Making employability count – a review of the ‘Evaluation of Restart Scheme Report’

In May 2024, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) published a new report, The Evaluation of Restart Scheme, in which the research was conducted by Learning and Work Institute (L&W) and Ipsos (on behalf of the DWP).

In this blog we outline our reflections and compare it to our experience:.

A positive working relationship with participants is critical

The Evaluation report highlights that “participants who had a positive relationship with the Employment Advisor were more likely to accept their advice and to attribute positive employment outcomes to the Restart Scheme.”  The report also stated that a positive relationship was more likely to take place if there was consistent contact with the same Advisor.

At Forward, our work is always based on the Wheel of Change model – 30% being the effective working relationship between our Advisor and the participants, 15% always about giving aspiration and hope, 30% is down to the environment which we can shape, and 15% is down the actual intervention and programme.

So, 45-75% of our impact is down to our diligent Advisors. We also believe it is about showing gladness to work with someone and offering no judgement but a willingness to actively listen and engage with someone. By doing this as the Evaluation Report states, high quality interactions can result, “characterised by a consistent advisor, who offered tailored support and made additional support available to participants who needed it.”

Our approach is also based on providing additional holistic and pastoral support to participants. Only recently, we provided a mini food bank with essential items for participants, hosted monthly career fairs with local employers along with cost of living and wellbeing events. We also worked with partner agencies including the incredible CAB network.

We are committed to widening career aspirations

The report outlines that participants with lower levels of qualification conducted narrow job search and were looking for work in fewer sectors. Yet, the report does not take into account the local labour market conditions, or the local economy, in its analysis.  Forward is often working in areas of high deprivation and low levels of ethnic diversity (compared to cities such as London).   Our approach is to adapt and deliver more in depth careers information, advice and guidance. We encourage all our participants to improve their qualifications – our Adult Skills or Multiply courses, are great examples of this. We do as much as we can to help participants `Step into roles’ in the form of taster sessions, on-the-job work experience or working with new sectors. We often that that no matter where the role is, we try to harness the potential of each candidate and to utilise their transferable skills, knowledge or experience.

In work support is an integral to what we do

Participants that enter employment can face barriers and challenges that can contribute to them dropping out of a job. The report mentions “those in work did experience challenges or identified areas where their experiences of work could be improved. Low pay, too few hours (for those both employed or self-employed), inconsistent hours or part-time or zero-hours contracts remained barriers to financial independence. Lack of consistent hours combined with low hours overall made household budgeting difficult.” 

As a Real Living Wage employer committed to `Good Work’, our influence within our Partners and Employers Network helps to educate other employers about the benefits of the Good Work Standard (GWS).  Forward’s dedicated ‘In Work’ support team regular meet participants to help them stay motivated and to identify ways of progressing in their career.  We also educate employers about mental health issues, wellbeing, and addiction that can enable them to improve support for their employees, e.g., better line management and providing reasonable adjustments.

It’s important to have a positive working relationships with the Job Centre Plus Network

Emma and her team have worked hard to forge positive working relationships with the Job Centre Plus Teams.  The report states “an overwhelming majority (98%) of providers reported receiving what they deemed as unsuitable referrals. This was most commonly because participants had highly complex needs or barriers which the Restart Scheme could not support effectively (66%).”  We have found `investing our time with the job centre managers and work coaches helps us to receive suitable referrals for Restart and our other dynamic purchasing system (DPS) contracts.  The partnership with Job Centre Plus (JCP) has been pivotal to the success of our Restart Scheme. During the Forward Employability Day Awards 2023, we recognised this partnership. Forward’s mission is focused on supporting individuals with complex needs or barriers, and we have thrive in supporting all those that benefit from this support.

Our participants are not always close to the labour market

The report mentions that “participants were more likely to have several characteristics that might mean they were closer to the labour market and were less likely to have health conditions (lasting or expected to last 12 months or more) that might affect their ability to work”.  We have found the polar opposite, particularly as the Scheme moved into year 2 with a great proportion of participants further away from the labour market and 30% of more having health and mental health conditions. 

Self Employment is an important pathway and requires greater recognition

The report recognises a theme that we have seen “self-employed participants tended to be following a vocation they were interested in but have less reliable, lower incomes overall. Self-employed participants chose this because they were passionate about it, they had prior experience in the sector, or it fitted around their barriers.“

We have been seen a great interest in self employment and business start ups more generally, which we think is because of challenges in the local labour market but also a healthy resurgence in entrepreneurship in the geographical areas we are working in. In fact, the work Forward does across our other programmes supports entrepreneurs, often from complex or minority backgrounds, to consider self-employment as a pathway through the Restart Scheme.  To date, 25% of our job outcome data has been supporting those who have gone through a self-employed progression pathway – with almost 90% of them reaching sustainability on Restart.

Final thoughts

We encourage the Government to take a greater interest in incentivising self employment on Restart, Restart Extension and on future DWP Programmes, and to fund a replacement for the New Enterprise Allowance as well.

The ‘Evaluation’ report chimes with what we are seeing on the ground, but there are also notable differences, particularly with our Restart Scheme, supporting people who were initially further away from the labour market.

There is a huge opportunity to develop the employability landscape to invest more support for disadvantaged groups including those that are currently economically inactive and wanting to work.