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Richard Johnson throws down the gauntlet and demistifies the mystery

Telling it like it is!

Richard Johnson unravells the mystery around the Work Programme…

He says…

“DWP’s Performance report is hopelessly uninformative”

In todays Guardian he has argued that ‘we’.. ‘they’ need to understand the cost of delivering the Work Programme thereby enabling the Commissioner to incentivise, and target assistance at, people furthest from the work place and to track and put a cap on profits.

Richard explains that without data about how many people have started in work and have stayed there, the report provides no meaningful insight into whether the Work Programme is working.

“The only reason we are not allowed to have these in the public domain is because the employment minister, Chris Grayling, has said in meetings with contractors that he does not want to provide Labour with ammunition to beat him up about his programme’s failure, in the same way he used to attack them insisting, in short, on putting his own political position ahead of the lives of hundreds of thousands of unemployed people.

Richard has called for a seismic shift in the approach of the DWP and for it to be a steward of the market place.

Contracts would also have to be flexible, with payment terms periodically reviewed to ensure maximum impact.

Richard also calls for an independent regulator for welfare to work could stand apart from the vested interests of both minister and contractor and be accountable for policing the performance of these programmes.

Read more in the Guardian

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ERSA’s reaction to official Work Programme data

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