Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698926153864.pdf (United Kingdom)
OFFICIAL SENSITIVE UCPB180220 – Paper 6 To: UC Programme Board Members From: Sponsor: Author: Martha Baker Pauline Crellin Martha Baker Date: 18.02.2020 £10million Universal Credit Transition Fund Issue: This paper provides an update on the progress scoping and developing the £10million fund announced by the Secretary of State in November 2019, including recent engagement with stakeholders.
Recommendations/Decisions required: For Discussion; That the Programme Board notes the progress on scoping and developing the £10million fund, and provides views on our approach.

Introduction 1.

Further to the update provided in December, we promised to return to Programme Board to update you on work to scope the £10m transition fund, announced just before the Purdah period at the start of November.

2.
2.

We have been working hard to scope and develop the fund and have proposed some suggested target groups and a delivery mechanism to ministers.

Ministers are still considering our advice on these proposals and things are evolving at pace, therefore we will provide a verbal update on the latest position at the Programme Board.

In this paper, we have however set out a high-level summary of the advice we have provided to ministers and some of the work we have undertaken.

3.
3.

We would welcome Programme Board members’ views on the work to scope and develop the fund so far.

We would also appreciate Programme Board members support in managing stakeholder expectations around the fund.

The scope of the fund is intended to focus on supporting people not just on to UC but specifically the announced April delivery date and the absence of public detail on the bidding process is making stakeholder handling challenging.

towards employment.
towards employment.

the proximity In addition, to Background 4.

The Department secured £23m as part of the DWP ‘Excellence Plan’ at the Spending Round with a view to developing a package of measures to improve services and support for the most vulnerable customers.

Shortly before Purdah, 1 of 5 OFFICIAL SENSITIVE UCPB180220 – Paper 6 Ministers decided that £10m of this funding should be allocated to a fund to support vulnerable people to claim UC as a route into work.

5.
5.

On 1 November 2019, the Secretary of State announced the £10million transition fund and set out that the fund would be available to partner organisations, including charities, from April 2020.

We have been working hard since then to support ministers to deliver on this commitment.

6.
6.

In addition to the April timeline (and one-year delivery period April 2020 – March 2021), ministerial steers for the fund are that it should: • Reach harder to help groups who may fall through the gaps of the support we / our partners offer; • Encourage smaller, more local organisations to bid – building on some of really positive examples of innovative work Jobcentres are doing with local partners, as referenced in the recent Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit report on vulnerable claimants.
• Provides a test-bed for innovative new approaches.

7.

We have shaped our proposals regarding criteria for the fund and the appropriate delivery mechanism according to the above.

The election period meant that the earliest we could engage with ministers on the fund was early January.

This has meant that we have had to work at considerable pace and to make pragmatic decisions regarding the delivery mechanisms available if an April start date and the criteria set out above are to be met.
For example, if ministerial priority is an April delivery date and a full year of delivery, commercial arrangements are simply not viable.

Stakeholder engagement 8.

Purdah restrictions limited our stakeholder engagement in November and December but from the start of January we have involved stakeholders in the development and design of the fund and have been able to get a good sense for what will and won’t work for them.

9.
9.

We have had positive discussions with a range of innovative organisations, including those who are not the ‘usual suspects’ in this space.
Organisations we’ve spoken with include UKIE (an organisation which supports care leavers into employment), “Into Games”, a charity focused on the digital games sector for young people, Turn2Us (a welfare advice and inclusion organisation who, amongst other things, provide grants to people in financial difficulty) and Catch 22 (a charity that delivers services for young people, families and adults, across into employment).

justice, social action, education and financial 10.
There are a number of key lessons we’ve taken from this engagement.

Firstly, stakeholders are very supportive of us steering towards groups who can be easily distinguished, such as care leavers.

Organisations have told us that they want us to clearly define groups so that they can prepare effective bids and be 2 of 5 OFFICIAL SENSITIVE UCPB180220 – Paper 6 clear about what types of innovative delivery and outcomes are expected.
We know that many external organisations who are likely to bid for funding structure their business around particular groups of vulnerable claimants.

11.
11.

We are also aware that the smaller grassroots organisations ministers are hoping to reach through this fund are often not geared up to bid through a formal process (and don’t generally have prior knowledge or expertise in doing this), which is one of the reasons why we have advised against utilising more rigorous commercial arrangements, such as a competitive Challenge Fund.
With the Flexible Support Fund as our preferred delivery mechanism we will have a lower barrier to entry for small local organisations, who often miss out through other commercial arrangements.

12.

Since the initial high level announcement in November, we are receiving an ever increasing number of enquiries from stakeholders who are keen to learn more about how they can bid for funding.

This is of course very positive.

13.


A number of stakeholders have however interpreted the availability of this fund as extra cash to support any vulnerable group.

For example, one organisation suggested using the fund to provide rent top-ups for victims of domestic abuse.

Use of this funding in such a way would not fulfil the aims of the fund.

We are working to manage expectations in this space.

Targeting of the fund 14.


