Guidance

Chapter 4: Action planning

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This guidance was withdrawn on 14 April 2022

This guidance is no longer current and is not being updated.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.

High level must dos

1. Provider decides or agrees appropriate activity with the Participant.

2. Provider records all activities on Action Plan.

3. Provider notifies the Participant of the activity.

4. Provider issues Participant a copy of the Action Plan.

##Action planning

1. Your evidence of action planning must comply with the Contract including, without limitation, the Customer Service Standards, your tender and the Specification.

2. Following the initial engagement, and face to face meeting with the Participant, you should start high level, initial action planning activity. A signature is not required on the Action Plan at this stage. Further information regarding the initial face to face meeting can be found in Work and Health Programme Provider Guidance Chapter 3: Acknowledging referrals, initial Participant engagement and registering a start.

3. You are required to complete an Action Plan, which has been agreed and signed by you and the Participant, within 20 days of Participant referral. This is a Customer Service Standard (CSS) on which you will be performance managed. Further information can be found in Work and Health Programme Provider Guidance Chapter 16: Performance Management.

4. The minimum requirements are that all activities in relation to participants must be recorded in your evidence of action planning.

Actions

• ensure the Participant understands what they are being asked to do, why they are being asked to do it and when it must be completed by. Where you are notified that a Participant has complex needs and/or additional support requirements, you must carefully consider any impact these may have on the Participant’s ability to understand or comply with the requirements of the mandated activity. Further information can be found in Work and Health Programme Provider Guidance Chapter 6: Working with Participants with complex needs and/or additional support requirements
• set activities on Action Plan which are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound)
• make it clear to mandatory long term unemployed claimants where activities are mandatory and issue these to the Participant in writing. Further information can be found in Work and Health Programme Provider Guidance Chapter 5a: Mandation to activity attracting a Low or Lower Level sanction and Work and Health Programme Provider Guidance Chapter 5b: Mandation to activity attracting a Higher Level sanction
• hold all ‘live’ mandatory requirements in a single (paper or electronic) file document. This should include a clear explanation of what the activity is, when it occurs, when it must be completed by, and what evidence is required to demonstrate completion of the activity
• ensure evidence of all interactions are recorded, dated, signed and held for all Participants, in line with the customer journey detailed in your tender. If a Participant cannot or refuses to sign, you must record the reason for this
• ensure the Action Plan is reviewed, updated and signed by both you and the Participant on a regular basis in line with the customer journey detailed in your tender
• make the information contained in the Action Plan available to the Participant at their request (by paper or electronically depending on their preference)
• ensure all relevant information is included in your evidence of action planning in compliance with the Contract, including obtaining Participant signatures (where you have said you will do so in your tender)
• retain your evidence of action planning securely to support compliance checks by European Social Fund (ESF) Compliance Monitoring Officers (CMO) and for ESF audit activity (England only)

Consequences

The 20 day completion of the Action Plan forms part of your Tender CSSs and will be checked during the Department for Work and Pensions CMO process. Failure to meet these standards may result in your failing these checks.

Failure to adhere to your contractual requirements on action planning will result in not meeting the audit requirements of the ESF and can potentially lead to the recovery of funds and other financial liabilities.

Detailed background and further information

Compliance checks

5. The CMO will review evidence of your action planning at regular intervals against what you agreed to deliver in your contract. Where the Customer Service Standards state that your action planning will include specific criteria, such as agreed actions, target completion dates, frequency of reviews, Participant signatures, the CMO will check that these steps have been followed to be assured of compliance with your contractual obligations. Further information regarding ESF requirements can be found in Generic Provider Guidance Chapter 11b – ESF requirements 2014 – 2020 (England Only).

Audit activity

6. The ESF Audit Authority may undertake annual or ad hoc checks on a sample of provider contracts to inspect that delivery complies with contractual obligations. They will check evidence to verify the eligibility of payments made in respect of a sample of individual Participants. The ESF audit may request the action plan and check the start date recorded against the date put on the ESF14-20 Initial form. Providers will fail the audit where this information doesn’t match.

7. Further information regarding ESF requirements can be found in [Generic Provider Guidance Chapter 11b – ESF requirements 2014 – 2020 (England Only).

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