4 Unemployed people
You need a job to live, but you also need an
education to get the job.
[Caroline, Leicester College][58]
Assessment of basic skills levels
36. The quote above, from Caroline, a learner at
Leicester College, highlights the problems of both gaining skills
and getting a job. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
submitted written evidence, setting out the steps the Government
is taking to ensure unemployed people gain the skills they need
to get and keep a job:
The ability to get and keep a job and progress
in work is the best route out of poverty. The Government is committed
to ensuring that people have the necessary skills to do this.
Recipients of Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA), the full-conditionality
group of Universal Credit (UC) and the work-related-activity group
of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) are required to take
steps to address any gaps in their skills that may be preventing
them from securing employment. A range of basic skills and work-related
training is available through the further education system to
support benefit claimants who need to improve their skills to
find work.[59]
37. The BIS Department's evidence also stated that
since 2011, it has "actively prioritised support for unemployed
people who need to improve their skills to get into work. Closer
working between Jobcentres, colleges and other providers means
that many more learners are starting English and maths courses
after being referred by their Jobcentre adviser".[60]
Matthew Hancock MP told us that
The combination of work experience—or,
even better, getting a job—and learning at the same time
is incredibly powerful. We have found that with Apprenticeships.
We found that in the research that led to the development of traineeships.
That culture change is getting through to Jobcentres, but it takes
time.[61]
38. The DWP told us that 'skills screening' was carried
out at JobCentres, to assess the level of skills of each claimant:
Skills screening is an integral part of work-focused
interviews for claimants of working-age benefits. The aim is to
identify potential skills needs in relation to the claimant's
job goals. Skills screening is undertaken during the diagnostic
part of the new jobseekers interview or the new joiners work-focused
interview and reviewed at all subsequent work-focused interviews.
Advisers have discretion on whether to use an initial or in-depth
screening approach. Initial skills screening involves observation
and discussion during work-focused interviews to gather evidence
on skills, qualifications, previous training and work history.
Information gathered informs decisions about any onward referrals.[62]
39. While this is a positive intervention, we received
evidence that indicated that this assessment was not carried out
consistently or, in some cases, was not carried out at all. St
Mungo's Broadway wrote that its clients
regularly spend years attending Jobcentre Plus
and Work Programme advice sessions without their needs ever being
properly assessed. This means that opportunities to identify and
address reading, writing and maths needs are being missed.[63]
40. This lack of proper assessment was also raised
in oral evidence by David Hughes, from the National Institute
of Adult Continuing Education (known as NIACE):
Unemployed people [are] being pushed into the
Work Programme without an adequate skills diagnostic and without
really being able to understand fully the basic skills needs they
have, which will help them have a proper job and a proper career,
rather than that cycle of getting into a job and getting out again
and getting into another entry-level job. That is a missed opportunity
from Government. There are lots of strong words at the moment
from all parties about the need to provide a proper diagnostic
for people who are unemployed. We are seeing patchily some of
that working in partnerships between colleges and Jobcentre Plus,
but it is still not universal. That means that hundreds of thousands
of adults are missing out.[64]
41. The Work and Pensions Select Committee published
its Report, The role of Jobcentre Plus in the reformed welfare
system, in January 2014. It found that Jobcentres applied
various approaches to assessing claimants' needs, with no systematic
assessment of basic literacy and numeracy skills at the new claimant
interview stage. The Committee recommended that:
Jobcentres adopt a more thorough and systematic
initial face-to-face assessment of claimants' barriers to employment
to identify the level of employment support they need from Jobcentres
and contracted providers. Assessments should be regularly updated
during longer claims, and relevant data passed to Work Programme
and other contracted providers if claimants are referred on.[65]
However, the BIS Minister told us that he would go
further: "I want to see a basic maths and English test for
everybody who applied to go on a maths and English course who
turns up at a Jobcentre, but getting there is a big old task".[66]
Referrals to adult training
42. Written evidence from Oxford Cambridge and RSA
Examinations stated that there was no consistency in the method
of referrals to skills providers:
From attendance at conferences and our customer
feedback, a key concern that is routinely voiced by providers
is difficulty and inconsistency in dealing with Job Centre Plus
with regards to referrals. We believe this must be addressed by
greater clarity from the centre about what is prescribed and what
freedoms are available at a local level to adapt to individual
circumstances. The use of e-learning and assessment seems to us
to offer greater flexibility to JCP advisors in sourcing appropriate
courses for adults.[67]
43. The Association of Employment and Learning Providers
also raised concerns about the lack of data sharing between the
Jobcentre Plus assessors and the providers who give the training:
Initial Assessment by Jobcentre Plus (JCP) should
be improved and JCP should work closely with training providers
to utilise the expertise in those organisations to identify literacy
and numeracy needs early on in their period of unemployment. […]
If passing responsibility for initial assessment to providers
is too radical there should at least be a new standard data sharing
protocol, agreed between JCP and providers, on any barriers to
employment that a jobseeker may have.[68]
The Minister told us that there was quite a lot of
autonomy given to Jobcentre advisers on referrals, but that this
culture change takes a while to embed:
The combination of work experience—or,
even better, getting a job—and learning at the same time
is incredibly powerful. We have found that with Apprenticeships.
