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Delivering the Jobcentre
Plus Vision - a Qualitative Evaluation
Background
The first Jobcentre Plus Pathfinder
offices and associated Contact Centres were launched in October
2001. Jobcentre Plus is a key part of the Government's strategy
for welfare reform. It brings together the services of the Employment
Service (ES) and the Benefits Agency (BA) to provide a single point
of delivery for people of working age and in doing so aims to provide
a work focus to the benefits system.
Everyone of working age who enters the benefits
system, including those who are economically inactive, see a Financial
Assessor who checks their benefit claim form and a Personal Adviser
who conducts a work focused interview. The national roll out is
due to be completed by 2006.
The Evaluation
Following the launch of the first
Jobcentre Plus Pathfinder offices in 2005, CRSP in partnership with Ecotec
Research and Consulting Ltd were invited to undertake a qualitative
evaluation to explore the 'bedding in' process of Jobcentre Plus
and to inform the next stages of Jobcentre Plus roll out. Two further
phases of research were conducted subsequently to explore the extent
to which Pathfinder offices had moved closer to delivering the policy
vision.
Phase I Oct - Dec 2001
Phase II Apr - May 2002
Phase III May - Aug 2003
The evaluation consisted of: interviews with a
range of staff; interviews with customers claiming both Jobseeker's
Allowance (JSA) and non-JSA benefits; and non-participative observations.
The research was carried out in up to eight case study areas, six
of which were visited in all three phases.
Key Findings
First Contact
Customers initiate the new claim process by telephoning a Jobcentre
Plus Contact Centre. In identifying the appropriate benefit for
customers to claim, arranging work-focused meetings and dispatching
claim forms, the First Contact process was largely working well.
It appeared, however, that First Contact was less effective in promoting
the work-focused element of Jobcentre Plus. Discussions about work
and explanations about the purpose of work focused interviews were
limited, even among customers claiming Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA).
Meetings with Financial
Assessors
Benefit services are delivered through Financial Assessors (FAs),
who check customer's completed claim forms and supporting evidence,
and respond to any benefit queries. By Phase III of the research,
FAs had progressed from just checking benefit claims to delivering
a more comprehensive service. There was an increase in FAs knowledge
and confidence in giving customers information and advice on other
entitlements, such as New Tax Credits. However, customers were still
generally not being informed about how much benefit they could expect
to receive.
Meetings with Personal
Advisers
As a condition of benefit receipt customers are required to attend
a work focused interview with a Personal Adviser (PA). Across all
customer groups work was discussed, but the extent to which these
discussions were meaningful and substantive varied greatly.
There was no apparent progress in the extent to
which PAs engaged non-JSA customers in discussions about work. Overall,
discussions about work were still relatively low-key and the extent
of discussion was largely dependent on the interest and motivation
of the customer. PAs were not challenging customers' own assessments
of their ability to work or encouraging seemingly less interested
customers in discussions about work. With JSA customers the depth
of discussion about work and the extent to which JSA customers were
actively involved in drawing up their Jobseeker's Agreement also
varied. This depended on the customers' own willingness to participate
and desire to find a job, and the extent to which PAs asked further
questions and probed for more information from less responsive customers.
PAs had become more knowledgeable and confident
in giving customers information about the help and support available,
such as New Deals or training courses. However, the main criticism
from customers was that the information they received was insufficient
to enable them to determine whether it was something that would
be appropriate for them.
Conclusions
Where progress had occurred, this was largely as a result of increased
individual staff knowledge and confidence gained 'on the job'. A
number of barriers appeared to hinder the delivery of the Jobcentre
Plus vision including: staff preconceptions as to the job readiness
of some non-JSA customers; a lack of confidence in promoting a work
focus to some non-JSA customers; insufficient knowledge across all
the of the Jobcentre Plus benefits; and constraints on staff time.
Sponsor: Department
for Work and Pensions
Project team: Yvette Hartfree,
Karen Kellard, Liz
Sutton, Katherine Hill
Dates: October 2001 - June 2004
Publications
Davies, V., Hartfree, Y., Kellard, K. and
Taylor, J. (2004), 'Delivering
the Jobcentre Plus Vision: Qualitative research with staff and customers
(Phase 3)', DWP Research Report 222.
Related Publications
Taylor, J. and Hartfree, Y (2003), Deferrals in Jobcentre Plus: Research into Staff Understanding and Application of Deferral Guidance for Non-Jobseeker's Allowance Customers (2003), DWP In-House Research Report 126.
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