Employment support: The Kickstart Scheme

To help ensure the scheme is best targeted, the Department should monitor whether work coaches refer the right people to the scheme by: a) reviewing and setting out the likely characteristics of the participants most likely to benefit given the changing economy (for instance, should it focus more strictly on those who have already been on Universal Credit for six months or more?);

Ref Page 13, paragraph 25, point a

j) providing in its planned evaluation a quantitative and qualitative assessment of Kickstart’s economic impact on participating organisations, such as changes or increases in output, or changes in business practices.

Ref Page 14, paragraph 27, point j · Implemented Q3 2025-26

To help ensure Kickstart participants receive high-quality support alongside their jobs, the Department should monitor the support provided, by: k) establishing standards to benchmark the quality and quantity of employability support it expects Kickstart participants to receive;

Ref Page 14, paragraph 28, point k

l) conducting proactive routine monitoring of what employment support organisations participating in Kickstart are providing; and

Ref Page 14, paragraph 28, point l

m) establishing (and on a proportionate basis using) rights to recover funding if employers provide inadequate employment support.

Ref Page 14, paragraph 28, point m · Implemented Q1 2026-27

To support public and Parliamentary accountability, and long-term value for money the Department should ensure it is transparent by: n) publishing regular, timely statistics on Kickstart’s progress, including participation rates nationally and locally, early outcomes and data on diversity;

Ref Page 15, paragraph 29, point n

o) monitoring Kickstart’s impact over at least the five years on which its original business case assumptions are based;

Ref Page 15, paragraph 29, point o · Implemented Q1 2025-26

p) publishing the results of its planned evaluation promptly, when available; and

Ref Page 15, paragraph 29, point p

q) in future schemes, setting out in both the Outline and Final Business Case the management data required to manage the programme and the scope and schedule of the routine statistics that will be published about the programme.

Ref Page 15, paragraph 29, point q

To ensure that it is able to implement schemes similar to Kickstart quickly and effectively in the future, the Department should: r) identify what Kickstart design elements, infrastructure, capability and functions it can retain after the scheme is finished (for example, functionality for work coaches to refer claimants to jobs offered by employers); and

Ref Page 15, paragraph 30, point r

s) conduct a full lessons-learned exercise on how to expand such a programme rapidly.

Ref Page 15, paragraph 30, point s

b) analysing the population of young people on Universal Credit by these characteristics to assess the numbers likely to be suitable for Kickstart (including whether these young people are searching for work);

Ref Page 13, paragraph 25, point b

c) publishing statistics on whether support goes to those groups with the characteristics of participants the Department believes will most benefit from the scheme; and

Ref Page 13, paragraph 25, point c

d) investigating variations from its expectation to ensure it is satisfied that work coaches are using their discretion to appropriately target the scheme at those at risk of scarring and provide further guidance as necessary.

Ref Page 13, paragraph 25, point d

To help ensure the scheme is accessed by those most likely to benefit, the Department should assess why there are many people who are eligible for the scheme in principle but that are not taking up the outstanding vacancies, by: e) collecting information through work coaches as to why young people on their caseload who are eligible for Kickstart are not applying for the outstanding Kickstart vacancies or failing to get a Kickstart job;

Ref Page 14, paragraph 26, point e

f) assessing what it can do to address any barriers identified, including whether providing additional employability support would give more young people the confidence to take on a Kickstart job (for instance, through its other programmes); and

Ref Page 14, paragraph 26, point f

g) reporting the findings to Parliament so that lessons can be learnt for future schemes.

Ref Page 14, paragraph 26, point g

To help ensure that the jobs created additional economic output, the Department should monitor indicators that a job is additional where it can, by: h) conducting routine monitoring and inspection of employers to establish whether organisations participating in Kickstart fulfil the conditions around additionality they set out in their applications;

Ref Page 14, paragraph 27, point h

i) setting out the logical steps and criteria of jobs most likely to create additional economic output (for instance, the organisation is not hiring for similar unsubsidised jobs) and monitoring as many of those criteria as possible while the programme is live to ascertain whether it is on course to deliver additional economic output; and

Ref Page 14, paragraph 27, point i