DWP have released a strategy for the publication of Work and Health Programme statistics, and a fuller consultation on what users might want to see in the stats. 

Logged-in IndusDelta users can comment below. We haven't opened up the registration system , but we can add users ourselves. Comments still require approval, however.

Staffline Group, which owns PeoplePlus, has published the following trading update:

Tomorrow's People, a charitable provider that has been active in employment support for many years, has announced that it is to close.

They are attempting to find new places for the young people they have been most recently helping, and for their staff.

As they say, there has been a significant reduction in the money available across public and private sectors. Tomorrow’s People has been materially impacted by this.

London Councils (the co-ordinating body for London Boroughs) has announced that the London Work and Health Programme has launched on 1st March 2018.

The programme was commissioned separately by four groups of Boroughs in East (Local London), Central (Central London Forward), West London and South London. Each of the four has a single contractor. North London is split between the West and Eact consortia.

According to Local Government Chronicle, the Central London Forward group of central London Boroughs has awarded Ingeus the contract for Central London Works, the devolved implementation of the Work and Health Programme in central London.

Following a rigorous procurement process, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority has appointed InWork GM to deliver the new Working Well (Work and Health Programme) across Greater Manchester. 

InWork GM is a new alliance partnership between Ingeus and The Growth Company and also includes Pathways CIC and Pluss; specialist health, wellbeing and disability support organisations. 

The Herald reports that Jamie Hepburn MSP, the Scottish Minister for Employability and Training, has made a strong statement to support the process for commissioning Fair Start Scotland.

The initial reports of the contract awards were dominated by voluntary sector criticism of awards to for-profit organisations.

The full list of Work and Health Programme contracts has been published by Carley Consult. The DWP contracts exclude Greater Manchester and London, which will be announced separately.

So far, there is no information on the main DWP website.

The full statement from Jamie Hepburn MSP and the questions that follow are now available.

The questions and responses provide further information on the rationale for the decisions taken.

Media coverage continues to be dominated by the voluntary sector disappointment that they did not secure the lion's share of funding.

While we're waiting for DWP to announce the preferred bidders for the Work and Health Programme, which does not apply in Scotland, the Scottish Government has announced the results of its' tender exercise for employment support.

From April 2018 the new Fair Start Scotland service will aim to help at least 38,000 people to find employment, including those facing barriers to entering the labour market.

Learning and Work have released their latest labour Market report for August 2017, building on the Office for National Statistics release.

The labour market figures published on 16 August show another strong increase in employment, with unemployment and economic inactivity amongst people of working age both falling.

Before Ingeus was sold to Providence Services, it had had to exit the Australian employment services market because its' founder, Therese Rein, is married to the then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.

Once Providence was in control, they formed a partnership with Mission Australia, which was one of the major providers in employment services. The resulting organisation, Mission Providence, is one of the major providers in the jobActive network.

Both Maximus and Providence Service Corporation (which is the parent company for Ingeus) have published quarterly financial results.

Maximus (NYSE:MMS) has published a presentation alongside their Q3 2017 Investor Conference Call .

There is more UK-related comment on the Health Assessment contract (which carries out Work Capability Assessments for DWP) rather than the winding down of the Work Programme contracts or prospects for the Work and Health Programme.