin Standard back in 2010; however, some MPs criticised it in May 2011 for not being severe enough with its sanctions.