Launching in West Midlands
Serco to help over 33,000 people across the West Midlands into sustainable work
A new initiative to help 33,000 long-term unemployed people back to work in the West Midlands is being launched by Serco and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
The Flexible New Deal (FND), which will be delivered by Serco from 5 October 2009, is the DWP's new initiative to help long term unemployed people secure sustainable jobs. Over the next five years, Jobseekers that have been unemployed for more than 12 months will be helped back into work.
Serco Welfare to Work is one of the main contractors and has developed a programme which will provide real employment opportunities to people and communities, across Coventry and Warwickshire, Staffordshire and The Marches, despite the current recession.
Serco are taking a fresh approach to solving the problem of long term unemployment by using a host of expert businesses and providers across the West Midlands to get the unemployed back to work. Latest government statistics show the West Midlands has the highest rate of unemployment in the UK, with more than 282,000 people recorded as jobless between April and July this year.
Warwick MP James Plaskitt believes the new FND programme can succeed in getting people back to work. To support jobseekers, Serco has developed a strong network of private, public, community and voluntary organisations, across the West Midlands, which will provide bespoke, individual support to people. This includes career planning, job search assistance and specialist services such as budgeting for work, debt advice, interview preparation, and top up vocational skills.
The Flexible New Deal is set to replace all previous New Deal and Employment Zone programmes. People who have been out of work for 12 months or longer, will be referred to a one-year mandatory programme and individuals achieving employment will receive ongoing in-work support.
This first phase of the Flexible New Deal will cover approximately half the UK. The Department for Work and Pensions will launch the second phase of the Flexible New Deal to cover the rest of the country in October 2010. Serco Welfare to Work is delivering the Flexible New Deal in partnership with Jobcentre Plus, across the following areas: Coventry, Warwickshire, Staffordshire and the Marches; and the majority of Wales. Serco has established its offices in Birmingham at Baskerville House to manage delivery of the programme across the West Midlands and has already begun accepting referrals.
Dr Stephen Duckworth OBE, Contract Director for Serco Welfare to Work in the West Midlands, said: "As the recession makes life increasingly tough, we need to give people who've been out of work for a long time every chance to find and retain a job. Flexible New Deal will make an enormous difference to the lives of individuals, their families and their communities. Rebuilding confidence, from the bottom up, starting with someone who has lost their job but wants to work, will help whole communities weather the recession and prosper in the future.
"We have spent the last year meeting people West Midlands. The experience and insights of local unemployed people, employers and agencies offering existing help have shaped our response. As a result of what we have heard, we've designed an approach that will reach more local people with the help they need to get back into work. By working closely with local partners to coordinate services, we will be best-placed to meet the specific demands of the West Midlands."
Serco's Flexible New Deal programme will ensure those people who are most ready for employment get the right support to help them into sustainable work quickly and cost effectively, while those furthest away from the employment market will receive greater investment and intensive support to meet their needs.
In this way it will achieve its goals of helping people into sustainable work, who have been excluded by previous programmes. Jobseekers will be interviewed in detail and then referred from Jobcentre Plus to a local, expert Serco subcontractor, who will work to address the individual constraints on employment, while helping to develop their skills, confidence and employability.
The strengths of the programme lie in Serco's overarching infrastructure, technology and case management support, which combine with local providers to create individual employment solutions for people who have become excluded from the labour market. The FND contract differs from previous New Deal programmes, in that it is funded through a service fee and performance based payments. This approach will help to drive up efficiency while ensuring value for money.