Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that adequate support is in place for jobseekers with (a) health conditions and (b) disabilities in the period between the end of referrals to the Work and Health Programme in Autumn 2024 and the start of Universal Support in 2025.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
When referrals to the Work and Health Programme (WHP) end in September and before Universal Support begins its rollout from Autumn 2024 there will still be services available for disabled people and those with health conditions who have employment support needs. These include Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies and the Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care (IPSPC) programme for disabled people and those with mild to moderate mental and physical health conditions.
It also includes, for example, the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) programme for people with drug and alcohol dependency and the Local Supported Employment (LSE) programme for people who are learning disabled, neurodivergent or Autistic as well as locally led employment support delivered through Jobcentres.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
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 people over the age of 50 receive adequate support through the Back to Work Plan.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government offers comprehensive support for eligible older jobseekers across the UK through the 50 Plus Choices Offer. This includes the provision of over 70 50plus Champions who play a key role in supporting delivery of a comprehensive package of support across the country.
The 2.5 billion Back to Work Plan, announced in the Autumn Statement 2023 includes measures to support all customers, including the over 50s, to find a job, progress in work and thrive in the labour market.
Through this Plan, the Government is boosting four key programmes, NHS Talking Therapies, Individual Placement and Support, Restart and Universal Support – to benefit up to 1.1 million people over the next five years and help those with mental or physical health conditions stay in or find work.
On 7 May, we announced that 15 areas across England will be piloting a new health support service as part of the Government’s plan to help people with health conditions back to work.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help improve the support provided by Jobcentre Plus centres in County Durham.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are 10 Jobcentres within County Durham, all of which have teams who actively collaborate with a range of partners to support people into work and, help employers to fill vacancies.
The Jobcentres are working with partners such as Durham New College, Derwentside College, East Durham College, Durham County Council, Barclays, the NHS, Community Hubs, National Careers Service, and Mental Health Matters to provide a wraparound employment and skills offer for customers. This offer is designed to support customers and help them find work and, help meet the recruitment needs of local employers.
We take a sector-based approach to recruitment and our Jobcentres have been working closely with employers to run Job Fairs for various sectors including manufacturing, Civil Service, hospitality, logistics, health care, construction, retail, security, adult social care and telecoms. As an example, Durham Jobcentre recently hosted a Care focussed event with employers including Care Academy, Embracing Care, HC One, Kelly Park and the NHS.
Disability Employment Advisers (DEA’s) offer advice and expertise on how to help disabled people and those with health conditions into work. the Embracing Employment and Healthcare trial is currently being piloted within Durham City Jobcentre. Employment and Healthcare Practitioners (EHPs) are co located within the Jobcentre working with customers who apply for Employment Support Allowance and Universal Credit and who have declared a health condition or disability. EHP’s work with them to understand the impact their health condition has on their daily lives, identifying their individual barriers and support them in addressing those barriers.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the progress towards the measures to retain doctors included in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan has a strong focus on retention, but is not starting from scratch. It builds on measures put in place though the NHS People Promise and NHS People Plan, to improve organisational culture, and the workplace experience of staff across the National Health Service.
The learning from the NHS National Retention Programme is that single retention interventions rarely have an impact, instead what is needed is sustained action over time, to address retention issues. Last month, NHS England set out a range of measures to improve the working lives of doctors in training, including improving choice and flexibility on rotas, streamlining and improving human resources and payroll support, and reforming statutory and mandatory training.
We have also taken action on pensions and changed the NHS Pension Scheme rules to make retirement more flexible, and encourage retired staff to return. This includes a new partial retirement option available from 1 October 2023 as an alternative to full retirement. Staff can now draw down some or all of their pension whilst continuing to work, and further building up their pension.
To ensure the delivery and review the progress of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, a Governance Board has been established to provide cross Government assurance of progress. The Government has committed to updating the modelling that underpins the Long Term Workforce Plan every two years, or in line with fiscal events as appropriate.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the financial impact on people whose PIP payments have been paused as a result of them being in hospital for more than 28 days.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have no current plans of carrying out an assessment of the financial impact of those who have been in hospital for over 28 days.
Where an adult age 18 or over is maintained free of charge while undergoing medical or other treatment as an in-patient in a hospital or similar institution funded by the NHS, payment of (but not entitlement to) Personal Independence Payment (PIP) ceases after 28 days. This is on the basis that the NHS is responsible for not only the person’s medical care but also the entirety of their disability-related extra costs and to pay PIP in addition would be a duplication of public funds intended for the same purpose. Once someone is discharged from hospital, payment of PIP recommences from the date of discharge.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of plans to reform the fit note process on people with mental ill health.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Good work is good for health. We know that good work can positively impact people’s physical and mental health and wellbeing. We also know that tailored work and health support can help break down the kinds of barriers that can make finding and staying in a job more difficult for those with mental health conditions.
In 2023, 24% of fit note episodes had a known diagnosis and of those, 33% are for mental and behavioural disorders. We are reforming the fit note process so that it starts with an assessment of what someone can do with the right support, rather than what they cannot. This builds on the £795m investment we made at Autumn Statement for additional funding over five years for mental health services to help support people with mental ill health to gain and/or retain employment, as well as our successful Employment Advisers in NHS Talking Therapies programme, which is now being rolled out across England.
