Sarina Russo Job Access has been shortlisted by DWP as one of 5 bidders for a new ESF programme in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Norfolk. We are looking to identify partners in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Norfolk to help us deliver this programme.

The shuffling around of welfare to work managers continues, with news that Kay Sutton, PeopleServe's MD has headed across to Wise Employment UK.

Those of you who haven't taken a look at the DWP website recently might want to have a quick browse. They've just relaunched it with a snazzy new interface.

Edit 29/6 - Updated with details of the Channel 4 News story

An article in last Sunday's Observer picked up on a previously unknown fraud probe at A4e in Hull, and drew comparisons with the Individual Learning Accounts fiasco to make the whole thing sound rather bigger than it was. Here's the article content, boiled down for easy digestion:

• ippr research shows advisers overrun by demands on the system
• Advisers doing almost twice as many interviews compared with pre-recession
• Report shows a need for more training for advisers
• Government needs to fulfil promise to recruit more advisers

For a change, this is a request rather than a story. If you're thinking of bidding for the Merlin tender, or you know anyone who is thinking of bidding for it, then please get in touch, either using the web form or by calling 07876 618040. Part of Merlin is 'developing databases and web based portals to share information and best practice', i.e. a site with a database of current providers, the ability to post provider news and best practice, and links to Ofsted reports and the like.

For those who haven't heard of it, Workstep is the nearest thing the DWP's contracted employment division has to a supported employment programme, placing people with disabilities into work with intensive, long-term in-work support. SDEP is due to replace Workstep and a couple of other programmes in October 2010, so the Workstep contracts are being extended until then.

Dark clouds

Ever since Indus Delta started up, a major theme and recurring bugbear of the site has been the publication and analysis of welfare to work performance figures. After two years and a constant stream of Freedom of Information requests and leaked data, it appears the quest may be nearing its end.

Anyone who remembers the traffic light analysis from earlier this year might be interested in the latest release, placed in the House of Commons library a couple of weeks back.

Since Jim Knight replaced Tony McNulty, there's been a veritable flood of written answers to Parliamentary questions. Here's a selection of some of the more interesting ones:

Contracts

Spending on Programme Centres over the last ten years - not what it used to be

And this year's Programme Centre budget - back up again

[Updated 30/6 - Contract specification now attached]

The PQQ results of Jobcentre Plus Support Contracts have been released. I've put them in a handy sortable table to make it easier to figure out who won what where. Supposedly, these will be running from December 2009, and are due to replace Programme Centres and various other bits of support, and provide a way for JCP advisers to call on provider services before the 12 month FND entry kicks in.

For those who haven't checked in the last day or so, the ESF round results have finally been released. The table of shortlisted bidders is in pdf form, and I'll translate it and put it on the site as soon as I get chance. In the meantime, here's the official announcement, lifted from the DWP site under that handy Crown copyright:

Recognised as a major influence on the thinking of a future Conservative government, the Policy Exchange is moving beyond Freud to look at one of the enduring problems of the welfare state: the ever-increasing complexity of benefit rules, and how they might be simplified. As Theresa May acknowledged in her own appearance at the conference, research on this is in the earliest stages, and the session was mostly a debate rather than a presentation of results. Taking the idea of a single, universal benefit as a starting point, the discussion quickly revealed why so many ministers have come in intending to simplify the benefits system and left with something even more complex in its place.