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Pathways to Work

Volume 458: debated on Tuesday 27 March 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have passed through Pathways to Work programmes in each year since their inception, broken down by (a) area and (b) whether the participants had a physical or mental disability; and what proportion obtained work in each case. (102173)

The available information is in the tables.

Note that the figures for those entering work are for those recorded as doing so on Jobcentre Plus systems and will understate true work outcomes.

Jobs measured by the Job Entry Target (JET) up to March 2006 are for the most part job opportunities that customers have been submitted to by JCP staff and that JCP staff have followed up to confirm the job entry, or jobs from NDDP brokers. Not all jobs obtained by people who have made an IB claim in a Pathways to Work area will be obtained in this manner as they would also be looking at newspaper ads, employment agencies, the internet, word of mouth, etc.

Since April 2006 jobs have been measured via the Job Outcome Target (JOT). This is based on HMRC income tax payment records it not a complete measure of all job entries for a number of reasons. For example; a large proportion of part-time/lower paid jobs will not be reported as they are below the tax threshold.

Numbers starting pathways to work in each district

District

October 2003 to March 2004

April 2004 to March 2005

April 2005 to March 2006

Derbyshire

6,500

14,440

14,970

Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, Argyll and Bute

4,590

8,800

10,010

Bridgend, Rhondda, Cynon and Taf

4,720

10,200

11,180

Lancashire East

10,990

12,460

Somerset

6,780

7,000

Gateshead and South Tyneside

9,130

9,860

Essex

20,060

20,490

Cumbria

3,640

Glasgow

16,090

Lancashire West

5,010

Tees Valley

3,770

Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham

City of Sunderland

County Durham

Lanarkshire and East Dumbartonshire

Liverpool and the Wirral

Greater Manchester Central

Swansea Bay and West Wales

Proportions entering work from pathways in each district1

Percentage

District

October 2003 to March 2004 all jobs2

April 2004 to March 2005 all jobs

Derbyshire

17

16

Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, Argyll and Bute

24

22

Bridgend, Rhondda, Cynon and Taf

23

21

Lancashire East

19

Somerset

19

Gateshead and South Tyneside

17

Essex

11

Numbers starting pathways to work by type of disability

Disability

October 2003 to March 2004

April 2004 to March 2005

April 2005 to March 2006

Mental Health Condition

4,560

21,720

33,090

Physical Disability

6,570

33,820

46,130

Not known/not yet diagnosed

4,760

25,200

35,540

Proportions entering work from pathways by type of disability1

Percentage

Disability

October 2003 to March 2004 all jobs2

April 2004 to March 2005 all jobs

Mental Health Condition

23

19

Physical Disability

19

16

Not known/not yet diagnosed

21

17

1 The proportions entering work for this period are based on new claimants only, excluding the small number of existing customers brought in during this period.

2 Jobs recorded in Jobcentre Plus systems—the true proportion entering work will be higher than this.

Notes:

1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. A value of ‘-’ indicates a nil or negligible value. A value of ‘.’ indicates that the value has not been calculated.

2. As pathways began in October 2003, the first year covers approximately six months. The second and third years, based on an operational year, run from April until March. The last year covers approximately three months, until the last recorded data in June 2006.

3. Data for starts on pathways are to end of June 2006. Data for job entries are to end of March 2006. No more recent data are available for job entries because the previous job entry measure was terminated in March 2006, and the new job outcomes target data which replaced it have an approximate six month reporting lag, so that April 2006 data are not yet available. Because of the time it takes for pathways participants to find work, the latest cohort of entrants for whom it is possible to give a meaningful figure for proportion entering work is those starting in September 2005. Even then, this figure is potentially misleading if compared with earlier cohorts, as many find work more than six months after joining. To give a more useful comparison over time, the proportion finding jobs within six months is also given.

4. Additionally, this understates total job entries since it only counts those recorded in Jobcentre Plus systems. Survey data from the independent evaluation suggest for example that 42 per cent. of pathways participants had done at least some paid work in the 10 months after starting..

5. Job entry figures include all recorded job entries plus return to work credit (RTWC) awards for which no job entry is yet recorded. (By definition, an RTWC award must indicate that a job entry has occurred). Figures for job entries include new deal for disabled people (NDDP) job starts.

6. Data for physical disability are based on those participants for whom a medical condition is recorded, but whose condition is not classified as a mental health condition.

7. The data on medical condition for Pathways to Work participants are incomplete. This is because they are drawn from incapacity benefit data that appear in the National Benefits Database (NBD). This impacts on the completeness of pathways medical condition data in two ways; (1) NBD lags behind other Pathways Evaluation Database sources by some three to four months, and (2) The NBD incapacity benefit data are based on a six-weekly snapshot, which means that some short-term claims of less than six weeks are not included.

Source:

Pathways to Work Evaluation Database