NEWS
Work Programme risks failure – charities
Almost half the charities in the Government’s Work Programme are facing financial problems, with some warning they may go bust as a result of its payment by results methodology.
A National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) survey found that nearly 50% of charities had used financial reserves to subsidise delivery of the scheme and seven out of ten had warned they may pull out because it is not financially viable.
NCVO chief executive Sir Stuart Etherington said: “This programme is clearly not working for many charities involved in its delivery.”
£100m pledged towards free nursery places
Councils in England are to receive £100m towards providing free nursery places for 100,000 two- year olds, Deputy PM Nick Clegg has announced.
The Government says it will provide up to 15 hours of free childcare for
all two-year olds
in the poorest two-fifths of households by September 2014.
The funding is intended for capital spending, such as converting buildings
into nurseries, but
councils will not be told exactly how to spend the money.
Labour pledges reform for the ‘forgotten 50%’
Labour has promised vocational education reform for the ‘forgotten 50%’ of young people being ‘failed’ by low-value qualifications on offer.
Party leader Ed Miliband told the party conference that educational policy should not just be about raising the numbers going to university.
He proposed a new ‘gold standard’ qualification, the ‘Technical Baccalaureate’, under which everyone would study English and maths to 18 years old.
4 | public sector executive Sep/Oct 12
Public sector job losses ‘slowing’
There has been a slowdown in public sector job cuts, unemployment figures suggest. The number of civil servants declined by 5,000 in the quarter to July, and the number of health workers is higher than three years ago, at 1.55 million.
Overall, the drop in public sector unemployment was restricted to 39,000 in the three months to the end of July. The public sector payroll has been reduced to 5.9 million, although the ONS has reported that this followed a decision to reclassify 196,000 further education and sixth form teachers as private sector employees.
Gerwyn Davies, labour market adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), said: “So far the growth in the private sector has more than managed to compensate for
the fall in public sector
employment. Today’s figures confirm that public sector headcount has fallen by around 430,000 since June 2010. It is interesting to note that the trajectory of public sector job losses since 2010 has slowed sharply in recent months, which may confirm the theory that many
public sector employers front-loaded job cuts.”
The jobless total fell by 7,000 in the quarter to July, to 2.59 million. Part-time employment was up, boosted by the Olympics, but long-term unemployment remains a key concern.
Unison’s general secretary, Dave Prentis, said: “For families suffering the misery of unemployment, any decrease will be welcome news, but it is clear when you look at the bigger economic picture that any talk of growth is premature.”
Prime Minister David Cameron acknowledged the problem, saying: “That is what the Work Programme is designed to deal with.
“The Work Programme we have got up and running within a year has helped already 690,000 people and the key part of it is that those who are hardest to help – people on the incapacities- style benefit – and also who have been long-term unemployed we pay the training providers more to help them into work and that is the key for dealing with this problem in the time ahead.”
have
Call for more spending on public services
A rising number of people want the Government to spend more on public services, even if this means higher taxes, a new report shows.
The 2011 British Social Attitudes survey showed a 5% jump, to 36%, in the number of people wanting higher taxes and higher public spending – the first rise in nine years.
The majority of people, 55%, want spending to stay at its current level, rather than seeing further cuts as planned by the Coalition.
But attitudes to welfare spending are hardening: 54% say that if benefits were less generous, people
would ‘stand on their
own two feet’, up from 26% just two years ago. In 1991, 58% wanted more spending on welfare benefits. That had fallen to 35% when the recession began in 2008 and is now at 28%.
In the separate Transatlantic Trends survey of opinion in the US and 14 European nations, the UK was the only country where more people wanted public spending increased (29%) than decreased (26%). 38% said spending should be kept at the current level.
Council pay gap shrinking
The gap between the highest and lowest is
paid research.
Think tank One Society found that over 20% of local authorities in England and Wales were paying staff at least the living wage of £7.20 an hour (£8.30 in London), and over 10% had taken steps to cut executive pay. A further 10% have limited the pay ratio between the highest and the lowest staff.
Duncan Exley, director of One
Society, said: “The living wage movement has
a very strong power base in London, but to see council staff shrinking, according to new
“Local authorities are large employers and procurers of services, consequently their pay policies will have a significant effect on the wellbeing of local
it now spreading outside is quite remarkable.
people and the local economy.”
An LGA spokesman said: “This report confirms that councils are tackling unprecedented financial challenges in a way which is fair to local taxpayers and the workforce.”
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