Work and Health Programme Learning at Work Institute Phil Martin Deputy Director, Labour Market Strategy Department for Work and Pensions
Background The gap between the employment rates of disabled people and non-disabled people remains too large which is why the Government has set itself the ambition of halving it 2015 Spending Review announced a real terms increase in funding to help people with disabilities and health conditions to get work and remain in work This includes: Funding agreed at Summer budget a real terms increase in spending on Access to Work expanding the Fit for Work service and over 115 million of funding for the Work and Health Unit a new 'Work and Health programme would launch in 2017 following the end of referrals to the Work Programme and Work Choice Government cannot achieve this alone and will publish a Green Paper in 2016 that starts to reframe the discussion with disabled people and their representative organisations and points towards long-term reform. 2
Illustrative Baseline Employment Offer 2017 Onwards; UC & ESA Legacy Better integration with health - Test and Learn e.g. piloting approaches to supporting claimants with mental health condition, Health and Work Innovation Fund. Aspiration: Better segmentation of claimants to help tailor support JCP Work coach interventions (flexible time bank - average of 90mins/year) Option to volunteer for Menu of Support Day 1 Fit Note/ New Joiners Self Certification Interview 0-3 months Week 4 * Health & Work Conversation Tailored interventions with work coaches & voluntary weekly work search reviews Menu of Support Work & Health Programme for hardest to help Flexible Support Fund New Enterprise Allowance Specialist Employment Support Work Experience Sector based work academies English Language requirements Non-DWP provision sourced on District Provision tool Work Capability Assessment 3-18 months JCP Work Coach interventions (flexible time bank average 218 mins/year Option to volunteer for Menu of Support 18 Mths Intensive Jobcentre Plus support for 6 Mths Option to volunteer for Menu of Support 24 Mths Work & Health Programme for hardest to help IN WORK Access to Work UC in-work Support Fit for Work * Currently being piloted 3 22/12/15 00d
WHP Design principles Key priorities Securing sustained job outcomes for participants will be primary objective Referrals should be most likely to need and benefit from extra help Predominantly voluntary for the health and disability group Work Coaches will have a key role to play in identifying right people to go on the programme and selling the benefits of the programme to potential participants We want people to stay on the programme because they get value from it- a greater emphasis for providers to engage positively with all referred participants Key elements of the provision to include Greater integration with local services and health provision joint design/co-commissioning in areas with agreed devolution deals with Government Specialist providers have an important role to play in the programme- we need that expertise 4
Who is the eligible group for the Programme? Any claimant with a health condition or disability: should be referred at the most appropriate time in their claim on a targeted basis, when: the individual can be helped by the offer; JCP has already helped the individual with their core job search activity; the claimant needs more support than can be provided within the standard JCP offer; and the claimant has signed up to the goal of finding and/or increasing their employment within a realistic time period Long term unemployed claimants: should be referred from when they reach 24 months in the intensive work search regime in Universal Credit on a mandatory basis. 5
How will support on the W&HP be different to that provided within JCP? The programme should always provide: more and additional support than can be provided by JCP The provider is expected to: provide all participants, with more intensive, tailored support offer than can be provided by JCP provide high quality support and experience, and utilise contacts enabling providers to offer unique support to claimants have strong links to national and local employers to identify employment needs, carve out roles and provide bespoke training to enable better matching of skills to roles bring a different and refreshed energy and approach, for LTU claimants who reach two years 6
How will we help Work Coaches make the right referral decision for claimants with a Health Condition or Disability? Step Action 1. Work coach support A work coach will spend time getting to know their claimant, their support needs and providing support with core work search skills within the JCP or using local provision to provide this. To support this, work coaches will use information collected about the claimant including at the Health and Work Conversation, as well as available attitudinal evaluation tools and making use of data that has been collected on the UC system. 2. Use of a decision tree to confirm eligibility and suitability The work coach will use a decision tree tool to confirm that the individual they think would benefit from the programme is both eligible and suitable. We plan to test the decision tree in advance of October 2017, learning the lessons from the Specialist Employability Support, to ensure it is sufficiently robust to identify the right individuals in the right numbers. 3. Quality Assurance We are exploring the benefit of a `gatekeeper function who would review the referral from the work coach to ensure both consistency in referral volumes as well as appropriateness of claimants. The gatekeeper role will need further exploration and agreement including resource/funding implications. 7
Working with local areas Key elements of the provision provided through the programme include greater integration with local services and health provision Continued engagement with areas with devolved deal areas: 2 that we are co-commissioning London and Manchester; and 8 co-designing- Liverpool City Region, North East Combined Authority, Sheffield City Region, Tees Valley Region, West Midlands Combined Authority, Cardiff Capital Region, East Anglia Combined Authority and the West of England Combined Authority Also engagement with all other local authorities in England and Wales to seek their views on national design. Workshops held last week How suppliers support localism and service integration will be key We expect the use of local/diverse supply chains to be key in achieving results, especially SME /VSO 8
Working with local areas (2) Greater Manchester Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan North East Combined Authority Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle City, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland Liverpool City Region Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool City, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral Tees Valley Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton-On-Tees West Midlands Combined Authority Birmingham City, City of Wolverhampton, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull and Walsall Cardiff Capital Region Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Monmouthshire, Newport, Vale of Glamorgan, Rhondda Cynon Taff and Torfaen West of England Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire London All London Boroughs Sheffield City Region Doncaster, Sheffield City and Rotherham East Anglia- Cambridgeshire, East Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Broadland, Fenland, North Norfolk, Ipswich, Peterborough, Great Yarmouth, Norwich City, Forest Heath, Norfolk County, Breckland, Kings Lynn and West Norfolk, South Norfolk Babergh, Suffolk, Waveney, Suffolk Coastal, St Edmundsbury, Mid Suffolk and South Cambridgeshire
Local Integration with skills and health Providers will be expected to demonstrate how they will link up with the following in order to support employment outcomes: health and social care services, and other local services. Providers will be expected to take an holistic approach to tackling barriers to employment by supporting claimants on the WHP. We are developing our approach to both how we expect providers to integrate and how we commission in the commercial process 10
Payment model We have agreed the following key principles against which we will assess the most effective payment model for the programme Our approach should: simplify the relationship between performance and payments to clearly demonstrate how outcome measures incentivise providers to strive for the best outcomes for claimants; dis-incentivise the parking of claimants by providers; incentivise claimants to enter work, stay in work and decrease their reliance on the welfare system keep within the cost envelope ensure on-going survival of the provider market reduce potential for fraud; and; reduce administrative burdens and costs for both the providers and DWP. 11