DWP to merge Jobcentre Plus and National Careers Service

New work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall announces overhaul to focus on career advice

New work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall announces overhaul to focus on career advice

The National Careers Service will be merged with job centres across the country in a bid to tackle economic inactivity as part of the government’s back to work plan.

New work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall today set out plans for a national jobs and careers service by merging the two separate public services into one.

Kendall also confirmed one of Labour’s manifesto pledges that 18-to-21-year-olds will be “guaranteed” access to training, an apprenticeship, or support to find work – but details on what will change exactly have not yet been released.

Under the Department for Work and Pensions’ plans, the combination of more than 600 Jobcentre Plus offices in the UK and the National Careers Service will “support those seeking better opportunities with the means to find better paid work”.

The merger appears to be promoting a cultural shift of not just getting those on benefits and unemployed people from long-term sickness into jobs, experts say.

The Department for Education-funded National Careers Service is a free service to anyone that offers advice and guidance on training and careers. Whereas, Jobcentre Plus is a job support service exclusively for benefits claimants and run by DWP.

Stephen Evans, chief executive of Learning and Work Institute (L&W), said: “I think it [the merger] makes sense, not least as most National Careers Service customers are referred from Jobcentre Plus.”

The merger comes in line with the government’s new target to raise the employment rate to 80 per cent.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said earlier this week that the government’s main focus was creating “sustained economic growth” through reforming the skills system and tackling economic inactivity.

Achieving the 80 per cent employment rate could boost the economy by £25 billion and save the taxpayer £8 billion per year, according to analysis from the Learning and Work Institute.

Evans said. “To deliver this, the government needs to offer help to everyone who wants to work: today, only 1 in 10 out-of-work disabled people get help to find work each year. There also needs to be better join-up of work, health and skills support, and the government will need to work with employers on how they recruit.”

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said: “We’ll create more good jobs, make work pay, transform skills, and overhaul jobcentres, alongside action to tackle the root causes of worklessness including poor physical and mental health.”

‘A good start’

Meanwhile, details on how the government will roll out the “youth guarantee”, which aims to drive down the number of NEETs (not in education, employment or training), are yet to be determined.

Official figures from the Office for National Statistics show the number of NEETs amongst young people aged 16 to 24 are on the rise.

As of March 2024, an estimated 900,000 young people were classed as NEET, equating to 1 in 8 of all young people in the UK, and up 1.1 percentage points from the previous year.

Evans said L&W had been calling for a youth guarantee since 2018 to apply to 16–24-year-olds but that narrower age cohort “is a good start”.

The application of this guarantee, he added, will need better joined up support and better incentives for apprenticeships for young people in the apprenticeship levy

“I would be measuring the success of the guarantee by a sustained reduction in the proportion of young people NEET in England over time, and also by an increase in the proportion qualified to at least level 3 and in work that pays at least the Living Wage,” Evans said.

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4 Comments

  1. R Doran

    Having worked for the National Careers Service their emphasis was on bums on seats and targets. The level of support after the intial appointment was negligible as the claim from government was two thirds completed with the intial appointment. The programme is wrtten by bean counters without the understanding of why many people are unemployed. And crucially the level of ongoing support needed when someone is applying for different roles.

    OK for those who are capable but hopeless for the lower skilled and literacy challenged which make up a large part of the JC+ customers.

    • In it to winit

      A potentially good move if the targets are reviewed. At present the service doesn’t look at the individual but what outcome can be achieved, regardless if that is not what the customer wants. The high staff turnover also needs to be addressed to align to, why are NCS Careers Advisors finding alternative employment when DWP are retaining staff?

    • Justin Taylor

      If you worked for the NCS you would know one of the definitive outcomes required is enrolment on learning. When you encountered a low skilled client why did you not refer them to a literacy course or other training that would have upskilled them. It appears you have missed the point of the system. Would it not have been your job to guide them to organisations that would provide the necessary upskilling?