Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Accepted
Develop a workforce plan to ensure sufficient work coaches for the new jobs and careers service.
Recommendation
We are concerned that the Department will continue to not have enough work coaches to meet the growing demand for support. The shortage of work coaches has been caused by the Department securing inadequate funding from HM Treasury and by recruitment and retention challenges. Looking ahead, the demand for work coach support is expected to continue to increase and claimants’ needs are expected to become more complex. The proposals for reform set out in the November 2024 white paper and the March 2025 green paper have significant implications for jobcentres. 4 They include setting up a new jobs and careers service as a universal service not just support for benefit recipients, and providing tailored employment, health and skills support for claimants with a work-limiting health condition or disability. The Department envisages a ‘pyramid’ of support where many people will be able to access and self-serve using digital services, what it called a ‘jobcentre in your pocket’. It foresees that this will help to free up jobcentre resources to provide face-to-face support to those who need it. However, the Department acknowledges that redeploying 1,000 work coaches in 2025–26, to provide intensive support to around 65,000 people with health conditions and disabilities, will reduce the support available for other Universal Credit claimants. recommendation The Department should develop a workforce plan within twelve months and as part of its work to design and set up the new jobs and careers service. The plan should include details of the steps that the Department will take to make sure it has enough work coaches to provide face-to-face support to people who need it.
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and commits to developing a strategic workforce plan within 12 months as part of the Jobs and Careers Service Programme, which will anticipate workforce needs and ensure appropriate work coach resourcing.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee's recommendation. the long-term assessment, monitoring and maintenance of asset health in the water sector, in addition to recommendations to improve assurance of infrastructure delivery. The government is considering the Commission's recommendations and will respond to them in its White Paper, due to be published for consultation this autumn. Ofwat is consulting on the implementation of a new asset management licence condition which will require companies to gain external certification to the internationally recognised Asset Management Standard as well as provide updates on their progressing maturity. To address some water companies’ relative weakness in asset management maturity, Ofwat is progressing a number of themes of work including developing an asset condition assessment methodology. Companies will be expected to apply this methodology using a combination of existing and new inspection or survey data. The resulting insights will inform investment proposals submitted through the PR24 cost change process and future price reviews. Ofwat estimates that, building on data collected at PR24, it will have data that accounts for around 80% by value of the sector’s asset base by 2027. This is an ambitious project which will consider different ways of providing regulatory assurance, and Ofwat will give careful consideration to what is deliverable and proportionate. The Environment Agency has increased the number of staff dedicated to regulating the water industry by 440, including regulatory officers, data analysts, and enforcement specialists. Understanding whether infrastructure projects funded in PR24 are completed as required will be part of the regulator's inspections. The evidence being gathered will inform future annual performance assessments, investment plans, and proactive enforcement action. The Environment Agency and Ofwat are also developing a Delivery and Monitoring Framework (DMF) to ensure the timely completion of the water industry investment programme. This will be ready in the first half of 2026. This will track the completion of enhancement actions and report on progress and enable the sharing of intelligence across water regulators.