Further memorandum submitted by the Department
for Work and Pensions (OP 08B)
Letter to the Secretary of State from
the Chairman of the Committee
Thank you for the Department's memorandum in
connection with the Committee's inquiry. I am writing on behalf
of the Committee to request some additional information in preparation
for the oral evidence session. Your officials are more than welcome
to contact myself or Janet Allbeson to discuss the information
requested.
Please provide:
— a client profile for each of the
pilot areas, broken down into JSA and non-JSA clients—and,
if possible, the make-up of the latter group.
— details of annual staff turnover
and sickness absence levels in each of the ONE pilot areas, compared
to their relevant control areas. Please feel free to comment on
the figures, discussing what they show.
— details of current ONE performance
measures; whether these have changed during the lifetime of the
pilots; and if so, the reasons why.
— information concerning the average
times in practice taken in each ONE pilot area for the various
stages of the process described:
(a) the time taken from reception to
start-up interview (basic and PVS models);
(b) the time taken from initial telephone
contact to call-back (call centre models);
(c) time taken for initial start-up meeting,
broken down into JSA and non-JSA clients (basic and PVS models);
(d) time taken for call-back interview
broken down into JSA and non-JSA clients (call centre models);
(e) time between start-up interview/call-back
interview and first personal adviser meeting;
(f) time taken for first personal adviser
meeting, broken down into JSA and non-JSA clients;.
(g) end-to end processing times for each
of the benefits listed, in each of the ONE pilot areas and in
each of the comparable control areas, together with the relevant
target times: Income Support, Jobseekers Allowance, Incapacity
Benefit, Invalid Care Allowance, and Widowed Parent's Allowance
and Bereavement Allowance.
You may wish to comment on these figures. `Average
time' can obviously be measured in various ways—the suggestion
is that we look at the six month period since April 2001.
— details of the performance of the
ONE pilots in relation to job placements, compared to their control
areas—broken down into JSA and non-JSA clients. If you have
not already done so, please give details of any job placement
targets for JSA and non-JSA targets in each of the relevant areas.
Please feel free to discuss the relevance or
otherwise of job placement figures in relation to the ONE pilots.
— comparison of the number of crisis
loan applications in the ONE pilot areas and in their applicable
control areas, for April 1999; April 2000; and April 2001 since
it has been suggested that crisis loan applications rose in some
of the ONE pilot areas, as a result of delays in processing benefits.
IN-HOUSE
REPORT 84
The conclusion of DWP In-house report 84 (Social
Research Branch: Delivering a Work-focussed Service: Interim
Findings from the ONE Case Studies and Staff Research) sets
out 16 numbered suggestions for change. In respect of each numbered
suggestion, please advise us what has been the Department's reaction
and what follow-up action, if any, has been taken—both in
relation to the ONE pilots and in relation to the Jobfinder Plus
pathway offices.
COST BENEFIT
ANALYSIS
It would appear from the DWP Memorandum that
the cost benefit analysis of the ONE pilots will not be published
until the second half of 2002. Although we accept that the full
picture will not be known until then, we would welcome your interim
analysis on the first two years of the project.
ORGANISATIONS INVOLVED
IN THE
PRIVATE AND
VOLUNTARY SECTOR
PILOTS
Paragraph 52 of the DWP memorandum says that
the organisations involved in the PVS pilots are listed in Annex
C. They are not. We are aware of the private sector contractors
within the PVS models. Please advise on the various voluntary
sector organisations which formed part of the PVS pilots.
As you know, the Committee is expected to take
oral evidence from DWP officials and the relevant Minister on
23 January. It would therefore be helpful to have this information
in sufficient time to brief the Committee in advance—ideally
by Friday 11 January.
Thank you for your help in this matter.
Archy Kirkwood
Chairman
27 November 2001
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