11 September 2025
Jobs and careers Service – valuable report from Work and Pensions Committee
Following the publication of its main report from the Get Britain Working: Reforming Jobcentres inquiry, the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee has published a second report looking at the proposed new Jobs and Careers Service.
The CDI welcomes the report as it recognises the value that high quality careers guidance, delivered by qualified professionals, can bring to adults across the UK. It also highlights the opportunities to strengthen that service from the formation of the Jobs and Careers Service, while highlighting the potential risks if the service isn’t created and managed effectively.
The CDI contributed evidence to the inquiry, along with other career development organisations and individuals, and Professor Pete Robertson, President of the CDI, gave oral evidence in his role at Edinburgh Napier University.
The Committee said that;
“Bringing together the NCS and Jobcentres is an exciting opportunity to achieve much more than just administrative change. Integrating the two services could be a vital step in changing the culture of the employment support that Jobcentres deliver, shifting from a short-term focus on finding work to a long-term focus on building sustainable careers, with a much greater emphasis on people’s aspirations and development. It could also provide greater support for in-work progression, especially for people in low paid or insecure work.”
But it also highlighted that there are concerns with the creation of the new service - “without a more ambitious and energetic approach to implementing the changes, the new service risks becoming little more than a rebranding exercise.” The Committee raised concerns that while the service was announced ten months ago, the Government has shared few details of how it will work.
A key recommendation from the Committee – which the CDI and colleagues in the Career Development Policy Group (CDPG) have been calling for – is the creation of an adult careers guidance strategy, based on an audit of current careers advice offers and the needs of the population;
“It should provide an overarching framework and objectives for any careers related initiatives to follow. The strategy should also set out how the Government will balance providing a universal service while still focusing on those people and areas who most need support. The Government should produce this strategy before it launches the new jobs and careers service, to help ensure the new service is more than just a rebrand of existing careers support.”
The report fairly reflects the value that the NCS and other services already offer, as well as some of the challenges facing the provision of careers guidance in England, such as the limited funding available for the NCS, the lack of awareness and understanding of the NCS service among the public (citing the CDI’s Valuing careers research) and too much focus on numerical targets within the service. The funding issues were also identified as limiting the nature of the ‘universal’ service offered by NCS. The report concludes that “The National Careers Service (NCS) is an under-valued and under-utilised resource.”
The report lays out the potential benefits from a greater investment in careers guidance for adults, supporting many more people who would benefit from careers guidance, from those not in work, unhappy at work, in precarious employment or looking for change in work. It includes data from Phoenix Group on the estimated £17.5bn benefit to the economy from better careers advice and the return on investment of £3.20 for every £1 spent cited by the International Centre for Guidance Studies at the University of Derby.
The report captures the concerns around the planned merger, in particular the worry within career development that the NCS could be ‘swallowed up’ in the new larger service and the risk it could lead to a deprofessionalisation of the careers service. While the DWP are already working on a new coaching academy to upskill work coaches, the role and unique skillset of careers advisers must be retained. The report concludes that;
“Careers advice is a skilled profession, requiring qualities distinct from employment support. It must not become the poor relation of employment support or swallowed up by Jobcentres.”
A key issue raised is that careers support currently falls between the Department for education (DfE), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and local government. With the changes to Minister Jacqui Smith’s role meaning she now reports to both departments, this may be a signal of intent to work more closely on skills and careers, but the Government needs to be very clear on how careers services for adults will work in an aligned way across the departments, and link to careers support for young people.
Recommendations in the report include;
Read the full report on the Jobs and Careers Service. You can also read the previous report on the wider Jobcentre inquiry; Get Britain Working: Reforming Jobcentres report.
The CDI’s written evidence to the Committee is available under CDI policy briefings.
The CDI welcomes the report as it recognises the value that high quality careers guidance, delivered by qualified professionals, can bring to adults across the UK. It also highlights the opportunities to strengthen that service from the formation of the Jobs and Careers Service, while highlighting the potential risks if the service isn’t created and managed effectively.
