Jobseekers Charter (Hansard, 2 November 1992)

§ Ms. Quin
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if she will make a statement on the implementation of the jobseekers charter.

§ Mr. McLoughlin
Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Ms. Joyce Quin, dated 2 November 1992: As the Employment Service is an Executive Agency, the Secretary of State has asked me to write to you direct to respond to your Parliamentary Question about implementation of the Jobseeker's Charter. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency. The Jobseeker's Charter was launched in December 1991. The main elements are now in place and are an integral part of the day to day work of all 1,350 ES local offices across Great Britain. They are:

details of ES services displayed in each local office;
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national targets for service delivery published each year; local standards for the level of service to clients displayed in all local offices;

the name of the local and area managers displayed in each local office, and everyone wearing name badges;

comprehensive information on the services provided by the ES set out in a series of leaflets;

national annual customer satisfaction surveys supplemented by customer surveys at local level;

new easy-to-use complaints procedure.
All my local offices now have set their own standards of service (against national minimums I have set). These include waiting times (within 10 minutes), how quickly the telephone is answered (within 30 seconds), paying the right money on time (normally within 3 working days of signing); and the numbers of people they aim to place into jobs. We bring the Charter to the attention of all new clients and copies of it are available for people to keep. We are constantly seeking improvements in the service we give to our clients. For example, large print, braille and minority language versions of the Jobseeker's Charter leaflets are now available. We are also extending Jobseeker Charter principles to our external service providers (eg contractors running Jobclubs and Job Review Workshops for us). A new clause requiring contractors to adhere to Jobseeker's Charter principles is being included in all new contracts. My local poeple are meeting all their contractors to explain what is needed and to ensure that contractors implement Charter standards. Individual offices are piloting local customer satisfaction surveys. They will use the results to improve the services they provide locally. We plan to carry out local surveys annually and to make public key results. The complaints and suggestions procedure mentioned earlier is explained in a booklet called "Help us to get it right … and how to complain". This includes a target that. we will respond to complaints within 5 working days. I enclose copies of the suggestions and complaints leaflet and also of the leaflet "Jobseeker's Charter" which you may be interested to see. They are displayed in every Employment Service local office. As decided by the Administration Committee of the House of Commons, Chief Executive replies to written Parliamentary Questions will now be published in the Official Report. I will also place a copy of this letter in the Library of the House.

§ Mr. Wray
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what steps she is taking to monitor the progress of the jobseekers charter.

§ Mr. McLoughlin
Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from M. E. G. F'ogden to Mr. Jimmy Wray, dated 2 November 1992: As the Employment Service is an Executive Agency, the Secretary of State has asked me to write to you direct to respond to your Parliamentary Question about monitoring the progress of the Jobseeker's Charter. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency. The Jobseeker's Charter was launched in December 1991. All my local offices now have set their own standards of service (against national minimums I have set). These include waiting times (within 10 mins), how quickly the telephone is answered (within 30 secs), paying the right money on time (normally withing 3 working days of signing); and the number of people they aim to place into jobs. Local managers already monitor their performance against their own standards and we are developing ways in which we can monitor these results nationally. The Employment Service (ES) also has national targets for key areas of performance set by the Secretary of State each year. These are published in the ES Annual Performance Agreement and ES performance against them is published in the ES Annual Report. 58W The complaints and suggestions procedure mentioned earlier is explained in a booklet called "Help us to get it right … and how to complain". This includes a target for responding to complaints within 5 working days. Complaints and suggestions are monitored centrally on a quarterly basis. The 1991 survey showed high levels of satisfaction with our offices—from 79 per cent. satisfaction with Jobcentres Services to 87 per cent. with benefit services in new integrated offices combining the service of Jobcentres and Unemployment Benefit Offices. I have agreed with the Secretary of State a target of achieving an increase of 3 per cent. in the level of customer satisfaction in each type of ES office. Individual offices are piloting local customer satisfaction surveys. They will use the results to improve the services they provide locally. We plan to carry out local surveys annually and to keep results. We are also extending Jobseeker's Charter principles to encourage our external service providers (eg contractors running Jobclubs and Job Review Workshops for us) to operate to Charter standards. A new clause requiring contractors to adhere to Jobseeker's Charter principles is being included in all new contracts. My local people are meeting all their contractors to explain what is needed and to ensure that contractors implement Charter standards. I am responsible to the Secretary of State for the progress on the Jobseekers Charter. The Secretary of State meets the Prime Minister every six months to discuss progress on the Jobseeker's Charter and Employment Service officials meet members of the Employment Department and the Citizen's Charter Unit regularly to discuss progress. As decided by the Administration Committee of the House of Commons, Chief Executive replies to written Parliamentary Questions will now be published in the Official Report. I will also place a copy of this letter in the Library of the House.