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Report to:
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Lead Member for
Economy
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Date of
meeting:
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25 November
2024
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By:
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Director of
Communities, Economy and Transport
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Title:
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Department for Work
and Pensions (DWP) Supported Employment programme (Connect to
Work)
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Purpose:
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To seek approval for
East Sussex County Council (the County Council) to be the
Accountable Body for a new devolved DWP Supported Employment funded
programme and agree to submit a proposal to the DWP outlining
programme delivery.
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RECOMMENDATIONS:
The Lead Member for Economy is
recommended to:
1)
Agree that the
County Council accepts the request from the DWP to be the
Accountable Body for the management and delivery of a countywide
Supported Employment programme (Connect to Work) from April 2025;
and
2)
Delegate authority
to the Director of CET to take any actions necessary in relation to
the implementation of the Connect to Work programme.
1.
Background
Information
1.1
Before 2023, the County Council benefitted from approximately
£2.5m pa of European Social Fund for employment support
programmes. Since then, local providers have delivered the DWP Work
and Health and Pioneer programmes to support those with mental and
physical health needs into employment, while the recruitment
company, Reed in Partnership has delivered the RESTART employment
programme. These programmes were extended until October 2024 but
have now substantially ended.
1.2
The County Council secured c.£1.2m pa of UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), COVID
Management Fund and Homes for Ukraine (HfU) funding to create
locally led employability programmes for homeless, long-term
unemployed adults, refugees and Ukrainian visitors. The programmes
(Moving on Up and Support into Work), have proven effective, moving
600+people into local jobs and have helped retain expertise with
employment support partners in the voluntary, community and social
enterprise sectors. However, UKSPF funding ends in March 2025 and
the County Council programmes funded by the HfU end in September
2025.
1.3
The new Government has committed to devolving skills funding to
Upper Tier Authorities, and Connect to Work funding, overseen by
the DWP, is one such fund. As a key plank in the government’s
‘Get Britain Working’ strategy, the supported
employment programme will help disabled people, people with health
conditions, and those with complex barriers to work who are outside
the labour market in ‘Hidden Unemployment’, to find and
sustain work. The Employment and Skills Team have been part of a
small DWP working group helping shape the criteria and content of
the programme.
1.4
The DWP has invited the County Council to be the Accountable Body
for funding allocated by the DWP and to manage and oversee delivery
of the programme in the county, with an allocation of up to
£3.8m per annum for three years to support up to 1000
individuals into work each year. The programme will last for five
years with those starting on the provision in 2028 completing in
2029/30. There may be an additional year of delivery up until March
2030 (to be confirmed).
1.5
The fund supports all four of the County Council’s core
priority outcomes (i) driving sustainable economic growth; (ii)
keeping vulnerable people safe; (iii) helping people to help
themselves; and (iv) making best use of resources now and for the
future.
2.
Supporting
Information
2.1
Current unemployment in the county stands at 11,760 of whom 3,100
are aged over 50 and over 800 declared homeless. Economic
Inactivity is high at 57,800 and includes at least 15,600 residents
with long term physical or mental health conditions or
disabilities. Of the 57,800 over 14,000 have declared a desire to
work. Data suggests that there are 420 care leavers and as many as
5,000 working age carers across the county.
2.2
The Connect to Work scheme can help the County Council and its
partners address the needs of vulnerable adults, carers, care
leavers, those who are 18-25 and have an Education, Health and Care
Plan (ECHP) and some Not in Education, Employment or Training
(NEET) groups. It offers positive outcomes for participants in
terms of financial wellbeing and supporting positive mental health,
can help support families and reduce financial pressures on
housing, health and benefits. Moving people into work also ensures
that residents make tax contributions and have income to spend in
the local economy.
2.3
In East Sussex there are known skills gaps in construction,
engineering, green jobs, adult social care, the visitor economy,
early years, the land-based and food production sector and in
digital skills and leadership and management across all sectors.
The programme will work with employers helping fill skills
shortages and supporting people into sustainable roles.
Mapping provision
2.4
In preparation for project delivery, the Employment and
Skills Team has worked with several County Council departments to
identify where the programme could support residents for whom East
Sussex has a statutory responsibility and for wider vulnerable
cohorts.
2.5
Adult Social Care has identified that the project could add to the
current Department of Health Individual Placement and Support
provision for those with severe mental health diagnosis by offering
supported employment to those with less substantive mental health
needs who are currently unable to access the programme. Support for
adults with physical disabilities into work is needed, as well help
for carers who wish to move into employment. Public Health are keen
to see homeless cohorts continue to be supported into work.
Continuing the positive work of Support into Work for Ukrainian
visitors and refugees when HfU funds cease is also a priority. The
scope of the role of the ‘Employment Specialists’ has
also been explored, and consideration given to the range of
‘support they could be tasked to provide to their caseloads
with, such as key advice around benefits, budgeting, childcare,
housing, referrals to wider support services (drug and alcohol,
childcare, mental health etc) in order to support financial
inclusion and wellbeing and community priorities.
