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Community Links responds to Government announcement on the Work Programme
10 Jun 2010
Responding to today's announcements on the future of Flexible New Deal and the Work Programme from Iain Duncan Smith, Community Links CEO Geraldine Blake said:
"Community Links is still running our original New Deal programme in east London, which has consistently been the best-performing programme in London and the South east, so we are pleased the Minister has confirmed that current New Deal programmes will be extended until the rollout of the Work Programme next year, ensuring an important period of continuity.
"We look forward to hearing more details of exactly how smaller, specialist, and successful charity providers like ourselves will be involved in the design and rollout of the Work Programme. We urge government to ensure that the contracts and funding model recognise the important contribution we can make, particularly in supporting the hardest-to-reach, but also the challenges – particularly around access to upfront funding – faced by organisations like ours. We look forward to being part of these discussions."