Guidance

Work and Health Programme statistics release strategy

Updated 29 February 2024

Applies to England and Wales

This release strategy updates the version published on 30 November 2023. This updated strategy acts as the formal response to the Work and Health Programme (WHP) official statistics consultation.

We will investigate the opportunities to release WHP statistics and management information as outlined in this release strategy. This is designed to ensure that statistics are placed into the public domain in a clear and controlled way.

Consultation

The WHP statistics consultation ran from 7 August to 17 September 2018.

The responses to this consultation have helped identify and prioritise the requirements for the WHP statistics. This release strategy has been revised as a result of the consultation.

Read more about the Work and Health Programme.

Publication frequency

The WHP official statistics will be released on a quarterly basis (each November, February, May and August). They will include yearly summary information at the appropriate points in the programme’s lifecycle.

The initial intention had been to publish these statistics on the same day as the wider Labour Market Statistics, produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It is now clear that this would not allow sufficient time to quality assure and include the latest available month’s data.

Therefore, we will instead publish statistical information with a 3-month reference period. This means that, for example, the August 2020 statistics publication includes data up until the end of May 2020.

Publication formats

The statistics are currently released in the following formats:

• a report in HTML format, containing key headline statistics and charts
• a set of spreadsheet tables, containing key statistics by referral cohort and geographical region
• Stat-Xplore, providing a guided way to explore statistics, create your own custom tabulations and view the results in interactive charts and maps

Data and statistics

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) plan to increase the range of information released within the statistics over time, as further quality assurance of data held within the WHP administrative systems is completed.

The statistics consist of 6 main measures:

1. the number of referrals to the WHP (from the first publication in November 2018)
2. the number of individuals referred to the WHP (from the first publication in November 2018)
3. the number of starts to the WHP (from the first publication in November 2018)
4. the number of job outcomes achieved (added in the May 2019 publication)
5. first earnings from employment (added in the February 2020 publication)
6. provider performance levels (added in the November 2020 publication)

The statistics include all areas that have provided referrals to the programme since November 2017, including Local Government Partners and Devolved Deal Areas.

Different areas began implementing the WHP at different times. Each has its own implementation practices, therefore we will ensure context is set appropriately within the release to enable fair reporting on the scheme.

Read the WHP background information note for more information about the areas covered by these statistics.

Some or all of the WHP official statistics measures will be broken down by:

• referral group – disability, early access, long-term unemployed
• claimant characteristics – gender, age in bands
• benefit group claimed at referral – Universal Credit, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, incapacity benefits, Other
• geographical area – Contract Package Area, Devolved Deal Area, Local Government Partnership
• Work and Health Programme provider

We have designated these as Official Statistics, following guidelines set out by the UK Statistics Authority.

Final statistics will be subject to the availability and quality assurance of associated data.

Future developments

In September 2023, the Work and Health Programme (WHP) was expanded to include a new element called WHP Pioneer, which is part of the first phase of Universal Support roll out. WHP Pioneer is targeted at economically ‘inactive’ customers who have a disability or who are in a disadvantaged group, supporting them to find sustained work through ‘place and train’. The aim is to place participants into work at the earliest opportunity after an initial work assessment.

We will include statistics on starts, referrals and individual referrals to WHP Pioneer in the next release of this publication, due in May 2024. We plan to release statistics on job outcomes and first earnings from employment in later publications, once sufficient data is available.

Additional breakdowns may be included within these official statistics publications as quality assurance of data from the WHP systems progresses.

From August 2020, the WHP statistics, except those detailing provider performance levels, have been released on Stat-Xplore, allowing users to create their own bespoke, detailed statistics. The remaining statistics will be released on Stat-Xplore once quality assurance has taken place.

It is not possible to provide a precise timescale or definitive list of additional breakdowns at this stage, however we will explore the possibility of including additional information such as:

• main disabling condition
• self-employment status
• other DWP benefits claimed at point of referral
• disability and ethnicity status

Feedback

DWP is keen to continue to receive feedback from users on which breakdowns are a priority for them. Email your feedback to epass.team@dwp.gov.uk

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