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Workstep (Blackpool)

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, South (Mr. Marsden), who was ably supported by my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble). She echoed some of the concerns that he set out this evening on behalf of his constituents. I am grateful for the way in which he has presented his case. He has referred to correspondence with my predecessor, my hon. Friend the Member for Stirling (Mrs. McGuire). The whole House will agree that she did a fantastic job as Minister responsible for disabled people. She has rightly won warm applause from stakeholders and colleagues and from our party. Before I come to the detail of the case involving Blackpool council and my hon. Friends' constituents, let me say a few words about Workstep and our determination to build further on the contribution the programme makes to the lives of those it helps. As a result of Workstep, our programme of supported employment, some 17,000 people are taking part in paid work Without the programme, those people would be unlikely to be able to work. They would have to resort to benefits, and would be denied the chance to make a contribution and to achieve the satisfaction of receiving their wage for the job in return for work. The Government believe that paid work is the best route out of poverty, and the best route to social and economic inclusion. We need all our partners across the board—local authorities, voluntary sector organisations and many other agencies—to deliver the programme. It cannot be delivered without them, and we rely on their co-operation and partnership. In July, we published our ambitious plans for welfare reform. These plans are all about making better use of the human resources at our disposal and ensuring that no one is written off. Despite the economic downturn, we remain determined to head for an 80 per cent. employment rate, and to reduce social exclusion by improving employment prospects for people facing the greatest challenge. We will not achieve that goal unless we help greater numbers of sick and disabled people to fulfil what I believe is their ambition—that is, paid employment. We need to have in place a modern framework of flexible support. Earlier this year, we consulted on proposals to reform the specialist disability employment services, including Workstep. Our proposals received strong support from the 450 people and organisations who responded. I referred earlier to the welfare reform Green Paper entitled ““No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility””, which was published in July this year. It promised that the Department would implement these reforms. The Green Paper also said that the Department would expand its supported employment budget—by amounts yet to be decided—and proposed that disabled people who could be helped effectively through more mainstream employment programmes, such as our new deals, wherever possible should use this support rather than specialist provision. We propose to enhance the role of the disability employment advisers in Jobcentre Plus to help to ensure that support is targeted toward those who need it, and that disabled people get the right support package to help them achieve their employment goals. Our aim is to move away from the current separate programmes, including the job introduction scheme, work preparation and Workstep, and towards a new, more flexible and less prescriptive programme that can be tailored more easily to the individual needs of disabled people and that is more focused on job entries. That approach will help us to move away from ““one size fits all”” and towards a more flexible approach that recognises the very individual needs of every person. This is in line with our welfare reform approach to offer more flexible and personalised support. The programme will be delivered in partnership with organisations from the public, private and third sectors, and will cover pre-employment support right through to job retention and longer-term supported employment. We expect to publish the DWP's response to the public consultation later in the year. July's welfare reform Green Paper demonstrated our commitment to providing support for sick and disabled people to take up and keep paid work. That is part of our philosophy of putting money into support instead of benefits. The Green Paper contained a commitment to doubling the access to work budget for 2013-14. That will enable us to expand the reach of the programme, enabling us to reassure employers, benefits claimants and people seeking help to retain their jobs, that support will be available to all those who need it. We estimate that that will expand the programme's capacity to around 48,000 by 2013-14. I am keen to explore how we can make access to work more responsive to the needs of customers with fluctuating conditions, including mental health conditions. I turn now to the points raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, South. As I said earlier, I understand the concerns of customers on this scheme. While the DWP of course wants to encourage as many people as possible to secure contracts with their host employers, we have not insisted that they do this for all customers or by any set date. I hope that that is very clear. Even when we introduce our reforms, we accept that some customers will require long-term support, and that this might not always be provided by a host employer. My Department can continue to provide funding in respect of those customers who remain on the books of the provider, although we will expect that every effort will be made to find host employers. We need to strike the right balance between incentives for customers to have contracts with host employers that improve their work experiences in the long term and longer-term support with providers for those who need time to acquire the skills and experience that employers want. I am pleased to tell the House that of the original 11 Workstep customers my hon. Friend reported as having no contract with a host employer, seven now have such a contract. All seven customers are still being supported by the Workstep programme, under the existing Workstep contract held by his local authority—Blackpool council. The four who do not are still employed by Blackpool council, which I understand is continuing its efforts to obtain contracts with host employers. The Workstep programme contracts with 172 providers, of whom 120 are local authorities. The Department has not been made aware of any other local authority that is taking action similar to that of Blackpool council in relation to their Workstep contracts. I said earlier that we rely on the partnership of the people and organisations with whom we place the contracts, so I say to Blackpool and any other local authority with concerns about particular people on the scheme that they should pick up the phone. They should contact us. That is the way to resolve concerns and problems. Let us work in partnership—I am sure that Blackpool council talks a great deal about that in its community. I do not seek to blame; I simply say to Blackpool or any other council, ““Pick up the phone and we will resolve the issues””. Question put and agreed to.