Guidance

Work Choice statistics: background information note

Updated 3 September 2020

The final release of Work Choice statistics was published on 3 September 2020.

1. Introduction

This note contains:

• an explanation of the Work Choice programme and its aims, including detail on providers of Work Choice across the 28 contract package areas in Great Britain
• a description of the process and end-to-end journey that participants made on the Work Choice programme
• the methodology used to compile the data used in the official statistics

2. Work Choice

2.1. What is Work Choice?

On 25 October 2010, WORKSTEP, Work Preparation and the Job Introduction Scheme were replaced by Work Choice.

Work Choice helped disabled people whose needs could not be met through other work programmes, Access to Work or workplace adjustments. This might have been because they needed more specialised support to find employment or keep a job once they started work.

Work Choice was tailored to meet individual needs. It focused on helping individuals to achieve their full potential and move towards being more independent. Work Choice also ensured employers got the support they needed to employ more disabled people.

Work Choice has now ended. In April 2017, referrals ended in Scotland. It was due to end in England and Wales at the same time but these contracts were extended. Referrals in England and Wales ended in February 2018, with the final job outcomes being claimed in October 2019. The extension was not a new contract award. Most contractual definitions were unaltered. However, the extension contract did include an amended delivery model designed to maximise the customer journey in the programme within the period of the extension.

In the extension, the programme moved from a three-module programme to a two-module programme which was time bound. Module 1, “Work Choice Pre-Employment Support Module”, did not change, but Modules 2 and 3 were amalgamated into one “Work Choice In-Work Support Module” so that all in-work participants received the best possible help and intensive support towards reaching their goal of sustained unsupported employment, which was time bound. The pre-extension delivery model is shown in Annex A.

Module 1: Work Choice Pre-Employment Support

All new participants entered Module One of Work Choice. This module usually lasted for up to 6 months but could be extended for up to a maximum of 12 months. Individuals received help with personal skills and work-related advice to get them into supported or unsupported work.

Module 2: Work Choice In-Work Support Module

Once a participant found paid employment (or self-employment) of 16 hours or more a week that is supported by Work Choice, the provider will work with the employer and the participant to identify the support required for the participant to start work and stay in their job. This module lasted for up to 2 years.

The aim of Work Choice was to provide a voluntary, tailored, coherent range of specialist employment services which could respond more flexibly to the individual needs of disabled people and their employers and make better use of resources.

The key principles underpinning Work Choice focused on:

• those who most need specialist support
• less prescription and greater flexibility
• better links between elements of provision
• better consistency and quality of provision
• provision for all types of disability
• opportunities for the customer and claimant to exercise choice and control
• job outcomes
• improved support for people in either employment or self-employment
• improved progression to unsupported employment
• achieving potential within longer-term supported employment

Work Choice participants should have had the same pay and conditions as other, non-supported employees doing similar jobs. Providers agreed arrangements with employers and ensured that people have the same access to training and development opportunities as other employees. This helped encourage progression towards unsupported employment where appropriate.

2.2. Work Choice process

Referrals to Work Choice were made by Jobcentre Plus Disability Employment Advisors (DEAs); Work Coaches; and specialist advisors. These advisors ensured that only eligible and suitable disabled people were referred. Referrals to these advisors could have been made from a number of sources – for example, Work Choice providers including Remploy, external partners, and customer and claimant self-referrals.

New participants entered Module 1 of Work Choice where they worked with their provider on a detailed Development Plan to address their complex barriers and employment support needs. Providers were expected to be flexible to the needs of customers or claimants. The support could include one-to-one help or less intensive support and advice depending on the participant’s needs.

In Module 2 , once a participant found paid supported employment (or self-employment) supported by Work Choice of 16 hours or more a week (this could be more than one job which add up to 16 hours or more a week), the provider could work with the employer and participant to identify the support required for the participant to start work and keep their job. The provider was required to provide a range of support tailored to the needs of the individual participant depending upon their circumstances.

Providers of Work Choice were expected to provide certain elements of the normal Access to Work provision as part of their service to their programme participants. Prime Providers had access to a Work Choice-dedicated Access to Work team who provided advice and support on applications. Anyone moving into unsupported work at any point would have been able to make an application to Access to Work in the normal way.

