Jobcentre Plus Pathfinder Service Delivery Vision
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Jobcentre Plus
Pathfinder Service Delivery Vision
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Introduction
Unemployment is at its lowest level for over 25 years and there are more
people in work than ever before. But there is more to be done.
Even within a stable and successful economy, there the people they need to ensure their success
are many individuals who need further help to move and prosperity.
into work. Jobcentre Plus aims to provide that In meeting these challenges, we aim to draw on our
support both to benefit the individuals concerned and recent experience of the New Deals and other
to support the Government’s wider objectives of programmes to develop a service with greater
sustained economic growth, higher productivity and flexibility, more use of personal advisers and a focus
low inflation. Equally importantly, Jobcentre Plus on tailoring our services to meet the needs of both
needs to support our employer customers to recruit individuals and employers.
In particular, we want to support and encourage a far wider range of
customers, such as lone parents and disabled people, to see work as
an attainable and realistic objective against a background in which:
- there are 900,000 lone parents on income support,
and children from lone parent households still make up
almost half of all children growing up in poverty.
- there are still around 3.5 million people claiming
benefits either as lone parents or because they are ill
or disabled, 1 million of whom have said that they
would like to work.
- disabled people are seven times more likely to
be out of work and claiming benefits than non-
disabled people.
- there are over 2 million households where no
one works.
- there are just under 1 million people unemployed and
around 1 million unfilled vacancies.
1
Jobcentre Plus
Jobcentre Plus is at the heart of the Jobcentre Plus will introduce, for the first time, a
Government’s strategy for tackling real work-focus for customers claiming benefits
these issues. It will change other than Jobseeker’s Allowance. That labour
dramatically the way we help people market focus will be present in all of our dealings
of working age, moving from a with our clients. Everyone entering the benefits
passive system to an active service system will be assigned a personal adviser as an
helping them to become more ongoing source of advice who can help them find
independent and to move from work or appropriate support such as training
welfare to work. This work-focus will or childcare.
enable us to develop a new Jobcentre Plus will also deliver a new employer-
approach where instead of benefits focus based on a demand led service. Ensuring that
being a safety net they become a prospective recruits have the skills and attitudes
lever and support system for work; which employers are seeking will be central to the
full or part-time, permanent or service we offer. Jobcentre Plus will operate
temporary. strategically to respond to the different requirements
of employers in different sectors and areas of the
country. It will also support and advise them in order
that they can benefit from greater flexibility in the
forms of employment they offer.
The first stage in the creation of Jobcentre Plus will
be the introduction of a very different and improved
service in some 50 Pathfinder offices beginning
this October. These offices will lead the way in
demonstrating the new service, culture and
organisation of Jobcentre Plus.
Outside the Pathfinders, we will also be
progressively extending work-focused interviews
for all people of working age making a new or
repeat claim to a working age benefit. These
interviews will begin, also in October, in some
50 further offices in addition to the Pathfinders.
2Our vision for Jobcentre Plus
Our vision for Jobcentre Plus is that it We will build on the existing successes of the
should provide: Benefits Agency and the Employment Service by
- a work-focus to the benefits system, for introducing more personal advisers with greater
everyone using our services. flexibility; more contact to keep people in touch with
- a dedicated service to enable employers the labour market; more focus on meeting
to fill their vacancies quickly and employers’ needs and more emphasis on benefit
successfully.
integrity and accuracy.
- swift, secure and professional access to
benefits for those entitled to them; Our service will treat each customer as an individual
- a much better service for everyone who rather than as one of a group narrowly defined by
needs our help. benefit entitlement. Our aim will be to tailor what we
- active help from personal advisers to help can offer to what each individual needs. For
people get and keep work. instance, we will take care to treat disabled people
- a better working environment for our staff, according to their individual circumstances. As a
which will be safe and professional. further example, parents who want to return to the
- greatly improved IT, accommodation and workplace will be offered guidance to identify and
support services to deliver an efficient and relate the skills they have acquired as parents to
effective service.
those required by employers.
