Value for Money
Employment support: The Kickstart Scheme
Published 26 November 2021
19 recommendations
Department for Work and Pensions
BenefitsEducation, training and skillsEmploymentTraining and skillsWork, welfare and pensions
nao.org.uk
This report examines how well DWP’s Kickstart scheme was implemented, and whether it is having the intended positive impact.
Recommendations (19)
Source: NAO Recommendations Tracker
Department for Work and Pensions
Rec 1
Rejected
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?);
Department for Work and Pensions
Rec 10
Accepted
Implemented
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.
Department for Work and Pensions
Rec 11
Accepted
Implemented
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;
Department for Work and Pensions
Rec 12
Accepted
Implemented
l) conducting proactive routine monitoring of what employment support organisations participating in Kickstart are providing; and
Department for Work and Pensions
Rec 13
Accepted
Work in Progress
m) establishing (and on a proportionate basis using) rights to recover funding if employers provide inadequate employment support.
Department for Work and Pensions
Rec 14
Rejected
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;
Department for Work and Pensions
Rec 15
Partially Accepted
Implemented
o) monitoring Kickstart’s impact over at least the five years on which its original business case assumptions are based;
Department for Work and Pensions
Rec 16
Accepted
Implemented
p) publishing the results of its planned evaluation promptly, when available; and
Department for Work and Pensions
Rec 17
Accepted
Implemented
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.
Department for Work and Pensions
Rec 18
Accepted
Implemented
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
Department for Work and Pensions
Rec 19
Accepted
Implemented
s) conduct a full lessons-learned exercise on how to expand such a programme rapidly.
Department for Work and Pensions
Rec 2
Rejected
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);
Department for Work and Pensions
Rec 3
Partially Accepted
Implemented
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
Department for Work and Pensions
Rec 4
Rejected
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.
Department for Work and Pensions
Rec 5
Rejected
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;
Department for Work and Pensions
Rec 6
Partially Accepted
No Longer Relevant
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
Department for Work and Pensions
Rec 7
Accepted
Implemented
g) reporting the findings to Parliament so that lessons can be learnt for future schemes.
Department for Work and Pensions
Rec 8
Accepted
Implemented
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;
Department for Work and Pensions
Rec 9
Partially Accepted
Implemented
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