Providers received a service fee for each individual who started Work Choice. They received a further payment if that individual obtained a job outcome and a final payment if that job outcome was sustained – unsupported for at least 6 months.

Figure 1: Participant journey on Work Choice

2.3. Contracts and providers

Work Choice was delivered by a prime provider in each of the 28 Contract Package Areas (CPAs). Prime Providers could sub-contract with a range of other specialist or niche providers to support disabled people who were eligible and suitable for the programme, in overcoming their complex employment needs related to disability. Remploy was also delivering the Work Choice business model, providing a choice for customers/claimants in most CPAs. Up until April 2015 Remploy Employment Services was part of the public sector and funded through a grant in aid. In April 2015, Remploy was awarded a Work Choice Contract. From August 2018, published statistics include data for Remploy from April 2015 onwards.

There were 9 prime providers for Work Choice:

• Shaw Trust
• Advance Housing and Support Ltd
• CDG Wise Ability Ltd
• Momentum
• Ingeus UK Ltd
• The Pluss Organisation
• Seetec
• Working Links
• Remploy (from April 2015)

The 28 Contract Package Areas were as follows:

• CPA1 – Highlands, Islands, Clyde Coast and Grampian
• CPA2 – Forth Valley, Fife and Tayside
• CPA3 – Glasgow, Lanarkshire and East Dunbartonshire
• CPA4 – Ayrshire, Dumfries, Galloway and Inverclyde, Edinburgh, Lothians and Borders
• CPA5 – North and Mid Wales, South East Wales
• CPA6 – South West Wales, South Wales Valleys
• CPA7 – Northumbria, South Tyne and Wear Valley
• CPA8 – North and East Yorkshire and The Humber, Tees Valley
• CPA9 – Cumbria and Lancashire
• CPA10 – Greater Manchester East and West, Greater Manchester Central
• CPA11 – Merseyside, Cheshire, Halton and Warrington
• CPA12 – West Yorkshire
• CPA13 – Derbyshire, South Yorkshire
• CPA14 – Nottingham, Lincolnshire and Rutland
• CPA15 – Leicestershire and Northamptonshire
• CPA16 – The Marches, Staffordshire, Coventry and Warwickshire
• CPA17 – Birmingham and Solihull, Black Country
• CPA18 – Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, Norfolk
• CPA19 – Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, Essex
• CPA20 – Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Havering, Barking and Dagenham, City and East London
• CPA21 – Central London, West London, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey
• CPA22 – Lambeth, Southwark and Wandsworth, South London
• CPA23 – Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire
• CPA24 – Hampshire and Isle of Wight
• CPA25 – Kent, Surrey and Sussex
• CPA26 – Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Swindon, West of England
• CPA27 – Dorset and Somerset
• CPA28 – Devon and Cornwall

3. The Statistics

The Work Choice statistics are released as Official Statistics.

The statistics set out all referrals and starts to the programme by month, and job outcomes obtained by participants on the programme by the type of job outcome: short paid supported, short paid unsupported, unpaid unsupported progressions and paid unsupported sustained job outcomes.

Cohort analysis shows the proportion of Work Choice starts that achieved a job outcome. These proportions are known as job outcome rates and are provided by type of job outcome.

Breakdowns of starts to the programme are given by: Provider; CPA; primary disability type; region; and benefit type, and by month of start. Cohort analysis is also given by primary disability type and by benefit type, and by year.

3.1. Where can I get the statistics?

The statistics are published in the collection of Work Choice Statistics, which also provides the latest release timetable and other related information.

3.2. Publication dates

Between May 2012 and August 2017, the Work Choice Official Statistics were published quarterly in February, May, August and November. Since August 2017, the Work Choice Official Statistics have been published annually in August or September. The final release was published on 3 September 2020. There will now be no further releases.

3.3. Revisions policy

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.

Every effort has been made to ensure that the quality of these statistics is of the highest standard. However, it may be necessary to revise the statistics in subsequent publications when more complete data becomes available, particularly for more recent months, when there could be a high level of retrospection.

Retrospection refers to the time period allowed for additional or updated information to be incorporated into DWP’s data systems. The statistics are likely to see retrospection in each publication, particularly for the more recent data. This is likely to affect the number of unpaid unsupported job progressions particularly as providers do not receive a payment for these progressions, and thus have little incentive to record them at the time they occur.

