Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure there are specialist staff with trauma training in job centres.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Training and guidance is provided for all staff working with different vulnerable groups. This includes developing the skills they need to support and communicate with a diverse range of customers to provide a tailored service that recognises those with complex needs.
Jobcentre staff have access to information on services and support available in their local area for vulnerable claimants and will signpost claimants to national and local organisations who provide specialist support. This has included Trauma Informed Approach training that many staff have now completed. Nationally DWP works with J9, a domestic abuse awareness national initiative.
Work Coaches will tailor conditionality, setting requirements based on what is reasonable for the individual’s circumstances. A claimant’s work search and availability requirements can be switched off for an agreed period of time, and other work-related requirements can be lifted where appropriate. This includes where the claimant has suffered domestic violence and abuse, or periods where a child in their care is suffering distress due to experiencing or witnessing violence or abuse.
To assist identification and claimant support, each Jobcentre Plus site has a complex needs toolkit in place. These are maintained and reviewed locally and contain a named single point of contact for areas such as Homelessness, Care leavers and Prison leavers. Disability Employment Advisers (DEAs) are also on site to support when needed.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proactive steps Jobcentre Plus is taking to ensure claimants are in receipt of their full entitlement.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department works hard to ensure that people are in receipt of their full entitlement, communicating with the public about benefits through paid advertising, stakeholder and employer engagement and no cost campaigns to help people understand their entitlement and the support we can provide as a safety net and in times of need.
During the pandemic this has been of particular importance. We increased the frequency of our stakeholder engagement to effectively convey the rapidly changing environment particularly as many people needed to claim benefits for the first time. We have made additional use of digital media such as YouTube videos, particularly British Sign Language videos to widely promote DWP benefits.
DWP staff in Jobcentres provide support and advice about entitlement to benefits and will signpost citizens to appropriate information to help them. The Department provides telephone service lines that citizens can call to make their claims to benefit and to operate their claims as well as a visiting service which can help vulnerable customers with their claims. Jobcentres have internet terminals for use by the public, and staff will signpost citizens to other community resources (libraries and Citizens Advice) which can also provide advice and internet access points.
The Government’s website, GOV.UK provides guidance on individual’s rights and entitlements to benefits in the UK. In particular, the website provides links to independent benefits calculators that can be used to find out what benefits an individual could get, how to claim and how these benefits will be affected if an individual starts work.
https://www.gov.uk/benefits-calculators
The independent benefits calculators we endorse are intended to provide useful estimations of what people could be entitled to in certain circumstances, based on the information that is entered on the calculators themselves.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the likely levels of discrepancy between the (a) skills and geographic location of people looking for work and (b) needs of employers (i) within sectors, (ii) between sectors and (iii) across the whole economy, following the lifting of covid-19 public health measures.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The department undertakes labour market analysis through numerous means to help determine immediate and longer-term skills needs, such as:
We last ran the ESS in 2019, which captured employer reported skill shortages by sector, occupation, location, and skill-type. The ESS showed that construction and manufacturing employers were among the sectors that struggled the most to find applicants with the right skills, experience, or qualifications. The ESS also showed that, within most sectors, employers found it the most difficult to find adequately skilled applicants for occupations classed as ‘skilled trades’.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for collecting data on job vacancies, which is a measure of employer skill needs. Since the relaxing of COVID-19 restrictions, official statistics show that the largest proportional increases in vacancies between May-July 2021 to August-October 2021 occurred in the construction sector, transport and storage sector, and manufacturing sector. Further information can be found here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/jobsandvacanciesintheuk/november2021.
We are also working to make the skills system more responsive to employer need.
The ‘Skills for Jobs’ White Paper launched earlier this year set out our aims to build on the success of our flagship apprenticeships programme by putting employers at the heart of the system so that education and training provision meets their needs. By 2030, almost all technical courses will be aligned to employer-led standards, ensuring that the education and training people receive are directly linked to the skills needed for jobs.
The white paper also set out our plans for local areas to be able to plan what skills they need, with local employers leading the process. We are therefore introducing Local Skills Improvement Plans, starting in a small number of trailblazer areas in 2021 led by established employer representative organisations. The first eight were announced in July 2021. The Plans will bring together colleges and other providers, employers, Job Centres Plus, and other local organisations to identify skills needs and the capacity the area has to deliver them.
Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, the government has provided a total of £352 billion to support the economy. This includes the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) Plan for Jobs programmes such as Restart and Kickstart, alongside other measures to boost work search activity, skills and apprenticeships.
