Unique Client Solutions Disappointed at Back-to-Work Scheme Failures

Nov. 27, 2012 - PRLog -- A year ago Unique Client Solutions expressed their approval at a back-to-work scheme which would see companies and charities paid to help find jobs for the long-term unemployed. The Sheffield-based customer acquisitions company reported on the new scheme, which had an ambitious target of getting 5.5% of the people on the programme into jobs of six months or more.  It now seems that this target has been missed after only 3.53% of people were matched with long-term employment.

The figures were measured from June 2011 to July 2012  and showed that despite the popularity of the scheme, some 878,000 people signed up, only 31,000 had found a job for 6 months or more to date. The scheme has become a political battleground with employment minister Mark Hoban saying, “It’s still early days, but already thousands of lives are being transformed.” However shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne has believes that the scheme has “comprehensively failed to get in place a back-to-work programme that actually works.”

Unique Client Solutions however were surprised to learn that as the scheme has missed its target, it means that as many unemployed people are finding long-term jobs as if the scheme had never been introduced in the first place.

Simon Tomlinson, managing director of Unique Client Solutions believes that more needs to be done to ensure the success of the scheme. “We’ve discussed a lot at Unique Client Solutions the problems faced by people trying to find employment. Consequently, we were initially encouraged by the direction of this scheme. I still believe that a scheme like this can work but there needs to be much stricter controls on the companies taking part, to ensure that they are doing their bit. Underperforming businesses must be removed from the scheme.”

Mr Tomlinson continued, “This scheme is working with some of the most difficult people to employ in the UK and it’s vital that they are offered support that helps them stay in their placements, not just to get them into jobs in the first place. We believe this is where the scheme is failing. It’s easy to get someone into a short-term job, it’s much harder to keep them there long-term.”

Unique Client Solutions is hopeful that this scheme will improve over the coming months. With the economy starting to move in the right direction the customer acquisitions company predicts that the job market will begin to move in the same direction.