DWP publishes first Work Choice data
DWP has published the first data on participation and outcomes on the Work Choice programme. The Work Choice programme started in October 2010 but this is the first data to be published despite calls for more open information on performance.
The release includes data for England, Scotland and Wales for the period up to the end of March 2012. It contains statistics on all providers excluding Remploy, showing the number of referrals to Work Choice in the period and the corresponding numbers of Work Choice starts and job outcomes.
Headlines from the latest release are:
Referrals: 17,190 referrals for 16,010 individuals, in the period April 2011 - March 2012.
Starts: 12,520 starts for 12,230 individuals, in the period April 2011 - March 2012.
Job Outcomes: 3,550 job outcomes for 3,510 individuals, in the period April 2011 - March 2012.
Data on unsupported outcomes for which the provider is not paid is currently not available. DWP estimates that there are around 2,000 of these outcomes since October 2010 which are not counted in this publication.
The release shows referral, start and outcome data for each of the 28 contract package areas. There is also a breakdown of referrals, starts and outcomes broken down by disability descriptor. Surprisingly, 24,550 of the 40,720 referrals have no disability descriptor attached. There have been only 230 referrals of people with a severe mental illness resulting in 10 job outcomes.
http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/workingage/index.php?page=wchoice
http://base-uk.org/base-statement-work-choice-official-statistics-may-2012
