Guidance

Employment Schemes: background information and methodology

Published 30 August 2017

1. Purpose of the statistics

The Employment Schemes statistics are a bi-annual publication containing analysis of:

• starts to work experience and sector-based work academies
• starts and referrals to Skills Conditionality.

These learning opportunities help claimants to gain essential work-related skills and aim to improve employability prospects.

From 30 August 2017 the release includes data on Universal Credit (UC) claimants.

The information on this page is based on the Office for National Statistics’ guidelines for measuring statistical quality.

2. Context of the statistics

The statistics are used by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to:

• develop and monitor policies
• respond to requests for participation
• answer parliamentary questions

3. Where can I get the statistics

The statistics can be found on the Employment Schemes statistics page. This page also contains

• other employment programme statistics
• Official Statistics
• the latest release timetable
• other related information

The Employment Schemes statistics are released bi-annually every February and August on the last Wednesday of the month. Any changes to the publication date will be communicated at least 28 days in advance.

4. Source of the statistics

These statistics use data from the following sources held by DWP:

• Labour Market System (LMS) Opportunity Type database ( LMS Opportunities)
• Work Service Platform (WSP)
• the National Benefit Database (NBD)

By combining sources together using unique identifiers we can look at the employment schemes undertaken by benefit claimants.

There is a slight delay in the data available to produce the statistics.

For instance, for the August 2017 publication (which includes data up to the end of May 2017), the:

• LMS Opportunities dataset is a snapshot obtained in June 2017
• NBD is a snapshot obtained in March 2017

The WSP is a live database updated daily, the version used for the August 2017 was a snapshot taken on 15 August 2017.

LMS Opportunities

LMS is the key IT system used in jobcentres to support a wide range of business activities associated with non–Universal Credit claims, including:

• managing customer information
• booking and administering appointments
• referring customers to labour market provision, known as ‘opportunities’

The LMS Opportunities dataset contains individual level data about opportunities that jobcentre customers have been referred to or started. The details of the referral are entered into the system by work coaches; the start date is then entered into the system when this information becomes available. Some outcome records which indicate claimants have started the provision are missing start dates.

This dataset does not include information on the type of benefit received by claimants referred to provision. To obtain this information LMS Opportunities must be matched to other benefits data such as the NBD.

Work Service Platform

The WSP is a claim management system for Universal Credit live service claims and records referrals and starts to employment schemes.

The NBD does not currently include any information relating to claims to Universal Credit. However the WSP has been used to allow those claiming Universal Credit during live service to be included in this publication.

The Universal Credit live service was launched in April 2013. As of March 2017, 57 out of over 700 Jobcentre Plus offices were delivering UC through the full service, whilst live service was operational across all other parts of the country

Universal Credit full service claimants are not included due to full service being in the early stages of national rollout and there are some data quality issues. We will look to include further Universal Credit data in future publications.

For more information on the number of starts to Universal Credit, and the current caseload, please see the latest Official Statistics publication.

National Benefit Database

The NBD takes data from the underlying DWP payments systems and supplemented by the information entered by jobcentre advisers. As such non-compulsory fields in either the Labour Market System or the payment system may be incomplete.

Due to the size and technical complexity, these systems are not accessed directly, but at regular intervals scans are taken that build up a longitudinal picture from repeated snapshots of the data.

Start dates are entered on to the system and are accurate dates of benefit payment, thus providing certain timing and duration of benefit claim. However, while Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) dates have very few discrepancies, due to the way the data is scanned the end dates recorded for other benefits may diverge to some extent from the events they are recording. The potential discrepancy varies from up to 2 weeks for Employment Support Allowance to up to 6 weeks for Incapacity Benefit.

The NDB has lags in completeness. At least 3 months is allowed for receipt of backdated claims and data is lagged by around 4 months. For example, data complete to the end of November 2016 was released at the end of March 2017.

5. Limitations of the statistics

These statistics include data from January 2011 to May 2017. Eligibility to participate in work experience, sector-based work academies and Skills Conditionality has changed during this time period. A timeline of the main policy changes that affect eligibility to each of the employment schemes can be found in the main statistics release.

