Supplementary memorandum from the Department
for Work and Pensions
INTRODUCTION
1. The Department for Work and Pensions
has improved its customer service significantly, and in some cases
beyond recognition, since its creation in 2001. The stereotypes
of all that was worst about customer care in the public sector
in the past—social security offices with benches bolted
to linoleum floors and embattled staff behind floor to ceiling
screens—are gone. So, too, almost completely, is the state
of mind that saw the customer as, at best, simply a recipient
of whatever the system delivered and, at worst, an irritating
inconvenience to the running of the organisation. By contrast
today in DWP:
— Jobcentre Plus provides integrated
employment and benefits advice to disadvantaged people of working
age. The Agency has virtually completed the rollout of its transformed
and modernised jobcentres, which are much more open, welcoming
and professional, with 852 new offices opened to date and fewer
than 15 still to be completed. The Pathways to Work initiative,
covering 19 Jobcentre Plus Districts, is now providing active
work-focused support to some 40% of people with a health condition
or disability who are on Incapacity Benefit.
— The Pension Service now provides
a much more joined up and modern service to pensioners. Increasingly
its services are being delivered via a single transaction; for
example most claims to state pension can now be dealt with in
a "once and done" phone call of no more than 20 minutes.
The Service also operates increasingly in partnership with Local
Authorities and voluntary organisations.
— The performance of the Disability
and Carers Service has been transformed. In 2004-05, nearly 80%
of calls (some 18 million) to the Disability and Carers Service
Helpline received the engaged tone. In 2005-06 the number had
reduced to just 37,000—less than 1%. In September 2005 the
Helpline was awarded accreditation by the Contact Centre Association
with the comment "standards of excellence are the norm
rather than the exception".
— As witnessed by the recent Civil
Servant of the Year Awards, we now have some spectacularly good
examples of customer service within the Department. DWP won the
Cabinet Secretary's Individual Award for Outstanding Achievement,
the Cabinet Secretary's Team Award for Outstanding Achievement
and the Joined-Up Government Award.
— The Department has also successfully
introduced much new technology. The Jobcentre Plus' "Job
bank" is, for example, the most heavily used Government web-site,
with around 4.5 million job searches a week. More generally, our
future Business Strategy will enable nearly 100 million contacts,
that are currently handled by phone and post, to be managed via
self-service channels.
INTRODUCING A
WHOLE CUSTOMER
PERSPECTIVE
2. But there is still much further to go.
Building on these successes, the Department is now setting out
on the next stage of its journey. Despite the progress we have
made, our services still too often deliver products to our customers
in silos, and leave them to make the joins themselves. The central
focus of our Business Strategy is therefore on dealing with the
"whole customer". This memorandum sets out a number
of aspects in which we are seeking to do this and which we see
as critical to delivering a further step change in the service
which the Department aims to provide to its customers.
Customer insight
3. Public service organisations need to
be prepared and able to see their services from their customer's
perspective. This requires an organisational commitment to customer
insight. Customer insight is, in essence, the comprehensive understanding
of customers and their needs drawn from their preferences, behaviour,
experiences and beliefs, and the application of that understanding
to the design and delivery of services to them. The Department
is therefore creating a dedicated customer insight function as
a key element of our future Business Strategy.
4. A further essential element of building
a customer-centric service is to understand from customers what
they need and to engage with them in a meaningful dialogue. That
means moving on from traditional forms of consultation. For example,
the National Pensions Debate during 2006 concluded with a National
Pensions Day held on 18 March, the largest event of its kind ever
undertaken in the UK, during which over 1,000 members of the public
took part in simultaneous, satellite-linked events in six locations
using innovative, deliberative polling techniques.
Critical events
5. Being able to see service from the customer's
perspective is particularly important at those key moments when
people need to access a range of services at a critical time—often
triggered by an event such as a death or the loss of a job. This
is central to the thrust of Sir David Varney's work on service
transformation and lies behind a programme of joint work between
the Department, Local Authorities and HMRC:
"For individuals, the challenge of interacting
sequentially with Jobcentre Plus on benefit claims, HMRC on tax
credits and the Local Authority on housing benefit where an individual
moves into or out of work can be both daunting and a significant
barrier to moving into work. A joint DWP/HMRC/Local Authority
trial in Wallsend is looking at ways in which the process can
be improved for those who move in and out of work and have to
claim JSA, Tax Credits and Housing Benefit. The early results
suggest that both much better customer service and significant
savings may be possible".
6. Private sector research has also identified
the benefits to organisations of responding appropriately to emotionally
charged, critical moments for customers—often occurring
when they have a serious problem and are inevitably under stress.
The Department's business strategy will seek to identify these
critical moments and the services our customers need from us in
dealing with them.
TREATING PEOPLE
AS INDIVIDUALS
7. In the broadest terms, the available
research suggests that, more than anything, people want to be
treated with respect and as individuals. Overall, all of our evidence
is that the Department's staff recognise this and that they are
committed both to public service and to helping people in their
communities. A recent survey of DWP staff showed that 80% believe
their part of DWP does an important job.