Our ambition is to bring together preventative healthcare and employment systems to support people who are at risk of falling out of work or who have already fallen out of work due to ill health. We continue to work with stakeholders including mental health organisations and those with lived experience, to co-develop this policy, this includes seeking insight and evidence via a public call for evidence.
This work is an essential part of the Government’s ambition to improve health outcomes, and help people get access to the support they need to return to, remain and thrive in work.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to support (a) young disabled Londoners and (b) young black Londoners into employment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Disabled people and people with health conditions are a diverse group so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key.
The Government therefore has an ambitious programme of initiatives to support disabled people and people with health to start, stay and succeed in work. These include: Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies; the Work and Health Programme; Access to Work grants; Disability Confident; a digital information service for employers; Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres; increasing Work Coach support in Jobcentres; increasing access to Occupational Health; and expanding the Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care programme.
Building on this, we announced significant additional investment during the 2023 fiscal events. Alongside the delivery of our existing initiatives, we are now focused on delivering this package which includes: introducing Employment Advisors into MSK services; a new voluntary employment programme called Universal Support (US) which will provide wraparound support to 100,000 people a year once fully rolled out; WorkWell in approximately 15 pilot areas to provide light touch work and health support; exploring new ways of providing individuals receiving a fit note with timely access to support through our call for evidence launched on 19 April 2024; and establishing an expert group to advise on a voluntary national baseline for Occupational Health provision.
The Department for Work and Pensions Jobcentre youth offer provides a range of options to those seeking employment, including young Black Londoners. Additionally, we are taking targeted action where there is a high ethnic minority employment gap. The DWP Youth Offer provides individually tailored work coach support to young people aged 16 to 24 who are in the Universal Credit Intensive Work Search group. This includes the Youth Employment Programme, Youth Employability Coaches for young people with additional barriers to finding work, and Youth Hubs across Great Britain.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department took to engage with (a) disabled people and (b) disabled people's organisations when developing the Work Well programme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The 15 WorkWell pilot areas, which were announced on 7 May, will receive funding to locally design and lead their integrated work and health support services to meet the needs of their local populations. Pilot areas will be engaging end users, including disabled people, in the design and delivery of these services.
The lessons we learn from WorkWell will be critical to our longer-term work and will bolster the evidence base around what works to support disabled people to start, stay and succeed in work.
Prospective WorkWell pilot areas submitted applications which were scored against four criteria published in the WorkWell Prospectus on gov.uk (www.gov.uk/government/publications/workwell):
- Their understanding of the geography and demography of their chosen footprint;
- Their approach to work and health strategy integration;
- Their proposed delivery model for their WorkWell service;
- Their experience of and approach to, governance and working effectively with delivery partners across local systems.
In addition, a decision was taken to ensure that at least one site was selected in each of the 7 NHS England regions, and at least two of the 15 areas would be classified as predominantly rural.
The Department has commissioned an independent consortium of evaluators to carry out a national evaluation of WorkWell that will look to measure the effectiveness of the pilot, using surveys, interviews and econometric measures of success.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how his Department plans to measure the effectiveness of the WorkWell programme pilots.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The 15 WorkWell pilot areas, which were announced on 7 May, will receive funding to locally design and lead their integrated work and health support services to meet the needs of their local populations. Pilot areas will be engaging end users, including disabled people, in the design and delivery of these services.
The lessons we learn from WorkWell will be critical to our longer-term work and will bolster the evidence base around what works to support disabled people to start, stay and succeed in work.
Prospective WorkWell pilot areas submitted applications which were scored against four criteria published in the WorkWell Prospectus on gov.uk (www.gov.uk/government/publications/workwell):
- Their understanding of the geography and demography of their chosen footprint;
- Their approach to work and health strategy integration;
- Their proposed delivery model for their WorkWell service;
- Their experience of and approach to, governance and working effectively with delivery partners across local systems.
In addition, a decision was taken to ensure that at least one site was selected in each of the 7 NHS England regions, and at least two of the 15 areas would be classified as predominantly rural.
The Department has commissioned an independent consortium of evaluators to carry out a national evaluation of WorkWell that will look to measure the effectiveness of the pilot, using surveys, interviews and econometric measures of success.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what criteria his Department used to select the pilot areas for the WorkWell programme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The 15 WorkWell pilot areas, which were announced on 7 May, will receive funding to locally design and lead their integrated work and health support services to meet the needs of their local populations. Pilot areas will be engaging end users, including disabled people, in the design and delivery of these services.
The lessons we learn from WorkWell will be critical to our longer-term work and will bolster the evidence base around what works to support disabled people to start, stay and succeed in work.
Prospective WorkWell pilot areas submitted applications which were scored against four criteria published in the WorkWell Prospectus on gov.uk (www.gov.uk/government/publications/workwell):
- Their understanding of the geography and demography of their chosen footprint;
- Their approach to work and health strategy integration;
- Their proposed delivery model for their WorkWell service;
- Their experience of and approach to, governance and working effectively with delivery partners across local systems.
In addition, a decision was taken to ensure that at least one site was selected in each of the 7 NHS England regions, and at least two of the 15 areas would be classified as predominantly rural.
The Department has commissioned an independent consortium of evaluators to carry out a national evaluation of WorkWell that will look to measure the effectiveness of the pilot, using surveys, interviews and econometric measures of success.