Section 1: Committed to equality

Where we are now

Working with customers

For people with a health condition or disability we have:

• introduced Pathways to Work pilots for Incapacity Benefit customers;
• continued to deliver New Deal for Disabled People, Workstep, Access to Work and other disability-related programmes;
• offered work preparation, training and access to job brokers; and
• offered access to specialist Jobcentre Plus advisers.

During this period we have helped 62,793 people with a health condition or disability find work.

For gender equality we have:

• continued to deliver New Deal for Lone Parents, which has resulted in over 108,004 lone parents finding work, of whom 95 per cent are female;
• continued to offer work-focused interviews for partners of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance, to help reduce the number of workless households and eradicate child poverty;
• given Jobcentre Plus advisers and managers greater flexibility to meet individual customer and labour market needs; and
• helped parents access suitable childcare, including providing assistance in meeting related costs, where appropriate.

For race equality we have:

• helped over 170,000 ethnic minority customers find work through New Deal initiatives;
• piloted initiatives, including Ethnic Minority Outreach and the Ethnic Minority Flexible Fund, which aimed to assist ethnic minority customers to access our services and find work; and
• developed a leaflet, guidance and advice, in consultation with key stakeholders, to encourage refugees to access our services.

Case study

Our Hartlepool Action Team for Jobs were named central government team winners at the Public Servants of the Year Awards. This award recognised their achievements in helping disadvantaged customers find employment.

Working with partners

We have:

• worked with the National Health Service and GPs to help customers on Incapacity Benefit consider employment opportunities, including accessing Pathways to Work;
• continued to develop productive partnerships with key organisations such as the Learning and Skills Council, and strengthened links with other government departments and agencies such as the Home Office and the Prison Service, to improve access to the labour market for those customers who face the greatest barriers to getting work; and
• contributed to the Child Support Agency's delivery of child support services, for example by helping lone parents receive child maintenance payments.

Working with employers

• support to employers to help them both create and retain a diverse workforce;
• work with employers to help them evaluate their progress towards creating a more diverse workforce; and
• help for employers who place vacancies with us to ensure that their vacancies do not discriminate against any particular group.

We undertook a survey between April and December 2005 which showed that 90.5 per cent of employers placing a vacancy with Jobcentre Plus were very or fairly satisfied with the service they received.

Case Study

We worked with the Recruitment and Employment Confederation - the recruitment industry trade body - to develop a series of self-assessment techniques to help recruitment businesses to promote equality of opportunity for people from diverse backgrounds. The Confederation of British Industry recognised this work by presenting Jobcentre Plus and the Recruitment and Employment Federation with the Confederation of British Industry Social Initiative award.

Working with staff

Details of progress within Jobcentre Plus against these targets are as follows:

Women

Ethnic Minorities

Disabled People

*Civil Service grades cover a diverse range of roles in different posts and functions. Senior Civil Service grade roles are at deputy director, director or director general level; Grade 6 and 7 jobs can be described as senior management roles; SEO, HEO and EO roles are managerial grades; and AO and AA are administrative roles.

We have achieved good progress against half of our targets. We are actively working to target recruitment in areas where we think we can make a significant difference.

Equality legislation also commits Jobcentre Plus to monitor and report against recruitment, retention and progression practices in relation to diversity. Details of our achievements in these areas are published in our Annual Report and Accounts.

To help us meet our responsibilities under equality legislation we:

• obtain evidence and staff perceptions through our established staff network groups; and
• support the development and progression of diverse staff through learning and development activities, for example the use of positive action programmes.

Case Study

Jobcentre Plus is piloting an initiative to ensure that staff who need a reasonable adjustment (a change to their working environment such as making text on a computer screen larger) under the Disability Discrimination Act get the most appropriate adjustment quickly. The pilot brings together, at one meeting, all our key contractors. For example, a typical meeting might include both our information technology supplier (for potential changes to computers and telephones) and our accommodation supplier (for potential changes to furniture, lighting or access to buildings). This ensures that everyone who needs to contribute to the reasonable adjustment understands their particular role so that the adjustment can be implemented more quickly.

Involvement and consultation

We then sought the involvement of our disabled customers in helping us identify the extent to which our policies, functions and services meet their needs. We asked them what areas they thought we should concentrate on improving over the next three years. This involvement exercise was central to ensuring that we identified those specific things that would most help our disabled customers. We:

• developed a questionnaire that sought the views of disabled customers on what they thought about how we communicate with them, how our staff treat them, what the physical access to our buildings was like and what they thought of the range of services we offer;
• shared results of our evaluation with other colleagues in the Department to help them understand how to improve customer services; and
• ensured that views were expressed freely by using venues familiar to the disabled people we spoke to, including a meeting held at a residential training college.