As a result, latest figures confirm we are now above pre-COVID-19 outbreak levels of employees on payroll.
We are working across government and across the country to identify sectors with immediate or growing demand and are implementing a range of initiatives to ensure that upskilling programmes meet this demand.
This work includes the sector-based work academy programme (SWAP) where Jobcentre staff work with local employers and tailor training and support packages to help claimants fill local vacancies. DWP is increasing the number of SWAP opportunities to 80,000 over the current financial year 2021/22.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that Jobcentre Plus clients who need interpreters are provided with interpreting services at appointments with their Work Coach.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP offers interpreting and translation services under the Language Services Contract, currently provided by The Big Word. All DWP staff, including Work Coaches, have access to spoken and non-spoken face to face interpreting, telephone interpreting, British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation through the video relay services, and written translation. These services are readily available to support customers who have additional communication needs.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department plans to take to help ensure that all Job Centre Plus sites are accessible to people with hearing loss.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is committed to making its services accessible for all its customers together with those who may have additional communication needs including hearing loss.
Deaf and hard of hearing customers visiting Jobcentres are able to access different support based on how hearing loss affects their communication needs. Job Centres are equipped and currently provide mainly portable, but also some fixed hearing loops across the network, for those customers with hearing loss. There is a new initiative to improve our environments for disabled customers and those with health conditions which will include people with hearing loss. This work is due to start in October.
For those customers who are deaf or hard of hearing and attending a prearranged appointment with DWP, staff will already be aware of the customer’s communication needs from DWP’s computer systems and have access to a language services contract to pre-book an interpreter to support face to face contact. The interpreter will be skilled in providing non-spoken language support including British Sign Language (BSL).
Furthermore, a Disability Employment Adviser (DEA) is assigned to each Jobcentre site. The DEA is skilled in understanding the needs of disabled customers, including those who with hearing loss. The DEA provides support to Work Coaches to ensure that Work Coaches are able to increase their awareness and empathy when dealing with customers who have hearing loss.
The Employer and Partnerships role within DWP forms effective networks with a variety of local stakeholders, including organisations and charities that support customers with hearing loss. These relationships are vital to ensure that DWP is able to provide consistent and effective support to its customers.
On a national level, DWP has established a range of networks with its stakeholders to provide a voice for the customer. The Taskforce for Accessible Information, the Reasonable Adjustments Forum and the Operational Stakeholder Engagement Forum all regularly meet with a cross section of groups representing disabilities including those with hearing loss. The purpose of these forums are to ensure that DWP elicits feedback and insight into how its services are being used by those with additional communication needs and to seek continuous improvement.
Following the expansion of Video Relay Service last year, whereby deaf customers are now able to make an inbound telephone call to DWP via a British Sign Language interpreter using a video connection, DWP is currently exploring how this technology can be adapted to support video remote interpreting. This will increase the flexibility for DWP to conduct face to face and telephony based contact with deaf and hard of hearing customers.
Asked by: Jonathan Reynolds (Labour (Co-op) - Stalybridge and Hyde)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2021 to Question 29793 on Department for Work and Pensions: Coronavirus, what budget her Department has allocated to enforcement activities in respect of ventilation in (a) Jobcentre Plus premises and (b) other buildings owned and managed by her Department in each of the last ten years; what steps her Department has taken to enforce activities in respect of ventilation in (i) Jobcentre Plus premises and (ii) other buildings owned and managed by her Department in each of the last ten years; and when she last held a meeting to discuss ventilation with (A) staff of her Department’s central office, (B) representatives of managers of Jobcentre Plus premises and (C) recognised trade unions representing Jobcentre Plus staff.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) allocates resources based on planned levels of activity to deliver its published strategy and plans. It does not allocate budgets by specific risk areas such as business premises ventilation, but inspectors will take action to respond to poor ventilation if identified during regulatory activity.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the risks associated with poor general ventilation in a workplace increased due to the risk of transmitting coronavirus. HSE has carried out more than 300,000 interventions since the start of the pandemic, to check how businesses are implementing measures to reduce transmission of coronavirus at their sites, including whether employees are working in poorly ventilated spaces. Where contraventions are identified, HSE inspectors will take action to secure compliance by providing verbal advice, written correspondence or serving enforcement notices.
HSE has also updated their website guidance to support businesses in addressing the issue of ventilation in businesses www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/equipment-and-machinery/air-conditioning-and-ventilation/index.htm.
