WAYS funding obliterated

As Youth Week kicked off last Saturday with the Bondi Blitz celebrations, Bondi’s young unemployed lost their specially targeted employment service.

WAYS Youth Services, one of only two specialist youth employment providers in NSW, has lost its $1.8 million yearly funding in times of rising unemployment and there is now no specialist youth provider in Eastern Sydney.

The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) tenders have been awarded to multinationals Max Employment (USA) and A4E (UK), and Marrickville-based community profit organisation MTC Work Solutions.

Early this week DEEWR had insisted no decision had yet been made, but WAYS chief executive Russell King was certain his not-for profit organisation was about to be gutted in the latest round of job agency tenders.

And he was right.

On Wednesday, the federal government announced 141 providers and 48 sub-contractors had been chosen to run the new Job Services Australia (JSA) scheme, which replaces the Howard government’s Job Network.

WAYS received the bad news on Thursday afternoon, by email.

“This is a sad and tragic day for the community, the young people, and our organisation,” Mr King said.

“Despite putting thousands of young people in jobs and education over the years, WAYS is not considered good enough to continue this work and will be replaced by two overseas ‘welfare for profit’ organisations,  and a particularly aggressive Marrickville-based organisation.”

WAYS has provided federally-funded youth employment services since 1992 across five local government areas from Botany to Redfern and Waterloo. It has nearly 800 young people on its books, many of them homeless, dealing with mental health or drug and alcohol problems.

“Under our current contract we are servicing some of the most disadvantaged young people in eastern Sydney,” Mr King said. “It takes years to build up an effective program to deal with these problems. We work on the whole problem, including drug and alcohol issues, accommodation, literacy, clothing, shoes and food. You cannot possibly get a job if you don’t have a home address.”

He said evidence has shown that when youth at risk are forced to use a variety of providers for their health, welfare and employment needs, they fall between the cracks.

The WAYS programs have been very successful and competitive, even against American multinational Max Employment, one of the biggest providers in the country.

“We should get the tender because we’re part of the community and by all assessments, we have performed.  We’re good at what we do,” Mr King said on Tuesday. “I find it hard to believe we’d lose funding at a time of high unemployment.”

But now that WAYS has lost its funding, it will have to let go 25 specialist staff and close its Redfern and Maroubra offices, and the Bondi Junction and Bondi Beach branches will need to be scaled down.

Also under threat will be the WAYS specialist alternative school.

Mr King said that over the last decade under the Howard Government community organisations had been squeezed out in favour of private providers. “The new government has accelerated this in one fell swoop,” he said.

WAYS has the backing of all the local politicians, including Waverley Mayor Sally Betts, a member of the organisation since 1988 and now on its board.

“A lot of young people who come here need other help. We are taking crucial support services away from really disadvantaged kids. I’m sure any new organisation would not be providing drug and alcohol assistance – profit organisations don’t supply those social programs,” she said.

“It’s really condemning our disadvantaged youth to the scrapheap of long term unemployment.”

Both Coogee MP Paul Pearce and Wentworth MP Malcolm Turnbull say WAYS has been extremely successful in delivering its finely targeted programs.  Mr Pearce, who previously made a representation to the Minister supporting WAYS, says the decision not to award the tender to WAYS needs to be revisited.

The Coalition has been arguing that the employment services model was designed for the job market of 18 months ago, and will not work in a climate of rising unemployment. It has called for more early intervention and work experience opportunities to help young workers.

A spokesperson for Employment Participation Minister Brendan O’Connor said the Government was legally obliged to tender for the Job Network as the Howard Government had rolled over the previous contracts so they could no longer be extended.

She said stakeholders had told the Government that employment services needed to be fundamentally reformed as the system was too confusing and complex.

Meanwhile, the Australian Services Union has indicated it will launch a website – saveourjobs.com.au – to help displaced employment services workers find a new job.