Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have made to address concerns in the social care sector about the closure of care homes caused by the loss of staff from overseas as a result of restrictions on staff bringing their families to the UK.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the importance of international recruitment to ensure we have sufficient supply of care workers and senior care workers. This is why the Government decided to add care workers to the Shortage Occupation List in February 2022, in response to unprecedented workforce pressures.
On 4 December 2023, the Secretary of State for the Home Department announced a five-point plan to curb legal net migration, including removing the right for care workers and senior care workers to bring dependants to the United Kingdom and restricting access to the route to employers who are regulated by the Care Quality Commission. The Secretary of State for the Home Department has committed to put estimates of the impact of these announcements in the House of Commons Library. This will be set out in due course.
The Government is committed to building a sustainable adult social care workforce. As part of this, international recruitment has bolstered the workforce with 101,000 out of country visa grants for care workers and senior care workers to the year ending September 2023. While at home, we are backing domestic recruitment with our National Recruitment Campaign, working with the Department for Work and Pensions to promote adult social care careers, and funding sector partner to support employers and commissioners to improve recruitment and retention.
Asked by: Hannah Bardell (Scottish National Party - Livingston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether staff in his Department are provided training on trauma (a) awareness and (b) prevention procedures.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The DWP is committed to becoming a more Trauma Informed organisation. We have a dedicated programme which will integrate the six key pillars of the approach as defined by the Office for Health Improvements and Disparities (December, 2022) which are safety, trustworthiness, choice, empowerment, collaboration and cultural consideration. Our programme looks at these six pillars within the contexts of application to our colleagues, our customers, our culture, and the context of our interaction- whether that is a physical, telephony, digital or postal interaction. There is significant emphasis within the design of the programme regarding what more can be done to prevent trauma and re-traumatisation for both our customers and our colleagues. We are learning from best practice demonstrated by organisations such as NHS Education Scotland, Work Services Australia and the Wales ACES Hub to shape the future prioritisation of this work
With response to the query around training, we have begun the roll out of an introductory module into the Trauma Informed Approach for all colleagues which is the first in a suite of products and a long-term commitment to upskilling around the topic of trauma. This learning will be complimented by products and initiatives that will enable the skills learned to be embedded into the business-as-usual operations of the whole department.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Government Response to the Work Capability Assessment: Activities and Descriptors Consultation, published on 22 November 2023, what steps his Department plans to take to help increase the availability of home working jobs for people with health conditions affecting their mobility.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
There has been a significant increase in the availability of hybrid and home working opportunities, and there is better employer understanding of the needs of disabled people and people with health conditions, since the WCA criteria were last updated in 2011.
Our Jobcentre staff will continue to work with all employers to help ensure they are making all opportunities accessible to realise the talents and potential of people with health conditions and disabilities.
Our expanded employment and health offer will provide integrated and tailored support to disabled people to help them to move claimants closer to work and help them to access these opportunities within the labour market.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to require his frontline officials to (a) assess the potential (i) loneliness and (ii) social isolation when interacting with people who may be vulnerable to those challenges and (b) signpost those people to (A) social prescribing services and (B) other civil society engagement opportunities.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All new and existing staff who work with customers are trained to consider a person's circumstances and to tailor support according to their individual needs. Staff complete training that covers a wide range of claimant circumstances, including how to recognise the signs of loneliness and social isolation.
Staff also have access to information on services and support available in their local area for claimants who are vulnerable or who have complex needs, and can signpost to relevant organisations, suggest social prescribing options, or other relevant opportunities such as volunteering.
We’re committed to improving and expanding this Jobcentre Plus signposting, as outlined in Department for Culture, Media and Sport's fourth Tackling Loneliness Report.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many vacancies there are within his Department; and what recent estimate he has made of the number of full-time equivalent staff that will be employed by his Department by the end of 2024.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP have ambitious recruitment plans over 2023/24 and are filling approximately 4,400 posts a quarter, through internal and external recruitment to manage attrition and also grow key priority areas to respond to changing demand and commitments.
DWP has yet to sign off workforce plans for the period to end 2024, which forms part of the financial year 2024/25. DWP awaits further guidance from HMT on future Civil Service headcount levels following the chancellor’s announcement in October 2023, and will then be in a position to give an accurate estimate of FTEs employed in DWP by end 2024.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many work coaches were in post at the end of October (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The table below shows the total number of Work Coach Full Time Equivalents (FTE) in Jobcentres (JC) at the end of October for 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Work Coach | ABM FTE | ||
Oct-21 | Oct-22 | Oct-23 | |
JC Work Coach excl DEA - Full Service | 17,360 | 12,580 | 12,850 |
JC Work Coach excl DEA - Existing Benefits | 2,320 | 1,870 | 1,300 |
Total | 19,680 | 14,440 | 14,150 |
Source: DWP’s internal Activity Based Model (ABM)
Notes:
|
|
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times on Access to Work applications.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Access to Work has continued to improve wait times for customers applying to the service. During the summer wait times have been halved.
Access to Work has received a significant increase in demand and applications over the last year. To address this and to reduce waiting times we have recruited new staff in the year and continue to redeploy staff to reduce decision times. Our latest cohort of redeployed staff started in November. We are now consolidating their learning, which will grow capability and build additional available resource into the next quarter.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether senior officials from his Department have travelled to China since January 2019.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information required is not retained by Grade. However, the total number of DWP staff that have travelled to China and/or Hong Kong from January 2019 to present is 151, with 2 of these being official business trips.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether levels of pay for administrative staff in his Department at (a) AA, (b) AO and (c) EO grades are (i) below, (ii) equivalent to or (iii) higher than the Living Wage Foundation's real living wage.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The following is based on the UK’s real living wage rates of £12.00 per hour and £13.15 per hour for London as of 14 November 2023.
Pay levels for DWP administrative staff are as follows:
a) All AA employees in Inner London are below the London rate.
b) Some AO employees on Legacy Terms and Conditions in Inner London are below the London rate. All other AO employees are above these rates.
c) All EO employees are above these rates.
This Government is committed to paying people a decent living wage, which is being addressed through the statutory National Living Wage. The real living wage is not a statutory requirement unlike the National Living Wage, which applies to those aged 23 and over. From 1 April 2023, the National Living Wage increased to £10.42 an hour. All DWP employees are paid above this rate.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many specialist Disability Employment Advisers are employed in youth hubs to support participants with a health condition.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Activity | ABM FTE |
(UCJC) Disability Employment Adviser | 750 |
Source: Derived from the department’s Activity Based Model (ABM).
|
|