The conference was held at Liverpool Arena and Convention Centre 1-2 July 2010. The conference was planned before the change of government and the aim was to look at the future of The Work Programme and Welfare to Work policies. The conference heard from Chris Grayling, Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform and from his shadow Lord Jim Knight, previous Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform.
Both current and previous governments are committed to seeing through the Freud agenda, which forms the basis of thinking for the current reforms. Very briefly that agenda is moving people into work through targeted support and an increase in Prime Contractors as delivery agents. The difference is in approach. The current Coalition Government is committed to doing this against the backdrop of cuts and job losses – Chris Grayling believes the private sector can fill the gap. Lord Knight argues this is not sustainable; he states that the previous government would have continued to grow the economy by investing in areas to provide jobs in particular retaining the Future Jobs Fund.

The main areas of discussion at the conference were:

• The Work Programme
• Jobs
• Regional hubs
• The role of the Third Sector

This is a fast moving environment. DWP are developing further detail quickly. Further information and timescales can be found at:

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/framework-eoi.pdf