I understand that Devon County Council has served as a ‘Gateway’ for the Department of Work and Pension’s (DWP’s) Kickstart scheme. Regarding the council’s role as a Gateway, I require the following information from 1st January 2021 to the date of receipt of this FOI.
How many and which businesses or companies have successfully applied to the Kickstart scheme through the council’s Gateway? (please provide a full list)
How many Kickstart job placements have been created within each of these businesses?
How has Devon County Council vetted companies before approving them for the Kickstart scheme? (please provide detailed description of vetting procedures)
How has Devon County Council applied ongoing checks on the employability support provided to Kickstarters by the businesses it approves for the Kickstart scheme?
The DWP provides Gateways with £1860 per Kickstarter employed by one of the Gateway’s constituent businesses. For each job placement secured by a Kickstarter, please provide a breakdown of how this money has been distributed to the businesses employing these Kickstarters. With regard to the £360 provided for admin costs, please provide information as to how this money has been used to meet these admin costs.
Amongst the businesses Devon County Council serves as a Gateway for, how many complaints have been made, or issues flagged to the council (e.g underpayment, poor experience in the workplace etc) by either Kickstarters or Kickstart employers?
What has been the nature of these issues in each instance, and how has the council acted to resolve these issues in its capacity as a Gateway?
Devon County Council (DCC) decided against becoming an externally facing Gateway organisation, so DCC is not, in fact, a Gateway organisation, therefore DCC does not hold the information which has been requested.
DCC is a Kickstart employer, but there is no external or third party element to that.
The reason for the confusion is that the Gateway status list on the Department of Work and Pensions website is out of date. The list shows the initial Expression of Interest (EOIs) / signposting bodies, not the final Gateway organisations.