The following details have been supplied by PCS DWP Group Executive Committee:

The Group Executive Committee (GEC) continues to fight hard for additional, permanent jobs in all arms of DWP.

A recent meeting with Senior Managers from Operations, Planning and Performance Directorate (OPPD) confirmed that progress is being made on numbers of staff. This briefing is an update for branch reps.

Recruitment in 2017/2018

DWP is planning to recruit more than 5,000 staff in 2017/18. Even once figures of forecast leavers are taken into account, this represents thousands of new jobs in DWP. The impact of the arguments put forward by GEC negotiators in areas such as Universal Credit, Work Services and the former Benefit Services Directorates are quite clear. In UC, for example, the forecast model used to predict the number of staff needed has been altered so that UC staff are being recruited six months earlier than DWP estimates they will be needed.

The GEC are very clear that this is not enough, when so many high profile initiatives are being rolled out. On top of expanding workloads in ESA, PIP and UC, and the demand, by the government to have more claimants in Jobcentres more of the time, there is also the impact of the People and Locations Programme to consider. This is not truly reflected in the figures above because at the moment, the proposals are just proposals and are still subject to consultation. Further information on the staffing implications will be released as we receive it.

Four hundred apprentices are likely to be recruited outside of Fair and Open Competition. This means they cannot be made permanent, however they can apply for other DWP roles. They can join the union and branches can ensure locally that they are being supported with time off and training in order to successfully apply for DWP vacancies in the area.

Progression and waiting lists

The last year has seen opportunities for promotion within DWP and the same will be true in 2017/18. One of the consequences has been the creation of waiting lists of people who have been successful in their application for promotion but who have not been offered the role for which they applied. OPPD managers in DWP have been candid that having 3,000 staff on more than 300 waiting lists is not helpful to staff or managers – and that the complexity of this picture may mean cases where people have not been offered posts who should have been.

From DWP’s point of view, drawing staff from a waiting list costs half as much as a new exercise. New cross-Operations recruitment exercises will iron this problem out gradually, so that there will be one waiting list per grade per area. With the exception of specialist posts, DWP Operations managers will then seek to exhaust this list before additional recruitment or progression exercises are launched.

This will increase the chances for staff who are successful, but who are not offered the post for which they initially applied. In the interim, senior OPPD managers have committed to looking into examples raised by PCS where waiting lists have not been exhausted and new progression exercises are being launched. We have already raised Blackpool as an example.

A recent “brigaded” progression exercise, involving 700 posts from HEO to G7, across DWP Operations, deployed the new strength-based and competency based application techniques. This has improved the number of staff successfully getting through the sifting of paper applications from 33% of those applying to 50% of those applying. This is welcome. Cumulative with the approach of cross-Ops progression, it improves the chances of promotion for our staff, before posts are advertised externally.

Attrition rates

Average attrition across DWP is around 7%. OPPD managers maintain this is a “normal” figure for a period of high recruitment. For UC and CMG, however, attrition is over 10% year-to-date, while Work Services, which has also seen huge recruitment, is below 6%.

Branches have provided examples from different parts of DWP – but particularly UC – which suggest people are leaving because of workplace stress. The GEC has reiterated to managers in problem parts of DWP – such as UC – that they can and should run exit interviews, to determine why people are leaving. Some will be standard retirement or alternative employment, but if there are issues with workplace stress, then exit interviews are a good way to identify this.

Fixed Term Contracts

The number of staff on Fixed Term Appointment (FTAs) has been steadily reducing. Last year, thousands of staff taken on temporarily were converted to permanency. Many of these were union members and the GEC has produced targeted recruitment material to assist branches in recruiting new members.

There continue to be significant numbers of FTA staff in Benefit Services (now Working Age Directorate and Disability Directorate), in CMG and in Universal Credit, with other Directorates numbering less than a hundred each. Senior managers are now indicating that permanency will depend on decisions in respect of the People and Locations Programme, and on the decision on rollout in Universal Credit Full Service, with the implications for workload in legacy benefits.

Other issues raised

Delays to release: Examples from Universal Credit in Blackpool were discussed and managers promised to examine this issue. Allegedly this was a national UC decision but there has not been consultation on this. If there are other cases of staff being delayed release, these should be challenged locally in the first instance and then escalated.

People and Locations: DWP anticipate that external recruitment will not prevent opportunities for people in buildings under threat to be moved to other buildings. They cannot give assurances while proposals are still subject to consultation, but they are trying to build this potential into their plans. OPPD managers have expressed the view that FTAs at some locations will be released to create the space to move staff affected by a divestment. This is not a view supported by the GEC. Recruiting and training FTA staff comes with a cost, and the volume of work is not changing enough to justify the release of FTA staff. More information on this will be released as it is received. DWP also continues to liaise with Other Government Departments.

Widget counting: OPPD has a remit to look at how performance is monitored across DWP. The view of senior managers is that there continue to be many things which DWP counts just for the sake of counting, rather than because they provide insight into how the business works. They are trying to cut down on this and will provide additional information over the next few months.