The House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee published its second report into the DWP Job Centre network on 8 November 2016. This follows their previous report in January 2014. The Committee continues to refer to Jobcentre Plus rather than Work Services Directorate, but the report is focused on the work done in Job Centres. The full report entitled The Future of Jobcentre Plus PCS is available to read via this link http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmworpen/57/57.pdf
PCS was invited to submit evidence to the committee and has been quoted several times in the report and several recommendations of the committee were influenced by our comments.
The committee chair Frank Field said:
“The government is basing the future for the new JCP advisers on too narrow a financial and administrative base. It is in danger of missing this opportunity to create a world-class first in respect of its job advisers and a world-leading employment support programme for disabled people by not thinking through demands made on what is the same old system financed by a much reduced budget”
The committee acknowledged the scaling down of contracted out provision such as the Work Programme means that the success of the employment support that the Department offers will largely depend on Work Coaches and raised several concerns that echo the concerns of PCS and WSD reps:
•    The conflict of Work Coaches having to provide positive coaching while at the same time having to administer sanctions.
•    Generalist Work Coaches replacing Specialists, leading to them having to refer to more ‘specialist external support’.
•    Impacting and increasing pressure on appointment times.

Evidence submitted by PCS
The focus on conditionality has led to claimants viewing of WSD staff as ‘enforcers’ of the benefit regime. This has resulted in many cases of staff being perceived as the enemy, particularly by vulnerable claimants with complex needs. We also maintained that the generalist model places ‘considerable expectations’ on Work Coaches to have a very wide and detailed understanding of the capacity for work of claimants.

TDA
Tony Wilson of the Learning and Work Institute raised concerns about the need for ‘clear directions centrally about the expectations of managers’. PCS shared this concern reporting significant numbers of inexperienced and untrained managers with a large proportion of managers on Temporary/Higher duties Allowance (TDA).This problem was recognised by MPs.

Co-location
Whilst some organisations argued the benefits of co-location, MPs shared PCS’ belief that the benefits of co-location have been overstated and that the DWP need to focus on integrating the delivery of services rather than just the geographical co-location.

Staffing Pressures
The committee heard that the department planned to recruit 3,000 new Work Coaches over 2016-17 and raised doubts whether this would be sufficient to meet demand as, worryingly, they found the Department unclear ’what projection they are using to predict future claimant demand’. The Department faced calls to undertake a more thorough analysis of staffing levels required to meet current and future claimant demand with PCS stating that the ‘DWP would need to invest in a significant increase in resources to ensure claimants receive sufficient time and support’. It was also noted that the possible extension of opening hours may result in additional staffing pressure.

Recommendations
The select committee made several recommendations, many of which echo the concerns that PCS has been raising. These include:
•    The DWP to set out how it will support Work Coaches to strike the right balance between coaching and conditionality
•    The Department assess future staffing levels setting out a clearer framework for assessing the volume and complexity of demand
•    Surveying claimants with regards to the extent they consider Claimant Commitments personalised.
•    Allowing some Work Coaches to specialise in directly helping smaller numbers of specific claimant groups with complex needs.
•    Creating a specialist Work Coach role graded at HEO.
•    The DWP set out its expectations of district managers in delivering change and ensure that they are equipped to do this  – with further recommendation that the Department commission an independent assessment of district managers’ ability to deliver large scale change
•    To promote and increase the Flexible Support Fund
•    Districts to be allocated their own health budgets for the period of this spending Review. With the expectation that this will be spent on developing partnerships to address health related barriers to work.
•    The Department set an evaluation framework that local areas can use to test different approaches to local delivery before moving to fuller devolution of employment services.

With regards to the Work and Health programme the committee recommended
•    The department to clarify whether and how mandation will apply to disabled people and those with health conditions on JSA or UC.
•    That specialist providers should be prominently represented and not made financially vulnerable through their participation.

The committee also outlined recommendations for building confidence in WSD.

PCS Response
PCS DWP Group welcome much of this parliamentary report and the opportunity to put forward our members concerns. It is reassuring that the committee shared many of our concerns and made recommendations based on them. Inevitably though there are also aspects of the report that we believe should have gone further, particularly in respect of the sanctions and conditionality regime.

PCS is clear that many of the problems identified by the report are as the result of years of austerity budgets and poor policy designed to penalise people claiming benefits rather than supporting them. Continued cuts have meant that there is less money and less staff available to support working age claimants. PCS is also clear that there cannot be improvements leading to sustainable employment for claimants without more supportive policies and an improved working culture.

PCS will continue to raise these issues with the Department and MPs to ensure better conditions for all members in the Job Centre network and for the claimants they serve.