Connect to Work

Government Transformation and Service Delivery

Record date: 31 March 2026

Whole-life cost: £1.1bn
Published schedule: Not disclosed – 31/03/2026
NISTA delivery confidence: GREEN
Senior responsible owner: Angus Gray

What the project is for

Connect to work will deliver, through grant funding to Local Authorities , a national voluntary supported employment programme focused on helping disabled people, people with health conditions and people with additional barriers to employment into sustained work. Once fully rolled out across England and Wales, Connect to work is expected to support up to 100,000 people per year to enter or remain within sustained employment. It will do this by providing locally-based employment specialists, offering intensive/ personalised support based on proven Supported Employment models – Individual Placement and Support (IPS) and Supported Employment Quality Framework (SEQF).

Departmental delivery commentary

Compared to financial year 24/25 Q4, the NISTA/SRO Delivery Confidence Assessment (DCA) rating at 25/26 Q4 increased to GREEN. This is primarily due to the following factors‚ successful delivery of the programme appears highly likely and there are no major outstanding issues that at this stage appear to threaten transition to business as usual.

Schedule

Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's end-date at 25/26-Q4 remained the same, 31/03/2030. This is primarily due to the following factors‚ Grant Funding Agreements that have or are due to be put in place with Accountable Bodies, this end date refers to when the service is due to end, based on current plans and assumptions.

Cost

Compared to the financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's departmentally agreed Whole Life Cost (measured in £m) decreased to 1094.99 for 25/26-Q4 WLC. This is primarily due to a reduction in forecast grant cost due to differences between modelled estimates and agreed local delivery plans, along with changes to optimism bias assumptions.

Benefits

Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's departmentally agreed Benefits (measured in £m) increased to 2566.22 for 25/26-Q4. This is primarily due to moving to a more accurate approach to calculating benefits.