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 young people with disabilities 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.
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 new jobs the Government aims to create through the Kickstart Scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Kickstart Scheme is a £2 Billion programme, planning to create thousands of new jobs for young people aged 16-24 at risk of long term unemployment. Whilst we will not limit our ambitions, our first priority is to ensure the quality of experiences created for young people.
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 specific steps she is taking to support women and girls facing multiple disadvantage into employment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Jobcentre Plus provides a range of support to people with multiple barriers to employment. Work Coaches provide support tailored to the individual, referring as appropriate to specialist provision such as the Work and Health Programme and local partner support, often funded by the department’s Flexible Support Fund. This support is being strengthen further by the Chancellor’s Plan for Jobs package, including the Kickstart Scheme, and the new Youth Offer.
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 plans she has to ensure that the Government’s Opportunity Guarantee, announced by the Prime Minister on 30th June, reaches young people in the North West of England.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Chancellor’s Plan for Jobs announcement in July outlined a comprehensive package of support for young people. The Kickstart programme was launched on 2 September and our new Youth Offer will provide a guaranteed foundation of support for 18-24 year olds in the Intensive Work Search Regime of Universal Credit.
A key part of the Youth Offer will be the national introduction of Youth Hubs, which will be co-located and co-delivered with local partners. Two Youth Hubs are now open in the North West of England and (subject to local COVID-19 restrictions) we expect a further four to open by the end of October. We are also introducing two demonstrator Youth Hubs where we can test our approach and share good practice with other areas.
We will build on the learning from these demonstrator sites with further expansion and additional Youth Hubs planned. In addition, all our Work Coaches – including those in the North West – will continue to signpost young people to the most appropriate local or national provision and ensure that no young person falls through the cracks.
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, whether the Kickstart scheme will include childcare provision to ensure that young parents are able to participate in that scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Kickstart scheme funding does not include covering the costs of childcare. Universal Credit allows for up to 85% of childcare costs to be claimed back, and young people with dependent children considering a Kickstart opportunity should speak with their Work Coach for further information.
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, whether the Opportunity Guarantee announced by the Prime Minister on 30 June 2020 remains Government policy.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Chancellor’s Plan for Jobs announcement in July outlined a comprehensive package of support for young people. As part of this, our new Youth Offer will provide a guaranteed foundation of support to all 18-24 year olds in the Intensive Worksearch group on Universal Credit. This includes our new 13-week Youth Employment Programme, the national expansion of the Youth Employability Coaches initiative and the Youth Hubs being rolled out nationally to help young people access wider support. These will be co-located and co-delivered with our network of external partners. Young people can be attached to a Youth Hub for up to 6 months to help them move either into work or onto appropriate training.
In addition, the Kickstart Scheme was launched on 2 September 2020 and will create hundreds of thousands of high quality, 6-month work placements aimed at young people aged 16-24.
We also continue to deliver our Mentoring Circles programme. This aims to increase the confidence, motivation and job search skills of the participants and will help them move closer to employment.
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 plans she has to roll out the Opportunity Guarantee announced by the Prime Minister on 30th June.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Chancellor’s Plan for Jobs announcement in July outlined a comprehensive package of support for young people. As part of this, our new Youth Offer will provide a guaranteed foundation of support to all 18-24 year olds in the Intensive Worksearch group on Universal Credit. This includes our new 13-week Youth Employment Programme, the national expansion of the Youth Employability Coaches initiative and the Youth Hubs being rolled out nationally to help young people access wider support. These will be co-located and co-delivered with our network of external partners. Young people can be attached to a Youth Hub for up to 6 months to help them move either into work or onto appropriate training.
In addition, the Kickstart Scheme was launched on 2 September 2020 and will create hundreds of thousands of high quality, 6-month work placements aimed at young people aged 16-24.
We also continue to deliver our Mentoring Circles programme. This aims to increase the confidence, motivation and job search skills of the participants and will help them move closer to employment.
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 plans she has to use (a) a Future Jobs Fund or (b) a similar scheme to support young people unemployed as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP is engaging cross-government to understand supply & demand across the labour market throughout and beyond the COVID-19 crisis. We are in discussions with other Government Departments and a range of stakeholders to explore all options. This is to ensure the right support is in place for individuals who have been adversely impacted by COVID-19 that will meet the needs of both the individuals, as well as local priorities. This engagement includes the Youth Employment Group, which includes Prince’s Trust, Youth Employment UK, Institute for Employment Studies, Youth Futures Foundation and Impetus.
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 he is taking to ensure that non-graduate education leavers are supported to secure employment as the covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We acknowledge that it is important that Jobcentres continue to support young people through the economic recovery. They have already started to re-engage with new and existing claimants.
DWP is also engaging with a number of external organisations including the Youth Employment Group (set up by Prince’s Trust, Youth Employment UK, Institute for Employment Studies, Youth Futures Foundation and Impetus) as well as continuing to work across Whitehall to ensure a range of appropriate support aimed at young people including those from more complex backgrounds.
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 the Government is taking to ensure that employers signed up to the Disability Confident Scheme are actively supporting disabled employees.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department for Work and Pensions is working at a district, regional and national level with Disability Confident employers, encouraging them to pro-actively attract, recruit and retain disabled people, offering help and support at every stage of the journey. The department provides employers with a range of material, videos and toolkits, to help them to develop best practice.
We are working closely with our stakeholders, including all main government departments, the Local Government Association, and Councils. The DWP Business Leaders Group, consisting of corporate influencers, is also helping to promote the benefits of employing a diverse range of employees, including disabled people.
Last year, we made a number of improvements to the scheme, including adding the requirement for Disability Confident Leader employers to use the Voluntary Reporting Framework (VRF) to publicly report on how they encourage and support disabled staff. Although there is flexibility in how employers can use the VRF, we expect that most would choose to combine it with their annual report and accounts.
In November 2018, we published the results of survey research commissioned from Ipsos MORI, which explored the effect that signing up to the Disability Confident scheme had on recruitment and retention attitudes towards disabled people. Half of all employers interviewed for the study said they had recruited at least one person with a disability, long-term health or mental health condition as a result of joining the scheme. Among larger employers, nearly two thirds reported the same. Eight in ten (80%) of employers interviewed had adopted at least one disability-related retention practice as a result of joining the scheme.