Through our Plan for Jobs, the Department is providing broad ranging support for all jobseekers. Currently, support includes the Kickstart scheme, Job Finding Support, Sector Based Work Academy Programmes (SWAP) and Job Entry Targeted Support. In addition, the Work and Heath Programme, and Intensive Personalised Employment Support, is available to support to support disabled people and people with long term health conditions, to enter and stay in work.

To support the long term unemployed, £2.9 billion is being invested in the Restart Programme, which is due to go live from summer 2021. The Restart Programme will support individuals who have been unemployed for at least 12 months and through regular, personalised support providers will work with participants to identify the best way to support them into sustained employment. We have also increased the number of Work Coaches, by 13,500 nationally, to support Claimants - with 368 joining our Mercia District by the end of April, including 4 based at Bromsgrove Jobcentre.

Bromsgrove Jobcentre has strong partnership links with the Local Authority with partnership representation on housing, financial inclusion and claimant support forums at both district and county level. It also has strong relations with local providers such as New Starts who have provided laptops to assist with online courses during the pandemic.

The Jobcentre team are engaging with Kickstart employers and Gateway organisations to support our younger customers move closer to employment, and have partnered with local employers and organisations to deliver a number of successful Sector Based Work Academy Programmes, across multiple sectors, which are available to all claimants irrespective of age or length of unemployment.

There are three mental health training products available for Work Coaches in job centres.

Since August 2018 mental health training has been included in the fundamental learning journey which is available to all new staff or those new to the role. This product is designed to improve learners’ understanding of mental ill health and states where to find further information regarding mental health for themselves and the customer.

During their initial technical learning, Work Coaches complete training in two sessions as part of their complex needs learning. In the first session Work Coaches cover a range of complex needs and the routes to take to support customers and themselves. They discuss what signs may alert them to a customer struggling with their mental health and how they can support them. In the second session Work Coaches consolidate what they learned in the first session by considering an example, recapping on the support they would offer to customers who have mental health issues.

There is further mental health training that has been specifically designed for Work Coaches which ideally takes place at around week 26 of their learning journey. In this learning, the Work Coaches explore their impact on customers, the steps needed to build relationships and learn how to respond appropriately to unexpected customer behaviour. This learning includes the opportunity for the Work Coach to practice the skills they have learned during the training.

The rollout of this specific Work Coach mental health learning began in November 2017 and was completed for existing work coaches in March 2018. In 2020, DWP paused this specific mental health training to divert resources to learning related to covid-19 impacts. Our ambition is to re start this training in 2021/22.

Ahead of the return to full opening hours and the restart of face-to-face appointments, every jobcentre has reviewed all relevant site risk assessments, including the Jobcentre Claimant Facing Risk Assessment, in consultation with local Trade Union representatives. We have maintained an open dialogue with Departmental Trade Union Side, meeting with them weekly to discuss our plans for the 12 April (and 26 April in Scotland), and giving them opportunity to review and comment on all of the supporting products we have provided for our people, and, wherever possible, making changes to reflect their feedback and concerns.

We take the health and safety of colleagues extremely seriously, and are absolutely committed to ensuring all our sites remain COVID secure in line with Public Health and Government guidance to keep colleagues and customers safe. We have adopted a slow, steady and safe approach to returning colleagues to the workplace, with the number of colleagues able to return varying by site and based on the COVID secure capacity of the jobcentre. An announcement about the department’s intention to return to full opening hours and restart face-to-face appointments was made by the Permanent Secretary on the 18th March. In advance of their return to the workplace, every colleague, including those who were in the clinically extremely vulnerable group, is having a one-to-one with their manager to make sure they are aware of the support available to them.

We currently have 14 50PLUS Champions at Department regional level who work collaboratively with our 37 District 50PLUS Champions to raise the profile of our older claimants. The champions act as a single point of contact for cascading messages, communications and best practice to colleagues locally and nationally. They raise awareness with Work Coaches, employers and providers of the products available to them, for example local groups, online tools and more.

I refer the honourable member to PQ 169973 in relation to the number of jobs started and to PQ 165550 for regional vacancies.

I refer the honourable member to PQ 169973 in relation to the number of jobs started.

We are unable to publish data below regional level, I refer the honourable member to PQ 165610.

I refer the honourable member to the answer given for PQ 157063.

Over 150,000 jobs have been approved for the Department of Work and Pensions’ Kickstart scheme. Over 50,000 of these jobs have been made available for young people, including almost 6,000 jobs started.

Through our Plan for Jobs, the Department is providing broad ranging support for all jobseekers. Currently, support includes the Kickstart scheme, Job Finding Support, Sector Based Work Academy Programmes and Job Entry Targeted Support in Scotland.

In addition, the government is investing an additional £150 million into the Flexible Support Fund, which will increase the capacity of the Rapid Response Service, supporting people through redundancy and providing additional local support to claimants by removing barriers to work such as travel expenses for attending interviews and child care.

Our Jobcentre Work Coaches provide support on finding a job, help with retraining or skills advice, CV, job applications and access to the new vacancies we record every day, as well as signposting to our Jobhelp website.