Details of methodological changes and the resulting revisions to the statistics are provided in Section 4.2.

3.4. Rounding and suppression policy

To reduce the risk of inferring the identity of a claimant from these statistics, values are rounded to the nearest ten. Values less than ten, when rounded, are suppressed. Therefore totals may not equal the sum of the individual cells.

Job outcome volumes and rates based on starts less than 500 should be treated with caution and those less than 100 with extreme caution. This is the due to the relatively high level of uncertainty involved with such small volumes.

4. Methodology

4.1. General methodology

The Work Choice referrals and starts figures in this publication were originally derived from the Labour Market System (LMS) Opportunity Type database. (Referrals and starts from individuals in receipt of Universal Credit were derived from the Provider Referrals and Payments System (PRaP)). Providers sent monthly data returns to DWP containing information on individuals who achieved job outcomes through Work Choice. This outcome data was recorded on the Provider Referrals and Payments System (PRaP). The referrals and starts information from LMS was then merged with the job outcome information from PRaP to build a complete picture of an individual’s journey through the Work Choice programme, and enabled figures on referrals, starts and job outcomes to be produced. The merged LMS and PRaP data was then merged with the DWP’s National Benefit Database, to identify any benefits received by individuals on their Work Choice referral date or within the four-week period after the Work Choice referral date.

4.2. Methodological and presentational changes for the August 2016 publication

A range of methodological and presentational changes were made in the August 2016 publication in response to internal user engagement on the types of statistics that they would like to see published as well as methodology, definitions and timing. These changes were made to better reflect the customer journey through Work Choice and to ensure better harmonisation with other DWP employment programme statistics, as well as reflecting continuous improvement of the statistics.

4.2.1. Methodological changes

By the August 2016 publication, information on referrals and starts was then obtained from PRaP along with job outcome data. This data was then merged with LMS to identify individuals’ primary disability type at the time of referral to Work Choice. This in turn was merged with the DWP’s National Benefit Database to identify any benefits received by individuals on their Work Choice referral date or within the four-week period after the Work Choice referral date. This data was also merged with Opportunity Types dataset in order to obtain regional data and for the 2018 and 2020 publications, it was merged with the Universal Credit Reference Dataset to obtain regional data for Universal Credit claimants.

Prior to the August 2016 publication, a sustained job outcome was recorded in the month an individual entered unsupported employment rather than in the month it became sustained. This had changed by the August 2016 publication and sustained job outcomes were then recorded in the month the provider received a payment for the outcome (the same month in which the job outcome became sustained). This resulted in a slight shift of data between time periods.

For short and sustained job outcomes providers received a payment which was entered into PRaP. By August 2016, this was used as the variable to indicate when these job outcomes occurred rather than the qualifying date which was used prior to the August 2016 publication. This change had minimal impact on the statistics, but was viewed as a more robust methodology. Providers did not receive a payment for unsupported job progressions, but the qualifying date was still entered into PRaP.

4.2.2. Data presentation

The presentational changes are detailed below, with associated reasons and impacts on the statistics:

• performance months, starting from the 26th day of each month were used from the 2016 publication onwards, instead of calendar months. For example, the November performance month runs from 26 October to 25 November, as opposed to 1 to 30 November. This was to ensure better harmonisation between other DWP employment programme statistics and resulted in a slight shift of data between time periods
• to provide more detail, the majority of the statistics were given by month as well as by quarter from the August 2016 publication onwards
• for Provider, CPA, Disability type, region and Benefit type breakdowns, starts are provided instead of referrals. Users felt that starts better reflected the customer journey
• furthermore, for Disability type and Benefit type breakdowns short job outcomes and sustained job outcomes (volumes and rates) were included to provide further detail on the variation between participant types
• the cohort analysis became based on starts, not referrals. This was again to better reflect the customer journey and resulted in a slight shift of data between time periods
• the cohort analysis provided the proportion of starts that achieved a job outcome within 12 or 24 months for short job outcomes and job progressions and sustained job outcomes respectively. More recent cohorts, where participants that had not yet had 12 or 24 months to achieve a job outcome, were not included (with the exception of the 2020 publication which included all cohorts, even though those who started after November had fewer than 24 months before the programme ended). This was to ensure a fair comparison between cohorts (previously more recent cohorts had less time in which to achieve a job outcome). This resulted in a slight reduction in the job outcome volumes and rates, particularly for less recent cohorts
• job outcomes were only provided by type of job outcome: short supported job outcomes, short unsupported job outcomes, unsupported (unpaid) job progressions and sustained job outcomes. Previously both total job outcomes and total unsupported job outcomes were given, where only one job outcome per start was included. Users felt that this change would make the statistics clearer and ensured better consistency between definitions