Our culture will be driven by the clear objective set For employers we will provide a much more
by Ministers of "work for those who can, support for outcome-focused and professional service based
those who cannot." on improved communications, dedicated vacancy
service managers and local account managers,
This clear work-focus will be apparent in everything
building on the foundations already laid in the
we do for our customers. We will emphasise to
New Deal and more widely.
them the link between benefits and work, with their
associated rights and responsibilities. This will We will deliver our services through the full range of
include a determination to reduce fraud and channels offered by modern technology, including
irregularity by ensuring that only those entitled to the internet, touch screen terminals and customer
benefits receive them. service centres.
But we will also be about a much higher quality of
customer service.
3Our services to employers
Employers will be central to the
new Jobcentre Plus strategy.
We will want to work with
employers to fill their vacancies
quickly and with the most
appropriate people so that
Jobcentre Plus becomes the
service of choice for them.
We aim to offer employers in the Pathfinders a more In more detail:
effective service which responds to their requirements. - We will build on the New Deals to establish better
We will do this by working with them to understand relationships with employers and work together to
their needs and the demands of the different industry enhance our understanding of their business.
sectors in which they operate. This means co-operating
- We will use local vacancy service managers – and in
with employers, the local Learning and Skills Councils
the future newly created local account managers for
and other local training and education partners to
employers - to provide a high quality and individually
customise training to meet industry and local
tailored service at a local level.
employer needs.
- Our communications with employers, including
We also aim to be better at matching the people
through our Employer Direct customer service
without jobs to the jobs without people. This will
centres, will maintain a consistently high standard
involve us working with individuals to prepare them
nationwide.
for the needs of employers and also working with
employers to ensure they can make use of the - We will aim to provide high class interview facilities
diverse range of labour available to them. for employers in our Pathfinder offices to help them
fill their vacancies.
- We will strive to involve employers in designing our
future services and will ensure we deliver services
and products that meet the needs of employers and
clients alike.
We will also increasingly look to employers to give us
feedback about the standards of our service and
whether it meets their expectations.
4Our service to individual customers
Building on the New Deals, the Pathfinders will deliver a new work-focused
service to all of our customers of working age. We will extend our range
of help and support to those who have too often been neglected, such as
carers, people with disabilities, or lone parents.
Our emphasis will be on looking for every opportunity to
help our customers to work towards independence. In
doing so, we will treat each individual according to his
or her circumstances and with the sensitivity that he or
she deserves.
At the same time, for those who need long term support,
we will aim to provide the highest possible quality of
service and support. We will ensure that our customers
receive the benefits to which they are entitled and are
aware of the support available to them from us and from
our partners in the community.
5Our service to individual customers
continued
We are still finalising the way in which we will deliver our services in the
Pathfinders day to day. But broadly what we envisage is this:
- We will encourage our customers to make their together, we can do to help them move to or
first contact with us by telephone. We will take towards a job. Where appropriate, the personal
their personal details immediately and assess them adviser will be able to refer the customer to other
in terms of their job readiness. If we think that they more specialist organisations who can provide
are job ready, we will wherever possible submit specific help (such as healthcare or training). The
them to a job. That will apply to all of our personal adviser will also be able to offer advice
customers; not just those claiming Jobseeker’s about how much better off the customer could be
Allowance. We will assign each customer a in work. At the end of the interview, the customer
personal adviser and arrange a first meeting will see the benefit expert again and will be given
between the customer and their adviser. By the as much certainty as possible about what benefit
end of the conversation, the customer will have a they will receive and when; or about what needs to
confirmed interview with a personal adviser, will happen next to process their claim.
be sent all the relevant claims forms to complete
- The personal adviser will arrange further interviews
and will be given a number to call for help if they
with the customer by agreement between them,
need further assistance in advance of their
other than for customers claiming Jobseeker’s
personal adviser interview.
Allowance who still need to come in fortnightly. We
- When the customer arrives for their initial interview will encourage customers to use the services of
with their personal adviser they will be seen first by their personal adviser on a regular basis in their
a benefit expert who will check that their claim progress towards independence. This will include
form has been fully completed and that they have ongoing advice on vacancies, training, childcare,
brought with them all the necessary supporting and in-work incomes. Where appropriate the
documents. After offering them some form of personal adviser will also be the routeway into all of
refreshment they will then be introduced to their the New Deal programmes.
personal adviser.
