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NATIONAL DELIVERY GROUP
24th June 2014 - Meeting Note
James Watt A & B, Atlantic Quay, Glasgow
1. Welcome – Professor Alan McGregor
Alan opened the meeting, thanking attendees for attending and welcomed all to this meeting of the
NDG. There is a full agenda today with interesting topics for discussion.
2. DWP Help to Work Measures
Stephen McConachie (DWP)
Stephen provided a brief outline on the 3 new measures available to Jobcentre plus staff under this
scheme. The main points from his presentation were:
 People returning from the Work Programme who did not manage to find sustained employment
will join the Help to Work scheme;
 There will be three intensive support options for those who are returning, with Work Coaches
working with claimants to understand their needs and refer them to the correct option
(Mandatory Intervention Scheme, Daily Work Search Reviews or Community Work
Placements);
 If claimants remain on benefits after a period of daily attendance or Community Work
Placements, they will be transferred to the intensive Mandatory Intervention Regime support for
as long as they need;
The main points from the discussion afterwards were:
 The number of claimants going onto the Mandatory Intervention Scheme is higher than had
been estimated;
 DWP are dealing with Third Sector umbrella organisations and individual organisations at a
local level.
3. Community Work Placements
Jim Murphy (learndirect)
Jim gave an update on the Community Work Placements (CWP) elements of the Help to Work
Scheme. The main points from his presentation were:
 CWP forms part of the government’s Help to Work Scheme and was introduced to support the
achievement of Department for Work & Pensions priorities;
 Claimants participate in a work placement of community benefit for 30 hours per week, for up to
6 months, alongside provider-led supported job search of between 4 & 10 hours per week;
 The CWP target group will be JSA claimants who have completed the Work Programme and
whose key barrier is insufficient work history or lack of motivation. CWP will equip claimants
with a period of work experience, enabling them to develop skills associated with employment
and maintain an employment focus through additional provider-led job search;
 The critical success factors for CWP is the number of claimants who achieve a start (in either a
work placement or employment), the achievement of a diverse range of placement roles of
community benefit across a range of sectors, the number of claimants who complete CWP and
the number of claimants who achieve a job outcome;
 Staff have been recruited to deliver this programme. There is a mix of practioners and new
staff involved with programme implementation and delivery of DWP contracts. Placement
Liaison Officers (PLO) will support customers through the programme, and Work Coaches will
support the claimants provider-led jobsearch;
 For delivery of this programme, there will be a referral from DWP to learndirect, and this will be
allocated to a PLO. The PLO will then conduct initial engagement with the claimant and induct
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them on the programme. Claimants will be matched to a suitable placement opportunity within
20 days.
 Learndirect are to identify and support new and existing community projects. Placements must
give claimants work experience, which enables them to be compete more effectively in the job
market. Placements supplied should be matched to the claimants desired employment sector
or occupation type. Placements must also be additional to existing or expected vacancies
(they should not displace what would otherwise be paid economic jobs);
 At the go live date there was around 500 placements available, with the hope that this will rise
to around 1,100. These placements are available in every local authority area in Scotland;
 During the placements, claimants will undertake a minimum of 4 hours of provider-led
jobsearch per week, and this will last for the 30 week duration of the programme. This job
search is tailored to each individual to gain the skills required to sustain employment.
The main points from the discussion afterwards were:
 If a claimant is unsuccessful at gaining a placement they will be involved in work search for 30
hours per week;
 Learndirect are collaborating with partners at a local level;
 Some of the biggest challenges in taking this forward is trying to get the local collaboration
working and linking effectively with CPP’s;
 There will be around 15,000 people coming back from the Work Programme, which will be split
across the 3 schemes. Up until last week there had been 141 referrals to the CWP scheme,
with 53 clients currently going through the process;
 Placement Liaison Officers are based in local delivery centres across Scotland;
 The definition of placements is the broadest community benefit definition;
 Employers who take on placements are responsible for providing an induction programme once
the person starts employment.
There was then a group discussion in which 2 questions were asked and the feedback was:
Question 1 – What problems / challenges are being identified by the partnership?
 Unware of who is speaking with whom at a local level;
 Lack of funding;
 There are challenges across mandatory versus voluntary activity;
 One of the main barriers to people gaining employment is the lack of literacy skills in clients;
 Some barriers are not often discussed – there is a reluctance to help address barriers;
 Work Programme providers are mostly not engaged with partnerships. There needs to be
accountability of the Work Programme.
 Partnership focus was primarily 16-25 year olds. Now there is an all age strategy which will
focus on the needs of all. There are various other work experience programmes – are there
too many?
 The needs of the clients are not being met;
 New Deal was measured on outcomes – it was more focussed.
Question 2 – Collectively, what can local employability partners do to address these challenges?
 Support better co-ordination through:
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Reflecting on a changed economic and employability landscape
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Reflecting on the different characteristics of those seeking employment
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Reviewing and aligning services to meet these needs- have a coherent package of
support that doesn’t compete with itself;
 Give clients better information about what help is available;
 There needs to be a review of individual partnerships and their role.
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Nick Young from Working Links said he was happy to speak with local authorities to discuss statistics
that they have for the Work Programme leavers. If you would be interested, please get in touch with
Nick.
