News

We have received confirmation that DWP will continue to fund job coaches supporting interns on Supported Internships study programmes in England, Scotland and Wales. The situation will be reviewed in January 2021. We welcome this sensible decision which will ensure that job coaches will be able to be retained for when placements restart.

We have received revised guidance from the Department for Education about Supported Internships. Providers have been understandably keen on clarity about whether, and how, Supporterd Internships can continue into the next academic year.

We understand that the following text has been cleared by Treasury and Ministers for input into the FE operational guidance. 

Older jobseekers in the Greater Manchester area will be the first to trial targeted new approaches being developed to help over-50s get back to work.  

The Centre for Ageing Better, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and the Department of Work & Pensions have announced plans for the ‘Greater Manchester Employment Support for Over-50s' pilot programme to improve support models for older people. An estimated 800,000 people in the UK aged 50 to 65 want to be working but are not, with many caught in an ‘unemployment trap’. Losing a job after the age of 50 is more likely to lead to long-term unemployment or inactivity compared with job loss at younger ages.  

The Centre for Social Justice has published a new report, Commissioning Excellence in Disability , that examines DWP's nationally contracted disability employment provision. 

The report is critical of performance over recent years and highlights some of the problem areas including commissioning processes, funding models and supply chain management. It suggests ways of making better use of the expertise within the voluntary sector and makes a series of recommendations.