Guidance has officially been released to confirm that it is not only Limited companies that can appy, now the following has been added to the .Gov website.

Checks must be made to show your organisation is established, reputable and financially solvent.

You are more likely to be approved if you:

• have existed for a while
• regularly and recently submitted accounts
• have a credit score which is a low risk category
• have a low probability of imminent business failure
• have enough liquid assets to pay your debts
• do not have any recent county court judgments (CCJs)

These factors are taken into consideration when assessing your Kickstart Scheme application. Failing on one or more of these does not mean you will not be approved.

The initial payment is a fixed amount to contribute to the costs of onboarding Participants, including IT equipment and software licences, administration, uniform and PPE, DBS checks and management time, and providing support to Participants to develop the skills and experience to find work after completing the scheme.

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4.3. The Gateway will not make any payment until it is satisfied that the Employer has paid for and delivered the Funded Activities or provided sufficient assurance that the Funding will be used for Eligible Expenditure only.

Eligible Expenditure (from grant payment monies) also includes fees charged or to be charged to the Employer by external auditors/accountants for reporting/certifying that the funding received was applied for its intended purposes.

Choose ICT Ltd t/a Skills 365 recommend ring fencing a nominal £100 from the grant payment to cover the potential future cost.

8.3. If the Gateway or DWP reasonably requires further information, explanations and documents to establish that the Funding has been used properly in accordance with this Kickstart Employer Agreement, the Employer will, within 5 Working Days of a request, provide the requested information, explanations and documents.

13.5. The Employer will notify the Gateway of any change to its constitution, legal form, membership structure (if applicable) or ownership, and of any complaint or investigation by any regulatory body or the police into its activities or those of its staff, officers or volunteers.

14.7. Each Party shall notify the other Party within 24 hours of becoming aware of any Personal Data Breach (as defined in the GDPR) relating to Personal Data provided by the other Party (or DWP) pursuant to this Kickstart Employer Agreement

16.2. The Employer will upon request produce to the Gateway its policy or policies of insurance or where this is not possible, a certificate of insurance issued by its insurance brokers confirming the insurances are in full force and effect together with confirmation that the relevant premiums have been paid.

19.1. The Employer gives consent to the Gateway and DWP publicising in the press or any other medium the Grant, the Funding and details of the Funded Activities using any information gathered from the Gateway’s initial Grant application or any information or reports submitted under this Kickstart Employer Agreement.

The Gateway and DWP, directly or through Third Parties, may undertake research and evaluation exercises of the Funded Activities and the Kickstart Scheme generally. The Employer shall, during and after the Funding Period, cooperate with the Gateway, DWP and/or any Third Party by responding to requests for information, surveys and questionnaires and by providing access to its employees, customers and contractors as may be required by the Gateway, DWP and/or the selected Third Party. The results of any research and evaluation will be handled in such a way that they do not identify individual respondents, unless permitted by Data Protection Legislation.

21.1. The Gateway will notify the Employer of any changes to the Funded Activities supported by the Grant.

Events of Default

22.1.1. the Employer uses the Funding for a purpose other than the Funded Activities

22.1.3. the Employer uses the Funding for Ineligible Expenditure

22.1.4. the Employer fails, in the Gateway’s opinion, to make satisfactory progress with the Funded Activities and, in particular, with meeting the agreed outputs set out in Annex 4

22.1.6. the Employer is, in the opinion of the Gateway, delivering the Funded Activities in a negligent manner (in this context negligence includes failing to prevent or report actual or anticipated fraud or corruption)

22.3. Where the Gateway determines that an Event of Default has or may have occurred, the Gateway may take any one or more of the following actions:

22.3.1. suspend or terminate the payment of the Funding for such period as the Gateway shall determine
22.3.2. reduce the amount of Funding in which case the payment of Funding shall thereafter be made in accordance with the reduction and notified to the Employer
22.3.3. require the Employer to repay to the Gateway the whole or any part of the amount of the Funding previously paid. Such sums may be recovered as a debt
22.3.4. give the Employer an opportunity to remedy the Event of Default (if the Gateway considers it remediable) in accordance with the procedure set out in clause 22.5
22.3.5. terminate this Kickstart Employer Agreement; and/or
22.3.6. request to DWP that the Employer be excluded from any future participation in the Kickstart Scheme

22.4. If the Employer fails to perform any of its obligations under this Kickstart Employer Agreement (other than a material failure), the Gateway may serve a notice on the Employer requiring remedial action to be taken within a period as specified by the Gateway (such period not more than 20 Working Days). If the failure is not remedied within the period specified by the Gateway, the failure to remedy will amount to a material failure for the purposes of clause 22.1.2.

