work programme

How good are work programme providers near you at finding meaningful work placements for people in rural places? This article profiles different problems with a particular company, but I wonder in addition to issues such as this which have beset the programme, which puts the majority of financial risk on its contractors, perhaps encouraging certain types of behaviour, if anyone has thought about its track record in delivering rural “back to work” solutions:

“The DWP has announced it has cancelled a £1m work contract with the embattled company A4e. In a statement to parliament it said that after its own investigation into practices at the company, it had found “no evidence of fraud” but felt it was “too risky” to allow the contract for organising mandatory work placements in the south-east region to continue. A4e says it still operates 16 other contracts for several back-to-work schemes and these will remain in place.

However, the NAO heavily criticised the investigation, saying the DWP’s investigatory team “did not see vital evidence” before coming to its conclusions. “The team did not request relevant internal audit reports including the A4e internal audit paper later passed to the chair of the committee of public accounts, setting out evidence of nine possible cases of fraud and seven of improper practice by A4e’s staff.”