Minimum Service Levels

Submitted by stephw2w on Thu, 23/06/2011 - 9:40am

As you may know, all primes had to include their minimum service levels in their ITT for the Work Programme. So, what fantastic, innovative approaches have they put in place, and what stretching minimum standards did they set themselves? Remember that this whole programme was about innovation - and as CG keeps telling the world, this is the most radical change ever in delivery of welfare to work.

That brings us the opportunity for another competition - download the minimum service levels published by DWP yesterday (http://tiny.cc/tzx53) and see if you can spot the innovation and the providers who are reaching for the stars! Feel free to share your thoughts as well, but if you do find some innovation or stretching standards above those you would expect, then type BINGO at the start of your post to help us measure the good stuff! :)

And remember these are contractual standards. If the primes (and their subs) don't hit them then there are allegedly going to be consequences!

‹ Is the Work Programme working for the Voluntary Sector What do back to work providers look for in a person to be successful?? ›
Submitted by Paul.Bivand on Thu, 23/06/2011 - 11:46am.

There's a front page 'sticky' article too that you can comment on.

Submitted by Thankyouforallt... on Thu, 23/06/2011 - 4:19pm.

A good fictional read all round it will be in the supermarket bargain bin in no time along with Blue’s new single.

Submitted by Greyham on Mon, 27/06/2011 - 9:45am.

I have now spent some time going through the Minimum Service Levels from all the primes very carefully and can NOT see anything NEW in any of them. The good news is that reading them all brought a smile to my face as I came across many elements that we used many years ago when I first started off in the sector. In fact some of the statements seemed to be a mixed mash of elements from other bids from the 90’s, cutting and pasting SEEMED to of been a big part of the WP bid.

Now before anyone gets upset with me let's play a NEW W2W GAME to test your knowledge:

please look carefully at the MSL’s and see HOW MANY you can match to elements from the contacts of yesterday.

New Deal Interventions
Pathways
Mentoring
FTET
BET
Programme Centre
Gateway to Work
IAP
JobPrep
Workstep
Access to Work
Voluntary Option
Environmental Task Force
Basic Skills Independent Assessments

HOW MANY DID YOU MATCH??

GOOD POINT- I’am told by my local JCP– THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY ELEMENT of the bid for WP (we do not seem to have access to) is the bit with the new things in - It seems some of the customer journeys are very GOOD. Can not comment on this myself as have not seen any yet, but JCP seem to like them.

Submitted by Lazarus on Mon, 27/06/2011 - 3:25pm.

156?! Well that's actually just a number out of thin air, but there really doesn't seem to be much that's new. Why didn't they call this "the bare minimum that any reasonable person would expect any welfare to work provider to deliver and which meets their contractual and legal obligations"?

I thoroughly enjoyed the MSD that stated customers would be given a warm welcome. What? Were they originally planning on being rude and unhelpful?! Lots of providers will look after your data. Mmmmm ... well that would be a legal obligation then. Some will even provide a start within a specific number of days. That was part of the spec that had to be achieved. And wait for it ... some are going to give their customers a Personal Adviser. Wow!!

The journeys I've seen are pretty much the same old same old. But then how different can you really be if you have the same aim? You assess someone, plan their journey, review as they go along, and access specialist support and services when they're needed. The greatest innovation is in work support which was previously very limited eg the innovation is they're having to do it!

Steph - I don't think anyone's going to get a full house on this one!

Submitted by Greyham on Mon, 27/06/2011 - 4:24pm.

Well done 'Lazarus' You WIN by matching the most. Your post gave a very true and funny account of the point I was trying to put across. You are right some of the MSD's are very interesting.

One prime who may have been thinking ahead of the game put the following MSD:

If you would like to make a complaint about the service you receive, please speak to your advisor or ask for a copy of our complaints procedure.

Do you think they may be expecting trouble from customers?

Submitted by Greyham on Tue, 28/06/2011 - 1:58pm.

Apologies for the last post – it seems that chapter 14 of the Work Programme Provider Guidance states the complaints process should be documented, so DWP wanted it in there –Well done that Prime.

Submitted by I'm_A_Statistic on Tue, 05/07/2011 - 2:14pm.

Any info on what the minimum service or standard levels for clients are, what are client minimum responsibilities with regard to the work programme?

Submitted by smurf on Tue, 06/12/2011 - 1:49pm.

Joe Barry's link above is spam

Submitted by Paul.Bivand on Tue, 06/12/2011 - 6:42pm.

Thanks for the notice. You can inform the moderator through the "Contact us" link in the left if you spot more.

http://indusdelta.co.uk/contact

Submitted by Bob Cratchett on Wed, 14/12/2011 - 10:38pm.

Has anybody seen any worthwhile In Work Support? Not just a phone call or e-mail every couple of weeks with the possibility of the employer being contacted to see if they're willing to contribute x% to an NVQ? Because, to be honest, I've not seen anything innovative...

Submitted by Voice of WP on Thu, 29/12/2011 - 5:51pm.

yes

Submitted by Lazarus on Wed, 04/01/2012 - 12:39pm.

@Voice of WP - would you like to expand on that?!