Now entering the second ‘critical’ year of the programme, Conlan-Trant describes the first 12 months of the scheme as "the panic stage", over how to actually deliver the scheme now that it had been accepted.

After the initial confusion, Conlan-Trant now believes the programme to have "bedded down", and now expects the programme to improve by entering his self titled ‘change period,’ a period which presents the tasks concerning volume’ sustainability, and scrutiny, like never before.

The ‘volume’ of change, is further explained by fellow TBG colleague David Umpleby as a reference to the number of referrals, caseloads, jobs required now that the scheme is "embarking on quite a radical change programme". The Work Programme also faces the task of broader employer engagement and continued support for those in work.

"We’ve realised we can’t do things the way we used to do things," said Umpleby, who also explained the need for a cultural, as well as an operational, change to the Work Programme in order to drive performance. Umpleby describes the many changes he has seen to this "ambitious programme", throughout his time working in different roles, both with TBG and with the DWP, and emphasises the need to approach any changes better and more efficiently and "in a way that delivers quality to the customer".

"There’s a lot of us who’ve got a long way to go in understanding that cultural change required", admitted Umpleby, but the challenge of TGB at the moment, he stated, is to closely analyse delivery in order to resolve this issue while ensuring any changes made, "manage[s] quality and risk at the same time".

Daisy Atkinson

Click below to view our interviews with TBG's Andrew Conlan-Trant and David Umpleby: