Plans to offer skills development and career guidance at job centres will be scrutinised by MPs later this year.
The work and pensions committee announced on Thursday it will examine reforms set out in the government’s Get Britain Working white paper, published in November.
These include merging the Department for Education-funded National Careers Service with job centres across England in a bid to raise employment rates.
Committee chair Debbie Abrahams said the cross-party group of MPs would examine how job centres could support people with careers advice and training alongside its “current priority of overseeing benefits”.
She added: “Due to the way the job centre touches peoples’ lives, being both an access point for benefits and employment opportunities, getting this formula for reform right, if it needs it, is essential.”
The committee is inviting submissions to its inquiry until March 3.
Extra two million in work
The government has set a target of raising the employment rate from 74.8 to 80 per cent – which would mean an extra two million people finding work.
It has also announced a “youth guarantee” of a job, training or apprenticeship, and has suggested the Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Education, health services and mayoral authorities work more closely.
Stephen Evans, chief executive of the Learning and Work Institute, claimed “too many” people who want to work miss out on support, with only one in 10 jobless disabled people getting help to find work each year.
He said: “That needs to change, meaning a more open-doors approach from Jobcentre Plus and joining up with other services including learning and skills.”
Gareth Thomas, a skills policy adviser and former director at the Learning and Skills Council, said it was important to offer outreach services since many people lived far from their nearest job centre.
Jobcentre Plus is a job support service run exclusively for benefits claimants by the DWP.
The DfE-funded National Careers Service offers free advice and guidance on training and careers to anyone over the telephone, online, or face-to-face in some locations.
In England, the service is currently outsourced to eight regional “prime contractors” that subcontract the service out to about 70 smaller providers at a cost of about £53 million per year.
A DWP spokesperson said: “We welcome the committee’s review of our plans to transform Jobcentres into a fully equipped public employment service, delivering personalised support to help everyone secure employment and get ahead.
“This is just one part of our plan to Get Britain Working which will deliver the biggest employment support reforms in a generation, boosting growth in every corner of the country and putting extra pounds in the pockets of working people.”
My comment in full…..It is important that the new jobs and careers service offers outreach services as the current National Careers Service does to reach those who may not be registered for benefits and are economically inactive. This will be an important aspect of trying to reach the target 80% employment rate. Enabling people to access the service without travelling in to the limited number of Jobcentres is important for an inclusive approach.
The new service could present a great opportunity for the service to reach more of the 16-19 NEET community, and extend beyond the adult audience it currently serves. This may also present an opportunity for Local and Mayoral Strategic Authorities to contribute to to an all age careers service, or at least extend the service to school leavers and older.
It will be important that the information developed in the production of Local Skills Improvement Plan is fully utilised in the operational delivery of the service.