07 September 2025
Could the Skills Minister’s move into DWP enhance career guidance policy?
In the Prime Minister’s government reshuffle, Baroness Jacqui Smith retains her brief as Minister for Skills which it is understood now sits under the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), while also reporting into the Department for Education (DfE) for her role as Women’s and Equalities Minister. Could this have a positive outcome for investment in career development?
In the Ministerial changes, Liz Kendall has been replaced as Work and Pensions Secretary by Pat McFadden, who had been in the Cabinet Office. With this change of personnel, it is understood that the brief for Skills has moved under the DWP and Jacqui Smith now reports into Pat McFadden in her role as Minister for Skills.
She still reports into Bridget Phillipson for her role as Minister for Women and Equalities which remains under the DfE.
The career development team in DfE sat under Jacqui Smith but there is no mention yet of whether that team – or any other parts of the DfE civil service - will also move across to the DWP, but it might be more likely given that the National Careers Service is already due to be integrated into the new Jobs and Careers Service under the DWP.
We know that the plan to recruit (or to train, as it became) 1,000 additional careers advisers in schools has been shelved, but that was under the auspices of the DfE. My sense is that this seemed like a good idea but, as it was explored further, became more challenging and costly. It’s not just about a recruitment drive or offering training to become qualified, it’s about paying a fair wage to attract 1,000 additional people into – or back into – the profession, schools having the funds to employ those advisers and how you allocate 1,000 careers advisers across the 4,500 secondary schools in England?
One way to achieve that is not to recruit them into individual schools but to use the 1,000 advisers in local areas needing support to tackle worklessness among young people and adults. This could be linked to the devolution of skills management to local government, with regional plans enhanced to include careers guidance. This becomes more possible in the DWP where they are used to running large, high-value programmes that drive employment and reduce benefits costs.
Indeed, I was just discussing last week that you could argue that the costs for career guidance sit in the DfE, yet the benefit is mainly felt in DWP – in reduced benefits payments. So this change could align spend and benefit. When you consider the budgets DWP handles – the Kickstart programme cost £1.9bn, equivalent to nearly £7,000 per job created, yet still had a return of £1.65 per £1 spent – rolling out 1,000 careers advisers to regions, including salary costs, would only amount to a relatively trifling £50m-£60m (my estimate).
The movement of the skills brief may also help alleviate concerns in career development circles about the NCS moving into the Jobs and Careers Service. It is a small part of the system against the large numbers of job coaches and the fear is that adult career guidance becomes lost in the currently much better funded employability world. Bringing over the Minister responsible for careers – assuming that remains part of the skills brief – may help prevent that and even champion a greater role for careers guidance in the new service.
There is a lot we don’t know about the changes yet, and I will be working to get more clarity from DfE and DWP, but the hope is that this announcement has a more significant and positive impact for career development than may first appear.
Read more about Baroness Jacqui Smith’s dual reporting lines and the evolution of the DWP into a ‘growth department’ including skills.
In the Ministerial changes, Liz Kendall has been replaced as Work and Pensions Secretary by Pat McFadden, who had been in the Cabinet Office. With this change of personnel, it is understood that the brief for Skills has moved under the DWP and Jacqui Smith now reports into Pat McFadden in her role as Minister for Skills.
She still reports into Bridget Phillipson for her role as Minister for Women and Equalities which remains under the DfE.
The career development team in DfE sat under Jacqui Smith but there is no mention yet of whether that team – or any other parts of the DfE civil service - will also move across to the DWP, but it might be more likely given that the National Careers Service is already due to be integrated into the new Jobs and Careers Service under the DWP.
We know that the plan to recruit (or to train, as it became) 1,000 additional careers advisers in schools has been shelved, but that was under the auspices of the DfE. My sense is that this seemed like a good idea but, as it was explored further, became more challenging and costly. It’s not just about a recruitment drive or offering training to become qualified, it’s about paying a fair wage to attract 1,000 additional people into – or back into – the profession, schools having the funds to employ those advisers and how you allocate 1,000 careers advisers across the 4,500 secondary schools in England?
One way to achieve that is not to recruit them into individual schools but to use the 1,000 advisers in local areas needing support to tackle worklessness among young people and adults. This could be linked to the devolution of skills management to local government, with regional plans enhanced to include careers guidance. This becomes more possible in the DWP where they are used to running large, high-value programmes that drive employment and reduce benefits costs.
Indeed, I was just discussing last week that you could argue that the costs for career guidance sit in the DfE, yet the benefit is mainly felt in DWP – in reduced benefits payments. So this change could align spend and benefit. When you consider the budgets DWP handles – the Kickstart programme cost £1.9bn, equivalent to nearly £7,000 per job created, yet still had a return of £1.65 per £1 spent – rolling out 1,000 careers advisers to regions, including salary costs, would only amount to a relatively trifling £50m-£60m (my estimate).
The movement of the skills brief may also help alleviate concerns in career development circles about the NCS moving into the Jobs and Careers Service. It is a small part of the system against the large numbers of job coaches and the fear is that adult career guidance becomes lost in the currently much better funded employability world. Bringing over the Minister responsible for careers – assuming that remains part of the skills brief – may help prevent that and even champion a greater role for careers guidance in the new service.
There is a lot we don’t know about the changes yet, and I will be working to get more clarity from DfE and DWP, but the hope is that this announcement has a more significant and positive impact for career development than may first appear.
Read more about Baroness Jacqui Smith’s dual reporting lines and the evolution of the DWP into a ‘growth department’ including skills.
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