SINTEF has been commissioned for The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration conducted an evaluation of the scheme of arrangement grants. The project is funded by the NAV program FARVE funds for work and welfare. The evaluation examined the characteristics of organisations that have received grants and facilitating the experiences of businesses and NAV job centers have with the grant. Data sources are registry data, document review, interviews and questionnaires.
Accounting data from NAV linked with register data from Statistics Norway show that 68 percent of the grant in 2011 went to public. Municipal services received the most (54 percent of the grant). 58 percent of the grant of 2011 was spent on individual-oriented measures. Registry data show that virtually all given by facilitating grants given to businesses that are prioritised by NAV.
Sick leave is higher in businesses that receive grants. Controlled for size of business, sector, industry and county it remains the case that businesses receiving facilitation grants, on average, almost one percentage point higher sickness absence than those who do not receive grants. It therefore appears that there are businesses with high sick leave that receive grants, cf intention.
We also find that there remains some work by Working centers before we have reached the goal of equality in the process, good guidance, and dialogue with businesses.
Public sector receives two out of three grant dollars and it is thus fair to say that adaptation funding has been an arrangement that largely involves money transfers from government to government agencies. Substantial public resources are also used to apply for grants and to process applications.
The system of facilitation grants in present form has significant weaknesses, regardless of whether the focus is on group projects or individual activities.