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14 October 2025
UK Government to bring National Careers Service staff in-house from October 2026
Today it has been announced that the DWP plans to end the outsourcing of the National Careers Service in England once the current contracts expire on 30th September 2026. Prime contractors were told of the change in meetings and letters last week before the change was announced to DWP staff today.
This is a significant change, designed to bring the careers service together with the employment service offered by Jobcentre Plus to create the new Jobs and Careers Service (JCS) that the Government set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper.
The change is being planned on the basis that the DWP will TUPE staff over from organisations, which should mean a minimal loss of jobs. However, there are concerns about what it may mean for not just the Prime contractors but also the sub-contractors who support them. A number of service providers have been struggling to offer services through NCS, schools and other contracts at current rates and this could impact them further. Katharine Horler, Chief Executive of Careers England, represents service providers and said;
“This announcement provides welcome clarity after many months of uncertainty, but it does raise some concerns. The planned change will lead to many of the large careers companies losing a significant element of their funding, which could limit the contribution they can make across the wider careers sector.
In addition, the DfE careers team that has transitioned into DWP has contracting rather than service delivery experience, and we don’t yet know how Careers England members‘ considerable expertise in the delivery of adult careers guidance will be retained. Their senior operational knowledge is crucial to inform future delivery and we hope that DWP will recognise the value of this expertise within the Primes and address it in future plans.”
If organisations cannot continue without the NCS contract, we could see a further loss of capability and capacity in career development affecting services elsewhere.
The other question that this change raises is, what happens in the rest of the UK? Jobcentre Plus has a UK-wide remit but the NCS only operates in England, with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland having separate careers services. It is unclear whether this change is a precursor to exploring bringing all the UK careers services into the JCS, or an attempt to develop the careers service in England to a similar level to the other home nations.
From a client and professional perspective, it is unclear whether this announcement is positive or negative – it will be dependent on how it is implemented and incorporated into the new JCS.
The fear is that the careers service will be overwhelmed by the much larger employability workforce. Ministers have previously talked about the huge cultural change that needs to happen in the DWP to move away from benefits management to a genuine work support service. Combined, these aspects could lead to the careers service being sidelined (as not being a major challenge compared to reshaping the work coach role) or could even be lost if the focus becomes too heavily weighted towards employability.
Indeed, recent comments by Secretary of State Pat McFadden refer only to aspects of employability support in getting people into work, not the higher value role of careers guidance in helping people further from the world of work, supporting those making more significant career decisions and providing lifelong career management skills to enable them to address future career barriers. It would be encouraging to hear more comment from the Secretary of State and Ministers that reflect the valuable work of the careers team, rather than just the employability aspects.
More positively, this DWP announcement reflects similar language used by the Government since the election, that they are committed to a high quality and impartial careers service with professionally qualified careers advisers. Careers work has been linked – by both DfE and DWP - to the Government’s Missions related to breaking down barriers to opportunity and driving economic growth.
The move into the DWP may hold other advantages. The DWP spends considerable sums on employability programmes and the careers service budget is tiny compared to those, so there is an opportunity if careers support can be built into wider programmes. For example, allocating just 5% of the Kickstart budget to offer careers support to those taking part would double the annual budget of the NCS.
In addition, the DWP benefits from the work of the careers service, whereas the DfE didn’t directly, so careers work could be viewed more positively as an investment rather than a cost. Helping people into work, to find better work, or build their resilience to future careers shocks, leads to lower benefits costs for DWP and greater tax receipts for the Treasury. This opens opportunities to work with DWP to develop new applications of career development to target groups and ultimately as a universal service.
How this announcement will impact adult careers services in England or the organisations that provided the NCS contract is yet to become clear. The CDI will continue to work with colleagues in Careers England and the Career Development Policy Group to engage with Government to push for a service that offers the best support to all adults and meets the required standards of professionalism. We will continue to provide evidence – such as the Valuing Careers research - thought leadership and practical support to Government, showing the need for a high-quality universal adult careers service.
This is a significant change, designed to bring the careers service together with the employment service offered by Jobcentre Plus to create the new Jobs and Careers Service (JCS) that the Government set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper.
The change is being planned on the basis that the DWP will TUPE staff over from organisations, which should mean a minimal loss of jobs. However, there are concerns about what it may mean for not just the Prime contractors but also the sub-contractors who support them. A number of service providers have been struggling to offer services through NCS, schools and other contracts at current rates and this could impact them further. Katharine Horler, Chief Executive of Careers England, represents service providers and said;
“This announcement provides welcome clarity after many months of uncertainty, but it does raise some concerns. The planned change will lead to many of the large careers companies losing a significant element of their funding, which could limit the contribution they can make across the wider careers sector.
In addition, the DfE careers team that has transitioned into DWP has contracting rather than service delivery experience, and we don’t yet know how Careers England members‘ considerable expertise in the delivery of adult careers guidance will be retained. Their senior operational knowledge is crucial to inform future delivery and we hope that DWP will recognise the value of this expertise within the Primes and address it in future plans.”
If organisations cannot continue without the NCS contract, we could see a further loss of capability and capacity in career development affecting services elsewhere.
The other question that this change raises is, what happens in the rest of the UK? Jobcentre Plus has a UK-wide remit but the NCS only operates in England, with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland having separate careers services. It is unclear whether this change is a precursor to exploring bringing all the UK careers services into the JCS, or an attempt to develop the careers service in England to a similar level to the other home nations.
From a client and professional perspective, it is unclear whether this announcement is positive or negative – it will be dependent on how it is implemented and incorporated into the new JCS.
The fear is that the careers service will be overwhelmed by the much larger employability workforce. Ministers have previously talked about the huge cultural change that needs to happen in the DWP to move away from benefits management to a genuine work support service. Combined, these aspects could lead to the careers service being sidelined (as not being a major challenge compared to reshaping the work coach role) or could even be lost if the focus becomes too heavily weighted towards employability.
Indeed, recent comments by Secretary of State Pat McFadden refer only to aspects of employability support in getting people into work, not the higher value role of careers guidance in helping people further from the world of work, supporting those making more significant career decisions and providing lifelong career management skills to enable them to address future career barriers. It would be encouraging to hear more comment from the Secretary of State and Ministers that reflect the valuable work of the careers team, rather than just the employability aspects.
More positively, this DWP announcement reflects similar language used by the Government since the election, that they are committed to a high quality and impartial careers service with professionally qualified careers advisers. Careers work has been linked – by both DfE and DWP - to the Government’s Missions related to breaking down barriers to opportunity and driving economic growth.
The move into the DWP may hold other advantages. The DWP spends considerable sums on employability programmes and the careers service budget is tiny compared to those, so there is an opportunity if careers support can be built into wider programmes. For example, allocating just 5% of the Kickstart budget to offer careers support to those taking part would double the annual budget of the NCS.
In addition, the DWP benefits from the work of the careers service, whereas the DfE didn’t directly, so careers work could be viewed more positively as an investment rather than a cost. Helping people into work, to find better work, or build their resilience to future careers shocks, leads to lower benefits costs for DWP and greater tax receipts for the Treasury. This opens opportunities to work with DWP to develop new applications of career development to target groups and ultimately as a universal service.
How this announcement will impact adult careers services in England or the organisations that provided the NCS contract is yet to become clear. The CDI will continue to work with colleagues in Careers England and the Career Development Policy Group to engage with Government to push for a service that offers the best support to all adults and meets the required standards of professionalism. We will continue to provide evidence – such as the Valuing Careers research - thought leadership and practical support to Government, showing the need for a high-quality universal adult careers service.
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