Prospects is a prime contractor for the Work Programme in the south west of England and is a subcontractor in Bristol and London.

Launched in 2011, the Work Programme has supported more than 500,000 people into work nationally. The Work Programme's purpose is to support individuals transition from welfare to work into sustained employment, decreasing time spent on benefits and increasing the hours people are employed.

Our provision of the Work Programme

Prospects has risen to the challenge of implementing the Work Programme by creating a new kind of employability programme, tailored to individuals and built around their needs. We have supported a jobseeker into work every half an hour, of every working week since the contract began in June 2011.

We launched Ascent, Prospects’ Work Programme delivery model, building on our experience of past initiatives whilst adding innovation and personalisation. The approach uses a variety of interventions to help customers overcome the barriers they face in finding work. More than 26,000 customers have started on this initiative designed to move them towards the labour market and sustainable employment. These interventions include activities such as 'People Fairs'; the reverse of 'Job Fairs' where jobseekers have the opportunity to present themselves to employers assisting with their networking and social skills leading to improvements in confidence, forest walks helping general fitness levels, self esteem and group interaction, art therapy sessions, peer mentoring, group presentations and volunteering.

London

Prospects is a subcontractor for the Work Programme in London. Working in Hackney, Greenwich, Lambeth, Southwark, Sutton and Merton, our teams support long term jobseekers into training and jobs. Our personalised approach ensures customers who are furthest from the labour market receive greater support to help them overcome multiple barriers to employment, including issues such as literacy and numeracy, housing, dependency and debt. Our ethos is to create a service which helps to build customers' confidence and self-esteem, enabling them to get a job and keep it.