22.13. The Employer shall notify the Gateway immediately in writing as soon as the Employer is anticipating, undergoing, undergoes or has undergone a Change of Control, provided such notification does not contravene any Law.

25.1. The provision of the Funding is not consideration for any taxable supply for VAT purposes.

Annex 1: Definitions

The following expressions have the meanings set out below:

Bribery Act means the Bribery Act 2010 and any subordinate legislation made under that Act from time to time together with any guidance or codes of practice issued by the relevant government department concerning this legislation;

Change of Control means the sale of all or substantially all of the assets of a Party; any merger, consolidation or acquisition of a Party with, by or into another corporation, entity or person; or any change in the ownership of more than fifty percent (50%) of the voting capital stock of a Party in one or more related transactions;

Code of Conduct means the Code of Conduct for Recipients of Government General Grants published by the Cabinet Office in November 2018 which is available in the Code of Conduct for Recipients of Government General Grants, including any subsequent updates from time to time;

Commencement Date means the date on which this Kickstart Employer Agreement comes into effect, which shall be the date on which the Gateway receives a signed copy of the Funding Letter completed to its satisfaction;

Confidential Information means any information (however conveyed, recorded or preserved) disclosed by a Party or its personnel (or DWP or its personnel) (Disclosing Party) to another Party (and/or that Party’s personnel) whether before or after the date of this Kickstart Employer Agreement, including:

(a) any information that ought reasonably to be considered to be confidential (whether or not it is so marked) relating to:

(i) the business, affairs, customers, clients, suppliers or plans of the Disclosing Party; or
(ii) the operations, processes, product information, know-how, designs, trade secrets or software of the Disclosing Party;

(b) any information developed by a Disclosing Party in the course of delivering the Funded Activities or the Kickstart Scheme;
(c) Personal Data; and
(d) any information derived from any of the above

Confidential Information shall not include information which:

(a) was public knowledge at the time of disclosure (otherwise than by breach of clause 11 of these Conditions);
(b) was in the possession of the receiving Party, without restriction as to its disclosure, before receiving it from the Disclosing Party;
(c) is received from a Third Party (who lawfully acquired it) without restriction as to its disclosure; or
(d) is independently developed without access to the Disclosing Party’s Confidential Information

Controller and Data Subject take the meanings given in the GDPR;

Crown Body or Crown means the government of the United Kingdom (including the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive Committee, the Scottish Executive and the National Assembly for Wales), including government ministers and government departments and particular bodies, persons, commissions or agencies from time to time carrying out functions on its behalf;

Data Protection Legislation means (i) the GDPR and any applicable implementing Law as amended from time to time; (ii) the Data Protection Act 2018 to the extent that it relates to the processing of Personal Data and privacy; and (iii) all applicable Law relating to the processing of Personal Data and privacy, including where applicable the guidance and codes of practice issued by the Information Commissioner, in each case as amended, supplemented or substituted from time to time;

Domestic Law means an applicable law, statute, bye-law, regulation, order, regulatory policy, guidance or industry code, judgment of a relevant court of law, or directive or requirement of any regulatory body, or delegated or subordinate legislation which replaces EU law as a consequence of the UK leaving the European Union;

Domestic Successor means, as the context requires, either:

(a) a body that takes over the functions of the European Commission in the United Kingdom after its withdrawal from the European Union; or
(b) the relevant court in England, Wales or Scotland which takes over the functions of the Court of Justice of the European Union in England, Wales or Scotland (as applicable) after the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union;

Duplicate Funding means funding provided by a Third Party to the Employer, which is for the same purpose for which the Funding was made but has not been declared to the Gateway;

DWP means the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions;

Eligibility Criteria mean DWP’s criteria, available on Kickstart Scheme, to determine who should be grant recipients and which vacancies are appropriate for Kickstart Scheme funding;

Eligible Expenditure means the expenditure incurred by the Employer during the Funding Period for the purposes of delivering the Funded Activities which comply in all respects with the eligibility rules set out in clause 5 of these Conditions;

Employer or you means the Party specified in the Funding Letter as the Employer;

Employer Representative means the representative appointed by the Employer, which at the Commencement Date shall be the individual listed as such in the Funding Letter;

Event of Default means an event or circumstance set out in clause 22.1;

FOIA means the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and any subordinate legislation made under that Act from time to time together with any guidance or codes of practice issued by the relevant government department concerning the legislation;

Funded Activities means the activities set out in the Funding Letter and Annex 2 of these Conditions;

Funding means that part of the Grant that the Gateway pays to the Employer in accordance with clause 4 and subject to the provisions set out at clause 22;

Funding Letter means the letter from the Gateway to the Employer confirming the details of the Funding;

