Work Programme gets underway in Greater Manchester

The delivery of the Work Programme for Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Warrington has been awarded to three prime contractors (Avanta, G4S and Seetec) and began to go live from 1st June 2011.

GMCVO is in discussion with all three primes regarding the role and opportunities for the voluntary and community sector in Greater Manchester. If your organisation provides specialist support to individuals that might help them to overcome barriers to work, we would like to hear from you.

The Work Programme is a central Government initiative to reform welfare-to-work provision and it will replace all current DWP programmes (such as Flexible New Deal and Pathways to Work). The payment by results model is designed to ensure sustained employment for a wide variety of customers, including claimants of Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance.

The Government requires all prime contractors to involve a range of voluntary, public and private organisations in their supply chain.

Seetec’s Chief Executive Jeremy Nutter commented: “Our Work Programme proposals represent an innovative solution to addressing worklessness, underpinned by a robust delivery model and diverse supply chain of voluntary, private and public sector suppliers”.

If you provide specialist support that might help to address barriers to work, please e-mail gill.dixon@gmcvo.org.uk with:
• the name of your organisation;
• your contact name, email address and telephone number;
• area of speciality; and
• geographical area that your services cover.

Updates on any further developments will follow in due course.