Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing multi-year funding employability programmes funded by her Department.

Employment programmes such as the Restart Scheme and the Work and Health Programme currently use multi-year funding to ensure the Department secures value for money and delivers employment support that is cost effective.

The Department is also working with local areas in England and Wales to deliver the manifesto commitment to enable local areas to shape a joined-up work, health, and skills offer for local people. This will start with multi-year funding to expand the availability of a new national supported employment programme with an offer shaped around local priorities. This new programme will help disabled people, those with health conditions and those with complex employment barriers to find and fulfil their potential to work.

The main costs for these programmes and their providers are staffing, estates and digital infrastructure, all of which would be higher for single year than for multi-year funded programmes due to a combination of set-up and recruitment costs being absorbed over lower volumes and costs of temporary staff, short leases and other provider costs being higher generally.

The benefits of multi-year funded programmes include reduced costs, increased value for money and positive returns to the Exchequer.