Recommendation 5

It is not fully clear how the Department is spending the £55 million allocated for 2025–26 to test elements of the new jobs and careers service. In the 2024 Autumn Budget, the government allocated £55 million for the Department to invest in developing and testing elements of the jobs and careers service in 2025–26. The Department is spending some of this money on a coaching academy to upskill its work coaches, on ‘pathfinder projects’ in some parts of the country and on developing digital services, but has not yet allocated all of the £55 million. The Department says that funding is available for good proposals coming forward from different parts of the organisation. But it did not indicate how much of the £55 million has so far been committed and how much is left to be allocated. We are now several months into the financial year so it is important that the Department works out quickly how to make best use of the funding, rather than making rushed decisions at the last minute. recommendation Alongside its Treasury Minute response, the Department should write to us setting out how much of the £55 million has been committed and what its plans are for using the remainder of the money. 6