4. College / LEP Engagement Survey
Seamus Spencer (SFC)
Seamus gave a presentation on the results of the recent NDG survey and what SFC’s planned next
steps are. The main points from the presentation were:
 SFC sent out a survey to find the level out how much engagement there was between LEPs
and Colleges in their local area. The survey was conducted in March 2014 and was completed
by 12 areas, covering 9 college regions;
 The survey looked at various topics through the survey - the level of college contribution,
outcome agreements, employability, engagement with SFC, effective practice and better
collaboration;
 Some of the main points from these topics are:
o 83% of respondents regarded the college contribution as ‘helpful’ or better;
o The Post 16 Reform of merging colleges has had an impact;
o The most common area of joint work is the LMI / Regional Context statement;
o There is an interest in earlier involvement in OA development;
o There are good examples of joint employability planning and funding;
o There is less knowledge of levels of resource committed to employability;
o There could be more awareness of Outcome Agreement Manager;
o The attendance of SFC at NDG meetings was welcomed;
o Ongoing need to strengthen local partnerships, with the colleges and LEPs
collaborating on funding and promoting data sharing
 There have been a number of achievements from Outcome agreements such as significant
structural reform (10 mergers since September 2012), more efficient and effective colleges and
an increase in the amount of learning provided by colleges;
 Some future aspirations of the outcome agreements are responding to the Wood Commission,
Continuing to Widen Access for places, providing a better service for employers and industry
and further growth in articulation;
 Outcome Agreements cover a 3 year period 14/15 – 16/17 – they are updated on an annual
basis. Evaluations of the outcome agreement process have taken place each of the past 3
years. These result in the continued development of the process and inform the outcome
agreement guidance for the subsequent year’s OA negotiations.
The main points from the discussion afterwards were:
 The OAs provide a focus for college discussions held with LEP’s;
 5 of the 22 national measures are national priorities;
 They provide a better view of the Learner Journey;
 At the ‘Schools and Colleges Joined up thinking’ event on 16 June there was good discussion
in the afternoon workshops with a number of LEP representatives present, there is a clear
opportunity for LEPs to influence Wood developments in College-LA partnership work– it would
be good if notes from the event’s discussions could be circulated around the group for
information;
 The Wood Report identifies disabled young people as a priority group – SFC is developing a
new funding model for AY 15/16, part of this will include a premium for extended learner
support (ELS), college regions will have to account for the level of ELS need within their OA;
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
The SFC funded ‘Transitions to Employment’ project led by ENABLE and partners has been
working since AY 13/14 with 7 colleges to support learners with disabilities into employment,
progression within the college or onto employment support programmes. The project is due to
report on the experience of supporting learners with disabilities to progress and outcomes
achieved later this year.
Alan will send out a reminder to those areas that have not replied to the survey. Joanne and Gerald will
collate these responses and send over to SFC.
5. Regional Skills Assessments
Chris Brodie (SDS)
Chris gave an update on Regional Skills Assessments. The main points were:
 Regional Skills Assessments provide a single agreed evidence base on which to plan future
investment in skills, built up from existing evidence;
 RSA’s have been developed to provide ‘useful’ content, extensive partner and customer
engagement and reflect Scotland’s different economic geographies. This document is
supposed to be an assessment not a plan;
 There are 11 RSA’s in draft format and these will be sent out in the next couple of weeks for
comment – these will be sent to all employability leads;
 A data matrix will be sent out (in August) to all LAs with guidance on how to use and interpret
the data;
 After the recent SLAED event there was a positive response to these documents. It is
important to engage with LA’s going forward with the potential expansion of the ‘steering group’
to develop a ‘Programme Board’;
 A publication programme has been agreed with SG colleagues, and formal publication of the
RSA’s is likely to be after the Referendum.
The main points from the discussion afterwards were:
 There is need for something that shows employer need, and provides picture of the overall
area;
 This information needs to be outlined in/ aligned with Skills Investment Plans;
 These documents once live should be shared through everyone who is involved in helping
people delivering services;
 RSA’s aren’t covering everything. Once people have had a chance to look at them, feedback
will be welcomed and gathered to note what is missing.
6. A.O.B.
Regular Updates
Usually at the NDG there would be updates from SDS, DWP, SLAED, TSEF and HEDG. Due to the full
agenda today this is not possible so an electronic update will be sent round along with the note of the
meeting.
Scottish Employability Forum
A first draft report has now been received from Cambridge Policy Consultants. The paper needs more
analysis and this will be done over the next week or so. Once an updated version has been received
this will be sent to the NDG sub group for comment and feedback. The report will be submitted to SEF
to agree the recommendations to be taken forward and used to help develop a SEF workplan for 2015.
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7. Close
The next meeting of the NDG will take place on Friday 3rd October 2014, 11:00 – 14:00 and will be held
in Atlantic Quay, Glasgow. Possible agenda items suggested are:
 Since this meeting will be after the Referendum, should there be a discussion around what
we want from a new Scotland and how would we do things differently?;
 What LAs are doing in response to the Wood report;
 What is being done to address the needs of ASN clients (this could be done by a survey);
 ESF – a discussion on what good pathways should look like;
 Under employment and in-work poverty.
Dates for the rest of the year are:
 2nd December 2014, 11:00am - 2:30pm, Atlantic Quay, Glasgow