Australia

In recent years the UK Government has looked much more towards Australia for policy guidance and several Australian organisations have brought their models across to the UK, including Ingeus (who own Work Directions) and Mission Australia (who now own part of Working Links).  The Australian experience also starts around ten years ago and has resulted in the replacement of their equivalent of Jobcentre Plus, as a delivery agency, with a combination of for-profit and not-for-profit agencies.  The position is:

• Sole purchaser (Dept of Employment and Welfare Reform);
• Three year contracts;
• A move from price competition to fixed prices;
• A move from up front and outcome payments to a ‘drip-feed’ system with payments up to 26 weeks after a job;
• A star rating system resulting in 60% of contracts being rolled over;
• A drop in the number of organisations delivering contracts from 306 in the first tendering round to 109 by the third round (50:50 for-profit/not-for-profit)

In terms of results it has produced:

• A halving of the real cost of job outcomes;
• Significant improvement in performance;
• A net impact on employability of 10%;
• When the star rating system was introduced in 2001, 13 week outcomes went up from 18% to 27% and are now at 32%.