– Pathways to Work: THE VERDICT!

The report came out a while ago.. nevertheless….

Some of you will have heard the Chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee Patricia Hodge MP speaking on The Today Programme this morning.

Patricia praised the sterling job done by JCP in working with the IB client group.

The National Audit Office which wrote the report found that there was no evidence that the programme had performed better or cost significantly less in contracted out areas than in those run by Jobcentre Plus.

….by the way…, this chimes with one of Yes Minister’s recent postings which noted JCP’s success at placing jobseekers into work…..

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The report found that;

• Contractors had universally underperformed against targets set by the Department, …..Question! were the targets correct in the first place I wonder….?

• DWP lacked adequate information on the Pathways supply chain. … DWP Stewardship role raises its head again. see our previous posting on this….

• A third of contracts made a financial loss, … in these straitened times providers of all size can ill afford this …

• The contribution Pathways to Work made to the reduction of 125,000 in IB claimants is unclear. The report however concluded that the contribution is likely to be limited.

• The bulk of the reduction is likely to be due to the medical assessment …. ATOS Healthcare again

Full Report

Executive Summary