Community Work Placements – successful bidders announced
Community Work Placements is a mandatory scheme for Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants returning from the Work Programme whose key barrier to work is a lack of work experience, motivation or both, and offers them a significant period of full-time activity.
The scheme involves claimants undertaking a full-time work placement for 30 hours a week for up to 26 weeks alongside provider-led supported jobsearch. The key criteria of all placements are that they must be of benefit to the community and must not displace paid jobs – though how this can be proven and evidenced is up for discussion.
Community Work Placements form one component of three intensive options available through the new Help to Work scheme. This will be available alongside the Mandatory Intervention Regime which is currently operating in Jobcentre Plus, and daily signing.
Successful Bidders
Successful bidders were announced today on TWP Solution’s website. Overall, G4S is the big winner – suggesting that they are once again a palatable choice for central government commissioners. Six other providers – in the main large-scale providers of complementary services within their selected contract package areas, have also been awarded contracts. Other big winners are Seetec, Interserve and Pertemps – overall there are no great shocks in the line up:
| Contract Package Area | Coverage | Supplier |
| 1 | East of England: Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire; Cambridge and Suffolk; Essex; Norfolk | Seetec |
| 2 | East Midlands: Nottinghamshire; Derbyshire; Lincolnshire and Rutland; Leicestershire and Northamptonshire | G4S |
| 3 | London West: Ealing; Hammersmith & Fulham; Brent; Harrow; Hillingdon; Hounslow; Richmond Upon Thames; Kingston Upon Thames; Wandsworth; Enfield; Kensington & Chelsea; Barnet; Camden; Westminster; Islington; Haringey | G4S |
| 4 | London East: Hackney; Newham; Tower Hamlets; Barking & Dagenham; Redbridge; Havering; Waltham Forest; City of London; Croydon; Bexley; Lambeth; Bromley; Greenwich; Lewisham; Southwark; Merton and Sutton | G4S |
| 5 | North East: Northumbria; South Tyne and Wear Valley; Tees Valley | Pertemps |
| 6 | North West 1: Cumbria and Lancashire; Merseyside; Halton | G4S |
| 7 | North West 2: Greater Manchester Central, Greater Manchester East and West, Cheshire and Warrington | Seetec |
| 8 | Scotland : Ayrshire, Dumfries, Galloway and Inverclyde; Edinburgh; Lothian and Borders; Forth Valley, Fife and Tayside; Glasgow; Highlands, Islands, Clyde Coast and Grampian | Learndirect |
| 9 | South East 1: Hampshire and Isle of Wight; Thames valley (Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire) | G4S |
| 10 | South East 2: Kent; Surrey and Sussex | Seetec |
| 11 | South West 1: Devon and Cornwall; Dorset and Somerset | Rehab |
| 12 | South West 2: Gloucester, Wiltshire and Swindon; West of England | Seetec |
| 13 | Wales: North and Mid Wales, South West Wales; South Wales Valleys; South East Wales | Working Links |
| 14 | West Midlands 1: Birmingham and Solihull; Black Country | Seetec |
| 15 | West Midlands 2: Coventry and Warwickshire; Staffordshire; The Marches | Pertemps |
| 16 | West Yorkshire | Interserve |
| 17 | South Yorkshire | Interserve |
| 18 | North East Yorkshire and The Humber | G4S |