Further information from DWP (PC 01C)
"PCS have told us that they know that Partner
Liaison Manager posts are going to be cut by two-thirds. I would
be most grateful if you could confirm whether this is the case
and whether it will be in addition to the staff reductions that
have already occurred in the Local Service up to 1 October 2004.
Could you please give the Committee the number of staff affected,
DWP's rationale for the cut, and the total number that will remain
in the Local Service afterwards?"
RESPONSE
In the early days of The Pension Service, Partnership
Liaison Managers played an important role in raising the general
awareness of The Pension Service in local communities, particularly
in reassuring local partners that centralisation of benefits processing
work in our pension centre network represented an opportunity
to improve the level of service received by older people building
on relationships to establish partnerships and ways of working.
As The Pension Credit campaign generated momentum, Partnership
Liaison Managers also fulfilled a key role in raising the general
awareness of Pension Credit at a local level through presentations
and workshops with partner organisations.
We are now at a point where relationships are
in place and the Pension Credit campaign requires a more sophisticated
approach to identify potentially eligible Pension Credit non recipients
and encourage them to apply.
Therefore the emphasis is now on increasing
the number of Customer Liaison Managers to have sufficient one-to-one
visiting capacity to support increasing demand for this service
and to focus on one to one direct contact.
As a result of this re-focusing of activity
the network of Partnership Liaison Managers will fall by approximately
a third nationally to 203.
The reduction figure quoted by PCS (ie two-thirds)
is not accurate and we are not clear where this originates.
The Local Service reorganisation is expected
to be completed by the middle of December. Partnership Liaison
Managers will be aligned geographically to each Primary Tier local
authority. This will ensure the consistency of our service and
recognise the key role held by local authorities in driving forward
wider partnership agendas.
The rebalancing of the numbers of Partnership
Liaison Managers and Customer Liaison Managers is part of the
overall Local Service restructuring based on 2,675 posts.
November 2004
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