Guidance

Chapter 15: Data sharing between DWP and providers

Updated 1 April 2020

This guidance was withdrawn on 14 April 2022

This guidance is no longer current and is not being updated. Find the latest Work and Health Programme (including JETS) provider guidance.

Introduction

1. The purpose of this chapter is to summarise all the elements of data that will be shared between the Department and you. The following paragraphs focus on the customer journey from referral stage through to when they finish the programme. We explain the type of data which will be shared and the sources of this, including the overarching processes in place.

2. As a Provider you will have been required to submit a Security Plan at the procurement stage. Once assured by the Department this demonstrates your suitability to receive and store information as well as confirming that you comply with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Security Policy (which includes compliance with such standards as ISO/IEC27001). Further information about our security procedures can be found here (Generic Provider Guidance Chapter 8 – Information Security).

Data transfer at the start of the programme

3. Jobcentre Plus (JCP) Work Coaches will send you personal and sensitive information about participants. This will include documents detailing disability status and barriers to work. This data must be securely stored and with procedures in place which allow it to be retrieved from your systems. Some or all the data may be forwarded to your sub-contractors.

4. Individual data items are listed here.

Personal Information – This information will include the following data fields. (Note this list is not exhaustive):

• full name including title
• National Insurance number (NINO)
• full address including post code
• telephone number inc area code
• other telephone number (mobile)
• unique Provider Referral and Payments (PRaP) Referral identifier
• client number
• qualifications
  • level
  • subject
  • outcome
  • start date
  • end date
  • basic skills assessment
• driving licence
• employment
  • previous job dates
  • aims (free text Field)
  • job preferences
  • preferred hours

5. This information will be largely transferred to you via the Department’s Provider Referral and Payment System (PRaP). If it is not appropriate to use PRaP this information will be shared by email. Further information is provided at paragraphs 10 and 11.

6. PRaP has a robust security accreditation level (IL2) in relation to data storage. This is reviewed annually or whenever there are any system updates or changes. In addition to this other PRaP features include:

• the ability to limit provider access until they have met the Department’s security standards
• Access Control – audits are undertaken every 30 days to ensure the right people have access
• provider access via Government Gateway which is a secure internet gateway which has its own security standards (owned by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC))

7. Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangement (MAPPA) participants will be referred through PRaP. Further information can be found in Chapter 3: Acknowledging Referrals, Initial Participant Engagement and Registering a Start.

8. For MAPPA participants, you will receive the referral, minus the address, postcode and contact telephone number.

9. Participants who have been granted Special Client Record (SCR) status will always be referred to you clerically using the SL2 clerical referral form.

Data transfer during the programme

10. When the Department becomes aware of any changes in Participant information, they will notify you via a change of circumstances notification form. Further information can be found in Chapter 10: Change of Circumstances and Notifications.

11. Where the Participant is also a benefit claimant, you must notify JCP or Universal Credit Service Centre (UCSC) using the Change of Circumstances notification form if you are informed that:

• has disengaged with you (voluntary participants only)
• has re-engaged with you following a disengagement (voluntary participants only)

Further information can be found in Chapter 10: Change of Circumstances and Notifications.

12. There are also circumstances we expect you to notify the department about for mandated participants such as when they fail to engage with mandated activity or fail to attend. Please see Chapter 5a: Mandation to activity attracting a Low or Lower Level sanction and Chapter 5b: Mandation to activity attracting a Higher Level sanction for further details.

13. There is also a requirement for you to notify the Department when you employ a Work and Health Programme (WHP) Participant in your employment business. You must complete a WHP Employment Business Customer Form and provide the following information:

• customer name
• NINO
• date employment commenced

14. You must send this by unencrypted email, at least 5 days before first salary payment, to the Department’s Payment Team Central Inbox: prap.support@dwp.gov.uk.

15. The Department will be validating employment outcomes using employment and earnings data submitted using HMRC PAYE on line earnings data submitted by employers.

16. We will share some information about participant earnings with you. This will include a Participant’s first pay date and confirmation that they have reached the earning threshold to achieve an outcome. Further information can be found in Chapter 14 – Validation.