HSE does not collate all enforcement action taken specifically in respect of ventilation. However, HSE’s operational database shows that in the last ten years, there have been 7 enforcement notices specifically citing Regulation 6 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 (as amended), which imposes general requirements for ensuring workplaces are adequately ventilated. Please see table below for figures:
Year | Number of enforcement notices citing contraventions of Regulation 6 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 (as amended) |
2011 | 2 |
2012 | 1 |
2013 | 0 |
2014 | 1 |
2015 | 0 |
2016 | 0 |
2017 | 0 |
2018 | 0 |
2019 | 3 |
2020 | 0 |
Total | 7 |
This table does not, however, provide a full picture of HSE enforcement in respect of ventilation, for example because enforcement action on coronavirus-related ventilation deficiencies may be taken under the general provisions of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, without reference to the above-mentioned regulation (and in such cases cannot readily be identified on HSE systems). Further, HSE does not collate information to identify how often verbal advice or written correspondence has been provided by inspectors to deal specifically with ventilation deficiencies.
Within the Department, we have issued updated guidance on ventilation to our on-site Senior Responsible Officers and Health & Safety Business Partner team and estates field teams support local managers to ensure that measures identified in the site-level risk assessment are in place and will meet them as appropriate to ensure any issues identified can be resolved swiftly. No ventilation issues have been raised at the Department’s head office. The Department holds fortnightly meetings with Trade Union representatives. These cover a range of Coronavirus related topics, including ventilation.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Dame Carol Black’s Review of drugs part two: prevention, treatment, and recovery, published on 8 July 2021, what discussions he is having with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on improving the consistency and level of resourcing for Jobcentre Plus staff to enable prisoners to start the benefit claim process before release.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Combating illegal drug misuse is a top priority for this Government. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is working closely with key departments across government to tackle the misuse of drugs, including reducing drug supply and demand and improving treatment and recovery for offenders with substance misuse needs. We welcome Part 2 of Dame Carol Black’s Independent Review of Drugs and the Government will shortly be publishing an initial response to the report, including on those recommendations made to the MoJ.
There are a number of areas where work is ongoing to address drug misuse in the criminal justice system. In January 2021, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) received £80m additional funding for drug treatment in 2021/22. This will be used to enhance drug treatment and the numbers of treatment places available, including places for those leaving prison, to reduce drug-related crime.
This funding will support us to increase the use of Drug Rehabilitation Requirement (DRR) or Alcohol Treatment Requirement (ATR) under the Community Sentence Treatment Requirement (CSTR) programme; officials from Public Health England (PHE) are working to recruit criminal justice substance misuse practitioners to individual local authorities, with implementation plans being monitored on a quarterly basis.
The MoJ, Her Majesty Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), DHSC and NHSE/I are also working to promote and support the use of existing CSTRs in every area and to maximize the use of these additional funds provided for substance misuse services dedicated to the criminal justice system.
Activities are also underway to ensure the Probation Service align their services with the recently announced treatment funding to support criminal justice pathways. For example, HMPPS has introduced Health and Justice Coordinators across five areas in England and Wales, with a further five to be introduced next year, to test how these roles can enhance the connection between mental health and substance misuse commissioners and providers with the aim of improving continuity of care for those leaving prison. The Health and Justice Coordinator role will be evaluated as part of the wider Accelerator Prison Pilot, which will be subject to both impact and process evaluations.
This work is supported by HMPPS’ National Drug Strategy, which was published in 2019 and focuses on restricting supply, reducing demand and improving treatment. The strategy is being refreshed to address issues around continuity of drug treatment for prison leavers in the community. We are considering the workforce needs of supporting prisons out of recovery and as part of our prison reforms, including how we support access to a full range of health and social care services.
Furthermore, offenders are routinely supported in custody to prepare for release. Firstly, MoJ and DWP officials meet regularly at national and local level, and within the framework of the National Partnership Agreement, to plan how the departments can work together to support prisoners. This includes support with benefit claims in the crucial period leading to release and through the gate. Secondly, as part of the Government’s Covid-19 response, DWP established a bespoke phone service to help prison leavers make a Universal Credit (UC) claim on or after the day of release whilst restrictions prevented Prison Work Coaches providing the usual support with this. This service has now been adopted permanently by DWP to assist prison leavers to make a claim for UC quickly on release, where they are unable to make a claim online.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the oral contribution by Baroness Stedman-Scott on 15 June 2021, House of Lords, Official Report, column 1765, if she will provide the (a) locations and (b) DWP districts of the job centres that have an Armed Forces Champion supporting veterans seeking employment.
