THE new Work Programme goes active on Monday and yet with only days to go, I believe private agencies and civil servants are becoming increasingly worried that they have been given no training nor guidelines from the Government.

They have no need to worry, as just like Labour’s unorganised Flexible New Deal there will be nothing revolutionary about the new scheme, so no staff training will be required.

The Government is arranging this scheme on the cheap. It will remove 680,000 from the unemployed register and another one million next year by getting private agency staff to herd unemployed people into halls and centres and keep them occupied doodling with pens and paper.

Stephanie Finnegan, Eston, east Cleveland.