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A National Basic Skills Programme was implemented by the Employment Service (now Jobcentre Plus) in April 2001. Under this programme, jobseekers who had been unemployed for at least 6 months or were entering New Deal were screened for a basic skills need. If a need is confirmed, the customer would then be referred onto a basic skills training course. In order to explore the impact of sanctions on the people taking up and completing basic skills training more thoroughly, an extended 12 month Mandatory Training Pilot scheme was introduced in April 2004. This report presents findings from stages 1 and 2 of the 5-stage evaluation. The report explores the implementation and delivery of recent National Enhancements to the Basic Skills Programme. It also focuses on the views and attitudes of customers, Jobcentre Plus staff, and providers regarding the impact of sanctions and incentives on participation in the basic skills process.

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This report looks at: (1) use of Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) recruitment services; (2) experience of DWP recruitment initiatives; (3) experience of Universal Credit and the labour market; (4) older workers; (5) support for employees with mental health conditions; (6) access channels and internet usage; (7) child maintenance; and (8) disadvantaged groups and disability. The 2018 survey interviewed 4,201 employers across Great Britain. This is the third wave of the employer experience survey, and follows the DWP employer engagement and experience survey 2013 and DWP employer experience survey 2015 to 2016.

The Department will use the research to: (1) understand performance - findings will provide insight into the service delivered to employers, allowing for operational and policy development, and identify areas where service delivery can be improved; (2) understand awareness - findings will be used to look at employer awareness of DWP services and policies and compare this across organisation size, sector and region; and (3) transform business - the survey provides insight around employer use of digital services and employer preferences for interacting with DWP.

The findings in this report are primarily based on employers' direct experience of DWP services and policies, and their experiences of a range of workplace management topics. The survey also included a small number of perception-based questions which asked employers about their views of DWP services and policies, whether or not they had experienced them directly. Employer perceptions of DWP services and policies are important in better understanding how employers view what the department delivers, and to help us understand and address any concerns.

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This report presents the findings of a systematic review of the evidence base relating to working poor families with dependent children. The review aims to increase understanding of research in this area and produce findings that will help inform future policy and research. The systematic review was conducted in two stages. The first stage described the research that has been undertaken on the barriers to, and facilitators of, reducing in-work poverty in families with dependent children. Stage two of the review involved a synthesis of a subset of these studies, focusing on the effectiveness of interventions with the potential to reduce working poverty in two-parent families.

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This report presents key findings from an evaluation of the Jobcentre Plus Support for Schools programme across six pathfinder areas in England. The research involved 43 in-depth interviews with a range of stakeholders across the six areas including: Jobcentre Plus schools advisers; key local partners including Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP, coalition organisations formed of local businesses) and the Careers and Enterprise Company's (CEC) Employer Advisor Network (EAN, a network set up to facilitate stronger links between businesses and schools and colleges) staff; careers leads from both participating and non-participating schools; and employers connected to the programme.

The overarching aim of the pathfinder evaluation was to inform the design, delivery and operation of the national roll-out of the Jobcentre Plus Support for Schools programme. Specific objectives for this stage of the evaluation were to: explore demand for the support offered through the programme, and the best use of resource to meet this demand; explore the nature and scope of support wanted by schools; identify ways in which the service level of support delivered to schools can be improved; and provide guidance about best practice on effective delivery between Jobcentre Plus, intermediaries, schools and employers. 'Evaluation of Jobcentre Plus Support for Schools programme: national roll-out evaluation', published in 2018, is available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 132.480.

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Amongst the specific measures contained in the New Deal for Skills (NDfS) when it was announced in 2004 were the development of a Skills Coaching service and the introduction of Skills Passports. The key objective of the proposed Skills Coaching service was to add value to existing Jobcentre Plus support for customers. Those eligible for Skills Coaching were adults (aged 20 and over) claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance or an inactive benefit (IAB) for whom a lack of skills was the barrier to sustained employment. Trials of Skills Coaching and Skills Passports commenced in April 2005 in eight Jobcentre Plus districts. Access to Skills Coaching is through Jobcentre Plus Advisers who refer eligible customers to the service. After an initial interview, Skills Coaching leads to an assessment of the individual’s employability and agreement of a Skills Development Plan setting out skill-related objectives for the customer. Skills Coaches then broker learning provision through local providers to enable the customer to meet their Skill Development Plan objectives. Skills Coaches also provide support during learning activities and/or at the end of their period of learning. Where customers remain on benefit, Skills Coaches will refer the customer back to their Jobcentre Plus Adviser. The Skills Coaching programme also incorporates the trial development of Skills Passports. The Skills Passport was designed to provide a record of learning and achievement that meets the needs of both individuals and employers. This report presents the findings of an evaluation of the Skills Coaching trials undertaken by the Warwick Institute for Employment Research (IER). The evaluation consisted of two main strands: First, qualitative interviews were conducted with Skills Coaching customers, Jobcentre Plus Advisers, Skills Coaches, Nextstep Advisers and training providers at the six month and 10 month points of the trials. Second, quantitative analysis of the take up of Skills Coaching, the volume and characteristics of participants, the types of services received, and the outcomes achieved was conducted using data from the Jobcentre Plus Labour Market System (LMS) and the Learning and Skills Council Management Information (LSC MI) system. By June 2006, IER had produced three reports on Skills Coaching, consisting of two reports on the qualitative surveys and a third report providing quantitative analysis of MI. The present report provides a synthesis of the evidence presented in these earlier IER reports and draws together the qualitative and quantitative evidence. It seeks to provide a comprehensive assessment of the implementation, delivery and impact of the Skills Coaching initiative. The evidence reported here relates to the first 12 months of operation of the Skills Coaching trials (April 2005 to March 2006).