Data transfer at the end of programme

17. You are required to complete Exit Reports for each Participant on the WHP. To improve quality and consistency we have developed a standard form for you to complete. Further information on exit reports can be found in Chapter 11: Programme Completers and Early Exits.

18. You will have considered the level of information needed in the exit report when you developed your systems and processes. This includes (but is not limited to):

• Participant Surname
• Participant NINO
• summary – how the Participant benefited from the WHP, and the progress against the activities undertaken by the Participant whilst on the WHP
• employability – your opinion on the Participants employment prospects, the type of employment which might be appropriate
• next steps – your recommendations to JCP on the most appropriate next steps for the Participant. There is a minimum word count for this free text entry to ensure a consistent quality referral

19. To help ensure you tailor packages to individuals, you should encourage participants to share with you directly any appropriate information about their previous efforts to secure employment or move closer to the job market as will their JCP Work Coach. As some of these customers are vulnerable we ask you to act sensitively when trying to obtain this information.

20. You will need to use DWP templates, rather than your own, two main reasons for this are:

• JCP can identify them quickly when received
• the design reflects the minimum information that must be supplied as per the current guidance and policy, so it will act as a prompt for JCP to determine the most appropriate type of support for Participants upon their return to Jobcentre

Further information can be found in Chapter 11: Programme Completers and Early Exits.

Use of unencrypted email

21. You must be able to communicate with and receive communications from the Department by unencrypted email as required.

22. Before DWP approves you to use unencrypted email for the first time for a specific process there are steps you must undertake to comply with DWP security requirements. You must email WPD.Security@dwp.gov.uk with any request to use unencrypted email and comply with the implementation and assurance requirements specified by DWP prior to beginning to use of unencrypted email.

23. Before allowing your sub-contractors to use the unencrypted email for any new process, you must have ensured that the sub-contractor has been formally approved by DWP and you have undertaken any necessary due diligence. Further detail can be found in; Generic Provider Guidance Chapter 8 – Information Security.

24. The following processes are the only approved processes that you may use unencrypted email for. You are not permitted to use unencrypted email for these or any other purpose without the written permission of the Department:

• Exit Reports
• Raising a Compliance Doubt and notifying participant re-compliance following a sanction
• Reporting Changes of Circumstances
• WHP Employment Business Customer’ Form
• ESF 14-20 form

25. Unencrypted emails sent to you by the Department will always be sent to a dedicated provider inbox agreed by you and DWP for WHP.

26. You must only use unencrypted email for sending information to the Department with the written permission of the Department and in line with existing exemptions. Further detail can be found in; Generic Provider Guidance Chapter 8 – Information Security.

27. When you use unencrypted email to send information to the Department you must adhere to the restrictions stipulated within Generic Provider Guidance Chapter 8 – Information Security. The following restrictions relate to the processes in the above paragraph and will include all or part of the following:

• only one record per email (except for the requirements to share information between Prime Providers, their Supply Chain and Third parties)
• standard email content
• standard template completed and included in email
• email sent from and to a designated inbox

28. Please refer to Generic Provider Guidance Chapter 8 – Information Security for unencrypted email exemptions not specifically detailed above.

29. If you wish to extend the use of unencrypted email to one of your existing DWP approved sub-contractors who was not named on the list you initially supplied, you must supply an updated list to your Supplier Manager and agree a date for the new sub-contractor to begin using the unencrypted email process.

30. If you wish to extend the use of unencrypted email to a sub-contractor who has newly joined your supply chain you must:

• ensure that they have been formally approved by the Department
• supply an updated list of your sub-contractors whom you have permitted to use unencrypted email for which unencrypted email process to your supplier manager and agree a start date
• ensure you have completed the necessary assurance process and undertaken the relevant due diligence including confirmation that the sub-contractor is not using any product or service with any offshore elements or links

31. You may forward unencrypted emails to an approved sub-contractor and inboxes within your organisation provided that:

• no more than one Participant record at a time is emailed
• a business need to share the information exists
• the recipient is entitled to receive the information (emails must not be automatically forwarded without ensuring this)

Please note

You must keep a record of where and when you sent the notification form for 3 months.

