The latest on news from JCP

Yesterday I had a very illuminating conversation with a leading member at London’s regional JobCentre Plus head office who gave me the low down on what is likely to happen, in the near future, to Employment Support programmes such as Flexible New Deal and the much loved European Social Fund (ESF) .

Here is the lowdown:

* All back-to-work support programmes will be collapsed into a “Single Works” programme that will be launched in June 2011
* All contracts for employment programmes that have yet to be signed will now not go ahead.
* All exiting programmes are likely to be extended to June 2011

What happens to ESF funding in this and future years has yet to be decided but it is likely the ESF will be used to support locally the Single Work Programme by providing some additional and locally customised services in areas of high need. Consequently the next round of ESF supported programmes may not start until Single Work Programme starts in June 2011.

Finally, no one in JCP in London has heard anything about the “Working For Yourself” programme that the Coalition Government is committed to launch in order to help more of the unemployed to go self-employed. There is no news when it will start or how it will be contracted but there is an assumption that it will be part of the “Single Work” Programme tender.

So there you have it — more good news.