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The Youth Contract was launched in April 2012 in order to improve the employability prospects for young claimants under 25. This is the first of a series of research reports from a comprehensive evaluation of the Youth Contract package of policies. Wage incentives are a key element of the UK Government's Youth Contract measures. Wage incentives are a payment made available to employers recruiting an unemployed 18 to 24-year-old participant of the Work Programme. From late July 2012, in 20 local authority areas designated as 'youth unemployment hotspots', wage incentives were also made available via Jobcentre Plus for 18 to 24-year-olds that have been claiming for six months and are not yet attached to the Work Programme. The scheme was extended further in December 2012 so that all 18 to 24-year-olds who have been claiming for six months have access. This report provides some early feedback on delivery and impact of the scheme, based on a survey of employers who have received a wage incentive claim form, alongside qualitative research with Work Programme providers and Jobcentre Plus staff.

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WORKSTEP is part of a broad range of schemes funded by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which aims to help disabled people find and retain work. These programmes are managed by Jobcentre Plus, an executive agency of DWP, and provided by a range of organisations in the public, private and not-for-profit sector. WORKSTEP was introduced in April 2001, and incorporated a number of key changes to its predecessor, the Supported Employment Programme, all of which aimed to modernise service provision. The changes embodied in the WORKSTEP programme were a significant challenge for existing service providers and in recognition of this, the Government announced an allocation of UKP 37.2 million in Programme Modernisation Funding, available over a period of three years. The overall aim of the Funds was to both stimulate and enable change to occur within existing provider organisations, making them better placed to deliver WORKSTEP. This report presents the findings of research on WORKSTEP Modernisation Funds, aiming to evaluate the delivery of the funding and the nature and impact of activities and investments arising from it. The research was carried out by the Centre for Public Policy during 2005, and it linked into their evaluation of the WORKSTEP Programme. It involved interviews with Jobcentre Plus and provider organisation staff and an analysis of Modernisation Project documentation. The research examined the background to the Modernisation Funds initiative, the promotion and administration of the Funds, and reviewed the range of initiatives that were supported.

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This report examines expectations, experiences and outcomes for beneficiaries of European Social Fund (ESF) Objective 3 training in England. It presents data from two waves of longitudinal research carried out in 2005. The first was conducted with beneficiaries while they were enrolled on an ESF-funded course, and the second wave was conducted with the same beneficiaries once they had left their course. The findings reveal that ESF-funded training courses have been successful in targeting beneficiaries who face a wide range of potential labour market disadvantages. It also shows that beneficiaries’ expectations of their courses are generally met, and that gains and improvements appear to be relatively well-focused on key groups of beneficiaries. There is also a positive move from unemployment to employment for many beneficiaries, with employment rising by nearly half over the course of the study and unemployment falling in a proportionally similar manner. However, employment outcomes and skill gains for people who were not in work or education - or actively seeking employment - when they joined their course were not as marked, indicating that ESF-funded courses may need to focus on these beneficiaries’ training needs more effectively. Drawing on over 6,000 interviews, the report presents a wealth of information for anyone seeking to better understand the effectiveness of large-scale training programmes.

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Following the European Employment Directive, the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 outlawing age discrimination in employment and vocational training came into force in the UK in October 2006. These regulations made unjustified age discrimination in employment and vocational training unlawful. The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) commissioned a survey of employers' policies and practices with an age dimension prior to the implementation of the regulations. The main purpose of the survey was to enable the effectiveness of the draft Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 to be evaluated in the future, through providing a baseline measure of these policies and practices against which future change could be measured. The study was based on a representative survey of 2,087 establishments in Britain with at least five employees, conducted between November 2004 and May 2005. Respondents were the most senior person with an overview of human resource policies for the establishment.

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The Health and Well-being Survey of Employers was jointly commissioned by the Cross-Government Health, Work and Well-being Strategy Unit and the UK Department for Work and Pensions. Between February and May 2010, 2,250 British employers were interviewed. The employer survey was commissioned to provide new evidence to address gaps in knowledge about: employers' perceptions of the importance of work to health and health to work and to what extent investment in health and well-being was deemed a priority; the promotion of health and well-being at work through the availability of health and well-being initiatives or support; evidence of how organisations engaged with their staff, by exploring the methods used to communicate with the workforce and to what extent organisations acted on employee feedback; measures of business productivity, namely incidence and management of sickness absence, and measures of labour turnover; and information regarding employers' occupational sick pay policies.

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