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The Work and Pensions Select Committee has written to the Employment Minister, Chris Grayling, seeking an urgent response to concerns from the welfare-to-work industry that the potential gap in provision and services risks disrupting support for the unemployed.He is due to appear before the committee on March 14th.

In oral evidence given to the Committee on 2 February, organisations bidding to provide employment programmes for the Government highlighted a potential gap in welfare-to-work provision which is likely to arise between the termination by April 2011 of many existing programmes and the launch of the Work Programme in June 2011. The three key areas the committee will be looking to discuss are:

• Clients who are receiving welfare-to-work services continue to receive effective support across all regions and will not experience significant disruption;
• Organisations which deliver DWP employment-related services are supported during the transition period in terms of maintaining their financial capacity and their ability to retain key staff
• Staff working in employment-related services receive the information they need to plan for the transition period and ensure that their organisation is able to play an effective role within the Work Programme.