Press Story

The Coalition government's new Work Programme concentrates overall power in Whitehall and hands responsibility for supporting jobseekers to a small number of welfare-to-work providers. This further risks innovation at a local level being squeezed out of the system.

Now It's Personal? The new landscape of welfare-to-work argues that effective back-to-work support requires fine-grained local knowledge and intelligence. As the new Work Programme is being developed, there is a real opportunity for the Coalition government to turn their words on devolution into practice - but so far they are failing.

ippr is calling for a radically devolved, localised welfare-to-work system. Local authorities should have more budgetary control and a stronger financial incentive to tackle worklessness locally. Groups of local authorities led by Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) should co-commission and manage the Work Programme with providers. This would allow for local, hands-on contract management of the Work Programme. As LEPs will soon be responsible for setting out the economic priorities, bringing welfare-to-work commissioning into the process would help integrate welfare-to-work with economic development.

Nick Pearce, ippr Director said:

'Everyone wants to see more people off welfare and into work - and we have welcomed the government's ambition to reduce long term joblessness and to really make work pay. But this report shows that welfare to work schemes are much more likely to be successful if those running them have really good local knowledge. David Cameron says he wants a devolution drive - the Welfare-to-Work programme offers his government a real chance to do just that. Instead, it will remain a highly centralised system.'

Other recommendations in the report include:

Different options outlined for localising welfare-to-work, for example through devolving funding for employment support through assigned budgets or block grants, should be considered as part of the DWP's current consultation on welfare reform related to simplifying the benefits system and improving work incentives.
To generate innovation in the Work Programme, prime contractors should earmark a small proportion of the contract value for an Innovation Fund. This fund would provide a stimulus to innovation and help identify new potential sub-contractors. Projects eligible for funding may be promising but unable to demonstrate their effectiveness as potential sub-contractors. The grant should be open to private, voluntary or public sectors.

Notes to editors

ippr has published the executive summary of its report Now It's Personal? The new landscape of welfare to work. The full report will be published shortly.
The findings are based on a year-long programme of action research in conjunction with organisations working at the coalface in the field of welfare-to-work and skills. We have worked closely with eight partners in the public, private and voluntary sectors to identify and evaluate successful practice.

Contact details

Nyta Mann, Media Manager, ippr: 020 7470 6112 / 07979 602065 / n.mann@ippr.org