Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what analysis has his Department has conducted to ascertain the effectiveness of the European Social Fund in supporting disabled people into work.

DWP is committed to evaluating the impact of the European Social Fund (ESF) 2014-2020 programme in England. Evaluating ESF is also a requirement of the European Commission. A key aim of the evaluation will be to assess the impact and effectiveness of ESF on the employability and employment outcomes of ESF participants who are furthest from the labour market, including disabled people and other groups that face disadvantage in the labour market. In July 2018 DWP published a scoping study* which set out how we plan to do this. As part of our evaluation we are also running a survey of ESF leavers, to capture their experiences and outcomes of the support they have received. The evaluation is planned for 2019 and we will publish the full results on GOV.UK in 2020.

ESF is a devolved matter for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

* See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/european-social-fund-impact-evaluation-research-design-and-scoping-study