Select Committee on Work and Pensions Minutes of Evidence


Supplementary memorandum submitted by the Department for Work and Pensions (OP 08C)

INTRODUCTION

  1.  This supplementary memorandum has been prepared for the Work and Pensions Select Committee for their inquiry: ONE Pilots: Lessons for Jobcentre Plus. It provides the Committee with information requested following the appearance of Rt Hon Nick Brown, Minister of State for Work, Mr Leigh Lewis, Chief Executive, Jobcentre Plus, and Mr David Stanton, Director of Analytical Services and Chief Economist, Department for Work and Pensions, at the oral evidence hearing on 23 January 2002.

ISSUES

  2.  It was agreed that the Department would provide further information for the Committee on the number of incidents in Employment Service and Benefits Agency offices over a period long enough to be statistically valid; advise whether the Yorkshire Jobcentre Plus pathfinder offices' computers are secured to their desks; and provide information on the treatment of ethnic minority clients by personal advisers.

ITEM 1:  INCIDENTS IN EMPLOYMENT SERVICE AND BENEFITS AGENCY OFFICES.

  3.  There is no clear evidence from the Benefits Agency and the Employment Service figures of any general increase in the level of violence in offices.

  4.  The increase in the number of reported incidents in 2000 can be attributed to awareness raising activities with Benefits Agency and Employment Service staff about the importance of reporting incidents and to a poster issued by the PCS Union advising staff that all incidents of customer aggression should be reported.

  5.  The increase in incidents in Benefits Agency offices of 44 per cent between 1999 and 2000 is consistent with increased reporting following the awareness campaign in July 2000.

BENEFITS AGENCY(4)

Year
Physical incidents
Non-physical incidents
Total incidents
1997
100
3,426
3,526
1998
41
3,092
3,133
1999(5)
129
3,561
3,690
2000
164
5,148
5,312
2001(1)
134
4,863
4,997



EMPLOYMENT SERVICE

Year
Number of staff reporting a physical incidents
Number of staff reporting a non- physical incidents
Total number of reports received (2)
Total number of incidents occurring (3)
1999(6)
166
2,530
2,696
2,481
2000(7)
233
4,236
4,469
4,135
2001(1)
222
3,887
4,109
3,732



  (1) Information to date. These figures are based on the reports so far received, other incidents may have occurred but may not yet have been reported.

  (2) This figure represents the number of individual reports completed.

  (3) This figure relates to the number of individual incidents that have occurred. This number is lower than the number of reports as several individuals can report the same incident if they feel that they have been a victim of it.

  (4) Benefits Agency figures do not make any distinction between incidents and reports in the way the Employment Service do.

  (5) A new more comprehensive form for recording physical assaults was introduced in the Benefits Agency in April 1999. Figures in this memorandum update those provided to Parliament previously.

  (6) The figures shown for the Employment Service for 1999 record the number of incidents that occurred between April and December. Prior to that the information was collated on a separate basis which did not provide data in compatible categories. During the period January to March 1999, 1,115 reports were filed and 1,106 incidents occurred but these figures include "other" incidents between clients where no staff were involved.

  (7) The 2000 figures for the Employment Service have been amended from previous figures supplied to Parliament. This is because there were some duplicate entries and owing to the fact that incidents may be entered anytime up to 9 months later.

ITEM 2: RISK ASSESSMENT IN YORKSHIRE JOBCENTRE PLUS PATHFINDER OFFICES

  6.  We can confirm that all recommendations made as a result of the risk assessment of the offices in the pathfinder cluster were implemented before the offices opened to the public on 22 October 2001. All computers had been fitted with their restraining "straps" before the offices opened. Computers are not bolted to desks because of the need to turn monitors to allow customers to view the screen. The straps that are fitted do, however, prevent computers being picked up and thrown.

ITEM 3: TREATMENT OF ETHNIC MINORITY CLIENTS BY PERSONAL ADVISERS

  7.  Ethnic minority clients were generally less likely to find work than white clients. But there was no evidence to suggest that outcomes for ethnic minority clients were worse in ONE pilot areas than they were in ONE control areas.

  8.  Differences were found between white and ethnic minority clients in terms of the nature of the service received through ONE. These are reflected in DWP Research Report no. 156 "Short term effects of compulsory participation in ONE" published in December 2001. A summary of the evaluation findings from the report is provided in Annex A.

  9.  We will take these findings and further evaluation into account when considering the approach by personal advisers in Jobcentre Plus.


 
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