15
Acknowledged
The Department’s employment support is mainly accessible to people on benefits, and they will usually...
Conclusion
The Department’s employment support is mainly accessible to people on benefits, and they will usually be referred to that support via their jobcentre work coaches. Work coaches have considerable discretion to tailor their support to claimants, including discretion around: the frequency and form of their meetings with claimants; the support to which they refer or signpost claimants; and the expectations that are set in the claimant’s commitments. To fulfil their role effectively, work coaches need a range of skills and knowledge to match claimants to the right employment support package.42 The Department told us that personal engagement between the work coach and the claimant is very important to ensuring that work coaches understand what a person needs and can direct them to the right provision.43 The expectations of a work coach can even include checking a claimants business idea and referring them to a mentor for the New Enterprise Allowance scheme, which can provide money and support to help people start their own business.44
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges the committee's observations about work coach discretion and skills, noting ongoing customer satisfaction surveys and existing work to evaluate work coach effectiveness and explore wider support offers.
Government Response
Acknowledged
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
7.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendations. Target implementation date: December 2022 7.2 The department systematically gathers feedback on customer satisfaction through its Customer Experience Survey, which it carries out annually. This measures customers’ satisfaction and experiences with the services of the department. 7.3 COVID-19 prevented the completion of fieldwork for the 2019-20 Customer Experience Survey, meaning there is no annual level data to report for that year. The 2020-21 Customer Experience Survey report is near completion, and the department is expecting the results to be published in Spring 2022. 7.4 Published results from previous Customer Experience Surveys have shown around seven in ten claimants who used Jobcentre Plus services reported that they were satisfied with the help to find employment. 7.5 As reported in the department’s 2020-21 Annual Report and Accounts, 89% of benefit customers said they were satisfied with the department’s services based on the first three quarters of the Customer Experience Survey. 7.6 The department has work underway, in terms of further evaluation of how effectively work coaches provide employment support. Part of the focus of this work is on developing the evidence base on how the core regime is and has been delivered during the COVID-19 pandemic. The department also has plans to explore the wider support offer through programmes introduced as part of the Plan for Jobs ‘as a system’ to inform the department’s future delivery strategy.
Source
Committee
Public Accounts Committee
Inquiry
DWP Employment Support
Report
Fifteenth Report - DWP Employment support
08 Sep 2021
HC 177
Addressee Bodies
HM Treasury
Timeline
Recommendation age
4.9 yrs
Report published
08 Sep 2021