Jobcentre Plus: Delivering the Government’s New Strategy

Jobcentre Plus support Greater focus on diagnosing customers’ individual needs More flexibility and responsibility for Jobcentre advisers Increased autonomy for local managers Raised expectations of customer commitment to finding work Extending range of digital services Clear focus on getting customers off benefits and into jobs Option for advisers to mandate suitable customers to Mandatory Work Activity

Get Britain Working measures A menu of flexible support options to encourage: more sharing of skills and experience through Work Clubs volunteering as a way of developing work skills through Work Together self-employment as a route off benefits through the New Enterprise Allowance and via Enterprise Clubs offering community based and locally led support for unemployed people greater insight into the world of work through Work Experience pre-employment training and work placements through sector-based work academies Partnership between voluntary sector, colleges, employers and Government

Work Clubs Work Clubs provide unemployed people with a place to meet and exchange skills, share experiences, find opportunities, make contacts and get support to help them in their return to work. The Government has been supporting the development of local Work Clubs since October More than 500 Work Clubs are now being run within local communities by charities, voluntary organisations and businesses, amongst others.

Work Together Claimants who are interested in volunteering are given further information by Jobcentre Plus advisers and signposted to: local organisations that have agreed to support unemployed people on-line support, such as Do-it specific opportunities in their communities

New Enterprise Allowance Participants will get access to a volunteer business mentor who will provide guidance and support as they develop their business plan and through the early months of trading. Once a claimant can demonstrate they have a viable business proposition with the potential for growth in the future, they will be able to access financial support. This will consist of: a weekly allowance worth £1,274 over 26 weeks, paid at £65 a week for the first 13 weeks and £33 a week for a further 13 weeks, and the facility to access a loan of up to £1,000 to help with start-up costs, subject to status.

Work Experience offers eligible 18 to 24 year old unemployed people between two and eight weeks work experience provides young unemployed people with a new potential route onto an Apprenticeship. is targeted at claimants who are harder to help, particularly those who want to work but find their lack of experience a barrier to employment, for example, people seeking a job for the first time

Support for young unemployed  Early access to the Work Programme for 18 year olds who claimed JSA when aged  Work Experience available to year old JSA claimants  Increased adviser support for year olds on JSA  Signposting advice available to year olds who are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET)  Work Clubs extended to year olds  Additional funding available to help year olds develop job seeking skills

Youth Contract a Work Experience or sector based work academy place for every unemployed year old who wants one (after they have been on JSA for 3 months) before they enter the Work Programme. extra Jobcentre Plus support for all year olds wage incentives to make it easier for employers to take on young people additional funding to support the growth of year old apprenticeships a new programme for persistently NEET 16 and 17 year olds to get them learning, on an apprenticeship or in a job with training. expand the current MWA programme.

Skills Conditionality Customers identified with a skills need which is the main barrier preventing them from moving into work, are mandated to provision to address those needs. Increases achievement of relevant units on the Qualifications and Credit Framework Increases the number of claimants with the skills that recruiting employers require Customers who have a less clear skills need or unclear job goals are mandated to Next Step for a face-to-face interview for an in-depth skills assessment

Flexible Support Fund opportunity to supplement existing, or develop new, partnership activities that will help us support our customers progress into work. we want to work together with partners across Kent to improve the job prospects for local people focus on developing creative and innovative solutions to help unemployed people move into work open to ideas that complement existing Jobcentre Plus services to unemployed people before they join the Work Programme keen to receive applications that support the wider Get Britain Working measures

Flexible Support Fund – particularly disadvantaged young people who are not in education, employment or training young care leavers delivery in our most deprived wards and in rural areas issues faced by ex-armed forces personnel, ex-offenders or people with a history of drug or alcohol abuse people with caring responsibilities refugees or members of established communities where English is not their first language to be able to effectively seek wider work options

Work Programme Work Programme is available nation-wide Local provision designed & delivered by providers Radical change to payment by results and performance measures helps people with a wide variety of needs Forms a coherent package complementing Jobcentre Plus support and Get Britain Working measures

Work Programme eligibility - JSA Customer GroupTime of ReferralBasis for referral Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) customers aged 25+ From 12 monthsMandatory JSA customers aged 18-24From 9 monthsMandatory JSA either NEET, Repeat claimant or ex-Incapacity Benefit From 3 monthsMandatory JSA customers who are seriously disadvantaged by one or more factors From 3 monthsVoluntary JSA former prisonersImmediately on release from prison Mandatory

Work Programme eligibility - other benefit groups Customer GroupTime of ReferralBasis for referral 'New ESA (income related) claimants (including claimants awarded ESA following IB reassessment) placed in the Work Related Activity Group with a prognosis of 3 or 6 months' Following WCA outcomeMandatory (voluntary if a Lone Parent with a child under 5 or Full Time Carer)' under the 'Basis for Referral All other Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimants At any time following initial WCA outcome Voluntary Pension Credit claimantsFrom 12 months after claim or from day 1 if have a health condition Voluntary Income Support claimantsAt any time (England only)Voluntary Incapacity Benefit claimants At any time (England only)Voluntary

The Work Programme The Work Programme is for those people who are at risk of long-term unemployment. Once referred, claimants remain on the Work Programme for two years or until the provider has claimed all available payments for the time the individual spends in employment. This gives providers time to invest in addressing claimants’ long term challenges. Work Programme providers have complete flexibility to innovate and to design support that addresses the needs of the individual and the local labour market, rather than having to follow one size fits all processes dictated by Whitehall.

Working in partnership to support local people Ailsa Whitmarsh Partnership Manager for Maidstone and Malling Tel: Mob: