News

Calls for the government to reopen the tendering process for New Deal for Disabled People money have been rejected, prompting claims that it may not meet its target of getting 30,000 disabled people into employment.

The Association for Supported Employment (Afse), whose members work with the Employment Service to place and support disabled people at work, are calling for the tendering process to be reopened. Most of the organisation's 200-plus members did not bid because they objected to part of the scheme, which wasÊdropped in December 2001.

Chairperson of Afse Donna Kenny said: "A lot of good agencies, people with specialist knowledge, didn't bid. It will be difficult for the government now to meet its target for getting disabled people into work. Despite what the government has said Afse will continue to put pressure on them to re-tender so that our members can bid this time around."

But a spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions said: "We won't re-tender. The Job Broker service is now up and running. To reopen the tendering process would be too costly and cause disruption. We are happy that we will be able to meet the target."

Under original proposals every fifth disabled person who approached a supported employment organisation for the Job Broker service would have had their help deferred for a year as the control group. The government could compare the success of those who received the service against those who had it deferred.

But association members raised concerns about the policy, writing to MPs and Hugh Bayley, then minister with responsibility for the deal, arguing it was unethical to deny immediate help to people who had sought it.

Kenny, who attended government briefings before the tendering process began, said: "Most of us felt that it wasn't ethical to turn people away. But senior civil servants told us that the only way the Treasury would release money for the scheme was if we used the control group."