4th April 2011: BEST Win The Work Programme in West Yorkshire!

We are delighted to announce that our organisation has won the opportunity to deliver the Work Programme as one of the Prime Contractors for West Yorkshire. West Yorkshire was recognised as being the most desired WP contract package area with 13 potential bidders competing for the two available contracts.

The Work Programme is a government initiative to help people on benefits into work. It will replace many of the existing welfare to work programmes with a single scheme which is predicted to work with around 2.5 million people from its launch in the summer of 2011. The contract will run for a period of 7 years with West Yorkshire providers expected to support over 100,000 customers during the lifetime of the contract.

On news of the announcement, Michelle Manson, BEST Managing Director, said: “I am absolutely thrilled that BEST has secured a Work Programme contract in West Yorkshire, as one of the smallest providers on the Framework we are particularly pleased with the outcome!”

We would like to thank everybody that was involved with the tendering process and are greatly looking forward to working with our partners on the delivery of this innovative new programme. We are particularly excited about engaging with such a wide range of customers and being able to support their employment over the longer term.