12
Conclusion
Thirty-Ninth Report - DWP Employment Su…
Deferred
In its business case, the Department recognised the risk that Kickstart might fund jobs that would have been created anyway, and assumed that only 50% of the jobs it funded would in fact be additional.46 However, it told us it was ‘very careful’ about the applications it agreed to fund, …
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In its business case, the Department recognised the risk that Kickstart might fund jobs that would have been created anyway, and assumed that only 50% of the jobs it funded would in fact be additional.46 However, it told us it was ‘very careful’ about the applications it agreed to fund, and imposed checks on the additionality of the jobs employers were proposing to create.47 It said these checks included asking employers ‘quite stringent’ 36 Qq19–21. 37 Q41. 38 Q93; C&AG’s Report, paragraph 17. 39 C&AG’s Report, Figure 6. 40 C&AG’s Report, Figure 9. 41 Q93. 42 C&AG’s Report, paragraph 1.24. 43 Qq27, 36; C&AG’s Report, paragraph 1.24. 44 C&AG’s Report, paragraph 1.28. 45 C&AG’s Report, paragraph 1.28. 46 C&AG’s Report, paragraph 9. 47 Q10. DWP Employment Support: Kickstart Scheme 13 questions about whether they were planning to create the jobs in question anyway, in the absence of Kickstart funding.48 The Department acknowledged that ‘to a degree we have to believe what they are telling us’, but implied that its tests must be robust on the basis that it had rejected nearly one in two (47%) of all applications from employers.49 However, the Department also told us that, in an effort to increase the number of application approvals, it had adopted a practice of telephoning employers whose applications had been rejected, to ‘talk through the application with them’, and thereby ‘get a better understanding of what they were saying about additionality’.50 Once it has awarded funding to employers, the Department does not routinely check whether Kickstart jobs are actually additional.51
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees with the committee's point and is conducting an ongoing evaluation of the Kickstart Scheme, with process findings to be published in Spring 2023. This evaluation will consider how scheme experiences and outcomes vary and inform future employment support.
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HM Treasury
16
Conclusion
Thirty-Ninth Report - DWP Employment Su…
Deferred
The Department conducted its first analysis of Kickstart participants’ ethnicity in August 2021, 11 months after Kickstart had launched, and found that a slightly greater proportion of Kickstart participants were from a Black or ethnic minority group than 55 C&AG’s Report, paragraph 16. 56 C&AG’s Report, paragraph 1.9. 57 Qq12, …
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The Department conducted its first analysis of Kickstart participants’ ethnicity in August 2021, 11 months after Kickstart had launched, and found that a slightly greater proportion of Kickstart participants were from a Black or ethnic minority group than 55 C&AG’s Report, paragraph 16. 56 C&AG’s Report, paragraph 1.9. 57 Qq12, 87. 58 Q2. 59 C&AG’s Report, paragraph 16; C&AG’s Report, Supporting disabled people to work, Session 2017–19, HC 1991, 28 March 2019, paragraph 3.15. 60 Q55. 61 Committee of Public Accounts, DWP Employment support, Fifteenth Report of Session 2021–22, HC 177, 8 September 2021. 62 C&AG’s Report, paragraph 3.8. 63 Qq6, 19. DWP Employment Support: Kickstart Scheme 15 the wider cohort of 16- to 24-year-olds claiming Universal Credit and seeking work.64 The Department made use of ethnicity data from the Longitudinal Education Outcomes data (the National Pupil Dataset) for this analysis, because its own Universal Credit data are still not complete enough to generate meaningful analysis.65 The Department also conducted research on the first 20,000 Kickstart participants, and found that those with higher levels of education were more likely to be referred to Kickstart jobs, and also more likely to be appointed to the job once referred.66 Although the Department advertised through ethnic radio stations and contextually-targeted digital advertising, and told us that it is working with Gateways that can target and support people from black and ethnic-minority backgrounds and other disadvantaged groups, it has not sought to use the scheme to tackle inequalities in the labour market.67 The Department told us that it wants Kickstart to be “available for everyone we feel is at risk of scarring, and that comes down to the discretion of work coaches”.68 Assuring the quality of Kickstart jobs and employability training
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees with the committee's point and is conducting an ongoing evaluation of the Kickstart Scheme, with process findings to be published in Spring 2023. This evaluation will consider how scheme experiences and outcomes vary and inform future employment support.
Read full response →
HM Treasury