Case Study

As part of the involvement exercise we attended Finchale Training College, Durham to gather information from students on what they thought our future plans should include to support the needs of disabled people. The college offers training and support for unemployed adults with a range of physical and mental health issues.

Case Study

Over a two-day period, we asked all those customers attending an appointment with a Disability Employment Adviser at the Springburn Jobcentre Plus office if they would be willing to participate in a one-to-one interview. Those who agreed were asked what they currently thought of our services, what we could do better, and what our priority areas for the next three years should be.

Case Study

In the involvement exercise we met 189 customers from Scotland, England and Wales in a number of one-to-one discussions and group meetings. Of the 189, 172 people identified themselves as disabled, 126 were male and 63 were female. Although much of the feedback received was positive, customers identified a particular issue around how they were able to contact us, and how we contacted them. Some specific quotes include the following:

• "Very poor, particularly contact centres."
• "Referred to a phone to sort out initial claim. Not ideal at all for someone with mental health issues. Would rather sort out face to face."
• "Lack of information for people without computers."

We have also:

• used the information that the Disability and Carers Service gathered from its customer involvement activities as many individuals will use both services;
• consulted our staff network groups for disability and gender on what Jobcentre Plus's future business plans should include as priority; and
• taken into account the views expressed by both individual disabled customers and their representative organisations to the Minister for Disabled People when she addressed the DWP Disability Forum in May 2006.

When we analysed the results of our involvement and consultation exercises, we were clear that the areas our disabled customers wanted us to concentrate on were how they are able to contact us and how we contact them. We have included these areas in our action plans.

With our staff we have:

• involved our staff network groups who have articulated the views of our staff on how we are performing as an employer;
• analysed our annual staff survey to identify potential areas for improvement; and
• shared with the trade union the action we propose to take as a result of these involvement and consultation exercises.

Monitoring and evaluation

To ensure that our services and policies are accessible, available and appropriate to meet the needs of our customers we:

• monitor the nature of all the complaints that our customers make through our formal complaints procedures, and through letters to the Chief Executive and departmental ministers, to identify trends; and
• commissioned research that will evaluate the impact of introducing telephony channels as the primary gateway to our services. The outcomes of this research will be available in April 2007.

Case Study

We conduct an annual customer satisfaction survey to identify the extent to which our services meet the needs of our customers. The 2005 survey indicated that 87 per cent of people with an activity/work-limiting disability were either very or fairly satisfied with services provided. The survey also looked at overall satisfaction by gender and showed that 84 per cent of male and 87 per cent of female customers were either very or fairly satisfied.

Case Study

In 2005 we conducted a survey of a sample of our ethnic minority customers, as part of the overall Jobcentre Plus national customer satisfaction survey to investigate customer satisfaction, quality of service and customer complaints. The survey found that all ethnic minority customers were less aware of our Customer Charter, which sets out the level of customer service they should expect. The survey also found that customers from all ethnic minority groups were more likely than white customers to feel that our services had improved over the previous year.

For staff, the Department undertook a consultation on its HR policies, which highlighted no specific areas of concern for Jobcentre Plus. However, to ensure that we continue to involve and consult our staff we:

• annually seek the views of staff through the staff survey; and
• monitor outcomes from the performance and development system to assess whether any groups of staff are disadvantaged by the system.

As a result of the evaluation information already obtained we have:

• introduced a process to encourage discussion of the staff survey results and identify what we need to do at individual, team and management levels to address the concerns raised;
• introduced new leadership competencies to help address the lack of confidence in senior managers highlighted by the 2005 survey results; and
• consulted staff on their views on the performance and development system as part of a wider departmental consultation exercise. Jobcentre Plus staff network groups have been specifically asked for views.

For employers we:

• conduct an annual survey to assess how far employer customers are satisfied with our services.

Extent to which our policies, functions and services meet the needs of disabled people

Through the extensive involvement of disabled people and the consultation, monitoring and evaluation exercises described above, we have concluded that, although there is much that we can be proud of, there is still much for Jobcentre Plus to do.

Jobcentre Plus has already taken steps to mainstream diversity and equality into business practices and over the next three years will continue to:

• mainstream diversity equality across all areas of our business;
• ensure that services, support and advice are appropriate, accessible and available;
• increase the number of people who are supported in moving closer to work;
• ensure that provision of programmes is appropriate, accessible and effective;
• work effectively in partnership with external stakeholders;
• support employers in recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce, including ensuring that employer vacancies advertised through Jobcentre Plus are not unlawfully discriminatory; and
• ensure that contract management activity supports equality legislation.

The action plans at Annexe 2 and Annex 3 set out in more detail what we intend to do in the next three years.