A4e response to Department for Work and Pension's commissioning strategy

A4e, Europe’s largest provider of welfare to work programmes, and a provider of a variety of front line public services, responds to the Department for Work and Pensions's (DWP’s) commissioning strategy:

We welcome the DWP’s interim report on its’ commissioning strategy. The emphasis on a prime contractor model and extended contracts will help tailor and personalise services to each customer’s needs and enable delivery at a time, place and pace suitable to them.

Our research and experience clearly indicates that collaboration is essential to reducing worklessness in this country and supporting the hardest to reach clients. There is no single organisation that can deliver all the services required and as such developing sophisticated, well resourced supply chains is a key role with larger contracts. There is a greater role for smaller, specialist providers in this model and prime providers must evidence their capability to manage this process.

There needs to be continued discussion around the ‘boundaries’ of contract structure – for example in city regions. Cross cutting programmes at regional or national level for specific customer groups may provide better service and value to customers. There needs to links to the Jobcentre Plus districts but innovative models that personalise high quality services at different geographical levels should not be discounted at this stage. We encourage continued debate in Government around such boundaries.

It is important to clarify the Government’s position about Jobcentre Plus’s 'ownership' of the client's end-to-end journey and how this works for long-term claimants. The private and voluntary sector can add significant value and innovation in working with the hardest to reach. A4e’s position is that suppliers should be asked to tackle the hardest issues, at sufficient scale, to allow innovation and investment.

This approach enables the public sector to maximise its effectiveness, efficiency and capability with shorter term claimants and develop effective integration with public, private and voluntary suppliers. A model of using either the public or private/voluntary sectors for the same service dilutes effective performance and reinforces an artificial divide amongst different organisations. The interim strategy provides the potential for a seamless integration amongst public, private and voluntary suppliers to deliver a modern, world-leading welfare state.

Notes to editors:
A4e is a business with a social mission. Running front line public services in a number of countries, A4e is focused on joining up skills, employment, welfare and a range of other services to drive economic and social development. A4e input into David Freud’s ‘In Work Better Off’ consultation making the following recommendations in the context of commissioning modern welfare services:

1.1. Minimum of 5 year contracts (with the possibility of a two year roll-on should delivery meet agreed high performance targets)
1.2. A prime supplier model for delivery where the financial risk is taken by the over-arching contractor and a vibrant supply chain developed as part of the ‘prime contract’.
1.3. Contract sizes should be allocated on the basis of what works – rather than prescribe fixed geographical look at models developed on customer need and dovetailing with other funding initiatives to develop services for the hardest to reach
1.4. Greater onus placed on prime contractors to provide clarity, costings, values and rationale in the development of Third Sector and smaller suppliers (30% of all delivery within a supply chain)
1.5. Greater investment in services with the third sector and small suppliers extending their range and scope replacing ‘top slicing’ or passing on risk’ models to specialist suppliers
1.6. Non-funded pilots – joining up cross departmental funding streams - should be used as a tool to encourage further reform and to better explore ‘what works’ and drive better value for money.

For further information: Golley Slater Public Relations - 0207 255 6400

Rebecca Johnston, 07967 600 436 / rjohnston@golleyslater.co.uk
Lorraine Calvey, 07903 250 393 / lcalvey@golleslater.co.uk

A4e and Sheffield FC

Working for A4e has given me exposure to lots of different and interesting projects that A4e support. Last night took this took on a different dimension. I had won a competition run by marketing to be part of Sheffield FC’s squad in a match against Inter Milan. The match was to commemorate Sheffield’s 150^th anniversary. As part of the evening I also had the chance to meet Pele.

I had a great night myself (a big thank-you to Emma for donating this prize). It was particularly good to see so many people supporting Sheffield FC; there were 18,500 people at Bramall Lane for the match. Sheffield FC, who are a real force for grass roots football, are doing great work with their Boots For Africa campaign. Their campaign is attempting to collect and deliver 2007 cleaned up and tied up pairs of used football boots to the children of South Africa.

It’s great that we sponsor an organisation doing so much work to Improve People’s Lives. You can find out more about the work that Sheffield FC do at http://www.sheffieldfc.com/

A4e, Europe’s largest provider of welfare to work programmes, responds to the Education and Skills Bill

“We welcome the proposed expansion in the number of apprenticeships by 90,000 although it will be a challenge to get more employers to offer them. There are two key issues that needed addressed.

The first relates to employer engagement and how employers are incentivised to take on apprentices that have partially completed their apprenticeships elsewhere. Portability of apprenticeships is a problem that does not appear to be addressed by the proposed Bill, but we believe it will be key to improving employer support and youth participation rates.

Secondly, whilst we are encouraged by the extension of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) to all young people taking Entry to Employment courses, we hope the Government has reviewed the tax implications for those on apprenticeships. Currently, if you go into an apprenticeship programme you pay the standard tax rates and it can have an adverse impact on the family benefits and tax credits. We strongly support the EMA but let’s not penalise those young people who are looking to enter employment via an apprenticeship.

In terms of NEETs, again the government has announced significant improvements. However, we strongly encourage them to become more sophisticated in their classification of NEETS and identify those young people who are the hardest to reach within the estimated 10 per cent who currently fall within this group.

“If the Government does this we will be better placed to provide the intensive support needed to motivate the most marginalised and most at risk of dropping out of education and training. The short-term cost will be high, but the long-term social cost of doing nothing is even greater. For instance, A4e runs Life Academies for children aged between 14 and 16 years who are struggling at school and at risk of exclusion and provides them with highly personalised education. This costs around £9,000 per learner but it could cost the government £60,000 to process a court appearance should the young person drop out of the system and turn to crime; and re-offending costs this country over £11 billion per year.

"Lastly, given the increased role of Local Authorities (LAs) in the provision of advice and guidance to young people, let’s make sure they are fully equipped to provide a consistently high level of support for the hardest to reach. As well as LAs providing advice on educational choices, there needs to be a holistic approach to the type of support provided for NEETS. The childcare scheme for young mothers should be extended to include male parents, plus there needs to be a focus on financial guidance and offender education.”