Funding Period has the meaning given in the Funding Letter;

Gateway Representative means the individual nominated by the Gateway to be the single point of contact for this Kickstart Employer Agreement;

General Data Protection Regulation and GDPR means the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679;

Grant means the sum or sums that DWP will pay to the Gateway to contribute towards the Kickstart Scheme activities of the Gateway and the employers it represents;

Gateway or us means the Party specified in the Funding Letter as the Gateway;

HRA means the Human Rights Act 1998 and any subordinate legislation made under that Act from time to time together with any guidance or codes of practice issued by the relevant government department concerning the legislation;

Ineligible Expenditure means expenditure incurred by the Employer which is not Eligible Expenditure, including the non-exhaustive lists of Ineligible Expenditure as set out in clause 5 of these Conditions;

Information Acts means the Data Protection Legislation, FOIA and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, as amended from time to time;

Intellectual Property Rights or IPRs means copyright, rights related to or affording protection similar to copyright, rights in databases, patents and rights in inventions, semi-conductor topography rights, trade marks, rights in internet domain names and website addresses and other rights in trade names, designs, know-how, trade secrets and Confidential Information, and any modifications, amendments, updates and new releases of the same and all similar or equivalent rights or forms of protection which subsist or will subsist now or in the future in any part of the world;

IPR Material means all materials produced by the Employer or its Representatives in relation to the Funded Activities during the Funding Period (including materials expressed in any form of report, database, design, document, technology, information, know how, system or process);

Kickstart Employer Agreement means these terms and conditions including the Annexes to them (the Conditions), together with the Funding Letter;

Law means any applicable law, statute, byelaw, regulation, order, regulatory policy, guidance or industry code, judgement of a relevant court of law, or directive or requirement of any regulatory body, or delegated or subordinate legislation;

Losses means all losses, liabilities, damages, costs, expenses (including legal fees), disbursements, costs of investigation, litigation, settlement, judgement, interest and penalties whether arising in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, misrepresentation or otherwise, and Loss will be interpreted accordingly;

Participants means the persons engaged by the Employer through the support of the Kickstart Scheme. Participants will be young people, aged 16 – 24, who are claiming Universal Credit and are referred to the Employer by DWP (directly or via the Gateway) for employment opportunities.

Party means the Gateway or the Employer and Parties shall be each Party together;

Personal Data has the meaning given to it in the GDPR;

Prohibited Act means:

(a) directly or indirectly offering, giving or agreeing to give to any servant of the Gateway or the Crown any gift or consideration of any kind as an inducement or reward for:

(i) doing or not doing (or for having done or not having done) any act in relation to the obtaining or performance of this Kickstart Employer Agreement; or
(ii) showing or not showing favour or disfavour to any person in relation to this Kickstart Employer Agreement;

(b) committing any offence:

(iii) under the Bribery Act;
(iv) under legislation creating offences in respect of fraudulent acts; or
(v) at common law in respect of fraudulent acts in relation to this Kickstart Employer Agreement; or

(c) defrauding or attempting to defraud or conspiring to defraud the Gateway or the Crown;

Representatives means a Party’s duly authorised directors, employees, officers, agents, professional advisors and consultants;

Special Payments means ex gratia expenditure by the Employer to a Third Party where no legal obligation exists for the payment and/or other extra-contractual expenditure. Special Payments may include out-of-court settlements, compensation or additional severance payments to the Employer’s employees;

State Aid Law means the law embodied in Articles 107 - 109 of section 2, Title VII of the Common Rules on Competition, Taxation and Approximation of Laws – Consolidated Versions of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty for the Functioning of the European Union or any Domestic Law which replaces such State Aid Law following the UK’s exit from the European Union;

Third Party means any person or organisation other than the Gateway, Employer or DWP;

VAT means value added tax chargeable in the UK; and

Working Day means any day from Monday to Friday (inclusive) which is not Christmas Day, Good Friday or a statutory bank holiday in England.

Annex 2: Funded activities

1. Background/purpose of the Kickstart Scheme and the role of Gateways

The Kickstart Scheme is designed to improve employability and the chances of sustained employment for those at risk of long term unemployment in the 16-24-year-old age group. It provides grant funding to employers to support the creation of new jobs that would not otherwise exist.

The Kickstart Scheme funding will support employers to provide six months of work for young people. It will be regular, paid work which will help young people to develop transferrable skills (such as team work) and demonstrate to future employers that they have a track record of being a reliable employee with an up-to-date reference.

Kickstart Scheme Gateways will play an important role in the national effort to help young people into employment and support economic recovery from the impact of Covid-19. They will help a wide range of employers, including small and medium sized organisations, to create jobs and deliver support to young people at risk of long term unemployment. Gateways have flexibility to decide how best to help the employers and young people they are supporting.