To date, in Scotland, the Department has recruited 823 Work Coaches since March 2020, bringing the total number of Work Coaches in Scotland to 2,255. Within the Morayshire Cluster (Forres, Elgin and Buckie Jobcentres) six new Work Coaches have joined team with a further six due to start shortly.

The Morayshire Cluster works closely with the Moray Pathways which is a consortium of partners and providers across Moray offering customers skills, training, employment support. We deliver a multi-agency service to support our younger customers move forward towards employment from the Moray Community Hub.

Through our Plan for Jobs, the Department is providing broad ranging support for all jobseekers. Currently, support includes the Kickstart scheme, Job Finding Support, Sector Based Work Academy Programmes and Job Entry Targeted Support in Scotland.

In addition, the government is investing an additional £150 million into the Flexible Support Fund, which will increase the capacity of the Rapid Response Service, supporting people through redundancy and providing additional local support to claimants by removing barriers to work such as travel expenses for attending interviews and child care.

Our Jobcentre Work Coaches provide support on finding a job, help with retraining or skills advice, CV, job applications and access to the new vacancies we record every day, as well as signposting to our Jobhelp website.

To date, in Scotland, the Department has recruited 823 Work Coaches since March 2020, bringing the total number of Work Coaches in Scotland to 2,255. Within the Morayshire Cluster (Forres, Elgin and Buckie Jobcentres) six new Work Coaches have joined team with a further six due to start shortly.

The Morayshire Cluster works closely with the Moray Pathways which is a consortium of partners and providers across Moray offering customers skills, training, employment support. We deliver a multi-agency service to support our younger customers move forward towards employment from the Moray Community Hub.

Through our Plan for Jobs, the Department is providing broad ranging support for all jobseekers. Currently, support includes the Kickstart scheme, Job Finding Support, Sector Based Work Academy Programmes and Job Entry Targeted Support in Scotland.

In addition, the government is investing an additional £150 million into the Flexible Support Fund, which will increase the capacity of the Rapid Response Service, supporting people through redundancy and providing additional local support to claimants by removing barriers to work such as travel expenses for attending interviews and child care.

Our Jobcentre Work Coaches provide support on finding a job, help with retraining or skills advice, CV, job applications and access to the new vacancies we record every day, as well as signposting to our Jobhelp website.

To date, in Scotland, the Department has recruited 823 Work Coaches since March 2020, bringing the total number of Work Coaches in Scotland to 2,255. Within the Morayshire Cluster (Forres, Elgin and Buckie Jobcentres) six new Work Coaches have joined team with a further six due to start shortly.

The Morayshire Cluster works closely with the Moray Pathways which is a consortium of partners and providers across Moray offering customers skills, training, employment support. We deliver a multi-agency service to support our younger customers move forward towards employment from the Moray Community Hub.

I refer the honourable member to the answer given for PQ 165550

BN(O) entering the UK will have no recourse to public funds (NRPF) as stipulated by their visa conditions. A change is being made to Appendix Hong Kong British National (Overseas) which will allow those on the British National (Overseas) route to apply to vary their conditions to have their no recourse to public funds condition lifted where they are able to demonstrate they are destitute or at imminent risk of destitution.

The Department for Work and Pensions will continue to work closely with Home Office and OGDs to ensure of the smooth integration of BN(O)s who choose to settle into the UK.

The UK European Network Information Centre (UK ENIC, and formerly UK NARIC) provides expert advice on behalf of the UK Government on the comparability of international qualifications, including those from Hong Kong to UK qualifications. UK Higher Education Institutions and other educational institutions use the ENIC database to assess the qualifications of applicants for their courses.

Further information on specific provisions across the four nations of the UK will be set out in due course.

As unemploy-ment has been going up in recent months and is set to increase further, will my hon. Friend join me in commending the efforts of jobcentres around the country for all their work, especially the jobcentres in Leigh and Bolton that serve my constituents so well?

I echo my hon. Friend’s words and those of other Members who have praised the very hard work of all our DWP staff, especially of course in Bolton and Leigh. They include an additional new 41 work coaches recruited for jobcentres that serve my hon. Friend’s constituency. Thanks to their efforts, the kickstart scheme has so far seen the development of more than 300 roles across more than 50 employers in the Bolton and Prestwich area.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that the Jobcentre estate is adequately equipped to support an increased number of jobseekers.

We are supporting people of all ages back into work in Aylesbury and beyond. The DWP has a network of 50-plus champions throughout our JCPs. These champions work with work coaches and stakeholders to focus help and support for the over-50s, highlighting the benefits of employing them and sharing best practice. Our plan for jobs provides new funding to ensure that everyone, including those 50 and over, get tailored support to build on their skills and move into work.

Sadly, the pandemic has meant that many people in my constituency of Aylesbury have lost their job and, for the first time in decades, find themselves looking for work. How can my hon. Friend ensure that the Jobcentre Plus estate and its staff are equipped to help jobseekers who are in their 50s and 60s, who have paid their taxes and their national insurance for their whole working lives and now need bespoke personal assistance to find a new job and continue to contribute to the economy?