It's all over the papers this morning; the report of the Public Accounts Committee into the Work Programme. We already knew its conclusions, but the various newspaper articles highlight different aspects of it (when they can be bothered to go beyond the press release). The Telegraph, for instance, reports that some of the companies are in danger of being stripped of their contracts and even of going out of business.
The Guardian points out that all 18 organisations involved have been put on "performance improvement plans", with 7 of them being sent formal warning letters. Margaret Hodge was also angry that the DWP had published unvalidated data from the ERSA. We do learn that the next set of performance data is due to be published in March.
It would appear that Richard Johnson, formerly of Serco, is now the go-to person for an opinion on all this. He was the man who was in charge of WP stuff for Serco, but now that he no longer works for them he's free to criticise. He said, on the BBC Today Programme this morning, that the design of the contracts made "creaming and parking" inevitable. I notice that the BBC is asking for experiences of the Work Programme, so perhaps they are planning a proper investigation of the subject. Let's hope so.
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