Memorandum submitted by Papworth Trust
(EP 01)
ABOUT PAPWORTH
TRUST
1. Papworth Trust is a disability charity
and registered social landlord, whose aim is for disabled people
to have equality, choice and independence. Papworth Trust helps
over 17,000 disabled people every year through a wide range
of services including employment, vocational rehabilitation, housing
and personal support.
2. Our employment service focuses on delivering
programmes and opportunities for disabled people to obtain and
retain employment, and we also provide career development services
to support disabled people to reach their career goals and support
employers to retain and develop disabled staff. Papworth Trust
has over 20 years of experience of delivering employment
programmes for disabled people. During that time, we have delivered
a range of services including the Supported Placement Scheme,
WORKSTEP, Work Preparation Programme, New Deal for Disabled People
and Pathways to Work. From October 2009, we will begin to deliver
services for the Government's new employment programme, Flexible
New Deal (FND). To date, our involvement in the delivery of employment
programmes has been as a sub-contractor. In 2008-09, we helped
over 3,000 disabled people to find and retain work.
3. Papworth Trust welcomes the opportunity
to give evidence to the Work and Pensions Select Committee Inquiry
into the management and administration of contracted employment
programmes, and share with you our thoughts and experience on
how to eliminate the potential for fraudulent activity within
the system.
Are there sufficient safeguards in place to prevent
providers from making fraudulent claims for outcomes they have
not achieved?
4. Papworth Trust recognises that whatever
system is in place there will always be a degree of risk that
it is open to abuse. As such there is a balance to be had between
the cost of reducing risk and the cost of the risk itself. We
believe that a range of balanced measures can be undertaken by
the Government and the employment programme provider to reduce
the likelihood of fraudulent activity occurring.
5. Papworth Trust believes there is a need
for the Government to urgently develop a national electronic operating
system to track when jobseekers move off benefits and into work
which is easily updated and readily accessible. We believe the
current system is too paper-based, and any changes made are subject
to significant time delay before the system can reflect this.
We understand the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is in
the process of moving to a new system, Provider Referrals and
Payments (PRaP), but this is yet to happen across all of the programmes.
We would therefore call upon the DWP to focus resources into developing
this system so that it can be implemented as soon as is practically
possible. We appreciate that whatever system is used changes will
always be subject to some degree of time lag. However the Government
should try to minimise this lag by ensuring it has the most up-to-date
technology in place.
Is there sufficient protection for employees who
raise concerns about their employers' delivery of a contracted
employment programme?
6. The level of protection given to employees
who raise concerns about the delivery of a contracted employment
programme is entirely dependent on the individual employer. Papworth
Trust believes this "lottery" must end and that every
employer should be encouraged to have a separate quality assurance
process and a whistle-blowing policy in place to give staff freedom
to raise concerns without fear of reprisal. Ensuring such measures
are in place could form part of the evaluation for providers during
the tender process.
7. At Papworth Trust, we operate a "public
information disclosure policy" which is made available to
all members of staff. We are committed to ensuring that any malpractice
is prevented and immediately dealt with should the need arise.
Papworth Trust employees are encouraged to disclose any malpractice
that they become aware of and we ensure that anybody who does
come forward is able to do so in a discreet manner and is protected
from punishment, victimisation and harassment following their
disclosure of information.
8. We strongly believe that all providers
should be encouraged to operate similar policies to provide employees
with a procedure that allows them to raise concerns about malpractice
in the workplace through a fair and discreet route.
Do DWP and the National Audit Office effectively
monitor the accuracy of providers' management information systems,
provider performance against targets, and the evidence on which
provider payments are claimed?
9. Papworth Trust believes that the DWP
is overly dependent on the prime provider or sub-contractor providing
the outcome rates of a particular programme rather than relying
on independent results. From our involvement in stakeholder meetings
with the DWP, we have seen an emphasis placed on providers to
give updates on their job outcomes. It would be preferable to
use current data from a national electronic operating system,
for example PRaP, as the measure of performance to ensure there
is always consistency. Under the current system whereby the provider
gives the update rather than Department officials leading and
driving targets, we have noticed inconsistencies in the level
of monitoring of employment programmes. Whereas one employment
programme can be subject to high levels of scrutiny by the DWP,
they can have a very relaxed approach towards the management of
other employment programmes. We believe this inconsistency should
be rectified to ensure that all employment levels are subject
to similar levels of management and administration.
10. As mentioned above, Papworth Trust believes
there needs to be an electronic system in place which can demonstrate
provider performance, level of job outcomes and client information
and which can be easily updated and readily accessible. The paper
based system which is currently in operation means a significant
time lag is incurred when updating information and as such the
system is unable to provide accurate information in a speedy manner.
How has the centralisation of contract management
in DWP impacted upon the role of Jobcentre Plus and both provider
and customer experience of outsourced employment programmes?
11. Papworth Trust has welcomed the centralisation
of contract management in the DWP. Our experience to date has
been positive, believing the centralisation has enabled the inspectors
to have a more holistic view of the progress being made from programme
providers. Under a localised system, the role of Jobcentre Plus
can only ever allow for performance to be judged on a local perspective.
However, a centralised system allows other measures such as national
indicators and competitor performance to be taken into account.
We therefore believe centralisation has had a positive effect
on contract management and would urge this to continue to be rolled
out nationwide.
Will contract management in the prime contractor
model be transparent and effective in monitoring quality throughout
the supply chain, and in maintaining a role for sub-contractors?
12. In the past Papworth Trust has been
extremely fortunate in being invited to attend all meetings with
the DWP alongside our current prime contractor. However, we appreciate
that this is not a guarantee and could change in any new relationships
we form with new contractors. The present system is entirely dependent
on the wishes of the prime contractor, and to a large extent the
size and role of the sub-contractor. We would like this to change
and believe there should be a clear link between the DWP and the
larger sub-contractors, in essence to provide DWP with visibility
of the performance across the contract and see what value prime
contractors are adding. This could also provide a clear route
for sub-contractors to raise concerns and in some circumstances
"whistle-blow" should any malpractice occur, thereby
removing the need for other systems such as the Merlin project
currently being developed.
September 2009
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