More than 1,000 additional caseworkers will be deployed to help long-term unemployed people get back to work under the Government’s new JobPath initiative.

This will more than double the existing 750 working in the Department of Social Protection and across the local employment services.

The JobPath scheme, which specifically targets the 178,000 long-term claimants on the Live Register, is being outsourced to the private sector on a payment-by-results basis.

As revealed by The Irish Times yesterday, the department has selected British recruitment firm Seetec and a consortium known as Turas Nua, comprising Irish recruiter FRS and UK company Working Links, to run the programme.

The Government hopes to have the scheme up and running in early 2015.

Criticism

Critics of the Government’s decision to outsource the initiative claim the performance-based model will encourage private sector providers to cherry-pick jobseekers with better prospects.

However, the department insists it has structured the programme in a way that prevents this. Under the proposed scheme, providers will have no role in the selection of clients for referral to the programme and will be obliged to accept all jobseekers referred by the department.

This is precisely to prevent the so-called “creaming of employable jobseekers” in preference to those that are “more distant from the labour market”, the department says.

In addition, contractors will be paid a mixture of referral fees and “job sustainment fees” on a staggered basis so as to ensure the provider’s focus on delivering a “tangible result” is maintained.

Upon taking on a client, providers will be required to assess their skills, competencies and aptitudes and to develop a “personal progression plan” to be reviewed on a regular basis.

Though the department has not disclosed details of its proposed payment structure, it says referral fees will account for just 10 per cent of the maximum fee a contractor can receive for getting a claimant back to work.

Provider’s fee

The bulk of the provider’s fee will be paid when the client secures employment and in respect of four discrete periods of sustained employment from 13 weeks up to 52 weeks.

The department says it has proposed specific retention fee arrangements to ensure contractors meet certain service quality levels. “Because the bulk of payment will only be made once people return to work for sustained periods, there will be a cash-flow benefit to the State – welfare savings will accrue before the State has to make the bulk of fee payments, thereby minimising upfront costs,” it says.

The department also insists JobPath providers will not be allowed to make decisions on the welfare entitlements of jobseekers, which will remain a function of the department.

The programme is to be delivered in local premises which are accessible to all jobseekers.

Seetec and Turas Nua will agree final terms with the Government in the coming weeks.