Download Pathways to Work 2013 - Houses of the Oireachtas

OPENING STATEMENT BY ANNE VAUGHAN, DEPUTY SECRETARY,
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL PROTECTION TO THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON JOBS,
ENTERPRISE AND INNOVATION
TUESDAY 8TH OCTOBER 2013
Chairperson, Committee Members,
I would like to thank the Committee for the opportunity to appear before it today to
discuss the Pathways to Work strategy.
The Department has a very broad remit to provide income supports and services to
people right across the age spectrum from childhood to working age to retirement
age, to jobseekers, to people with disabilities, to families and to carers. The
Pathways to Work strategy is targeted at those people in the working age category
who have a capacity to work; it sets out our approach to labour market activation in other words our approach to encouraging and supporting people to stay engaged
with the labour market, and ultimately to find employment. In this regard, it is
important to note one that labour market activation is one of three main functions
of the Department. The two others are payment delivery, and control of fraud and
abuse of the social welfare system. While these three functions are equally
important, a balance has to be struck between them.
Today however I will concentrate primarily on the activation/pathways to work
activity and am pleased to attach for the Committee’s information a presentation
pack which outlines how the Pathways to Work strategy has evolved over the past
few years.
Background and Context
By way of context Committee members will be aware that Pathways to Work was
first launched in February 2012 at a point in time when the unemployment rate
stood at 15%, the number of people unemployed as measured by the Central
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Statistics Office stood at 322,000 and the number of people on the live register
claiming jobseeker payments - which includes people in part-time employment –
stood at 439,000. These unemployment figures reflected the dramatic reversal in
our nation’s fortunes during the period 2008 – 2012 when the level of employment
fell from just under 2.2 million to just over 1.8 million.
This reversal in our nation’s fortunes led to a dramatic increase in demand for the
State’s welfare and employment services which up to 2012 were provided by three
separate organisations i.e. The Department of Social Protection, the primary
provider of core jobseeker income support payments; the Community Welfare
Service of the HSE, the primary provider of supplementary and emergency welfare
payments; and FÁS, the primary provider of employment support and training
services. As an example of the demands faced by these services the number of
jobseeker claims received by the Department of Social Protection increased more
than threefold during the period 2006 – 2009 and the annual increase in the number
of beneficiaries across all welfare schemes (i.e. the number of new beneficiaries
being added to the claim-load each year) grew from just under 40,000 in 2006 to
over 270,000 in 2009.
This huge increase in demand for services placed significant pressure on the three
state agencies involved in service provision. Partly in response to this pressure but
also in response to the recommendations contained in various reports from bodies
such as the National Economic and Social Council (NESC), the Economic and Social
Research Institute (ESRI) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD), it was decided to merge the three agencies in order to
provide a ‘one-stop-shop’ service to customers.
This merger, in addition to
simplifying the service proposition to customers, facilitated the re-design and reconfiguration of service so as to improve the quality of service. In particular, it
enabled the Department to ensure both that jobseekers registering for income
supports would have earlier access to employment services, and, that our scarce
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case-worker resources would, in line with all international research evidence, be
targeted to support those newly unemployed jobseekers most at risk of becoming
long-term unemployed. This re-configuration and prioritisation of service capacity
was at the heart of the Pathways to Work strategy for 2012 and continues to be core
to the on-going transformation of service in the Department.
A key challenge in
implementing this transformation is to ensure that the job of activation is aligned
with and does not detract from the equally important functions of payment delivery
and control.
Pathways to Work 2012
Pathways to Work is one of the twin-pronged approaches adopted by the
Government to address the employment/unemployment challenge which I’ve just
set out. The other element is the Action Plan for Jobs. The Action Plan for Jobs is
focussed on the task of creating the demand for labour by encouraging and
supporting entrepreneurial activity and investment in the Irish economy and has set
a target of adding a net 100,000 jobs into the Irish Economy by 2016. Pathways to
Work in contrast addresses the supply-side of the labour market with a focus of
trying to ensure that as many as possible of the new jobs and other vacancies in the
economy are filled by candidates taken from the live register. There are a number
of key elements to this approach which were set out the Pathways to Work 2012
document including:
 The development of Intreo – the one-stop-shop – to integrate welfare and
employment services and to deliver an improved customer focussed service
to jobseekers
 The implementation of Client Profiling to inform tailored delivery of services
 The roll-out of Group and One-to-One engagements to inform and advise
jobseekers.
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 The affirmation of the concept of rights and responsibilities, via a Statement
of Mutual Undertakings, to establish the basis of the relationship between
the State and jobseekers.
 The roll-out of enhanced identity management – the Public Services Card - to
help detect and minimise fraud.
 The introduction of penalty rates of payment for unemployment people who
do not engage with the State’s employment supports to reinforce the
concept of rights and responsibilities.
 The roll-out of new employment supports such as JobBridge.