2. Aims and objectives of the Funded Activities

The Funding will help the Employer to provide a quality work experience to individuals at risk of long term unemployment in the 16-24-year-old age group. The work should incentivise positive behaviours from these individuals to make them more attractive to future employers and maximise their readiness to make a successful transition into long term employment, giving them the confidence and competence to succeed. As such, the Kickstart Scheme aims to reduce the scarring effect of unemployment.

3. Funded Activities

The Employer will use the Funding to provide six months of employment for Participants, including support to Participants in developing work skills and finding future employment. The activities funded are described more fully below:

a. The employment opportunities created with the Funding will be equivalent to jobs not funded by the Kickstart Scheme. The jobs will have the same expectation on the Participant to improve and develop. The jobs should enable the Participant to build up skills that will lead to sustainable employment and should be paid at the normal rate for similar jobs and with the same frequency.

b. The Funding will be used by the Employer to provide new jobs. The jobs must not:

• replace existing or planned vacancies; or
• cause existing employees, apprentices or contractors to lose work or reduce their working hours

c. All Kickstart Scheme jobs must be accompanied by a written job description, setting out the purpose, start date and responsibilities of the position.

d. All employment opportunities supported by the Funding must:

• be for a minimum of 25 hours per week, for six months; and
• pay at least the National Minimum Wage/National Living Wage (as applicable) for the Participant’s age group, national insurance and minimum automatic enrolment contributions

The Employer must make the required employer national insurance contributions for Participants and comply with its employer automatic enrolment duties with respect to Kickstart Scheme Participants. The Employer must ensure it meets the required statutory duties covering health, safety and welfare for all Kickstart Scheme Participants.

e. Employment opportunities should not require Participants to undertake extensive training before they begin the job.

f. The Employer will use the Funding to provide employability support to Participants and help Participants to develop work skills.

• employability support includes on-the-job training, work search support, transferrable skills development, mentoring, careers advice, and other related support to help the Participants find sustained employment after they have completed their Kickstart Scheme jobs
• helping participants to develop and build work skills includes developing attendance management, timekeeping, teamwork and communication skills as appropriate

g. The Funding should be used by the Employer to have regular (at least monthly) reviews with Participants to discuss performance in the role and areas for improvement.

Please note:

A Kickstart job is not an apprenticeship but a Participant may move to an apprenticeship whilst taking part in the Kickstart Scheme. Funding will cease once a Participant ceases to be involved in the Kickstart Scheme (for example, because the Participant has moved from a Kickstart Scheme job to an apprenticeship).

Once a Kickstart Scheme job is created, it can be taken up by a new Participant once the previous Participant has ceased to be employed as part of the Kickstart Scheme.

Annex 3: Payment schedule

Subject to the Employer’s compliance with the terms of this Kickstart Employer Agreement, the Gateway will make Funding payments in accordance with the following payment schedule for each Participant employed by the Employer as part of the Kickstart Scheme. The Funding per Participant will be paid in the following instalments:

Relevant Wage means the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage applicable to the Participant based on their age at the end of the six months of employment funded by the Kickstart Scheme.

If, prior to the expiry of the intended six-month period, a Participant ceases to be employed by the Employer as part of the Kickstart Scheme during any month (either because the Participant leaves their job or has their employment terminated), the payment for that month will be reduced on a pro rata basis. The amount of the payment for that month will depend on when the Participant ceased to be employed as part of the Kickstart Scheme during that month. For example, if the Participant works for three weeks during a month and then ceases employment with the Employer, the payment for that month will cover 100% of the Relevant Wage for 75 hours of work (25 hours per week x 3) by the Participant, plus the associated employer National Insurance contributions and employer minimum automatic enrolment contributions. The payment for that month will still be paid in the following month on confirmation that the Participant has been paid through PAYE. No further payments will then be payable in respect of the relevant Participant.

Annex 4: Agreed outputs

The Employer is required to achieve the following outputs and performance measures through the Funded Activities:

Agreed Outputs

• provide full details of the Kickstart Scheme vacancies to the Gateway and DWP and evidence that these jobs are new jobs promptly following signing of the Funding Letter
• make available the number of Kickstart Scheme vacancies stated in the Funding Letter and use reasonable endeavours to fill the vacancies as quickly as possible
• provide support to help each Participant with finding future employment. This can include on-the-job training, work search support, transferrable skills development, mentoring and careers advice, and support with CV and interview preparation
• help to build each Participant’s work skills which can include developing attendance management, timekeeping, team work and communication skills. This will help the Participant’s employment prospects after the Kickstart Scheme job ends