Our advice to ministers is that we initially target the fund at particular vulnerable groups where there is less or limited provision, including care leavers, refugees and prison leavers.
We have considered a number of factors in shaping our recommendations including the landscape of existing provision, the steers we have received from stakeholders as above, and our need – especially given the compressed timescales we need to deliver within – to be as specific in our criteria as possible in order to achieve the best possible outcomes for the fund.
We need to be clear on the basis on which we are a) encouraging organisations to bid and b) assessing the bids we receive, particularly as we are going to have to do this through an accelerated process, given the April timeline for delivery.

15.

We are also keen to learn from the lessons of other similar funds where in seeking innovation the programmes left the bidding criteria too open.
Learning from similar funds shows that the more open the criteria the lesser the quantity and quality of applications and some projects did not have a clear understanding regarding the Government’s expectations of them.

This led to additional work and put strain on the applicants for the funds, particularly when revised bids were required at a late stage of the selection processes to demonstrate sufficient additionality for the individual business cases.

16.
16.

We think we are more likely to achieve the innovation we are seeking, be able to move quickly and demonstrate some tangible outcomes for the fund if we have a clear focus.
Organisations will not have a great deal of time to pull 3 of 5 OFFICIAL SENSITIVE UCPB180220 – Paper 6 together their bids and feedback suggests a lack of clarity upfront is likely to inhibit innovation; we feel we will see the best innovation from giving organisations a clear framework and the maximum time to show what they can do.

17.

We have also considered how best to make the case for future investment.
We consider limiting funding to a small number of particular vulnerable groups rather than all vulnerable groups will help us to have clearer outcomes for the fund and better measure / demonstrate success, isolating the impact to that particular intervention rather than other programmes operating in the same space.

The proposal to limit to certain groups initially has been welcomed by internal and external stakeholders alike, as a test-bed for a future approach.

18.
18.

To inform our suggested target groups we have undertaken a mapping exercise of existing provision and a review of the evidence regarding labour market outcomes for vulnerable groups.

Care leavers are a priority group that have been identified by the Prime Ministers Implementation Unit.

The PMIU’s recent report on vulnerable claimants had a particular focus on care leavers, including the issue of identification and application of support.
Similarly, prison leavers are an area of key focus through the Permanent Secretary’s cross-government demonstration project and the UC access improvement trials.

Carer leavers, prison leavers and refugees are amongst those who have less provision available to them and evidence suggests may struggle with the transition from one arm of the state to another and then towards employment.

19.
19.

There is therefore a strong case test whether community-based organisations can identify people in these groups who are falling in the gaps between systems, help them to engage with DWP and other relevant agencies and provide direct support to address barriers and begin moving towards employment.

to Delivery mechanism 20.


Having explored all of the delivery routes available to us, we have concluded that the only mechanism that meets all of the objectives of the fund and strikes the right balance between meeting local needs, the ability to move flexibly at pace and central control, is the Flexible Support Fund (FSF).

This would allow us to get the fund in place and moving for April.

21.
21.

Using the fund solely means that we can quickly deploy an existing mechanism to achieve the aims of the original ask.

We can ensure that we seek bids tailored to the local needs of vulnerable people and that the local organisations which are best placed to meet those needs can bid – the FSF has a lower barrier to entry for small organisations, who often miss out through other commercial arrangements.
This approach would enable us to build on some of the really positive local and regional examples of innovative work Jobcentres are doing with local partners which the Prime Ministers Implementation Unit highlighted in their recent report on support for vulnerable claimants.

The Flexible Support Fund will also make administration of the fund more straight- 4 of 5 OFFICIAL SENSITIVE UCPB180220 – Paper 6 forward and will remove overheads ensuring that more of the money goes to the front line.

22.
22.

The use of FSF would have clear controls around it: it would be ring-fenced and managed at a District level but reporting into a national steering group which assessed the bids and performance against clear, centrally set criteria.

Although ministers provided a steer that we should meet local needs and lower the barrier to entry for smaller organisations, the design of the fund could also enable bids from providers who can deliver at a more large-scale across multiple regions.

23.
23.

We have proposed that the money would be deployed via FSF but this is solely a means of getting the money out to the organisations and will not be a key feature of the scheme, nor feature in any publicity or press or other releases.

However, at the time of writing discussions are ongoing and we do not yet have a firm decision on its use.

Alignment with Help to Claim 24.


Although Help to Claim and the proposed Transition Fund are distinctly separate and have different aims and objectives, we would like to ensure alignment between the evaluation of the two projects.

Programme Board members will be aware from previous updates that there are key decisions to be made about the future of support for UC claimants beyond March 2021 when the second year of Help to Claim ends.
Our initial market engagement / testing for Help to Claim indicates a lack of competition in the advice market.

Running the Transition Fund in parallel to Help to Claim, and working with small to medium organisations, may help to build capacity in the advice and voluntary sector ahead of any future competition for support services from 2021 onwards.

It may also provide further insight about the support needs of vulnerable groups in UC.

Decision / Recommendation Providing information and discussion only.
5 of 5