The CDI contributed evidence to the inquiry, along with other career development organisations and individuals, and Professor Pete Robertson, President of the CDI, gave oral evidence in his role at Edinburgh Napier University.
The Committee said that;
“Bringing together the NCS and Jobcentres is an exciting opportunity to achieve much more than just administrative change. Integrating the two services could be a vital step in changing the culture of the employment support that Jobcentres deliver, shifting from a short-term focus on finding work to a long-term focus on building sustainable careers, with a much greater emphasis on people’s aspirations and development. It could also provide greater support for in-work progression, especially for people in low paid or insecure work.”
But it also highlighted that there are concerns with the creation of the new service - “without a more ambitious and energetic approach to implementing the changes, the new service risks becoming little more than a rebranding exercise.” The Committee raised concerns that while the service was announced ten months ago, the Government has shared few details of how it will work.
A key recommendation from the Committee – which the CDI and colleagues in the Career Development Policy Group (CDPG) have been calling for – is the creation of an adult careers guidance strategy, based on an audit of current careers advice offers and the needs of the population;
“It should provide an overarching framework and objectives for any careers related initiatives to follow. The strategy should also set out how the Government will balance providing a universal service while still focusing on those people and areas who most need support. The Government should produce this strategy before it launches the new jobs and careers service, to help ensure the new service is more than just a rebrand of existing careers support.”
The report fairly reflects the value that the NCS and other services already offer, as well as some of the challenges facing the provision of careers guidance in England, such as the limited funding available for the NCS, the lack of awareness and understanding of the NCS service among the public (citing the CDI’s Valuing careers research) and too much focus on numerical targets within the service. The funding issues were also identified as limiting the nature of the ‘universal’ service offered by NCS. The report concludes that “The National Careers Service (NCS) is an under-valued and under-utilised resource.”
The report lays out the potential benefits from a greater investment in careers guidance for adults, supporting many more people who would benefit from careers guidance, from those not in work, unhappy at work, in precarious employment or looking for change in work. It includes data from Phoenix Group on the estimated £17.5bn benefit to the economy from better careers advice and the return on investment of £3.20 for every £1 spent cited by the International Centre for Guidance Studies at the University of Derby.
The report captures the concerns around the planned merger, in particular the worry within career development that the NCS could be ‘swallowed up’ in the new larger service and the risk it could lead to a deprofessionalisation of the careers service. While the DWP are already working on a new coaching academy to upskill work coaches, the role and unique skillset of careers advisers must be retained. The report concludes that;
“Careers advice is a skilled profession, requiring qualities distinct from employment support. It must not become the poor relation of employment support or swallowed up by Jobcentres.”
A key issue raised is that careers support currently falls between the Department for education (DfE), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and local government. With the changes to Minister Jacqui Smith’s role meaning she now reports to both departments, this may be a signal of intent to work more closely on skills and careers, but the Government needs to be very clear on how careers services for adults will work in an aligned way across the departments, and link to careers support for young people.
Recommendations in the report include;
- DWP and DfE working together to develop a strategy for adult careers guidance, with an overarching framework and objectives.
- DWP should review the funding and funding model for careers guidance to deliver ”the greatest impact and value for money, and in areas with greatest need.”
- DWP should protect “the distinct role and skills of careers advisers” and define the relationship between them and work coaches. DWP should set out plans to support and develop careers advisers.
- DWP should produce the performance measures for the Jobs and Careers Service including careers advice.
- Government needs to clarify how the new Jobs and Careers Service will work with the devolved careers services in Scotland and Wales.
- A transition plan should be published to give organisations and individuals in Jobcentres and the NCS more certainty about future arrangements.
Read the full report on the Jobs and Careers Service. You can also read the previous report on the wider Jobcentre inquiry; Get Britain Working: Reforming Jobcentres report.
The CDI’s written evidence to the Committee is available under CDI policy briefings.
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