WALTHAM FOREST: Further concern over help for jobless
12:49pm Wednesday 22nd August 2012 in Where I Live By Jonathan Bunn
EVIDENCE has emerged of ongoing failures to tackle unemployment in Waltham Forest.
Research has shown that companies hired to provide services under the flagship Worknet program fell well short of targets, often helping only a fraction of the people they had pledged to.
But the organisations often blamed the council for failing to provide adequate support for schemes and questions have arisen over the authority's handling of Worknet.
Failed charity O-Regen, which had close ties to the authority, broke promises to tackle long-term joblessness before going into financial meltdown last year.
It later emerged that despite previous poor performance, the charity was awarded a contract worth more then £1 million even though it had publishing figures showing it was posting large losses.
Another provider, Kennedy Scott also fell well short of targets on two contracts worth more than £3 million.
Now it has emerged that Reed in Partnership, which is the sole remaining Worknet deliverer, failed to meet any of its delivery targets in the first six months of operation, up to June this year.
The council is now said to be withholding information on the delivery of the latest figures, citing commercial interests.
The Worknet program involved contracts worth about £9million in total.
But some of the companies received just a small portion of the contracts' value due to poor performance.
For example, O-Regen was only paid £100,000 for a contract worth more than £1.1 million.
Overall the council raised £4.2 million for Worknet projects, but ended up not claiming nearly half of that from external funders.
It also fed more than 1.5 million into its own reserves and general fund, which can be spent on anything.
A report entitled Rocket Science, published in 2010, said providers were often critical of the way Worknet was organised and felt "disconnected from decision-makers".
Research carried out by Nick Tiratsoo, of Odessa Road, Leytonstone, has exposed the long-term failure to tackle unemployment in Waltham Forest.
He said: "The more we learn about Worknet, the worse it looks. Outside companies are hired on expensive contracts to deliver, but don’t.
"Nobody seems to care. If it is also true that the council has actually benefited from this farrago, by being able to pass unspent money from Worknet funders back into its reserves, that plumbs new depths.
"I believe that all those councillors who have had responsibility for Worknet should resign."
The council declined to comment.
Comments(2)
Walthamster
says...
11:06am Fri 24 Aug 12
But why is this essential research left to a member of the public? Every scandal uncovered in Waltham Forest has been dug out by a few dedicated local residents, in their own time, without pay. I'm grateful to them and to the WF Guardian for publicising their work.
But even when handed this information on a plate, no one in the council or other authority takes any action.
We have 60 councillors in Waltham Forest, all paid to represent our interests. I have contacted them about several issues over the years and most don't even bother to reply (breaking their own official code of conduct -- but again, there's never any penalty).
Why does it take to make our paid representatives do their job?
mdj says...
5:03pm Wed 22 Aug 12
What can we do? Either our money gets handed over to private companies that are not fit for purpose, or it disappears into the pockets of a failed - and possibly worse - Council.
Is it Waltham Forest's cunning plan to pay for the unfunded Big6 events by trousering this funding stream?
When one recalls that the Big6 were staged by the Co-op, a major funder of the deeply-indebted Labour Party, a toxic money-go-round becomes visible, paid for at the expense of local unemployed people.