Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the variation in Connect to Work participation and employment outcomes between local authority and combined authority areas.

Connect to Work is being delivered locally across England and Wales and has been introduced on a phased basis, with delivery areas launching according to local readiness. As a result, there is variation in how long individual programmes have been operating, which affects the extent to which meaningful comparisons can currently be made between local authority and combined authority areas. We intend to publish data in due course on the progress local areas are making against delivery expectations, once sufficient evidence is available to support robust and meaningful comparisons.

The department regularly publishes Connect to Work official statistics. The latest statistics, which are also available in more detail on Stat-Xplore, cover the period from April 2025 to June 2026. For this period, 46 of the 48 delivery areas had launched their programmes, with 27 having operated for six months or more. Around 15,000 of the 25,000 starts on the programme occurred between March and June 2026, meaning a significant proportion of participants have not yet received sufficient support for outcomes to be fully realised.

Early indications for the programme’s performance are encouraging. Of the 4,400 participants who were out of work when joining the programme and who had received at least six months of support, 1,500 had achieved earnings from employment (34%). Moreover, of the 25,000 that started on the programme between April 2025 and June 2026, 26% of these were aged 16-24.

By June 2026, 7,200 people (including 2,700 aged 16 to 24) had started the more intensive SEQF (Supported Employment Quality Framework) support in Connect to Work. This is aimed at those with more complex barriers, including those who are neurodivergent or learning disabled. Of these, around 6,500 (90%) were out of work when starting the programme and 1,000 of these had already moved into work (including 420 young people).

We expect that the impact of the programme, including any variation in outcomes between areas, to become clearer as delivery matures and more participants complete their support journey.

Regarding a breakdown of the different complexities experienced by cohorts, the Management Information data is not currently of sufficient quality or coverage to meet the standards required for publication as Official Statistics, and therefore more detailed breakdowns are not currently published. We will keep this under review as publication of more detailed information in future Official Statistics will depend on how the MI data collection and processes mature.