Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to undertake an evaluation of (a) the Community Partner Programme and (b) that programme’s effect on claimants with mental health problems.

We currently have no plans to conduct an external evaluation of the work of the Community Partners and the contribution that they have made, but an internal review of the Community Partner role and other disability employment enabling roles identified that there was some overlap in the support provided to claimants. In order to remove the overlap and focus on key areas we are introducing new disability employment roles from April 2019.

We are committed to continually improving the employment support we offer disabled people, including those with mental health conditions, and will ensure valuable learning from the Community Partners is built into the ongoing support we provide through our Jobcentres. We will not be reducing the amount of resource devoted to supporting disabled people into work.

We are investing up to £115 million of programme funding to support the work and health agenda to enable investment in new models and to build the evidence of what works. This includes mental health trials - more than doubling the number of Employment Advisers in Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services - and the £3.9 million Challenge Fund, which was launched in November 2018.