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It’s official: every time someone signs up to The Work Program, a puppy dies. Write to puppy-killer-in-chief Iain Dunkin Donuts and tell him what you think. Alternatively, you could just post a bag of dog turds through his letter-box. Tell him Jack sent you…
thiefofbaghdad.wordpress.com 
From this fortnights Private Eye:
‘Challenged in parliament over rising unemployment, David Cameron repeatedly offered the government’s Work Programme as the answer. But one of the main contractors running the welfare-to-work scheme has been deemed “inadequate” at helping the jobless find work, according to Ofsted inspectors.
Working Links, a partnership between Manpower and CapGemini, runs the Work Programme in Scotland, Wales and the South West. But according to an Ofsted report earlier this year: “The percentage of participants that progress into jobs is low.”
Ofsted marks services on a scale of one to four, from “Outstanding” to “Inadequate”. In Derbyshire the “outcomes for participants” – like jobs – got the worst mark. The inspectors also lamented that “the number of participants” who joined the programme was significantly below the contract targets” and that “during this period only 13 percent of participants gained employment”.
The scheme is the brainchild of work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith who had hoped to create a body of “Fairy Jobmothers”. Alas the Ofsted inspectors were not over-impressed by some Working Links staff. “The personal consultants do not always negotiate and set clear targets for the completion of different activities. Often, they do not monitor these activities sufficiently well,” said the inspectors.
In the North-East, meanwhile, Working Links operations in cities like Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Tyneside and Sunderland, admittedly unemployment black spots, were underwhelming. Though the number of people finding jobs had improved slightly, job rates “remain low”, the inspectors said
Working Links’ antics have sometimes been questionable. As Private Eye revealed in April, a confidential government audit into the partnership’s Liverpool operation showed that it was even claiming government cash for jobseekers who had found work without its help.
As well as running the Work Programme, Working Links is not also part of the Community Justice Partnership, bidding for probation contracts…’
I dream of a society that’s progressive, compassionate and striving forward culturally, intellectually and even, dare i say, spiritucally. We aren’t going to get that if we just park graduates in self perpetuating slave jobs at Poundland, and treat the unemployed as scum.
and I agree with you wishface, although I would replace ‘graduates’ with people. I’m not a graduate but have a wealth of experience, sadly too much for a job at Aldi’s (£9 p/h) and certainly too much to accept slave labour as an alternative to paid employment. I’ve just paid for a CRB check today, almost one weeks benefit, hopefully when it comes back I will be signing off JCP and waving goodbye to the WP. Neither will be informed of who my employer is.
When my WP advisor suggested a work placement I reminded her that as I was already doing voluntary work to keep my skills up to date and give me a current reference, a work placement of her choice wouldn’t benefit me, she agreed, or rather took a different tack that steered well clear of work placements, as I’ve been volunteering long before the WP forced it’s way into my life they can’t claim any credit for it.
Why is it that no-one in ‘authority’ will publicly acknowledge there are less jobs than there are people looking for work?
Couldn’t agree more Agnes – though as an 11+ failure and nongraduate I must point out that “less jobs” should be “fewer jobs”! Sorry I couldn’t resist – education comes in all sorts of forms not just formal qualifications!
You ask “Why is it that no-one in ‘authority’ will publicly acknowledge there are less jobs than there are people looking for work?”. This would mean admitting that they had made a mistake and these people do not do that.
We all know that the WP and its predecessors have not created a single job (apart from working for Pimpo). At best they have influenced which people will get the jobs but they have not altered or effected the total number of unemployed one iota. All that taxpayers’ money wasted on Emmena Harrison’s mansion etc. etc. etc. This should be a national scandal. What we desperately need is some sort of “New Deal” with a lot of pump priming and genuine educational/training opportunities. We (the British citizens) do not need a load of self satisfied, get rich quick, bullies with the intellect, morals and outlook of barrow boys fleecing the honest citizenry whilst demonising the victims of their reprehensible, selfish antics.
No worries Gissa, I don’t mind being corrected, less/fewer however expressed it all adds up to not enough jobs to go around. By the way what is ‘pump priming’?
OK Agnes (I felt guilty after posting so I’m glad no offence taken). What I mean by “pump priming” is supplying small amounts of money/resource in order to get enterprises (and thus employment) off the ground. We see it to some extent in the form of regional grants etc. It seems that we will not see any growth in public sector jobs (whether or not we agree with this is immaterial – it’s just not going to happen). So if jobs are to be created then it will be largely in the private and self-employed sectors. Rather than waste money on the WP/CAP (which doesn’t create any jobs but is just there to punish the unemployed) the cash should be used to stimulate new businesses/self employment.
thank you, pump priming would seem a sensible way to go.