Recommendation 8

Another factor in the reduced take up of the scheme has been the length of time taken by the Department to advertise and fill Kickstart roles.28 Some employers have complained of delays, both in the Department’s processes for accepting bids for vacancies, and in receiving referrals of young people to interview for Kickstart jobs.29 The Department told us it was confident it had sped up its own administrative processes over time.30 Conversely, the Department told us that employers were taking longer to return scheme forms, although in some cases these delays were exaggerated by shortcomings and inaccuracies in its own management information.31 The Department also conceded that its management information only allowed it to track how long it took to process and advertise vacancies, not how long it took to actually fill vacancies once advertised. The Department agreed that it would be interesting to be able to measure this aspect of the scheme’s performance, but did not suggest it was taking any actions to develop such a measure.32 The Department’s best indication from its data was that it has generally taken several months to fill each job once advertised, though some have been filled much faster.33