Employment Service (Hansard, 10 April 2001)

§ Mr. Blunkett

The targets for the Employment Service, which I am announcing today, build on the success of the agency in delivering the Government's welfare to work policies, working in close partnership with employers and others. These targets pave the way for the new agency, Jobcentre Plus, whose pathfinder offices will begin work in October. They give stronger emphasis than ever before to helping individuals facing particular difficulty in the labour market to move from unemployment and economic inactivity into sustainable employment. The highest priority will be given to helping people who have been economically inactive for long periods, including lone parents, to find work, and to capitalise on the opportunities created by the new generation of New Deals. For the first time, the Employment Service will have a target to measure its success in helping long term unemployed people not only to find work but to remain in work. I will also be introducing, from October, two new targets: to support ES' s efforts to achieve parity of outcomes for ethnic minority clients by 2004, and to support the key role which ES will play in identifying and remedying shortfalls in the basic skills of unemployed people, to enhance their employability.

I commend this package of targets. They are challenging for the Employment Service to deliver. I believe that the job entry targets are very stretching. I am looking for improved levels of customer service to jobseekers and employers, together with consolidation of the improved performance against the Jobseeker's Allowance Labour Market Activity target. These targets cover a full year, but I propose to carry out a comprehensive consultation and review later in the year that will inform the setting of targets for the new Agency for people of working age, called Jobcentre Plus, for 2002–03.

The targets for the Employment Service for 2001–02 are:

ES APA Text

Vision and Purpose The Employment Service aims to make a major contribution to an efficient and flexible labour market, and to the Government's objectives of an increase in the effective supply of labour, and countering poverty and social exclusion by helping welfare recipients facing the most severe disadvantages to compete effectively for jobs. It does this by working closely with employers and with its private, voluntary and public sector partners to provide a quality service for all people without a job and to promote employment opportunities for all who can work. It aims to attract a diverse range of vacancies and to fill those vacancies quickly by matching the right people and skills with the right jobs. Its chief priority is to help individuals facing particular difficulty in the labour market to move from welfare and economic inactivity into sustainable employment. It does this through correct application of the Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) regime, delivery of the New Deals, and provision of appropriate information, advice, training and support. The challenge and opportunity for the Employment Service, is to sustain continuous improvement in its services to jobseekers and employers and to make those services more accessible and relevant to customer needs, through effective use of modern technology and close working with a wide range of partners.

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Aim To help people without jobs to find work and employers to fill their vacancies.

Objectives and Targets

Objective A To help all people without jobs, and particularly those on welfare and at a disadvantage in the labour market, to find and keep work by providing appropriate information, advice, training and support and by encouraging employers to open up more opportunities to them.

Targets

A1: To help into work 70,000 people who are either jobless lone parents, participants in the New Deal for Partners, participants in the New Deal for Disabled People or other disabled people claiming 'inactive' benefits.
A2: To help into work 410,000 participants in the JSA New Deals, New Deal 50+, Employment Zones, other disabled people not recorded in A1, and others at a particular disadvantage.
A3: To help into work 720,000 welfare recipients and other disadvantaged people.
A4: To help into work 1,225,000 jobless people.
A5: For 75 per cent. of long-term claimants to be off benefit 13 weeks after starting a job into which they were placed by the Employment Service.

Objective B To ensure that the rights and relevant labour market responsibilities of people on JSA and other benefits are fulfilled, while helping to combat fraud and abuse of the benefit system.

Target B1: To ensure that the relevant labour market responsibilities of people on JSA are fulfilled in 90 per cent. of cases checked.

Objective C To harness new technology, the pursuit of excellence and continuous improvement to deliver effective, efficient and accessible services to all people without jobs and to employers, in Jobcentres and increasingly through other locations and means of communication.

Targets

C1: To achieve a 92.5 per cent. customer service level for jobseekers.
C2: To achieve an 82 per cent. customer service level for employers.

Objective D To deliver services to all ES customers in a way which respects individual differences, helps to overcome disadvantages due to ethnicity, gender, age or disability and achieves the best possible outcome for each of them.

Dl: From October: To achieve a proportion of new ethnic minority claimants who leave JSA for a job within 12 months, which is equal to the percentage of all white claimants leaving JSA for a job within 12 months (to work towards equality of outcomes by 2004.) (Target level to be announced.)
D2: From October: To screen benefit claimants for basic skills requirement and where needed refer for appropriate training. (Exact target wording and level to be announced.)

Milestone Target By 30 September 2001, for 95 per cent. of jobseekers claiming JSA to have been asked to identify their ethnicity and for this answer to be recorded.

Target levels for the Employment Service in Scotland and Wales, derived from the GB wide targets, will be announced shortly.