The Work Programme Partnership Forum Monday 26 September 2011

Chair – Richard Aitken-Davies

Attendees:

Please see attached list.

Action Points:

Please see attached.

Presentations:

Embedded in note.

Formal Opening of the Work Programme Partnership Forum

Richard Aitken-Davies formally opened the inaugural meeting of the Work Programme Partnership Forum and thanked everyone for their attendance.

Role of the Forum

It was agreed that the main group should be made up of Work Programme prime providers and a small group of key DWP officials.

The Forum needs to consider how to link up with other high interest groups.

Forum members need to consider how best to engage with partners at CPA level. Feedback to the secretariat and a proposition will be developed for consideration.

Some areas for consideration are:

 Local Authorities would like to know more and be more widely involved; and  How do LEP and Employer Engagement Boards link into and support the Forum.

Stakeholders at a local level need a broad awareness of the strategic policy and operational issues that impact on the Work Programme but the mechanism needs to be owned centrally by DWP.

Discussion took place on the proposition of having a Stakeholder Board to support the Partnership Forum.

The Forum members agreed that there should be a number of ‘Special Interest Groups’ where the main Forum would define the remit of these groups, for example, a group that focus their attention on the Skills Agenda. (JHP Group Ltd) agreed to pull together a proposal for the main Forum.

Forum members to suggest what ‘Special Interest Groups’ would be useful to have to feed into the main Forum.

The Government’s response to the riots and gang culture

(Employment Group Social Justice Team) gave a presentation to the Forum on the Government’s response to the riots and gang culture. A question and answer session followed and key points are highlighted below:

Alan Cave gave an update on the position on prison leavers and the impact on the Work Programme. The Deputy Prime Minister announced in August the intention to mandate prison leavers claiming JSA from day 1 to the Work Programme. Providers received a message from …..about a telekit workshop which is being held on 05 October with all prime providers. An information note will be sent to providers prior to the telekit as a point of reference for discussion.

. Need to consider access to the Work Programme for 16 to 18 year olds.

. Local delivery solutions need to be considered rather than a central solution.

. DWP should consider focussing more on self employment for people with criminal records as this may be their best route into employment.

. We need to be clear on the make-up of the gangs before we look for solutions. How many of the gang members are unemployed.

. There are expert groups involved in making a difference in this area that we should tap into.

. (Prospects Services Ltd) has agreed to look at this area as a ‘Special Interest Group’.

Provider Forum

(CDG/WISE ABILITY) and (Ingeus UK) opened this session with feedback from their companies. Areas covered were what went well, challenges and

future challenges. This was then followed by an open forum. Areas highlighted were:

What went well  Contracts went live in a very short space of time;  Over 1000 delivery organisations are involved;  The structure of the contracts and the ability to innovate through ‘black box’;  Focus on sustainability and competitiveness;  Good relations with Jobcentre Plus;  Engagement and communications with DWP;  TUPE challenge – providers did come together and worked things out satisfactorily; and

Challenges

 Timescales for delivery;  Contract signing and ‘Go live’  Continuous delivery of legacy programmes at same time as Work Programme;and  Provider Guidance – out late and less comprehensive than needed. Some parts were missing that were key for training and development.

Future challenges

 Forecasting volumes;  ESA customer group and a clear understanding what’s happening with volumes and referrals;  Balance of volumes (differing) in customer groups;  Maintaining the ‘black box’;  Mandating customers;  Continuing implementation and moving into continuous improvement and steady state to maximise performance;  Information sharing;

Open forum additional points raised

 Potential competition in some geographical areas between Jobcentre Plus and providers;  Promotion of failure of Work Programme from outside organisations and how we handle this;  The level of financial information required for tendering process needs reviewing as it seems that not all the information provided is actually used in the process;

 Self Employment – Consistency and clarity on evidence/validation is needed; and

Alan Cave asked:

 Providers were agreed that this was sustainable.

How is the relationship with local Authorities?

 Providers are having mixed experiences with Local Authorities.

What is the providers experience with employers?

 Employers and vacancies is currently a tough market. There is continual engagement to try and match vacancies to demand.

agreed to take away the issue of Provider Guidance and look at this in more detail working with providers to resolve any issues.

informed the Forum that work is currently underway to ensure that everyone across the network has a clear understanding of Sanctions/DMA to improve the process for Jobcentre Plus and providers.

Ruth Owen gave a response from Jobcentre plus on the points raised:

 There has been confusion in some offices on how to sell the ‘black box’ principle for providers to claimants; and  Would welcome feedback from providers to help build on the good working relationships between Jobcentre Plus and providers.

Sharing Information with Partners

(Delivery Directorate, Head of Provider Performance) gave a presentation to the Forum on the sharing information with partners. A question and answer session followed and key points are highlighted below:

 Sharing of Job Outcomes would help in selling the Work Programme to other Organisations;  There is high interest across other organisations and interest groups;  Information should be released when accurate at an aggregated level;  Cohort analysis should be used as this is the most accurate;  No exchange of MI with partner organisations de-values discussions;  Before official statistics are released we are bound by legislation;  Internal MI – Performance Managers will have data at CPA level; and

 We should consider the use of job starts internally to the group.

Future Meetings

The Forum should convene on a quarterly basis with the next one in December. The secretariat should send out a schedule of future dates for diaries.

Forum members to send in suggestions for future venues/locations to secretariat and give consideration to holding meetings on provider premises.

Any Other Business to look at the DWP approach to risk management of providers.

Concern about the number of contacts providers have with central department. However, it was recognised that the providers preference would be to have frequent contact with the right people rather than single contact with the wrong people when discussing specific issues.

Providers were asked to record the number of contacts they have with the central department and who they were and feed this information through the secretariat for Richard Aitken-Davies thanked everyone for their attendance, enthusiasm and openness and closed the Forum.

Partnership Forum Attendees List

- ESG Group

- Rehab Group