- We will continue to make checks on all benefit
- The customer will meet with their personal adviser claims at the time of their first contact and
to discuss their personal circumstances and throughout the lifetime of the claim to ensure that
ambitions. The discussion will have a clear focus only the right people are receiving the right money
on work and the aim will be to agree on what, to which they are entitled.
6Our people
Jobcentre Plus will, of course, require
changes from our staff, but in return
will offer them new and exciting
opportunities. The Pathfinders will
lead the way in introducing changes
in the way we work and interact
with customers, building on the
experience of the ONE pilots and the
New Deals.
In particular, we aim to create a wide range of We will create a culture in which equality of
different jobs in which staff will have far more contact opportunity is built into the heart of how the new
with our customers. We will remove barriers so that Agency operates.
better support is given to staff. Our aim is to have:
We will work constructively with our trade unions in
- less paperwork. developing the new Agency.
- more customer contact. We will support our people in carrying out their jobs
by introducing:
- more use of the telephone to talk to customers.
- a single management structure.
- more automation of routine tasks.
- targets which balance labour market and benefit
- a system by which we capture information only
priorities, clearly translated from the Government’s
once; and
Public Service Agreement and Service Delivery
- greater personalised, intensive support when
Agreement targets.
advisers see customers face to face, offering
- better technology for managing information,
active assistance in jobsearch and more
including ‘better off’ calculators and access to a
responsiveness to help them access the support
wider range of information on jobs and training.
they need.
We will give all of our people in the Pathfinders
additional support and training (including E-learning)
to help them meet the needs of our new culture
and to enable them to do their jobs effectively.
7Our offices
We need to change our offices to reflect the very different culture of
Jobcentre Plus and so that our customers can receive a very different
service from our staff.
We aim to be immediately and easily accessible to all Our offices will look and feel work-focused – with
of our customers, including through increased use of touch screen Jobpoint terminals providing access to
the telephone and by providing named contacts. job vacancies. They will be designed to cater for the
different range of clients using our service including
We will present a welcoming and professional image
lone parents, people with disabilities and carers.
in every office. Customers will be seen, wherever
possible, in a predominantly open plan environment, We also aim to provide a wider range of facilities for
though separate facilities will be available if more our customers, wherever space allows, such as
privacy is required. We will, at the same time, seek to toilets and children’s play areas.
ensure our offices are as safe as possible for both our
staff and our customers.
8Our partners
The creation of Jobcentre Plus brings two existing partners (much of the
Benefits Agency and all of the Employment Service) into one organisation.
But we still need to work with a wide range of other partners to help us
reach our vision. We aim to build strategic partnerships with major
organisations at a national level, plus local partnerships with a very wide
range of groups in each locality. These will include partners from the
public, private and voluntary sector.
We will harness existing local networks of
community-based partnerships to meet our
customers’ needs. This will build on our existing
New Deal and other welfare partnerships,
making best use of a network of specialist skills.
Within central and local Government we aim
to develop close partnerships with other
organisations with whom our customers
have contact:
- Local Authorities in respect of Housing
and Council Tax Benefit and social and
neighbourhood services.
- the Connexions Service in respect of
young people.
- the Inland Revenue in respect of tax credits;
- the Pension Service in dealing with pensioners
and pension forecasts; and
- other DSS services such as the Appeals
Service and the Child Support Agency.
We will use these partnerships to share
information, where appropriate, on our customers
to avoid duplication and to improve security.
9Jobcentre Plus Pathfinder sites
City/town Number of Pathfinders
Greenock 1
Port Glasgow 1
Livingston 1
Aberdeen 3
Bridgend 2
Maesteg 1
Pyle 1
Porthcawl 1
South West Birmingham 3
Telford 2
Madeley 1
Wellington 1
Wallasey 1
Hoylake 1
Blackburn 2
Darwen 1
Manchester Openshaw 2
Halifax 2
Huddersfield 2
Dewsbury 2
Todmorden 1
Derby 4
Gateshead 2
Felling 1
Blaydon 1
Birtley 1
Exmouth 1
Honiton 1
Tiverton 1
Sidmouth 1
Axminster 1
Chelmsford 2
Southend 1
Rayleigh 1
Willesden 1
Wembley 1
Kilburn 1
Harlesden 1
Winchester 1
Streatham 1
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