 The targeting of places on employment and training schemes such as
Community Employment, TÚS and Momentum to long-term unemployed
people
 The development of closer links with employers as a means of securing work
opportunities to which job-seekers can be referred.
 The completion of the full integration of the Community Welfare Service, FÁS
employment services and the Department of Social Protection.
These developments when taken as a whole represent a very significant programme
of transformation requiring substantial IT, process, staff, organisation and physical
infrastructure changes. Notwithstanding that some commentators have questioned
the pace at which the Department is implementing this programme, experience in
other countries where similar change initiatives have been implemented (e.g. UK,
France, Norway) indicates a timeline for delivery of five years or more. Given the
urgency of the unemployment situation in Ireland we have set ourselves a deadline
of the end of next year for completion. So far we have made good progress, for
example:
 FÁS employment services and the Community Welfare Service (c 2,000 staff)
were transferred into the Department of Social Protection on time and within
budget. New organization and management reporting structures were
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implemented during 2012 and the services are now fully integrated within
the Department.
 The new Intreo model of operation – integrating the relevant employment
and payment services – was developed and roll-out commenced in October
2012. Fifteen Intreo offices, serving c 25% of our client base, have been
completed to date and we target to have over 40 offices fully operational by
the end of 2013.
 Group engagement and individual profiling is now fully operational in all
Department local offices in advance of the roll-out of the full Intreo service.
 Also in advance of the roll-out of the full Intreo service the integrated welfare
decisions process is operational in 37 offices and has been instrumental in
reducing decision times on welfare claims from c 3 weeks to c 3 days in the
offices concerned.
 The Statement of Mutual Undertakings is now in force with penalty rates of
payment introduced for jobseekers who do not engage with the State’s
employment/training services
 The national internship scheme, JobBridge, was rolled out and is delivering a
clear pathway to employment for many people. Over 20,000 people have
benefited from this scheme with a progression to employment rate of over
60%.
 The Momentum programme to provide work-focussed training to long-term
unemployed people was developed, tendered and rolled out – over 4,000
people are now benefitting from this programme.
 The number of places available on activation schemes such as CE, TÚS and
JobBridge was increased by 10,000 (c 30%) as part of Budget 2013.
 The Springboard programme has supported more than 10,000 unemployed
people to re-skill for emerging employment opportunities.
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Pathways to Work 2013
Turning now to Pathways to Work 2013, this is a 50 point action plan published in
July of this year which seeks to augment the focus on newly unemployed jobseekers
by increasing and intensifying our level of engagement with people who are already
long-term unemployed. Among the planned actions that reflect this focus on longterm unemployment are: Profiling all clients on the Live Register not just new claimants (c 420,000
profiles)
 Developing an Intreo programme for engaging with long-term unemployed
clients.
 Increasing the number of new clients engaged in Group and one-to-one
interviews from 30,000 and 130,000 respectively to 85,000 and 185,000
respectively.
 Doubling, through internal redeployment, the number of case-workers
employed within the Department on activation duties to increase capacity to
engage long-term unemployed people.
 Finalising and implementing proposals for contracting additional capacity
from third party service provider for employment services.
 Implementing reforms to housing support under the new Housing Assistance
Payment.
 Eliminating back-logs in the Family Income Supplement (FIS) scheme.
 Implementing the JobsPlus incentive for employers to recruit people who are
long-term unemployed
 Monitoring and encouraging recruitment from the Live Register by client
firms of the Enterprise Development agencies.
 Establishing a Labour Market Council of external policy experts, senior
industry figures and representatives of client groups to advise on the
implementation and further development of the Pathways to Work approach.
 Developing and implementing a plan to give effect to the EU Youth Guarantee
in Ireland.
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Detailed targets have been set to measure the impact of the 50 actions under
Pathways to Work 2013, and these are published at quarterly intervals on the
Department’s website. The report for the end of quarter 2 is included in the
attached presentation pack and, as can be seen, we are on track to deliver on most
of the targets set out.
Concluding Remarks
Following years of job losses there are now tentative, though welcome, signs of
progress in the labour market. There was an annual increase in employment of
33,800 in the year to the second quarter of 2013. Unemployment fell by 22,200 over
the same period, to 300,700, continuing a downward trend that began at the start of
2012. By the end of September, the number of people on the Live Register had
fallen to 408,000 from a peak of 466,000 in 2010. The unemployment rate, at 13.3%,
is down from a peak of 15.1% in early 2012.
Despite this progress the jobs and unemployment challenge continues to loom large
and remains the primary focus of the Department’s transformation agenda. I trust
that my comments here today and the attached presentation is of benefit to the
Committee in its consideration of the challenge that we all face; I hope that I have
adequately set out, and given a sense of, the determination and commitment of the
Department and its staff to respond to this challenge, that it gives you all an
understanding of the scale and complexity of the transformation programme within
the Department, and reassures you that we are implementing this programme with
energy and pace.
My colleagues and I will be pleased to answer any questions.
[ENDS]
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