Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 9
9
Employers told the National Audit Office that in some cases they did not receive any...
Conclusion
Employers told the National Audit Office that in some cases they did not receive any referrals of job candidates at all, and that sometimes the Department removed their vacancies from its system without explanation.34 The charity Catch22, which has acted as a Kickstart gateway, told us that, in its experience, even when young people are referred to a vacancy, only around 20% actually make contact with the employer. In some cases, it said vacancies would receive over 50 referrals, but not a single young person would get in touch with the relevant employer.35 The Department suggested that situations like this, in which young people were referred for a vacancy but did not follow through to an interview, were less likely to happen when it was possible to bring work coaches, young 24 C&AG’s Report, paragraph 1.8. 25 PQ 904719 [on labour shortages and employment schemes], 13 December 2021. 26 Q2; C&AG’s Report, paragraph 2.9. 27 Q61; C&AG’s Report, paragraph 2.11. 28 C&AG’s Report, paragraph 2.10. 29 C&AG’s Report, paragraph 2.12. 30 Qq40, 45. 31 Q52. 32 Q54. 33 C&AG’s Report, paragraph 2.14. 34 C&AG’s Report, paragraph 2.4. 35 Ev DES0001 Catch-22. 12 DWP Employment Support: Kickstart Scheme people, and employers together in job centres.36 The Department also suggested that, in some cases, employers had unrealistic expectations of the types of role they could fill through the scheme.37
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 2.2 The department disagrees with the assertion of the Committee that slow progress was made in finding suitable people to fill Kickstart vacancies. Since the scheme started, around 160,000 Kickstart jobs have been filled by young people, with the final Kickstart jobs started by young people on 31 March 2022. The department expects the number of starts to increase further as employers report the commencement of employment. Kickstart District Account Managers actively engaged many employers and gateway organisations, that help employers get funding to create Kickstart jobs, by supporting them from the application process through to filling approved vacancies. The department has introduced creative and innovative ways to directly engage with employers such as: bespoke employer events, job fairs and attendance in Jobcentres to directly recruit young people and matching young people to jobs on the same day they are referred to the scheme. This approach has proved successful in attracting new employers to the scheme, increasing the range of Kickstart job opportunities and increasing the numbers of participating young people. 2.3 The department has also provided advice to employers from making their job adverts both compliant with Kickstart Scheme criteria to managing their expectations on the likely skills set and experience that most eligible young people would have acquired prior to participation. 2.4 The department also enhanced the functionality on the Find a Job service to both advertise all available Kickstart roles and introduce a self-serve option which allowed customers to match their skills and experience against their preferred jobs. As of January 2022, figures show that, since the scheme’s inception in November 2020, an average of 2,051 young people started a Kickstart job each week. In the final quarter of 2021-22 the average job starts have been over 3,000 a week.