Issue - meetings

The Board received an overview of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Work Programme Contract currently being delivered by Halton People into Jobs.

The Board was reminded that in June 2011 Halton Borough Council entered into a subcontracting arrangement with two Prime Contractors (Ingeus Deloitte and A4E) who had been tasked with delivering the Department for Work and Pensions Work Programme over the next 4 to 5 years.  The programme was mandatory although some voluntary referrals could be made by certain ‘customer’ groups (as listed in the report).  There were 10 different groups with referrals to the programme coming from Job Centre Plus (JCP).

The report went on to discuss the payment by results concept and how performance was measured against the Priority Group (PG) customers.  Further it discussed income and expenditure; detailed the lessons learnt to date and key strengths of the programme; and discussed the future strategic direction of the programme as it was currently in year 5.

Members discussed the report and noted that the contracts had generated a surplus of £800,000 for the 5 year period and that it was hoped that the contract would be extended to year 6.

RESOLVED:  The Board recognised the progress made to date on Halton’s Work Programme contracts.