Working Links

Working Links (Employment) Limited
Founder William Cook, Keith Faulkner, Sir Leigh Lewis
Headquarters Middlesbrough, United Kingdom
Number of locations
 100+ (2015)
Area served
 UK, Ireland, Middle East
Key people
 Phil Andrew, CEO
Number of employees
 2800
Divisions Employability, International, Justice
Subsidiaries

Turas Nua - Ireland Wales CRC, Devon, Dorset & Cornwall CRC

Bristol, Swindon, Wiltshire & Gloucestershire CRC.
Website workinglinks.co.uk

Working Links (formally Working Links (Employment) Limited) is a public, private and voluntary company in the United Kingdom.

Working Links works in some of the most deprived areas of the United Kingdom to address the challenges faced by disadvantaged people including long-term unemployed people, people with disabilities and people with convictions. Working Links have helped over 300,000 people into employment as of 2015. Working Links offers support to help people move from social exclusion to social inclusion.

Working Links' public sector share is managed by the UK government’s Shareholder Executive on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The private sector shareholders are Manpower and Capgemini, and the voluntary sector share is owned by Mission Australia.

Since 2006 their turnover has grown from £63 million to £123 million (2010), and they now employ over 2,700 people in the UK. It is one of the providers of the Work Programme initiative, that has helped more than 400,000 people into sustainable work in Britain.

The company has been the subject of fraud allegations, though a the Department of Work and Pensions ruled that matters had been handled properly at the time. A newspaper claimed it had the highest referral rate of Work Programme suppliers for sanctions against welfare recipients. More recently, Working Links has won the contracts to run three Community Rehabilitation Companies under the government’s Transforming Rehabilitation reforms.

History

Working Links was established in 2000 by the Shareholder Executive, Manpower, and Ernst & Young Consulting. Ernst & Young Consulting merged with Gemini Consulting, a branch of Cap Gemini, to form Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. Cap Gemini Ernst & Young was renamed Capgemini in 2004. The charity Mission Australia acquired a share of the company in 2006, rendering Working Links the first public, private and voluntary organisation in the UK.

It has delivered contracts on behalf of government departments primarily to get people back into work, starting with Employment Zones and also including Pathways to Work, Progress to Work, New Deal, New Deal for Disabled People, Work Choice, ESF Family Support and Flexible New Deal.

In 2011, Working Links won three contract package areas to deliver the Coalition government's new Work Programme. This made Working Links the third largest Work Programme provider in the UK. The three contracts acquired were the South West, Wales and Scotland and, as of May 2012, receives around £120 million a year from the DWP and various other governmental bodies.

Work Programme

Working Links has helped more than 62,000 people find a job through the Work Programme, as of June 2015. Working Links referred the most cases for financial sanctions (11,910) to be taken against welfare recipients amongst Work Programme suppliers between June 2011 and January 2012.[1]

Richard Whittell from Corporate Watch said the Work Programme appeared to be focused on slashing benefit rather than putting people into work. "These figures give the lie to the government's claims its welfare reforms are about helping people into work".[2]

"By the time it's finished, more people will have been sanctioned by the Work Programme than properly employed through it. Every month thousands of people are having their only source of income stopped and being pushed into hardship. Companies like Serco, Working Links and G4S may not be very good at finding people suitable work, but they're dab hands at punishing them. The private firms say they make their referrals to job centres in line with government guidelines."[3]

Working Links sub-contract work to companies such as Triage and Routes To Work in North Lanarkshire.[4] The BBC broadcast a documentary in which five former employees of Triage claimed that disabled and jobless people processed by the company were referred to as LTB's (Lying Thieving Bastards).[5] A spokesman for Working Links said "We work with a number of subcontractors all of whom go through a stringent vetting and approval process. We take any allegations of poor practice seriously and will be looking into matters further."[6]

Transforming Rehabilitation

In 2015, Working Links was awarded contracts to run three Community Rehabilitation Companies as part of the government’s Transforming Rehabilitation reforms with the aim of cutting reoffending. Under the reforms, probation services have been split into two with the National Probation Service managing high risk offenders and Community Rehabilitation Companies managing low and medium risk offenders. Working Links is responsible for the delivery of Community Rehabilitation Companies in Wales; Dorset, Devon and Cornwall; and Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire.

Allegations of fraud

In May 2011 a former auditor of Working Links claimed that the level of fraud at Working Links escalated to "a farcical situation" and was "endemic" but that he faced a "stonewall" from managers. Mr Hutchinson said he had encountered "a multi-billion-pound scandal", after working for Working Links and A4e in the welfare-to-work industry.[7] Working Links said: "We firmly reject any assertion of widespread fraud within our business."[8] The Department for Work and Pensions ruled that all allegations had been investigated at the time and no further action was needed.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "David Cameron's back-to-work firms want benefits cut more often", The Guardian, Daniel Boffey, 30 June 2012
  2. ↑ "David Cameron's back-to-work firms want benefits cut more often", The Guardian, Daniel Boffey, 30 June 2012
  3. ↑ The Guardian, Daniel Boffey, 30 June 2012
  4. ↑ "Back-to-work firm attacks offensive behaviour claim", The Herald, 29 January 2013, retrieved 2 March 2013
  5. ↑ "'Lying thieving b******s': BBC documentary lifts the lid on offensive code used to describe disabled and jobless", The Independent, 28 JANUARY 2013, Retrieved 2 March 2013
  6. ↑ "Back-to-work firm attacks offensive behaviour claim", The Herald, 29 January 2013, retrieved 2 March 2013
  7. ↑ "'Billion-pound scandal’ in welfare to work", Telegraph, 23 May 2012
  8. ↑ "Liam Byrne: 'IDS has been asleep at the wheel over A4e", Telegraph, 24 May 2012

External links

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