In response to Sir Charlie Mayfield’s Keep Britain Working report, John McDonough, Founder and Managing Director of Recro Consulting, an award-winning employability and recruitment solutions consultancy and training company, says:

“In 2011, Charlie Mayfield, at a UK Commission for Employment and Skills event (of which he was chair), spoke to me at the end and said: “Never underestimate how strong the resistance is to change”.

I had earlier highlighted to Chris Grayling, the then minister for employment, how the coalition’s flagship employment programme, The Work Programme, would only get 30% into work, thereby failing 70% and what could be done to significantly improve that.

To say the minister wasn’t interested is an understatement.

14 years later and the resistance that Sir Charlie referred to is the root cause of the problems we face today and whilst his report suggests that employers do their bit, so must DWP and until they do, things will only get worse.

The Crux of the Problem

Does the quality of treatment, advice or practical support you get when you’re struggling with a health condition or when you’re changing jobs or trying to get back into work matter?

Obviously, it does. I have MSK issues and I’m fortunate to have found some of the best experts in the country who keep me going.

Quality in employment support must be measurable and evidenced through performance data. However, the DWP has consistently refused to measure, publish, and learn from performance outcomes – including successful programmes commissioned by Jobcentres.

This approach undermines accountability and improvement. Instead of evaluating what works and scaling effective practice, the DWP’s current focus appears to be on following a flawed process with issues and unintended consequences which have gone unaddressed for four years (DPS2 commenced in 2021).

Despite the National Audit Office calling for transparency since 2016 along with the Work and Pensions Select Committee and Public Accounts Committee, nothing has changed.

How and why can anyone enter the market when there is no incentive for innovation and there is no correlation between performance and winning work?

Job centres should be able to learn, replicate and scale successful programmes. Best practice should be shared across the country but that is not happening due to “commercial guidance”.

This doesn’t stack up to basic scrutiny, let alone common sense or value for money.

Take a young person who is struggling with their mental health. We saw a lot of them last year in Mercia. Almost all of them reported significant improvements in their mental health and often 50% went into work.

Given the pressures the country is under, you’d hope that would be rolled out yet we haven’t worked with one young person this year.

Something is going very wrong in DWP and has been for years. Ministers haven’t got a grip on this at all.

The Public Accounts Committee tried last week, using my report the Work and Pensions Select Committee requested, evidencing how DWP have failed to learn, replicate and scale from highly successful programmes bought under FSF (Flexible Support Fund).

The Permanent Secretary and Director General told the committee that they do learn from FSF programmes. By the very nature of the DPS2 contract awards process, that is categorically not the case because they are not “allowed” to take track record into account and state that this would be against fair and open competition.

Therefore, a poor-quality provider can win contract after contract whilst not delivering what matters and job centres are powerless to do anything about it.

Until this disconnect is resolved, this will only get worse.

We know how to change this quickly, but ministers need to act. This should be the blueprint for civil service reform.”

ENDS

For interviews and filming opportunities contact John McDonough on 07837 663 969 or email john.mcdonough@recroconsulting.co.uk