4.3. Further methodological and presentational changes

4.3.1. Change in short job outcome definition with the introduction of the extended Work Choice contract (February 2017 publication)

The definition of short job outcomes changed with the introduction of the extended Work Choice contract for those referred from 25 October 2015, from ‘Expected to last 13 weeks’ to ‘Has lasted 13 weeks.’

As outcomes are claimed after the requirement has been met, this change is likely to impact both the total numbers achieving a short job outcome, and the numbers that achieve a short job outcome within 12 months (due to the additional time required for the job outcome to be achieved and recorded).

Recording of short job outcomes:

• in terms of achievement, ‘Expected to last 13 weeks’ job outcomes are achieved at job start (with subsequent validation by DWP) and ‘Has lasted 13 weeks’ job outcomes are achieved at job start plus 13 weeks in employment
• in terms of recording (and therefore what is reflected in the statistics): the job outcomes are recorded when the payment is made for the outcome, which is made up of the achievement date, plus the time taken for the provider to track and claim an outcome, plus the time taken for DWP to process and pay for the outcome

Note that the cohort analysis in Table 2 does include total short job outcomes achieved as well as those achieved within 12 months of the start date.

4.3.2. Inclusion of Remploy data (August 2018 publication)

Remploy has been delivering the Work Choice business model since October 2010. Prior to 7 April 2015 Remploy Employment Services was part of the public sector and funded through a grant in aid. This meant that it was not included as part of the wider national Work Choice programme statistics. In April 2015, Remploy was awarded a Work Choice contract. For the first time, the published statistics will include data for Remploy. This has been done to provide a complete overview of the programme. However, the inclusion of Remploy causes an interruption in the time series. To allow users to make valid comparisons over time, some tables refer to the original 8 prime providers only.

4.3.3. Providing regional data (August 2018 and September 2020 publications)

For the August 2018 and September 2020 publications, regional data was obtained for participants from the Opportunity Types dataset for legacy claimants and from the Universal Credit Reference Dataset for Universal Credit claimants. Regions were derived using participant postcodes, which were obtained by merging these datasets with participant data.

4.3.4. Improving methodology to link participants to benefit spells (September 2020 publication)

For the September 2020 publication, the approach to obtain the benefit claimed on referral was improved. For non-PIP benefits, the approach used in previous publications only recorded benefits that participants claimed 4 weeks prior to Work Choice referral date. Therefore, if a participant claimed a benefit 2 weeks prior to referral, this was not included. In the 2020 publication, this has been changed to include any benefits that participants claimed on their referral date, and in the period up to 4 weeks after this date. Therefore, if someone was recorded as starting to claim a benefit in the 4-week period after their referral, this would be recorded as a benefit claimed on referral in the 2020 publication. This is considered a more robust methodology and is consistent with statistics of some other employment programmes.

4.4. Policy and delivery changes to Work Choice

4.4.1. Geographical coverage of Work Choice

From 1 April 2017, responsibility for employment programmes in Scotland became a devolved matter for the Scottish Government. The Work Choice programme closed for new entrants in Scotland on 31 March 2017. Delivery for customers already in the programme in Scotland at this time continued until the end of their provision or programme closure, whichever was the earliest. Programme closure in Scotland was be 31 October 2018. Work Choice statistical publications after this time continued to show outcomes of participants in Scotland who had already started on the programme.

4.4.2. Work Choice closure

Referrals to Work Choice ended in February 2018, with the final starts in May 2018. The programme closed on 31 March 2019 , with the final job outcomes being claimed up to 28 October 2019.

Annex A: Work Choice Delivery Model for up to March 2017

As Section 2 details, Work Choice contracts were extended in England and Wales from April 2017 and in this extension the programme moved from a three-module programme to a two-module programme. The pre-extension delivery model is shown below (see Section 2.2 for the extension delivery model).

Figure 2: Work Choice Delivery Model for up to March 2017