New-look Jobcentres to swallow up 1,000 careers advisers

Up to 1,000 staff employed by National Careers Service subcontractors are expected to transfer into the civil service next October.

The move is part of the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) planned rebranding of Jobcentres into a so-called Jobs and Careers Service under a merger with the National Careers Service (NCS).

Until now, the careers service, which has a budget of around £55 million per year, has been managed by the Department for Education through a network of nine regional prime contractors and more than 50 sub-contractors.

On October 9, civil servants reportedly told the prime contractors they would be “in-sourcing” delivery of careers advice to adults from October 1 next year. Around 1,000 careers advisers estimated to be employed through NCS contracts will join the 17,000 Jobcentre workforce.

A DWP spokesperson told FE Week it would work with contractors to identify which employees were in scope to be transferred.

A frequently-asked-questions document sent to employees and seen by FE Week says the move will provide “maximum flexibility in designing and developing an integrated, adaptable service that quickly identifies improved operational practices and consistently meets customer needs”.

The department said it wanted to build a “Jobs and Careers Service culture” immediately from next October and was committed to expanding community-based support through Jobcentre offices as well as outreach such as “vans and co-locating with other organisations”.

“This will facilitate the merging of employment support and careers advice as outlined in the white paper, through the new Jobs and Careers Service (JCS) and will support the building of the JCS culture immediately,” the announcement said.

The Shaw Trust, which has two NCS prime contracts worth up to £12 million per year, said: “While this decision is disappointing, we’re committed to providing high-quality careers advice for the remainder of the contract.”

Big contracts lost

The in-sourcing of staff is likely to be a significant financial blow to contractors, which received a combined total of more than £110 million between April 2022 and March this year.

Figures obtained by FE Week via a freedom of information request show the NCS engaged with 240,000 to 370,000 “customers” each year between 2018 and 2023. In 2023-24, about 59 per cent of the 328,998 customers achieved a “job or learning outcome”.

One NCS subcontractor business owner, who asked not to be named, said the news was a “shock” and “concern” to his staff.

And Elizabeth Taylor, CEO of the Employment Related Services Association, said some smaller sub-contractors may now become “non-viable”.

She added: “This could lead to a reduction in capability and capacity in the employment support sector, particularly affecting organisations that are crucial for delivering initiatives to Get Britain Working.”

An ‘absence of information’

Katharine Horler, chief executive of trade association Careers England, said the merger had the potential to make a “great impact”, but that questions remained about whether the government could manage it “properly”.

She added: “My concern when you look at how some other government policy has been implemented is whether they’ve got the money to do it properly, and whether they’ve internally got the expertise to do it properly.

“How are we going to make sure that careers doesn’t get lost within the great big machine that is DWP? How are DWP going to manage careers operationally, these contracts at a strategic level when they have no strategic careers expertise in the department?”

Other unanswered questions about the move include whether Jobcentres have the “infrastructure” and space to manage the careers advice offer, and whether the service will be “open access”.

Meanwhile, there remains uncertainty about what the “overhauled” Jobcentres will look like and how careers advice will be integrated into the wider service.

In July last year, the DWP promised a “groundbreaking new approach” to the services Jobcentres provide, by offering improved links with employers and expanding support to people in work who want to progress their career or retrain.

But last month MPs on the work and pensions committee criticised an “absence of information” about the merger, warning it risked being “little more than a rebranding exercise” if the DWP failed to resolve issues such as contract changes for NCS staff, accountability structures and devolution arrangements.

Of the £55 million set aside to develop and test the new Jobs and Careers Service, £15 million will be spent on a “series of tests and trials” including in Wakefield, £5 million to test “alternative delivery solutions” and £20 million to “progress digital activity which will underpin the Jobs and Careers Service”.