Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether customers assigned to the Child Maintenance Service specialist caseworker team are allocated a named caseworker; and, if so, what arrangements are in place to provide continuity when that caseworker is unavailable.

Safeguarding is of the utmost importance and is embedded throughout the day-to-day delivery of the Child Maintenance Service (CMS). All CMS colleagues are required to complete mandatory domestic abuse training every two years. In the intervening year, colleagues complete a knowledge check, and refresher training is provided where needed. This ensures they maintain the right skills and knowledge when dealing with customers who have experienced domestic abuse. CMS has collaborated with specialist charities and stakeholder organisations to modernise its domestic abuse training so caseworkers can better recognise coercive and controlling behaviour and signpost parents appropriately. The Department continues to work with these stakeholders to review and enhance its guidance, training and signposting resources.

All CMS staff know to refer certain cases to the dedicated Specialist Caseworker team, which provides targeted support for customers experiencing the most challenging or complex domestic abuse situations.

Once the CMS has moved a customer’s case into the Specialist Caseworker team, all inbound calls from that customer will route directly to that team. If the automated call routing cannot identify the customer, their call will go to a different team, but all caseworkers are trained to identify this and will reroute the call to the Specialist Caseworker Team.

CMS has strengthened telephony quality assurance arrangements and provided targeted training for team leaders on service standards, coaching and feedback. These measures are designed to support consistent service delivery and help ensure customers requiring specialist support are identified and transferred appropriately.