Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Kickstart work placements have been created by industry since that scheme was introduced.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of 19/01/2021 there have been over 100,000 job placements approved by the Department for Work and Pensions’ Kickstart Scheme. Of these, we are only able to collect data on those jobs that have been confirmed through grant agreements with the employer and then uploaded as a vacancy through our jobcentres.
The sector information for each job is not categorised by ‘industry’.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Kickstart scheme, how many work coaches have been employed to date; and what their average salary is.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Work Coach Recruitment is separate to the Kickstart Scheme but both are key tools to help people into the labour market. All Job Centre Plus Work Coaches are able to refer young people to the Kickstart scheme. As at 22 January, 8,685 new work coaches have started since March 2020. Work Coaches are employed in the Executive Officer grade for which DWP applies a spot rate, which is currently £27,565.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Kickstart Scheme, how many and what proportion of Kickstart work placements have been created in the North West.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The location of Kickstart jobs is not known until bidders have signed their grant agreement and provided full details of the role in the format which enables us to make it available for work coaches to refer suitable young people. We are not currently able to provide regional breakdowns of data.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Kickstart Scheme, how many and what proprotion of Kickstart work placements have been created in the North East.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The location of Kickstart jobs is not known until bidders have signed their grant agreement and provided full details of the role in the format which enables us to make it available for work coaches to refer suitable young people. We are not currently able to provide regional breakdowns of data.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Work Coaches have been employed under the Kickstart scheme since that scheme was introduced.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) Kickstart Scheme is available across Great Britain. All Job Centre Plus Work Coaches are able to refer young people to the scheme. A number of other local staff have also been involved throughout the development and implementation of the scheme to bring local knowledge and expertise to the programme.
As part of the Government’s Plan for Jobs, the DWP is recruiting an extra 13,500 new Work Coaches, and this process is underway. This recruitment is separate to the Kickstart Scheme.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure young deaf people who are not eligible for universal credit can access the Kickstart Scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
A young person is eligible for a job on the Kickstart Scheme if they are aged 16-24, on Universal Credit (UC), and considered to be at risk of long term unemployment by their work coach. The Department of Work and Pensions has no current plans to extend the eligibility for the scheme beyond UC claimants, but we will keep that under review. If a young person is deaf or has hearing difficulties this would not prevent them from being referred to a Kickstart Scheme job as it is open to all young people who are on UC as long as they meet the eligibility/suitability criteria.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many work placements have been created under the Kickstart scheme as of January 2021.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of 19/01/2021 there have been over 110,000 jobs approved by the Department for Work and Pensions’ Kickstart Scheme.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 16 November 2020 to Question 114936 on Kickstart Scheme: Ethnic Groups, what steps her department i taking to help ensure collection of data on the proportion of jobs created as part of the Kickstart scheme allocated to Black, Asian and minority ethnic young people; and what her timescale is for making information available on (a) ethnicity, (b) disability and (c) other disadvantaged groups amongst Kickstart participants.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions’ Kickstart Scheme is providing job placements for 16-24 year olds at risk of long term unemployment. Young people will be directed to the scheme through a Job Centre by a Work Coach. This will ensure that those who need support the most are able to benefit, regardless of ethnicity, disability or any disadvantage.
Some personal information, including ethnicity of participants, is voluntarily provided when a young person applies for a placement. This means that any information might not be a fully accurate representation of demographics.
Our data gathering is still in its early stages but we have plans for a wider evaluation of Kickstart that will draw on available data and insights (such as case studies from young people, participant surveys and feedback from Work Coaches) where possible showing outcomes and effects for different groups, including by gender, ethnicity and those facing additional barriers to employment. We will feed this insight into the programme as we continue to roll it out. No information is currently available but we will consider how this might be published in due course.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to enable service users of supported accommodation to access employment services.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The department (DWP) provides a range of support to the different vulnerable groups who may live in supported accommodation.
For people at risk of homelessness, we help them to make Universal Credit claims, provide tailored support through Jobcentre Plus and priority access to the Work and Health Programme.
DWP has also put into place a range of measures to support disabled people and their employers, including specialised employment support programmes such as Access to Work and Disability Confident. During the Covid-19 outbreak, we have made changes to ensure disabled people have still been able to access this specialist employment support.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of jobs created as part of the Kickstart scheme have been allocated to Black, Asian and minority ethnic young people to date.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Data gathering is in its early phase and as such we are not able to reliably break Kickstart participant data down by ethnicity, disability or other disadvantaged group.