1. Supplementary memorandum from Jobcentre
Plus
Question 49 (Mr Bacon): The number of additional
work-focused interviews achieved per annum
In 2002 the Business Case for the Jobcentre
Plus rollout projected that the new organisation would deliver
"approximately 2.2 million additional work focused interviews
per annum for customers using our services". These additional
interviews principally relate to Lone Parent customers.
The latest available data shows that Jobcentre
Plus delivered a total of 10.3 million work focused interventions
during 2007-08, of which 1.9 million were provided to the Lone
Parent client group. This total is lower than the 2.2 million
originally projected due to a reduction in the number of Lone
Parent claimants on Income Support from 870,950 in May 2002 to
741,830 in November 2007.
Source: DWP Information Directorate:
Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study
Question 52 (Mr Bacon): To what use have
the savings of £300 million been put
The table below shows the release of savings
from the Jobcentre Plus Implementation Project:
Approximate Date
| | Returned to |
Value (£m) |
Jan-05 | Funding released by the project to Jobcentre Plus Finance. This was used to support the Centralisation of Benefit Processing project.
| JCP | 57 |
| Jan-05 | Surplus funding returned to DWP Finance.
| DWP | 25 |
| May-05 | Funding released due to a reduction in the project's forecast liabilities.
| DWP | 50 |
| Jun-05 | Funding and responsibility for the running costs of Estates acquisitions transferred to core.
| JCP | 50 |
| Feb-06 | Funding transferred to core to support the ongoing IS/ IT costs of implementation
| JCP | 39 |
| Feb-06 | Funding transferred to core.
| JCP | 50 |
| Mar-06 | Further savings transferred to DWP Finance
| DWP | 35 |
| Oct-06 | Funding released in the 2006-07 Mid-year review.
| | 8 |
| Total |
| 314 |
| |
| |
The Department has used savings returned to promote further
transformation, for example to fund the centralisation of benefit
processing and further improve customer service.
Question 53 (Mr Bacon): The overall level of quantified
benefits
The programme's estimated savings are based on an evaluation
of the additional job outcomes achieved by Jobcentre Plus—over
and above those delivered under previous arrangements. The state
of the economy will not therefore have a significant impact on
the programme's savings because any change in labour market conditions
will affect the baseline number of job outcomes achieved, rather
than the incremental outcomes brought about by the rollout of
Jobcentre Plus.
The impact of the Jobcentre Plus rollout should be viewed
as a structural improvement which is predominantly independent
of the economic cycle.
The new intervention regimes introduced have resulted in
greater off-flows from benefit as more customers have been encouraged
to look for work and the quality of their job-search has improved.
These off-flows are less likely to vary significantly with economic
change and so the programme's job outcome savings can be assumed
to be broadly similar under different economic conditions.
However, work is ongoing to undertake regular reviews of
customer caseloads to ensure that the impact of any change in
economic conditions is identified and analysed.
Question 73 (Geraldine Smith): Details of incidents in
Jobcentre Plus Offices
Question 83 (Mr Davidson): Improved behaviour in offices
Question 84 (Mr Davidson): Breakdown of incidents by area
The Committee sought statistical information relating to
the number of injuries to (or serious assaults upon), Jobcentre
Plus staff over the five years from 2003.
Jobcentre Plus has well-established processes for collecting,
compiling, and learning from this information which we believe
are unrivalled elsewhere. The table below shows the number of
actual assaults which have taken place over that period.
| | |
| |
| Actual Assaults | |
| | |
| Operational Yrs | "More than
cuts & bruises"
| "Cuts &
bruises"
| "Less than
cuts & bruises"
| TOTAL |
| | |
| |
| 2003-04 | 14 | 55
| 148 | 217 |
| 2004-05 | 7 | 47
| 248 | 302 |
| 2005-06 | 11 | 53
| 222 | 286 |
| 2006-07 | 17 | 97
| 244 | 358 |
| 2007-08 | 16 | 60
| 225 | 301 |
| | |
| |
| |
| | |
The figures, which seek to provide the like-with-like comparison[9]
sought by the Committee, show that the number of injuries reported
by our staff have remained fairly constant as increasingly more
of them moved to work in our new, open-plan offices as the roll-out
progressed towards completion. The number of injuries which are
classed by those reporting them as "more than cuts and bruises"—the
most serious of the actual assault categories—are consistently
fewer than 20 per year. These figures should be viewed in the
context of:
— the many millions of face to face customer transactions
Jobcentre Plus staff provide every year;
— repeated and high-profile internal communications
exercises to encourage staff to report all incidents;
— the transitional demands upon, and flux caused
to, our local service delivery by Jobcentre Plus changing its
service delivery model to accommodate the new roles of Contact
Centres and Benefit Delivery Centres during the period of the
roll-out of the new Jobcentres; and
— external benchmarking. Whilst differences in reporting
arrangements mean it is difficult to reach definitive conclusions,
our research suggests that Jobcentres are comparatively safe places
to work. For example, the annual physical assault rate for NHS
staff in the County of Kent alone is around twice the rate for
Jobcentre Plus nationally.