8. These attitudes are reflected in some
excellent instances of customer excellent service;
"Customers find the services that Personal
Advisers provide are helpful in finding work. Independent qualitative
evaluations of Jobcentre Plus programmes have noted the approachability
and friendliness of advisers, which is believed to be a key factor
in making customers feel listened to and respected. Evidence from
customer research shows that Personal Advisers have a positive
impact on customers who want to work, by raising their confidence,
equipping them with improved job-seeking skills and encouraging
and assisting with job applications when they are able to see
the same adviser regularly".[3]
9. Treating people as individuals is also
about empowering individuals to make choices for themselves. We
know that DWP customers appreciate being offered more choice,
but that they do not always take up the opportunities available
to them. We want to improve the quality of information and support
to help people make the choices which are best for them. Contestability
of services can also lead to improved customer service.
In Employment Zones, private sector organisations
provide flexible services similar to those delivered by Jobcentre
Plus in the rest of the country. In some of those areas, lone
parents can choose which provider to take employment support from.
The most recent evaluation showed that lone parents reported overwhelmingly
that they liked having a choice of provider.
JOINING UP
SERVICES
10. Most customers want the services provided
to them to be joined up. But the lack of such linkages is likely
to hit disadvantaged groups, who are likely to have multiple needs,
particularly hard. They stand to benefit disproportionately from
a joined-up approach that ensures they are able to gain access
to an appropriate range of services but, by contrast, to suffer
disproportionately where service is fragmented.
11. Joining up is also about the provision
of information. If public services can share data, then they can
generally provide far better service.
Since July 2006, customers can apply for both
State Pension and Pension Credit via the telephone and, at the
end of the telephone call, they are wherever possible told their
rate of entitlement. Customers are also offered the facility to
make a claim to Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit along
with their Pension Credit claim, in which case pre-populated HB/CTB
forms are issued.
WORKING WITH
STAKEHOLDERS
12. In aiming to deal with the "whole
person" it is also important to recognise the importance
of other key partners, such as Local Authorities, Voluntary Organisations
and the private sector. Voluntary organisations, for example,
can at times reach out to groups which conventional public services,
no matter how well run, can find hard to reach. The private sector
can also be a key player both because of its experience in delivering
services to customers and its ability on many occasions to deliver
highly effective value for money. The Department's Cities Strategy
is an example of a policy premised on the assumption that stakeholders
can deliver more if they combine and align their efforts than
they can do by working separately. The Strategy requires key stakeholders
from the public, private and voluntary sectors to come together
into a concerted local programme to improve support for individual
jobless people. A different kind of partnership is illustrated
below:
LinkAge Plus—local partnership in action
A couple received a visit from Notts Fire &
Rescue Service for a home safety check. A "checklist"
adapted for the First Contact scheme was completed during this
visit which led to the couple going on to receive the following:
— Pension Credit of £10.34pw and
arrears of £134.84—via the Local Pension Service.
— New locks to external doors—via
Notts Police.
— Adaptations including bath rail,
toilet seat, walking frame, wheelchair, grab rails—via Social
Services.
— Falls assessment resulting in a twice
weekly hospital appointment for medical assistance—via Primary
Care Trust.
— Smoke alarms—via Notts Fire
& Rescue service.
— The offer of a home carer—via
Social Services (declined at present).
The husband of the couple said that "he
couldn't put into words" how wonderful First Contact was
and what a difference it had made to his and his wife's life.
He was unaware of the services and help that was available and
was overwhelmed by the kindness of people.
HANDLING COMPLAINTS
13. As this is the principal subject for
the hearing this memorandum does not attempt to go into detail
on this issue on the assumption that the Committee will wish to
make this the focus of their questioning at the hearing itself.
At a general level, however, it is important to recognise that
handling a complaint well demonstrates to a customer that they
are respected and listened to. It gives us a valuable opportunity
to apologise for whatever has gone wrong, to put things right
as soon as possible and to turn around that customer's negative
view of the organisation. Our research has shown that a sincere
and well-timed apology and prompt, effective action to address
the causes of a complaint can make a real difference to the level
of satisfaction felt by the customer. The Department is shortly
to introduce an Independent Case Examiner service, providing an
extra, impartial tier to our complaints-handling process. A major
part of their remit will be to look at how we handle complaints
and give advice about how we can improve.
CONCLUSIONS
14. The Department has made substantial
progress in delivering genuine improvement in its customer service
but it is not complacent. The next stages in our journey are to
focus on the whole customer, working across our internal boundaries.
If we know and understand our customers better we can provide
better services to them at critical moments. We can make the State
easier to interact with for our customers, and for people who
advise them, and easier for our staff to administer. At its best
we can create a virtuous circle of improved outcomes, improved
customer service and greater efficiency.
15. At the same time we need to be clear
that customer service can never be an absolute. Sometimes our
customers come into contact with us because they are failing to
meet their obligations and sometimes we have to refuse them benefits
or other services because they do not meet the entitlement conditions
which Parliament has laid down. But in every case we are committed
to treating the individual with respect and dignity. This is the
right of everyone—but especially of people who have no choice
in terms of their use of public sector services.
March 2007
3 Source: NAO Report "Delivering effective services
through Personal Advisers' November 2006.
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