On Thursday 30th June Chris Grayling, Minister for
Work and Pensions visited Seetec, one of the prime contractors for
the Work Programme. The visit took place in Stockport and the
Minister spent time in the Seetec centre talking to members of
staff and customers using the facility.
Seetec, one of the UK’s leading training and
employment specialist commenced delivery of Work Programme in East
of England and East London, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and
Warrington in June of this year.
The new Work Programme is the centrepiece of
the Government’s plans to reform welfare-to-work provision in the
UK. It is designed to contribute to the Government’s key aims
of fighting poverty, supporting the most vulnerable, and helping
people break the cycle of benefit dependency. The Work
Programme will support a wide variety of customers into sustained
employment, including claimants of Jobseeker’s Allowance and those
claiming Employment and Support Allowance.
The visit came after the Welfare to Work
convention in Manchester, which is the biggest conventions for
providers of specialist employment and training in the UK.
Mr Grayling is said to be the pleased with the
feedback he gained from his visits to providers and was
particularly impressed by Seetec’s IT system which allows customers
to be matched to vacancies instantly.
Seetec Chief Executive Jeremy Nutter, said,
“We were delighted to have Chris Grayling MP visit our
Stockport centre. It gave us the chance to demonstrate how our new
processes and systems are supporting people in the local community.
We have developed strong relationships with local businesses and we
offer a diverse supply chain of voluntary, private and public
sector, all of which supporting our customers to get back into
sustainable work”.
Photo L-R: Jim Wall, Jeremy Nutter, Chris Grayling, Debra
Fullerton
and Justin Spandley.