We found that in the research that led to the development of traineeships.
That culture change is getting through Jobcentres, but it takes
time. Jobcentres have quite a lot of autonomy in how they deal
with individuals within the benefit rules, for which they do not
have any autonomy.[69]
Matthew Hancock said that the Department for Work
and Pensions took the lead on this work, but argued that this
was "a broad change that we need to make".[70]
44. We received audio visual evidence from Caroline,
a learner at Leicester College, who said that her benefits were
at risk if she did not look for a full-time job, but that, in
turn, could jeopardise her course place:
If I don't look for a 40-hour-a-week job and
give up my course they can stop my benefit. I said, 'I'm not stopping
my course. I was doing my course before I signed on and I'm not
giving it up. If you want to stop my benefits, stop my benefits,
but I'm not looking for a full-time job just so you can make me
give up my college course—I'm not doing it'. I like my learning
and I want to do my learning. I wouldn't have come here in the
first place if I didn't want to do it, but I want to do it. If
I'm honest, I'd rather do this than look for a job, because this
is important to me. Yeah, you need a job to live, but you also
need an education to get the job.[71]
45. If adults are in training programmes of more
than 16 hours a week, they normally lose their entitlement to
benefits. In March 2014, the Department for Work and Pensions
relaxed the 16-hour rule to allow claimants to take part in traineeship
programmes for up to 30 hours a week, without affecting their
Job Seekers Allowance entitlement. However, that still leaves
those unemployed learners not on traineeship programmes but on
literacy and numeracy courses in a vulnerable position. Evidence
from Unionlearn TUC highlighted this problem:
The DWP should relax benefit conditions such
as the 16 hour rule which can inhibit NEETs[72]
and the adult unemployed (the recent announcement in relation
to the 16 hour rule and Traineeships is very welcome).[73]
Tom Wilson, Director of Unionlearn, also made the
following point about the eight-week rule to us:
What about the eight-week rule, which currently
prevents anybody who is doing a work placement for more than eight
weeks from continuing to receive their benefits? There are many
other benefits rules that need to be waived, softened or amended
in order to help people who are currently stuck at home watching
daytime TV because they cannot get off benefits to be in a position
where they can learn. Marrying together the learning regime and
the DWP regime would be enormously helpful.[74]
The Association of Employment and Learning Providers
stated that "unemployed people lacking basic literacy and
numeracy skills must not be put under pressure to come off a training
programme in order to get them off benefits and into any job,
however short term. […] All too often learners claiming benefits
are not encouraged to take effective learning programmes in literacy
and numeracy because the drive is to get them off benefits. However
in the long run their need to get good basic skills is essential
for keeping a long term job.[75]
The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education
(NIACE) evidence highlighted the need for Job Centres and skills
providers to work more closely together, to ensure that claimants
get the most appropriate skills support:
Finding an effective approach to literacy and
numeracy screening of benefit claimants has proved challenging
for Jobcentre Plus. NIACE recently met with BIS and DWP officials
to explore new and more effective approaches. NIACE's own BIS-commissioned
report into Helpful approaches to the delivery of English and
maths provision for unemployed adults (2013) reported that
in many areas providers and Job Centres work together, often in
creative ways, to ensure that benefit claimants with literacy
and numeracy needs get the support they need. There is however
a need for the Skills Funding Agency to scope the size of need
and potential demand for English and maths skills provision from
JCP customers, Work Programme participants and others to identify
whether this demand can be matched by current provider capacity
