The Work Programme Tuesday 7th September 2010

1. The Work ProgrammeTuesday 7th September 2010

2. This presentation will cover….. • The Work Programme • Overview of the Work Programme • Framework Agreement for the Provision of Employment Related Services • Commissioning the core Work Programme • Voluntary and Community Sector involvement • Question and Answer Session

3. What is the Work Programme? • The Work Programme will radically simplify the back to work system • An integrated package of support will provide personalised help for a range of customers • Delivery partners will have longer to work with individuals and greater freedom to decide the appropriate support for them • We will offer stronger incentives for delivery partners to work with the harder to help, paying providers out of benefit savings • We aim to have the Work Programme in place nationally by the summer of 2011

4. Jobcentre Plus Offer • Will include broadly similar core and mandatory provision • Will also include a menu of support options, including: skills support; work experience; voluntary activity; peer to peer support etc. • Many of the employment pledges in the Coalition Agreement (Work Clubs, Work Together) will be accessible via Jobcentre Plus. Timeline Core Work Programme Specialist Disability Provision • Work Choice will launch on 25 October 2010 and will provide an improved service to disabled people with complex barriers on contracted out basis – higher proportion of funding for sustained outcomes than now. • Decisions regarding other Specialist Disability Programmes are ongoing. • An integrated, personalised welfare-to-work programme for a range of customers • Contracted out, almost all funding for additional sustained outcomes • Differential prices • Two year programme with continuing provider support and payments • Mandatory community activity • Currently looking at whether people who remain unemployed for a long period of time could undertake some form of community activity to get back into the habits and routines of working life

5. Key design features • DWP is committed to giving specialist suppliers the freedom to tailor support that works • Effective supply chain management will be expected from lead suppliers • We anticipate that the majority of customers who move to the Work Programme would do so on a mandatory basis • We anticipate that all mandatory customers will spend a fixed period on the programme

6. Framework Agreement for the Provision of Employment Related Services • The commercial vehicle through which the Work Programme will be delivered. • Will be an umbrella commercial arrangement which sets out some terms of agreement on future contracts • Individual contracts will be let via mini-competitions once the framework agreement is in place • Organisations who submitted an Expression of Interest as a Prime Provider or as a member of a consortium have been invited to tender

7. Why use a Framework? • Using a Framework offers commercial and operational advantages • More efficient and responsive • Simplify and significantly reduce the time and cost involved • Drive up performance and value for money • Accessible to other contracting authorities

8. Lots • The DWP expect to appoint between 3 and 8 organisations to each Lot • Organisations may compete to be included in one, all, or any combination of the Lots • Contracts let may cover the whole of the area comprised within a Lot or a smaller area within a Lot • Indicative value of contracts £0.3 billion - £3 billion per year • Average individual contract values estimated £10 - 50 million per year The framework agreement will be divided into 11 lots

9. Award criteria likely to include • Good financial standing; • Ability and capacity to manage large and diverse supply chains; • Willingness and ability to take on greater capital and supplier management risk; • Ability to support all claimant groups who are or may be capable of working; • Providing innovative/black box solutions for all services that they are invited to deliver under this framework.

10. Pricing design principles • Payment should be exclusively or largely for delivering results and that payment should normally be made after the results have been delivered • We should, where possible, avoid paying for customers who would have moved off benefits without help • The price paid for employment outcomes should be set to make it worthwhile for delivery partners to help each group of customers

11. Timetable for implementation • Our intended timeline for implementation is as follows:

12. Voluntary and Community Sector involvement • Shortlist of primes • Events to bring together primes with potential sub-contractors • What primes need to demonstrate in their tender • The Merlin Standard

13. Work Programme • Any Questions?

14. Further Questions for the Work Programme • If you have any questions that you wish to ask about the Work Programme, these can be posted via the following e-mail address • THEWORKPROGRAMME.EXTERNAL@DWP.GSI.GOV.UK • To see questions and answers already posted, the Q&A log can be accessed via The Work Programmepage on the Supplying DWP website: • http://www.dwp.gov.uk/supplying%2Ddwp/what%2Dwe%2Dbuy/welfare%2Dto%2Dwork%2Dservices/work%2Dprogramme/