Who did it?
The initiative was developed by the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) and is delivered via Jobcentre Plus and other Restart providers (contracted-out service providers).
Where are we drawing the evidence from?
Information sourced from:
What kind of support was it?
A 12-month intensive and tailored one-to-one support programme to support employment search and progress in work.
Where did it run?
England and Wales
When did it run?
Initial roll out began July 2021 – last cohort to join 2024 with the scheme concluding in June 2025
Who did it serve?
- From July 2021 - people on Universal Credit in the Intensive Worksearch Regime for between 12 and 18 months
- From January 2022 – the scheme expanded to Universal Credit claimants after 9 months and with no upper limit
- From April 2022 - claimants in receipt of Income Based Jobseekers Allowance (JSA IB) but not claimants in receipt of New Style Jobseekers Allowance (NS JSA)
- From July 2022 - 50+ age group who have been out of work for 9 months
What were its key features?
- Regular contact with all participants using a variety of methods and channels
- Personalised support, tailored to individual and local need. Restart aims to systematically identify the particular barriers to work that a participant faces, and then offer appropriate support (which may include referral to other networks) to address those barriers
- Longer meetings with Restart coaches who provide more intensive and structured support
- Customer satisfaction measure built in as an integral part of performance management
- A ‘payment by results’ model, where providers get financial incentives to succeed in supporting clients to access sustained employment
What were its outcomes?
Ongoing scheme – pending final evaluation.
NAO interim report (December 2022) concludes:
- Restart provides a useful service to help the long-term unemployed gain employment, and this will have significant net benefits to the wider economy
- Restart providers spend more time with clients (than JCP do), have a better structured way of interacting and thus have greater success in getting participants into work
- Restart is more expensive per person than originally intended but is on course to deliver value for money – await final evaluation
- The 9 customer service standards which DWP introduced were mostly not met by providers – although there has been improvement over the course of the programme. Providers found it difficult to meet the standards in part because participants did not engage as had been expected, but also because the level of administrative accountability required by the DWP negatively impacted on good customer experience
- DWP were able to deduct delivery fees paid to providers due to poor performance against the standards or defer fees until providers demonstrate improvement. It is unclear whether the financial penalties have encouraged providers to focus more on people who are easier to support into work
- Providers’ IT systems are not integrated into the Universal Credit system which leads to participants having to repeat information for each scheme. DWP should address how to improve the flow of information between JCP and providers to avoid the current lack of integration, inefficiency and duplication
