Connect to Work statistics release strategy

This release strategy acts as the formal response to the Connect to Work official statistics consultation.

Consultation

The Connect to Work statistics consultation ran from 5 January to 16 February 2026.

The responses to this consultation helped identify and prioritise the requirements for the Connect to Work statistics. This release strategy was produced as a result of the consultation.

You can read more about Connect to Work in the background information and methodology document that will be published alongside the statistics on 11 June 2026.

Publication frequency

The Connect to Work official statistics will be released on a quarterly basis (each March, June, September, and December) from June 2026. The first release will be published on 11 June 2026.

We publish statistical information with a 2.5 month reference period. This means that, for example, the June 2026 statistics publication will include data up until the end of March 2026.

Publication formats

The statistics are planned for release in the following formats:

• a report in HTML format, containing key headline statistics and charts
• Stat-Xplore, providing a guided way to explore statistics and create your own custom tabulations

Data and statistics

The statistics in the first release will consist of the following main measures:

• the number of referrals to Connect to Work
• the number of individuals referred to Connect to Work
• the number of starts to Connect to Work
• first earnings from employment
• the number of lower threshold job outcomes achieved
• the number of higher threshold job outcomes achieved

Lower and hight threshold job outcomes give an indication of the time that employment has been sustained.

The first release will provide the following breakdowns for starts data:

• participant characteristics – sex, age in bands
• participant support journey – Out of Work support or In-Work Retention support
• support model – Individual Placement Support (IPS) or Supported Employment Quality Framework (SEQF)

The first release of the statistics will report figures at a national level. It will include areas that have provided referrals to the programme between April 2025 and March 2026, including Accountable Bodies and Integrated Settlement areas. Further areas will be added in future releases as data become available.

Breakdowns by delivery area will be available on Stat-Xplore.

Different areas began implementing Connect to Work at different times. Each has its own implementation practices, therefore we will ensure context is set appropriately within the release to enable fair reporting on the scheme.

Additional information about the measures and areas covered by these statistics will be available in the Connect to Work background information note.

We have designated these as Official Statistics in Development, following guidelines set out by the UK Statistics Authority.

Final statistics will be subject to the availability and quality assurance of associated data.

Future developments

We will continue to investigate the feasibility of including further breakdowns in future releases.

We plan to include breakdowns of job outcome data by participant characteristics, participant support journey, and support model once sufficient data is available.

We will also report on performance once all areas have launched their programmes and sufficient data is available.

Data is not available for additional measures such as participant health condition, disability status, employment sector, ethnicity, time taken to get to work.

The national evaluation of Connect to Work will aim to collect detailed data on participants’ health, wellbeing and disability status, and how this changes over the course of their participation in the programme. This will also be compared to a sample of similar people who do not participate, so that we can understand the extent to which any changes are thought to be a result of programme participation. We will provide more information on the Connect to Work evaluation as it becomes available.

Feedback

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is keen to continue to receive feedback from users on our statistics. Email your feedback to epass.team@dwp.gov.uk

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