32. You may decide that you no longer wish one of your sub-contractors to use unencrypted email for a specific process. You must notify your Supplier Manager as soon as possible and provide an updated list of your sub-contractors whom you have permitted to use unencrypted email process to your Supplier Manager. You must agree a date with the Supplier Manager for when the sub-contractor will cease using the unencrypted email for the specific process.

33. If you send data to the wrong sub-contractor, you must alert the sub-contractor to the error and ensure that they delete the record. You must keep records of the actions taken for 3 months.

34. If an email was sent to you in error or includes participants with the wrong details (e.g. incorrect NINO) or participants who belong to a different provider please notify your Performance Manager.

35. You are not required to retain a record of the emails you have received therefore you must delete the email from your inbox once you have actioned it.

36. There may be occasions when due to circumstances such as IT failure you are temporarily unable to receive or send unencrypted emails.

37. If you anticipate the situation will continue for 48 hours or longer you must ensure that you inform the Department and revert to clerical methods until the problem is resolved and you are able to use the unencrypted email again.

38. You must inform the Department when you will be able to use unencrypted email again prior to starting to use it. The Department will notify colleagues when the clerical process is being used and when unencrypted email is to be re-introduced.

39. Similarly if the Department have an IT failure you must suspend using unencrypted email if you are notified to do so by the Department.

40. The Department will notify you if the problem will last for longer than 48 hours and will ask you to revert to the clerical process if appropriate.

41. Once resolved, the Department will notify you when unencrypted email has been re-introduced.

Annex A: List of data items to be shared with providers (new items may be added at a future date)

• Unique PRaP Referral Identifier
• Customer Title
• Customer Forename
• Customer Surname
• Verified Address (including postcode)
• NINO
• Claimant Reference Number
• Telephone Number
• Disability Status
• Employment – Aims, Job Preferences, Preferred Hours, Employment History, Previous Job Dates
• Driving Licence (Y or N) Endorsements
• Additional Information
• Other Activities
• Agreed restrictions
• Additional Information (free text on Action Plan)
• Voluntary or Mandatory Referral
• Mandatory Work Related Activity
• JCP Adviser Name (Forename, Surname and Initials)
• JCP Adviser Officer Code
• Claimant Deceased
• Signing Day
• Claim Cycle
• Claim Pattern
• Referral date
• Voluntary Early Entry Category
• Incident marker
• Child care requirements
• Balance of Time
• Welsh spoken and written indicators
• Fast Track Status
• Joint Claimant’s name
• Joint Claimant’s title
• Joint Claimant’s NINO
• Disadvantaged group, early entry
• Barriers to Work
• Additional support or reasonable adjustments (e.g. New Work Capability outcome)
• Admission or discharge hospital
• Appointee or Power of Attorney
• Caring responsibilities
• Change of benefit (e.g. off Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) to Income Support (IS) or Employment and Support Allowance (ESA))
• Change of conditionality group or labour market regime which impacts participation on WHP
• Changes to participant’s conditionality
• Changes that affect participant’s work related requirements (e.g. Jury service, civic duties, domestic emergency, easements for domestic abuse or violence)
• Claim termination or benefit ends
• Death
• Imprisoned or leaves prison
• JSA extended period of sickness
• Moves to live abroad
• New claim to benefit e.g. Universal Credit (UC)
• Partner enters or leaves household
• Part-Time education
• Period of sickness (restrictions and duration)
• Restrictions (e.g. attendance)
• Starts or ends work (inc p/t, vol, s/e, permitted)
• Signing day or cycle (excludes NEA)
• Outcome of Self-Employment Gateway Interview and subsequent quarterly interviews (if appropriate)
• Claimants first payment date
• Claimants earnings reach £1,000
• Claimants earnings reach £2,000
• Claimant’s earnings reaching the National Threshold of approximately £3000. (The actual figure is based on the national minimum wage at any given time, and is therefore subject to change)

Should you require a copy of any of the forms mentioned in this chapter, please email: WHP.ENQUIRIES@DWP.GOV.UK