Community Action Programme (Workfare).
Government Guidelines for Providers (Extracts and Comments).
From here.
“This scheme is for “very long-term JSA claimants who may reach the end of the Work Programme from 2013.”
Note: There are 750,000 long-term unemployed. This figure is not expected to go down by 2013.
The government’s approach, already in place, and adopted by Work Programme providers, is summed up in the Guardian today,
“The subtext is that external economic factors can never be the cause of someone’s unemployment: the problem must somehow lie with the individual.”
Those long-term unemployed who have gone through thee Work Programme will now have to face up to this further effort to make them solve ‘their’ problems.
“10. Participation is mandatory and a claimant’s benefits may be stopped if they fail to start or complete the programme. “
Those who will have to participate include,
3. The majority of these claimants will have been unemployed for a substantial amount of time, and having received support through both Jobcentre Plus and contracted provision, should display similar characteristics to those we expect of claimants still out of work at the of the WP.
4. The claimant group set out above will include a range of claimants with circumstances that need be taken into account in designing CAP support. These will include:
• claimants with caring responsibilities, including lone parents
• disabled claimants or those with health conditions
• claimants who are over 50 years old
• claimants serving a community sentence which could involve
Community Payback
• socially excluded claimants, including ex-offenders, offenders,homeless claimants, and claimants with a drug or alcoholdependency problem.
What is the nature of the work?
9. CAP work experience placements must deliver a contribution to the local community and must not displace what would otherwise be paid jobs.
Those who are succesful to run the scheme will have to deliver,
“provider-led jobsearch support for a minimum of 30 hours each week where a participant is not in a work experience placement • delivering up to 10 hours of compulsory provider-led jobsearch ( Note: more pointless sitting in front of Computers) each week for each participant
• raising compliance doubts with JCP Decision Makers, and notifying us when participants subsequently re-engage
• reporting specified participant changes of circumstance to JCP
• producing an exit report, when a participant completes CAP, within ten working days of a participant leaving CAP
Duration of the CAP
12. Each work experience placement will last for up to 26 weeks, however a single work experience placement of 26 weeks may not be possible in every case. If necessary, CAP can be made up of several shorter work experience placements, but you will need to ensure the participant completes a minimum of 21 weeks on a work experience placement or combination of work experience placements and employment (off benefits) to achieve a 100% completion fee.
Defining principles.
A2.2 The community benefit of a CAP placement should:
• be of benefit to the community and the individual
• directly create, or significantly contribute to the creation of, tangible and lasting benefit to the community, or particular groups or individuals within the community;
• be clearly demonstrated in the placement activity, and not be an “add on”; and • where the placement does not directly benefit the community, there must be clear demonstrable evidence that the placement provider business objectives are to deliver community benefits.
What ‘community’ is, and what ‘benefits’ are is open to question.
Who will decide what is, or is not, of ‘benefit’ to a ‘community’?
Who Will Deliver Workfare?
A2.4 Examples of organisation types that deliver direct/indirect benefit to thecommunity for the purposes of this section include;
• Local Authorities and Councils
• Government Departments and Agencies
• Charities and third sector organisations
• Social Enterprises
• Environmental Agencies
Unsuitable activities: or, there are limits you know.
A2.8 Participants must not be expected to engage in activities which could put them at risk, or are against their personal beliefs. It would be difficult to produce an exhaustive list of unsuitable activities.
Please note this list is not exhaustive.
• where there are doubts as to compliance with the relevant Health and Safety legislation
• where it may involve the claimant breaking the law e.g. street sales without a licence from the local authority where one is required
• involvement in religion or party politics.
You should take account of a claimant’s personal belief. All participants on CAP should be treated fairly regardless of their religion or beliefs. They should not be asked to undertake any activity which goes against their beliefs, for instance, working within certain types of industry (e.g. particular sectors of the food industry). You should also make allowances wherever possible to accommodate religious holidays and practices.
My political and ethical belief is that workfare is wrong.
So?
Exploitation.
Ensuring participants are not exploited by placement providers
A2.10 You are responsible for ensuring that participants are not exploited.
A2.11 Some placement providers may be tempted to get involved in the delivery of provision as a way of getting cheap labour or getting someone in to help during a busy period. This is not acceptable. Placements must be additional to existing or expected vacancies and should not replace what would otherwise be paid jobs.
Comment.
The last area is the trickiest one.
Clearly working with Councils and Charities will replace what could be paid jobs.
These organisations, and businesses, are already suspected of being deft hands at ‘re-defining’ jobs so that a placement on the Work programme (work experience) is not considered a ‘replacement’ for paid employment.
We can expect that they will find ways of making it appear that Community Action Programme people will take positions that could get a salary. But they will now, thanks to generous government payments, get somebody to do this for nothing.
Cuts in local government, from libraries, spending on the environment, to social services, mean plenty of things are no going to get done.
The Community Action Programme will fill the gaps, without ‘replacing’ anybody – nobody is going to be doing the work at the moment.
In any case working for way below the minimum wage is by definition exploitation.
