Coalition axes back-to-work scheme
Contracts worth £1.64 million are cancelled by Government as Right to Bid initiative is shut down in system overhaul.
The Department for Work and Pensions has cancelled two contracts worth £1.64 million as it shuts down its scheme for fostering innovative back-to-work methods.
The DWP announced that the Right to Bid scheme would cease with immediate effect, as part of the coalition Government's plans to overhaul the welfare-to-work system. To date, the scheme, begun in January of last year, has had only £218,475 worth of contracts either completed or scheduled to complete.
Ministers in the previous Labour government described the scheme as receiving "a significant amount of interest", with 91 bids received between 01 January and 06 July 2009. But in an October 2009 bidders' guide, the then work and pensions secretary Yvette Cooper said that the quality of bids had been disappointing. "Our evaluation of the bids received to date has shown that many have failed at the first hurdle," she said.
Cooper added: "This is mainly due to the bids proposing delivery models that replicate existing or planned welfare-to-work provision or (models that) do not sit within DWP-funded business."
A DWP spokesman said that one Right to Bid contract, with Women Like Us, a social enterprise that helps mothers find flexible part-time work, would be cancelled because "they're not achieving the results we intended with that contract". He refused to say how much of the contract would be paid. Emma Stewart, director of partnerships for Women Like Us, said: "As with all pilot initiatives, time is needed to ensure learning about what interventions work best."
The Government has said that its new Work Programme will be a single, integrated scheme covering all welfare-to-work needs. The DWP spokesman said the programme will include elements to foster innovative back-to-work schemes, but in a different form. "(Right to Bid) is not going to be folded into the Work Programme as such. The flexibility and innovation will be taken on by large contractors who will take on subcontractors, so what (Right to Bid) achieves will be there," he said.
The news is a blow for community sector coalition the Create Consortium, which had been seeking money through the Right to Bid to pilot a "community allowance" project to allow people on benefits to undertake paid work for community organisations.
Create Consortium director Louise Winterburn said: "We wanted to pilot it in partnership with DWP. That's what the Right to Bid gave us, their involvement as a partner," she said.
Jim Carley, managing director of Carley Consult, an adviser to back-to-work organisations, said: "The philosophy behind Right to Bid was to reach local customer groups not being served or best served by mainstream providers. It was potentially seen as more beneficial to smaller organisations, who said they couldn't necessarily compete on prime DWP contracts."
Carley said that, as the DWP moves contracting to larger companies, "(success) will depend on the imagination they apply ... whether they embrace small providers with good ideas, or use more prescriptive models that hinder innovation".
www.regen.net 12/07/2010