Answered by Will Quince
For the first time there will be a dedicated armed forces role at middle management level in each of the 11 Jobcentre Plus Groups. The 11 group leads are forming a virtual network and will be responsible for building capability and sharing best practice across the network. They will also be pro-active in liaising with the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force on both recruitment and resettlement.
These Armed Forces Champions Leads will oversee 50 Armed Forces Champions across the Jobcentre Plus network (including at least one in each of the 37 Jobcentre Plus Districts), who will have specific responsibilities for supporting members of the Armed Forces Community as part of their job. Again, for the first time, this involves a front line role personally handling some claims, supporting veterans into work and helping resolve complex cases where necessary. Their specific jobcentre location is not a factor in their ability to deliver this service as their responsibilities are district wide.
Recruitment to these roles is largely complete and the Department expects all of the roles to be filled by the end of July. All of the 11 Leads are in post and all Armed Forces Champions will be in each district by the end of July. Currently 48 have been appointed across 35 Districts, with the final two to be in post by the end of the month.
There are also many staff across the DWP network based in individual Jobcentre offices who will be the local ‘expert’ on Armed Forces issues, and the Department is continually working to build capability across the Jobcentre Plus network.
Asked by: Jonathan Reynolds (Labour (Co-op) - Stalybridge and Hyde)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to mitigating the risk of covid-19 transmission through ventilation in JobCentre Plus premises and other buildings owned and managed by her Department, with and without public access, what guidance she has issued or plans to issue to relevant building managers on that matter; how ventilation standards throughout her Department's estate will be monitored; what steps her Department will take to ensure that guidance is followed; and whether she plans to provide funding to improve standards of ventilation throughout her Department's estate.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP has continued to follow the BEIS guidance for offices and contact centres which refers also to the Health and Safety Executive’s advice on air conditioning and ventilation. DWP is aware that BEIS guidance is due to be updated and DWP will impact review this once issued. DWP also review the guidance issued by the Representatives of European Heating and Ventilation Associations (REHVA) and Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE). On behalf of DWP, the Integrator and Supply Chain partners (Facilities Management engineers) took actions based on these recommendations when they were issued in 2020, to mitigate the risk of covid-19 transmission. DWP issued guidance to site based Senior Responsible Officers on these changes and has also maintained an informative Coronavirus Hub on its intranet.
DWP will continue to review guidance issued by the authoritative sources and will maintain systems via its planned preventive maintenance (PPM) schedules and monitors action plans for any sites that require further improvements or mitigation. Each property has its own risk assessment and COVID controls checklists that include ventilation. Work orders can be raised by its employees through the recognised helpdesk system, where issues are identified outside of the PPM process. DWP is also currently completing a further review of ventilation systems as part of the cross Government COVID taskforce, utilising documentation issued by the Cabinet Office led taskforce.
DWP will impact any further guidance issued, as it has with existing guidance and will ensure appropriate actions are taken when necessary. DWP staff such as its site-based Senior Responsible Officers, managers, estates field teams and trade union colleagues will ensure that the guidance is followed at local level and formal auditing / inspections will take place.
DWP continues to maintain its building systems via planned preventive maintenance and improve standards across the estate as part of Life Cycle Works / Capital Investment works.
Asked by: James Davies (Conservative - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to engage with local employers to support new graduates into employment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are working closely with employers and other partner’s to deliver the Government’s Plan for Jobs, providing a comprehensive package of support for all young people – including graduates.
Our national and local Employer and Partnership Teams are engaging with employers across the country to bring in employment opportunities in a variety of sectors. These include many of the opportunities established as part of the Plan for Jobs, including Kickstart, Sector-based Work Academy Programme, Apprenticeships and traineeships. These provide a wide range of ways for young people to access work in their local area and enable employers to engage their future workforce. Young people, including new graduates will have access to these through their local Jobcentre Plus and via the Government’s official job matching service Find a Job website.
We have supported the development of the Department for Education’s Graduate Employment and Skills Guide that is published on the Office for Students website. The guide is designed to help final year students and recent graduates by signposting to a range of public, private and voluntary sector opportunities, to help build employability skills, gain work experience or enter the labour market.
We have provided Plan for Jobs information for employers on GOV.UK and employers can access our Help for Employers website which offers a range of advice to help businesses overcome challenges associated with the coronavirus pandemic. Whether employers are needing to expand rapidly, or worried about redundancies, they can find advice on next steps and the best ways to support their staff.