To ask the Minister for Employment and Learning for his Department's assessment of the Employment Service Support scheme following its conclusion; including a breakdown of participants by (i) age (ii) gender and (iii) the number sustaining employment following the scheme.

Employment Service Support (ESS) was introduced on 2 June 2014, to support the continued delivery of the Executive funded initiatives, First Start and Step Ahead 50+. It was part of the wider transition arrangements that facilitated the continuity of provision leading to the introduction of a new adult return to work programme, Steps 2 Success (S2S).

S2S was successfully launched as the Department’s new adult return to work programme on 20 October 2014.

Validated statistical information is not yet available on ESS that would allow me to provide a breakdown of participants in the format requested. It is anticipated that an ESS publication will be released later this year which would provide information on starts, moves into employment and sustained employment.

The ESS programme is unlikely to conclude before September 2015 as, although access to ESS ended on 31 March 2015, those participants who had not completed their time on provision by 31 March 2015, will complete the balance of their provision during 2015/16.

Management information outlining the target group and number of starts for each strand of ESS provision is contained in the following table.

As detailed above, 5,631 clients accessed ESS provision in order to assist them to return to work. These statistics are very encouraging, however it will only be possible for an accurate assessment of the performance of ESS when statistics on the numbers finding employment following completion of their ESS provision become available.

Sustained employment outcomes will always lag six months behind the published starts and leaver data as participants have up to 13 weeks to find work upon leaving the programme and must remain in the same spell of employment for 13 weeks.