MPs have urged the government ‘urgently’ to bring forward more details on its plans to create a new merged jobs and career service, warning that continuing uncertainty and delay is putting support for people who are out of work at risk.
Jobcentre reform
Jobcentres more about benefits than work, say MPs
The Commons Work and Pensions Committee said the new service – which will merge the National Careers Service with Jobcentres – was an “exciting opportunity” for real change in jobs and careers advice for those looking for work or to change roles.
However, the MPs warned they were concerned about a “troubling” lack of progress and that the plans risked “becoming little more than a rebranding exercise” without a “more ambitious and energetic approach to implementation”.
As part of its ongoing inquiry into reforming Jobcentres, the committee earlier this month warned they had too often “become centres for monitoring compliance with benefit conditions” rather than places where people are helped to find work.
The government’s plans to merge the National Careers Service with Jobcentres in England were set out in its Get Britain Working White Paper and have been described by work and pensions minister Baroness Sherlock as “a key part of our plans to transform our employment support”.
The MPs in their report argued that, to capitalise on the potential for improving employment and delivering “huge” productivity gains, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Department for Education should jointly develop a strategy for adult careers guidance.
This should be introduced before the merger comes into force, they recommended. Doing this, the report said, would help fix the “patchwork” of services in England where responsibilities have too often fallen through the cracks between different government departments and local government.
Work and Pensions Committee chair Debbie Abrahams said: “The plans to create a new jobs and career service are both necessary and an exciting opportunity to truly transform the service and improve outcomes for service users. But the service that helps to secure people’s futures is itself facing uncertainty over its own.
“The government has rightly identified the careers service as something that needs to be reformed and given greater prominence. We heard how only a third of people are even aware that the careers service exists, and a merger could help improve its visibility. But we would make the point that careers advisers have a specialised skillset which must be protected and effectively utilised in the new service.
“The National Careers Service is a critical service, and its funding model should be reviewed. Adult careers services face issues in accountability, with responsibility falling between the DWP, the Department for Education, or with local government. This hodgepodge arrangement and the uncertainty created by the prospect of reforms has highlighted the urgent need for a jointly developed strategy ahead of the merger that will provide a clarity of direction, lines of responsibility and strengthen any holes in the funding model.
“These will be important building blocks in creating the environment in which a new careers service can thrive; getting more people into quality work,” Abrahams added.
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