Committee publication · Report · 23 June 2026 · HC 77
Easy Read – 1st Report – Employment support for disabled people: Connect to Work
Summary
This Easy Read report by the Work and Pensions Committee evaluates Connect to Work, a government employment support service launched in October 2024 to help disabled people and those with long-term health conditions find and keep jobs. The committee concludes the service is well-designed but identifies operational problems: inconsistent local authority performance, staffing shortages, unclear funding communications, and gaps in coordination with complementary services like Workwell. It recommends the government improve transparency, standardise support, address skills gaps, and provide longer-term funding certainty.
Key findings
- Connect to Work appropriately targets people who find it hardest to get work and was designed using evidence from international employment services, but implementation has been uneven across local authorities.
- Service launch was slow due to heavy setup workload on local authorities, and some did not receive adequate government support; standardised advice and systems are needed to prevent regional disparities.
- Staffing remains a critical issue: some local authorities struggle to recruit and retain staff with the right skills despite earlier confidence they could do so; government must clarify workforce planning and training provision.
- Strict funding rules prevent local authorities from carrying forward unspent allocations year-on-year, hampering service flexibility; rules should be changed to allow multi-year planning.
- Workwell (a complementary voluntary service for job retention and return-to-work) lacks a clear public start date for rollout to new areas, preventing local services from coordinating effectively with Connect to Work.
Recommendations
- Government should publish performance data showing whether Connect to Work is meeting its aims, how it accelerated service delivery, and lessons learned for future employment support services.
- Government should outline plans to improve service for customers and local authorities, including technology deployment for timely information sharing and strategies for ensuring quality in all areas, especially those with high disabled unemployment.
- Government should clarify workforce planning: assess whether sufficient skilled staff currently exist, commit to training provision, define metrics for identifying future shortages, and specify support for local authorities facing recruitment gaps.
- Government should review its support to local authorities to ensure they can run the service effectively in their local context.
- Government should announce Workwell start dates by region and establish information-sharing protocols with local authorities and health services to enable coordination with Connect to Work.
- Government should commit to multi-year funding beyond the current 5-year pledge and change funding carry-forward rules to allow unspent allocations to roll forward annually.
- Government should evaluate how previous service closures affected people in areas without employment support and commit to supporting those still disadvantaged; ensure Connect to Work has sufficient staffing and funding in areas that experienced service gaps.
- Government should improve transition planning when ending one service and starting another to ensure continuous availability of employment support.
Tone
CriticalTopics
employment-supportdisabilitypublic-service-deliverylocal-governmentworkforce-development
Key actors
Work and Pensions Committee, House of Commons, Government (UK), Local authorities, Disabled people, Connect to Work service, Workwell service
Notable line
“If local authorities run the service in different ways, people might get a different service in each area. This might have bad effects.”
Key Quotes
“We are pleased the Government set up Connect to Work. They used information from other good services to try to make it work well.”
“If local authorities run the service in different ways, people might get a different service in each area. This might have bad effects.”
“Employment support services only work well if they have staff with the right skills. Some local authorities still find it difficult to get and keep staff with the right skills.”
“The rules for spending the funding are very strict. For example, if some funding is not spent one year, it cannot be kept for the next year. This makes it harder for the Connect to Work service to work when the Government wants things done quickly.”
“The Government has not been clear about the start date of Workwell in new areas. This makes it hard for local services to work together.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