Select committee: Work and Pensions Committee

Recommendation 10

5th Report - Get Britain Working: Creating a new jobs and careers service Published 11 Sep 2025 Addressed to Department for Work and Pensions
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Government must also provide more certainty to staff and contractors. In the next 6 months, DWP should publish a transition plan for the NCS, setting out how it will be integrated into a new jobs and careers service and how contracts will be managed in the meantime. It should also commit to consulting with the unions representing staff in Jobcentres and the NCS. (Recommendation, Paragraph 45) 20

From: Work and Pensions Committee, 5th Report - Get Britain Working: Creating a new jobs and careers service (HC 1286), 11 September 2025

Government response

The government responded to the whole report on 14 November 2025 (deadline 11 November 2025).

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government accepts most of the Committee's recommendations on careers advice, but does not accept the call for a separate adult careers guidance strategy.

  • On a separate adult careers guidance strategy, the government says it "agree[s]" on the need for a coherent approach but "Do not accept" a separate strategy, as it "could risk our integrated Jobs and Careers Service vision". It says it "may" consider a Jobs and Careers Service strategy.
  • It accepts the funding recommendation: current National Careers Service contracts expire on 30 September 2026, after which adult careers advice in England will be brought "in house into DWP", ending the incentivised funding model.
  • On performance measures it "partially accept[s]", saying its evaluation strategy is "under development" and will be shared with the Committee "in due course".
  • It accepts the call for a transition plan, saying a detailed plan "will be published within the next six months" and that DWP is "committed to working with NCS contractors, employees and unions".

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