and funding. The report also showed that despite skills conditionality
arrangements, a large proportion of JCP referred job seekers do
not attend their initial appointment with skills providers.[76]
46. It is crucial that when someone starts claiming
unemployment benefit, there is a method of testing his or her
English and maths skills. When this happens at the moment, it
is neither systematic nor consistent. We agree with the Work and
Pensions Committee that Jobcentres should have a more thorough
and systematic initial, face-to-face assessment of claimants,
to understand the skills support they need to get a job. Assessments
should be regularly updated during longer claims, with the relevant
data being passed on to the Work Programme and other contracted
providers, if claimants are referred on. We recommend better co-ordination
between the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for
Business, Innovation and Skills, Jobcentre Plus and skills providers,
to ensure that there is consistent and thorough assessment of
basic skills needs at the earliest possible stage of unemployment
benefit claims. There also needs to be better information sharing
between providers and referral onto courses which effectively
address identified needs. For this to be effective, the Government
must marry together the learning regime and the Department for
Work and Pensions regime, to ensure that unemployed adults have
the most flexible opportunities to develop their skills. If this
is approached in a constructive, cross-Departmental way, there
will be benefits both to the learners and to the public purse.
SCREENING TOOL FOR 18-24 YEAR OLDS
47. Catherine Paulson-Ellis, Assistant Director in
Vocational Education at the BIS Department, told us that new pilots
starting in the Autumn of 2014 will offer English and maths training
for 18-21 year olds, and the Department for Work and Pensions
was developing a screening tool, which would be used for young
people making a claim who do not have evidence of Level 2 skills.
The Department's written evidence outlined this further:
Within the Autumn Statement 2013 we announced
that we will pilot a new scheme of support, predominantly online,
for 18 to 21 year olds on Jobseeker's Allowance in two parts to
ensure they continue to work towards achieving the levels of skills
that are vital in the labour market. JSA claimants without Level
2 qualifications in English and/or maths will be required to study
these subjects for up to 16 hours per week alongside job search.
After 6 months on JSA, claimants will be required to participate
in a work experience placement, a traineeship or other relevant
skills provision, or community work placement.[77]
48. We were told by the Government of current
pilot schemes, offering English and maths training for 18 to 21-year-olds,
which include the development of a specific style of assessment
that will be used for young people making a claim who cannot already
provide evidence of their Level 2 skills through certificates.
We look forward to hearing the results of the pilot. If proved
to be successful, we recommend that the Government extend this
assessment to all claimants, regardless of their age, so that
claimants who need further skills can be identified at the earliest
possible stage, and action can then be taken.
58 Leicester College transcript (ALE 82) extract Back
59
DWP (ALE 31) para 1.2 Back
60
Department for Business Innovation and Skills (ALE 36) para 1.6 Back
61
Q250 Back
62
DWP (ALE 31) para 2.1 and 2.2 Back
63
St Mungo's (ALE 25) para 7.1 Back
64
Q11 Back
65
Work and Pensions Committee, The role of Jobcentre Plus in
the reformed welfare system, 20 January 2014, Para 24 Back
66
Q251 Back
67
OCR (ALE 37) para 6 Back
68
The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (ALE 9) paras
4 to 10 Back
69
Q250 Back
70
Q250 Back
71
Leicester College transcript (ALE 82) extract Back
72
A 'NEET' is a young person who is 'not in education, employment
or training' Back
73
TUC (ALE 41) page 1 Back
74
Q54 Back
75
The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (ALE 9) para
9 Back
76
NIACE (ALE 33) para 20 Back
77
Department for Business Innovation and Skills (ALE 36) para 3.8 Back
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