Work Programme and Jobcentre Plus fail to deliver for single parents
13 March 2013
The government’s Work Programme and Jobcentre Plus are failing in their efforts to get single parents into work, according to single parent charity Gingerbread.
Wed, 13 Mar 2013
The government’s Work Programme and Jobcentre Plus are failing in their efforts to get single parents into work, according to single parent charity Gingerbread.
The charity argues that both the Work Programme and Jobcentre Plus are failing to offer this group the tailored support it needs to overcome the employment barriers single parents face, including affordable childcare and a shortage of part-time flexible jobs.
The government’s Work Programme, launched in June 2011 as a radical approach to getting the long-term unemployed into work, has been much criticised. In February, MPs on the Public Accounts Committee described its performance as “very poor”.
The report ‘Tailor made? Single parents' experiences of employment support from Jobcentre Plus and the Work Programme’ calls for “a renewed focus on single parents from Jobcentre Plus and Work Programme providers”. This should include setting a clear and ambitious target for single parent employment and an action plan to achieve it.
The report also finds that single parents in the Work Programme are a third less likely to find work than other participants – with just 2.5% achieving job outcomes, compared with 3.5% of all claimants across the Work Programme, and that single parents are largely invisible within the system.
Gingerbread chief executive officer Fiona Weir says: “Tailored support is the most effective way of helping single parents back to work, and yet high targets and low budgets mean that advisers have neither the time nor resources to deliver this.”
The government’s Work Programme and Jobcentre Plus are failing in their efforts to get single parents into work, according to single parent charity Gingerbread.
The charity argues that both the Work Programme and Jobcentre Plus are failing to offer this group the tailored support it needs to overcome the employment barriers single parents face, including affordable childcare and a shortage of part-time flexible jobs.
The government’s Work Programme, launched in June 2011 as a radical approach to getting the long-term unemployed into work, has been much criticised. In February, MPs on the Public Accounts Committee described its performance as “very poor”.
The report ‘Tailor made? Single parents' experiences of employment support from Jobcentre Plus and the Work Programme’ calls for “a renewed focus on single parents from Jobcentre Plus and Work Programme providers”. This should include setting a clear and ambitious target for single parent employment and an action plan to achieve it.
The report also finds that single parents in the Work Programme are a third less likely to find work than other participants – with just 2.5% achieving job outcomes, compared with 3.5% of all claimants across the Work Programme, and that single parents are largely invisible within the system.
Gingerbread chief executive officer Fiona Weir says: “Tailored support is the most effective way of helping single parents back to work, and yet high targets and low budgets mean that advisers have neither the time nor resources to deliver this.”
