§ Miss Boothroydasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what efforts he is making to improve the low staffing levels in social security offices in the borough of Sandwell.
§ Mr. NewtonMaintaining a local office's staffing level depends on balancing staff losses by recruitment; the former is not wholly predictable and the latter cannot be done overnight.
Subject to the foregoing the position in the Smethwick and West Bromwich local offices is that:
- (a) Both now have their full complement of clerical assistants.
159 - (b) The Smethwick office is now three LOIIs (clerical officers) below complement but one LOI (executive officer) above complement. From 4 January the LOII deficiency will reduce to one and the LOI surplus increase to two.
- (c) The West Bromwich office is now three LOIIs above complement but three LOIs below complement. The LOI deficiency while not increasing will fluctuate and is expected to disappear by the end of January.
In summary, West Bromwich is up to its numerical complement now and Smethwick will be by 4 January.
The complement of an office is the number of staff regarded as necessary to cope with the expected work load of that office.