An interesting response from Steve Kerr at the LVSC – I was at the event he refers to and was struck by the representatives on the Primes all looked like failed contestants of The Apprentice!
However – I have no such confidence in the Merlin standard – it really doesn’t make any sense that private companies are not going to make funding and provision preferences based on low risk and profitability! After all, like all private sector companies, [like ours for instance] the motive is bottom line and profitability before altruism!
I remeber speaking to lord Freud about this several years ago when he was concerned that the prime model had been introduced in haste and that there needed to be a transition between direct contracting provision and prime contracting. Clearly, the need to downsize DWP overtook that need and there fore we should ask; DHas the need for expediancy replaced the goal for effectiveness?
Speaking for London, the primes certainly seem willing to engage with the sector. We had a very fruitful meeting with the London primes a couple of weeks back through our third sector provider network – http://www.lvsc.org.uk/LESPN
While the political and departmental rhetoric around protecting small specialist providers is encouraging, it remains to be seen how this will play out in practice – how will DWP enfore the Merlin standard? How much high quality specialist provision will be lost in the post-March 2011 funding drought before the Work Programme even gets underway? And most of all – will differential pricing etc in the WoPro ITT actually result in better outcomes for the most disadvantaged jobseekers?
An interesting response from Steve Kerr at the LVSC – I was at the event he refers to and was struck by the representatives on the Primes all looked like failed contestants of The Apprentice!
However – I have no such confidence in the Merlin standard – it really doesn’t make any sense that private companies are not going to make funding and provision preferences based on low risk and profitability! After all, like all private sector companies, [like ours for instance] the motive is bottom line and profitability before altruism!
I remeber speaking to lord Freud about this several years ago when he was concerned that the prime model had been introduced in haste and that there needed to be a transition between direct contracting provision and prime contracting. Clearly, the need to downsize DWP overtook that need and there fore we should ask; DHas the need for expediancy replaced the goal for effectiveness?
Speaking for London, the primes certainly seem willing to engage with the sector. We had a very fruitful meeting with the London primes a couple of weeks back through our third sector provider network – http://www.lvsc.org.uk/LESPN
While the political and departmental rhetoric around protecting small specialist providers is encouraging, it remains to be seen how this will play out in practice – how will DWP enfore the Merlin standard? How much high quality specialist provision will be lost in the post-March 2011 funding drought before the Work Programme even gets underway? And most of all – will differential pricing etc in the WoPro ITT actually result in better outcomes for the most disadvantaged jobseekers?