The Chief Executive, in her evidence, was clear that every
assault is taken seriously. Alongside our established risk control
measures (such as advanced customer handling training, job and
process design, and physical security measures), Jobcentre Plus
has this year invested in a Safety Management System. The System
is based upon recommended HSE best practice, will improve our
detailed reporting arrangements, and includes investment in a
team of Health and Safety Business Partners who take an active
role in reviewing incidents and advising our managers. The Safety
Management System recently received substantial assurance from
our auditors and we expect our investment to make Jobcentres even
safer places.
The Committee also sought geographical data and the table
on the following page breaks down the national actual assaults
data by Region/Country across the same period as the table above.
Operational Year |
| | | |
| |
| Region/Country | 03/04
| 04/05 | 05/06 |
06/07 | 07/08 | Totals
|
East Midlands | 20 |
21 | 18 | 27 | 32
| 118 |
| East of England | 25 | 19
| 18 | 31 | 18 |
111 |
| London | 46 | 95
| 81 | 99 | 84 |
405 |
| North East | 4 | 10
| 14 | 14 | 8 |
50 |
| North West | 28 | 32
| 32 | 28 | 19 |
139 |
| Scotland | 13 | 19
| 16 | 25 | 13 |
86 |
| South East | 15 | 22
| 35 | 34 | 25 |
131 |
| South West | 12 | 15
| 11 | 17 | 22 |
77 |
| Wales | 3 | 10
| 11 | 16 | 12 |
52 |
| West Midlands | 27 | 32
| 25 | 34 | 33 |
151 |
| Yorks and Humber | 23 | 26
| 21 | 31 | 35 |
136 |
| Contact Centres | 1 | 1
| 4 | 2 | 0 |
8 |
| Totals | 217 | 302
| 286 | 358 | 301
| 1,464 |
| |
| | | |
|
Trend-analysis and the identification of "hot spots"
among our offices is undertaken by our network of statutory, joint
Safety Committees which operate at appropriate levels across the
business. Safety Committees review the more serious incidents
and are able to raise concerns and make recommendations if a particular
office experiences high incident rates. In general our inner city
offices experience the highest level of incidents and it is those
offices, therefore, which are provided commensurately with the
greatest range and density of risk control measures.
Question 91 (Mr Davidson): A Jobcentre Plus Office in
Pollok—update
The original Jobcentre Plus Service Delivery Plan for Glasgow,
established in 2003, included the acquisition of a new site in
the area of Pollok.
We have made extensive searches through our PRIME partner,
Land Securities Trillium (LST), to find suitable properties to
support this aspiration. This has included extensive discussions
with the developers of the new Silverburn shopping centre. Initial
discussions with the developer indicated that a unit should be
available for Jobcentre Plus to fit-out from March 2006 but all
plans were tentative.
Throughout 2005 and early 2006 LST made repeated attempts
with the developer to establish size and cost of potential units
and to establish a commitment from them to lease terms and timescales.
In early 2006 we were informed that potentially space would be
available in Phase 4 of the development, then scheduled for completion
in late 2007. However at that stage there was no detailed design
for Phase 4, no indication as to the size and suitability of a
unit and no commitment to allocating to Jobcentre Plus.
LST continued to search for other properties whilst retaining
an interest in the Silverburn development.
All searches proved unsuccessful and no other viable alternatives
could be found within the Rollout Project timescales. In the meantime,
to provide our customers with access to the full range of improved
Jobcentre Plus services, we closed the Pollok customer service
point and Auldhouse Jobcentre and moved our services and customers
to the rolled out offices in Govan and Newlands. This was successfully
completed in July 2006.
The current position is that we continue to deliver the best
possible service pending finding a suitable location. The rollout
programme is now officially closed but when a suitable location
is found a business case will be constructed and considered by
Jobcentre Plus.
Question 97 (Mr Davidson): Information on the top 20 staff
I have interpreted my Top 20 as my senior team at Director
level (Senior Civil Service Pay Band 2) and my Customer Service
Directors (at Pay Band 1 level) who are responsible for operational
delivery and the customer experience—a total of 23. Of these
23, only one was educated at Oxbridge. The individual who has
been to Oxbridge has enjoyed a long and successful Civil Service
career, in this business and its legacy business.
9
The table shows "actual assaults" reported by Jobcentre
Plus staff. It does not include assaults on our contracted Security
Staff because reporting practice amongst this group was sporadic
until systems for accurate reporting were introduced in August
2005. Whilst prompt reporting is encouraged, the figures for 2007-08
may yet increase slightly as late reports are received. Back
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