On 7th February LVSC was called as a
witness to the London Assembly's Economy, Sport and Culture
Commitee's investigation into employment and skills opportunities
during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. We produced a short
briefing on the issues for VCS organisations and the long-tern
unemployed Londoners that they support.
This raises particular concerns about the
implementation of the Work Programme in London, which will be the
main source of support for the long-term unemployed once the 2012
Games are over.
LVSC statement of evidence to London Assembly on 2012 Games
employment opportunities (Word)
NCVO has published further research
which confirms many of LVSC's findings. 39 of the 72 charities they
surveyed said that their prime contractor for the Work Programme
was not shielding them from finanical risk and 72% of 'Tier 2'
providers were not satisified with the levels of referrals to their
services.
NCVO raised their concerns with employment
minister, Chris Grayling, at a meeting on 18th
January. However, although he promised to look
at greater personalisation of Work Programme referrals,
so that users could choose which services they wanted to use, he
maintained that it was charities that should decide the type of
contracts they signed with prime contractors.
Similar concerns about the Work Programme
are also raised in the National Audit
Office's report also published in January 2012. They
particualrly criticised the over-optimisitc assumptions about how
many people the Programme could support back into work and the
financial risks that this posed to organisations delivering the
programme.
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