FURTHER evidence has emerged of poor performance by council contractors paid to help unemployed people in Waltham Forest.

Failed charity O-Regen, which had close ties to the authority, broke promises to tackle long-term joblessness before going into financial meltdown last year.

Now research has shown that firm Kennedy Scott, which works closely with Job Centres and local authorities across the country, fell well short of targets on two contracts worth more than £3 million.

The company’s website boasts it ‘provided specialist job brokerage services for workless residents in Waltham Forest.

What it fails to mention is that the contracts were terminated early because the firm was unable to deliver.

Figures show that after being awarded the contracts in mid-2010, Kennedy Scott had only registered 28 clients by August, rather than the contract target of 128, due in part to unspecified staffing issues.

It also failed to place a single person into work.

In December 2010, council auditor David Blight reported partnership issues between O-Regen and Kennedy Scott, which included lots of discrepancies and a lot of files found to be below the required standard.

There was a staff overhaul in 2011, but targets continued to be missed.

A cabinet report in August 2011 states that, despite having a target of placing 61 people a month into work, Kennedy Scott in three months only helped 27 people start a job.

In October 2011, the company gave notice that it wished to terminate one of the contracts and it was wound down over six months.

It remains unclear what happened to the second contract.

As a result of its poor performance Kennedy Scott was only paid five per cent of the contracts value.

Nick Tiratsoo, whose research uncovered failings in tackling unemployment in the borough, said: “Local Labour politicians continually tell us that they are concerned about ‘worklessness’, and accept it is one of the root causes of the borough’s gang problem. Yet the Kennedy Scott programmes were a miserable failure, just like those run by O-Regen.

“The only losers were the youngsters who most needed help. The more that emerges about Worknet, the more it looks like another BNI, a fiasco of poor management and waste.”

Kennedy Scott's managing director, Steve Woolcock, said: "Kennedy Scott terminated the contract with Waltham Forest in November 2011 following a reduction of sites for programme delivery."