Kickstart: Five solutions to tackle flagship job scheme’s problems
Mat Ilic, chief development officer, Catch22
Tuesday, March 29, 2022
MPs have criticised the effectiveness of the Department for Work and Pensions’ Kickstart youth jobs scheme, describing it as "chaotic" and citing a lack of available placements, but these issues can be fixed, says expert.
In September 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) launched the Kickstart scheme to fund new jobs for unemployed young people. The initiative aims to provide six-month job placements for 250,000 young people on universal credit at risk of long-term unemployment. Yet, in February 2022, an inquiry by the Commons’ public accounts committee (PAC) described the scheme as “chaotic” and failing to provide enough placements.
Catch22 was among the first to join the ranks of Kickstart gateways – intermediary bodies that help to find placements for young people. We set up Kickstart Community, a programme that combines Kickstart placements with civic service and skills building, with long-term impact at its heart.
We have been working with the department, Jobcentre Plus (JCP), and officials since Kickstart started. The road has been bumpy at times but it is important we share the challenges, along with workable solutions, for building success throughout the remainder of the scheme.
Here are five key issues highlighted during the PAC inquiry and how they can be tackled.
1. Delays in approving providers and placements
It can take four weeks or more to approve individual Kickstart placement providers or job descriptions before they are advertised. This creates problems in maintaining employer interest, while they eagerly await their Kickstarters. While over time this improved, and due to managing expectations with employers, it has not damaged our relationships, the reasons for these delays remain unclear. Some take days while others take weeks, and we have no means of checking progress on applications.
Catch22 would welcome a system for tracking approval workflows for placements as a solution. Similarly, employers who have already been approved, either with us or through other gateways, should be fast-tracked. This could be done by receiving a unique identifier, rather than requiring the same drawn-out due diligence following every slight variation.
2. Expectations put on young people
Kickstart was conceived with the idea of targeting young people disengaged with employment. Currently, young participants must contact a placement, provided by their coach, themselves. As a gateway, we are told of referrals, but might never hear from the young person. While we have set up inbound text, phone and email routes, fewer than 20 per cent of referrals contact us.
Some of our roles get more than 50 referrals, but not a single young person gets in touch.
While we agree with the general view that building self-sufficiency is a good thing, there cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach, as some cases will fall through the cracks - for example, young people who lack confidence or those facing mental health barriers. If Kickstart is helping only the 20 per cent most motivated young people – as in those who do reach out – then it is failing to target those it was built to reach.
We believe sharing the participant’s contact details via a consent form is best practice. It would be our role to build up their confidence so that they can apply for jobs autonomously in the future. Excellent job coaches can motivate young people. But because there is not a universal expectation that gateways provide wraparound support, the impact of job coaches varies.
3. Unclear policies
Due to the huge scale-up in coaches across the JCP network, there is mixed messaging on policy from individual job coaches. We have seen instances of young people who applied for Kickstart placements and were waiting for interviews with our placement employers, while their job coaches told them they would be fine to take on part-time work in the meantime.
The young person then discovers that this disqualifies them from a Kickstart placement. In most cases, the young person has only gained a few extra hours working to top up their universal credit, but because they are seen to be motivated enough to get a job, their Kickstart placement is withdrawn.
Clarification on the policy about Kickstart eligibility is needed, and whether securing interim part-time work is a disqualification. Our view is that only a full-time, permanent job that the young person wants should be the disqualification. Under-employment or unstable zero-hour contracts should have no influence on eligibility.
4. Communication
In October 2021, we were informed that due to our “fill rate” and approved, “live” placements ratio being below 50 per cent (based on the total fill rate rather than the live fill rate), we would no longer be able to request a variation to increase the number of placements, add employers to our grant agreement, or move placements between their existing employers.
At the time we were about to submit 10 different employers with 19 roles to the DWP that week for approval, but without any time to implement a contingency, we had to inform the new employers that we could no longer process their placements, without any prior notice given. There is no doubt this sort of sudden decision-making impacts both our operations and Kickstart’s reputation.
There was also no clarification on whether the fill rate was measured against total placements that were “approved” or whether this was measured against live placements. Our fill rate for live placements is significantly over 50 per cent but the lack of clarity caused this headache for everyone involved.
The DWP should give a minimum notice period prior to making significant changes to the contract and clear parameters for the data should be communicated in advance of decision making.
5. Quality control
The quality of placements and gateway interventions is varied in the very broadest sense – from the quality of work and the support given, to whether the placements result in long-term opportunities and the impact that has been made on the participant. Communication between coach, participant, and JCP also varies. This lack of quality control means too many participants drop out of the scheme, and the reputation of Kickstart is affected.
Gateways should be required to facilitate JCP–employer transitions, including supporting young people through the application process, working with their job coach, and understanding the in-depth induction requirements of the employer. There should be stronger minimum standards for what a “gateway” is and does, to include the support needed to facilitate youth jobs outcomes. Gateways should also be expected to measure “distance travelled” as a means of evaluation.
Kickstart work placements were established to build connections to high-quality work and communities, giving young people a stake in the future. Without tight expectations around the quality of support and long-term impact of placements, this is in jeopardy.
Young people have withstood some of the hardest effects of the pandemic, in terms of recent life prospects and mental wellbeing. Catch22 remains absolutely committed to Kickstart being as successful as we all wanted it to be. To do this, all of us must be transparent about the challenges of Kickstart – and ambitious about the programme’s potential.
KICKSTART SCHEME
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250k target number of jobs
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235k jobs made available so far
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130k jobs started by young people
Source: PAC report, February 2022
CASE STUDY
MELANIE AND AIMEE GAIN PERMANENT JOBS THROUGH KICKSTART
Two young people from Lancashire have moved into permanent careers after starting work through the Kickstart jobs scheme.
Melanie Chapman and Aimee Cross (pictured) have both been employed after a successful six-month Kickstart placement with North West training provider PHX Training.
After completing their six-month placements earlier this year, both employees impressed enough to earn a permanent job, Aimee as an administrator and Melanie as a work coach, both at PHX Training’s Blackpool office.
Both jobs involve Melanie and Aimee supporting other people in Lancashire to complete qualifications and find work, while the two employees themselves are also benefitting from a range of work-based learning to help them improve their own job skills.
Aimee is completing her qualifications in business administration Level 2 and information, advice and guidance at Level 2, while Melanie has completed her Level 2 in information, advice and guidance.
PHX Training has taken on 15 Kickstart placements so far, out of a total of around 130,000 young people across England that have started jobs with the scheme.
Briony Fawcett, managing director of PHX Training, says: “As a training provider aimed at helping people to find work, I’m really proud of the way that we have supported Melanie and Aimee to find stable employment which allows them to work in a job they enjoy and are supported to succeed in.
“Both have shown a real appetite to be back in work and are a fantastic example of the way the Kickstart programme can help people get back into jobs where they can impress and start a new career for themselves.”
PHX Training, which has centres across Lancashire and Cumbria, is accredited by the government as a gateway provider of the Kickstart scheme and can work with companies across the North West to help them process Kickstart placements and claim the government funding for the scheme.