As at August 2017, claimants on Universal Credit full service are not captured in the data presented in these statistics due to Universal Credit full service being in the early stages of national rollout and some data quality issues. Therefore, these statistics will have a small undercount in areas where Universal Credit full service has been introduced. Work is underway to capture information on these claimants.

In Skills Conditionality, some benefit claimants who started a claim between April 2017 and May 2017 may not be included in these statistics due to lags in completeness of the NBD.

Data on the characteristics of individuals starting an employment scheme does not include individuals on UC live service. Data on the ethnicity and disability status of individuals on UC live service is not available. For simplicity and clarity we have presented data on the characteristics of individuals starting employment schemes for those on benefits other than Universal Credit.

Revisions to the statistics

This iteration of the statistics includes 2 revisions to the use of claimant date of birth data:

1. a small number of claimants whose date of birth data is missing within the administrative data sources have been excluded from the statistics on work experience and sector-based work academies. This has meant approximately 0.15% of work experience starts have been omitted between January 2011 and May 2017, as well as approximately 0.17% of sector-based work academy starts have been omitted between August 2011 and May 2017.

2. the methodology to calculate a claimant’s age on referral to an employment scheme has been updated. The statistics previously calculated the claimant’s age when first referred to an employment scheme and reported starts against this age throughout. The new methodology re-calculates the age of the claimant at each start of provision. This has resulted in a retrospective, small shift, approximately 1%, of all work experience and sector-based work experience starts in the age group volumes.

Retrospection

Retrospection refers to the time period allowed for additional or updated information to be incorporated into DWP’s data systems.

Work coaches and further education colleges may submit, correct or resubmit data relevant to a work experience, sector-based work academy or Skills Conditionality start sometime after the actual event occurred. This means that the data presented in each release is subject to some retrospection, and figures may be revised in subsequent releases.

LMS datasets are produced with a month delay. For example: data for September 2014 was available at the end of October 2014. Generally we see retrospection in the last reported month of the latest LMS dataset (to use the same example: we see significant retrospection in the data for May 2017, which was released at the end of June 2017).

Therefore, to ensure the data published in these Official Statistics are accurate and will not be subject to significant change in the future, the statistics are published 2 to 3 months after the reference period. This means statistics for May 2017 are produced using June 2017 data rather than May 2017 data.

In accordance with Principle 2 of the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Official Statistics , statistics within this publication adhere to DWP’s statistics revisions policy, which explains how we will make revisions and inform users of our statistics when they occur.

Rounding and suppression

To reduce the risk of inferring the identity of a claimant from these statistics values are rounded to the nearest 10. Values less than 5 are suppressed and marked with a “-”.

Due to rounding totals may not equal the sum of the individual cells.

6. Definitions and terminology within the statistics

Age-groups

The statistics publication uses data available for working age claimants using the following age breakdowns:

• 18–24 year olds
• 25–49 year olds
• those aged 50+

As such the category 50+ will contain people from the ages 50 up to 65.

Claimant count

The claimant count measures the number of people claiming benefit principally for the reason of being unemployed. This count includes the number of people claiming JSA plus those who claim Universal Credit and are required to seek work and be available for work.

Employment schemes

Work experience placements generally last between 2 and 8 weeks. Work experience gives claimants the chance to add some vital experience to their CV, including having a referee.

The sector-based work academy scheme runs in England and Scotland. Placements last up to 6 weeks and include:

• pre-employment training
• work experience
• a guaranteed interview for a job or apprenticeship

Sector-based work academies are developed in partnership with employers and are available in sectors with high volumes of local vacancies.

Benefit claimants who are required to take steps to seek employment or prepare for work may be offered Jobcentre Plus support to improve their skills.

Skills Conditionality is a policy whereby a work coach can require a claimant to take up this support as a condition for receiving benefit, where it is felt that a skills gap is stopping a claimant gaining employment.