2.6
Children’s Services recognises that supporting adults who are
parents with employment can have a positive effect on their
children, but are also keen to see a bespoke element of the project
for care leavers, young people involved in the youth justice
system, NEET young people in the ‘exceptional circumstances
category’ who are at risk of falling out of an Apprenticeship
programme, young people with an ECHP, as well as young refugees and
Ukrainian visitors, or young people with mental health needs aged
18-24.
2.7
Mapping is being undertaken to identify the range of employment
support organisations that the Council has in place, and their
ability to deliver against the Individual Placement and Support
(IPS) and Supported Employment Quality Framework (SEQF)
models, to help inform the shape of the proposed programme and
identify any gaps in local provision and/or a need to scale up
during the project’s implementation phase.
2.8
A cross-departmental working group is meeting regularly to agree
the project outline, and with input from key support services
(legal, financial, procurement, HR) the Employment and Skills Team
will build on the outline proposal to create the East Sussex County
Council (ESCC) DWP Delivery Plan and governance
arrangements.
Project oversight
and delivery
2.9
The programme will be
led by the Employment and Skills team, managed jointly by the
Communities, Economy and Transport department and Children’s
Services Department. An Employment and Skills Oversight Board will
be established to provide wider governance, of this and other
programmes.
2.10 The
programme will be managed by the Employment and Skills, ESTAR Team.
Principal responsibilities will include overall programme
management, commissioning contracts and funding agreements, data
management and processing, completing regular monitoring, reporting
and evaluating performance, and ensuring quality assurance and
compliance standards are met. The team will engage and enrol
participants in line with DWP guidance. Fixed term staff will
include a programme manager, partnership delivery coordinator,
employer and participant engagement staff and administrative/data
staff. A
project implementation timeline (Appendix 1) and further project
detail (Appendix 4) is provided.
2.11
Some in-house delivery
is proposed to be undertaken, specifically the continuation of the
successful Public Health funded Homelessness Prevention Employment
Service. However, most delivery will be undertaken by procured
contractors. Using data from current projects and stakeholders, we
are developing the target volumes.
2.12
The
project will be
delivered from April 2025-March 2029, with potentially one extra
year (to be confirmed in Spending Reviews). The DWP project
proposal will profile starts and outcomes over the project
lifetime. Funding will be issued to ESCC via
a grant agreement and will be claimed quarterly in arrears. It will
not be paid on outcomes but on actual spend against a budget
proposal that will be put forward by the Council in the project
proposal. This means that project management costs will be secure
regardless of delivery outcomes.
Resource
capacity
2.13
Finance officers have reviewed the initial
suggested budget apportionment between Implementation 1%,
Management 16%, and Delivery 83% and will support the ongoing
development of costs for the full proposal, to be submitted to DWP
by December 2024. Their time will be reclaimed at cost from the
DWP.
2.14
Procurement and legal officers have been notified
of the funding and it is on the procurement forward plan. HR will
advise regarding any East Sussex County Council staffing changes
identified – although generic, Project Management and Project
Officer Job Descriptions are used in the Employment and Skills Team
to enable fluidity between programmes. Procurement, legal officer
and HR time will be claimed as part of the DWP implementation
phase. Project Equality Impact Assessments (EQIAs) and Data
Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) will be developed during the
implementation phase.
Risk/liability
for ESCC(Mitigation of risks are
considered in Appendix 2).
2.15
Project Management costs are permitted and are
paid retrospectively in line with the budget proposal which forms
part of the DWP Grant agreement.
2.16
Delivery funds are paid quarterly in arrears
against spend. Accountable Body claims are submitted and paid
within one month of DWP validation.
2.17
Although the project is not paid on outcomes,
the DWP will monitor delivery and will intervene should the project
not deliver in line with expectations. The DWP has introduced a
performance review system, with four levels of DWP intervention.
(See Appendix 3: DWP monitoring and review). Only in extreme
circumstance (few or no positive outcomes) after a range of
previous interventions have been trialled, will there be discussion
about revising the grant allocation. ESCC contracts with delivery
payments will contain clauses to enable us to cease payments to
partners or reclaim payments accordingly, to mitigate
risk.
2.18
Main programme risks sit with delivery partners
and this will be covered in contracts.
2.19
To mitigate risk, the DWP enables
ongoing review and amendments to provision. ESCC would ensure that
delivery contracts would specify that provision may be transferred
to an alternative provider if there is substantial
underperformance.
2.22
As lead applicant, ESCC will be required to
report to the DWP on progress throughout the project at regular
intervals including via the DWP Provider Referrals and Payments
online system.
3.
Conclusion and
reasons for recommendations
3.1
The County Council has
identified that Connect to Work will support the county’s
more vulnerable residents and those for whom the Council has a
statutory responsibility to help into employment, simultaneously
filling gaps in economic priority sectors.
3.2
The Lead Member for
Economy is therefore recommended to consider and approve that the
County Council accepts the request of DWP to be the Accountable
Body for the management and delivery of a countywide Connect to
Work programme.
3.3
The Lead Member for
Economy is also recommended to delegate the authority to the
Director of Communities Economy and Development to take any actions
necessary in relation to the implementation of the Connect to Work
programme.
Contact Officer: Holly
Aquilina
Email:
Holly.Aquilina@eastsussex.gov.uk
LOCAL
MEMBERS
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BACKGROUND
DOCUMENTS:
None