Charities focus on failings of Work Programme
CHARITY leaders will renew calls for the Coalition Government to abandon its controversial Work Programme at what is billed as the UK’s biggest charity event, to be held in Glasgow this week.
More than 3500 people who work in and with charities, community groups and social enterprises will participate in the annual Gathering at the SECC tomorrow and Thursday.
The event will focus on issues affecting the third sector in Scotland, particularly youth unemployment, welfare reform and the integration of health and social care.
Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) has previously called for UK Government ministers to look at its own youth employment programme, Community Jobs Scotland (CJS), for an alternative approach.
Martin Sime, SCVO chief executive, is expected to warn that the Work Programme is not working and private companies are profiting from the misery of worklessness. Mr Sime will also call for the Scottish Government to be given control of employment and welfare.
John Downie, SCVO director of public affairs, added: “The problem is that the Work Programme is not fit for purpose and, as a recent BBC Panorama programme showed, is not helping people find jobs.
“At first people thought the Government and the private providers were doing it with the best of intentions, but people soon realised it was exploitative.”
The event comes as some UK charities continue to face criticism from campaigners for participating in Government mandatory work programmes for unemployed claimants.
Mr Downie said: “Our view is that third sector organisations shouldn’t bother engaging with the Work Programme at present because it is not delivering sustainable jobs. If it was delivering and getting young people into jobs that would be fine. The UK Government needs to recognise the present model isn’t working.”
He contrasted the work programme’s record with that of CJS, which provides young unemployed people with paid work within a wide range of third sector organisations across Scotland, for a minimum of 26 weeks at minimum wage or better.
The Scottish Government’s Youth Employment Minister Angela Constance is to speak at the Gathering tomorrow where she will meet CJS participants. Other sessions at the event will include a panel on the future of employability in Scotland featuring Jim McCormick of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Stephen Boyd of the STUC.
The major shake-up caused by the integration of health and social care will also be on the agenda.
With the Scottish Government aiming to reduced demand for acute health services and support people to take of control of their own lives and support, charities are keen to assert the ability of the third sector to contribute to the ambitious objectives of the policy.
Sessions on Wednesday will feature Derek Feeley, chief executive of NHS Scotland; Ron Culley, the health and social care lead for Cosla; and Gerry Stimson of City Health International.
The event’s second day will focus in part on the future of the welfare state in Scotland and what can be done differently now and in the future.
SCVO says its member charities have been increasingly focused on the impact of changes to the benefits system being implemented at Westminster, but there is a need to look to the future as well.
Mr Downie said the sessions would examine how Scotland could ensure people were better connected, how disabled people could be supported to participate fully in society and how unpaid work should be better rewarded, including the contribution of Scotland’s 650,000 unpaid carers.
He added: “This year’s event will have more people, more events and more debate, allowing the sector to come together and learn from the experts and from each other.”