Out-of-work benefits

This refers to benefits primarily claimed by individuals who are unemployed but have an expectation of work or work–related activity. For UC claimants this includes people who are underemployed and have an expectation of further work activity

Referrals and starts

A claimant can be referred to a course by their work coach or ‘self-refer’ if they feel a scheme will help them achieve their employment goals. The statistics include both types of referrals.

For UC claimants the date of referral to the employment scheme is defined as the date the referral record is first entered on to WSP and is a system generated date stamp. All referrals have an outcome type linked to them which provides information on whether or not the claimant started on the provision.

A start refers to an individual commencing an employment scheme. An individual can start multiple employment schemes, or start the same employment scheme multiple times. As such the number of starts to employment schemes is not the same as the number of individuals starting employment schemes. Similarly the total number of people starting employment schemes cannot be inferred from the total number of starts to employment schemes.

For UC claimants the start date is recorded clerically; work coaches enter the date on the system manually. This clerical recording results in missing start dates for a percentage of the records. Approximate figures on recorded starts are given below:

• c. 95% for Skills Conditionality
• c. 90% for sector-based work academies
• c. 85% for work experience

These records are confirmed starts (see outcome type above) and therefore the start dates are imputed for reporting purposes as referral date plus 1 day. Starts to employment schemes generally occur within a few days of referral and so, for the purposes of monthly reporting, referrals and starts are likely to occur within the same month.

Data recording practices can result in clerically recorded start dates occurring before system generated referral dates – this is a result of when the record of referral to provision is entered onto the system. Where this is the case referral dates are adjusted to be equal to start date minus 1 day. This, as above, allows sensible presentation of referrals and starts in the statistical publication.

Universal Credit full service

Universal Credit full service is available to all types of claimants in certain areas in Great Britain.

Universal Credit full service claimants have an online Universal Credit account to manage their claim. Claimants can use their account to report changes, send messages to their work coach and find support.

Eventually all Universal Credit claims will be on the full service and it is expected that all claimants will have an online Universal Credit account.

Universal Credit live service

Universal Credit live service is available to all single people across Great Britain, who are not in a full service area. It is also available to couples and families with children in some areas.

Universal Credit live service claimants manage their claim by phone and eventually all live service claims will move to the full service.

The transition of jobcentres to full service from live service is expected to be completed by September 2018.

7. Comparisons between the statistics

There are a number of other statistical publications available that can be used to provide contextual information about this release. Some of the most relevant are:

• further education for benefit claimants which provides an overview of government funded education activity for adult benefit claimants in England

• quarterly benefits statistical summaries which provide the breakdown on DWP benefits

• Universal Credit statistics which shows the caseload of those on Universal Credit

8. Status of the statistics

Experimental Statistics

These statistics have been developed using guidelines set out by the UK Statistics Authority, while they undergo evaluation they are labelled as experimental statistics.

Quality statement

The Employment Schemes statistics have undergone internal quality assurance. They have been checked against previous publications and other official statistics including Universal Credit data. We would expect differences between this year’s publication and previous releases due to the inclusion of Universal Credit live service claims for the first time, and have therefore included tables 1a, 2a and 3a to allow comparison between the previous release and data excluding UC claimants in the latest release.

These show good agreement between the number of starts in the previous release and within this publication when UC claimants are excluded. Due to changes in the calculation of claimant ages and retrospection of data on the opportunities claimants take up we would expect small shifts in the number of claimants, especially in each of the age brackets, in comparison to the previous release.

9. Feedback

We welcome feedback

This is an experimental statistical series that we will develop further. We would welcome any feedback you might have, and would also be particularly interested in knowing how you make use of these data to inform your work and any changes or additions you would like us to consider to improve its usefulness.

Contact details for the responsible analyst are:

Maria Thorpe
Level 1 West Wing,
Rockingham House,
West Street,
Sheffield,
S1 4ER.

Email: Maria.Thorpe@dwp.gsi.gov.uk or telephone: 0114 294 8882.