Mr. John Stewart:

I thank the committee for inviting us to discuss the work we have done on mapping the journey for people who are short-term unemployed and their experience of the Intreo service. We very much appreciate the committee's interest in this aspect of the work.

There is no doubt that the development of the Intreo service marked a significant change in the way that welfare and employment services are delivered to unemployed people. The bringing together of the employment services, the payments processing and the community welfare service marked a very significant departure from the arrangements that applied heretofore.

The INOU, as the national organisation of the unemployed, is of the view that it was really important to hear from the people most affected - the unemployed people. The aim of our project was to capture what individuals were finding useful or helpful in this new service, to identify those aspects that may not be working particularly well and to identify what changes are required to improve the overall Intreo process and service.

We visited two Intreo offices on 25 occasions, between April 2013 and April 2014, to talk to unemployed people entering and exiting what are known as the group engagement sessions, with a view to inviting people to attend a focus group meeting in order to talk to them about their experience. In all, we spoke to 480 unemployed people at the two Intreo centres. We ran six focus group meetings of unemployed people, including a national focus group meeting of unemployed individual members of the National Organisation of the Unemployed. Fifty-six people participated in the groups and we also carried out 66 telephone interviews.

The focus groups set out to explore people's experience of signing on after losing their job. Most people we met were short term or recently unemployed and would have been in employment, in some cases, for many years. It was, therefore, a significant shock for them to lose their jobs. People did not necessarily know what to do and what they needed to know about making a claim. We decided to capture people's experience of signing on. We also sought to capture information on the contact with the Intreo service in terms of accessing those payments; the group engagement sessions; meeting with case officers - which is vital; review and subsequent meetings and engagements; accessing education and training courses; and ultimately finding employment.

I will refer to some of the key recommendations. Most of the people we met had, thankfully, been in work for very many years and in some cases were significantly still in shock when we met them, due to the experience of losing their jobs. At a point in time when people are pretty vulnerable and are concerned for their future, it is important that a service is available to them to help them in finding out what are their entitlements and to know what type of service they might be able to access.

The key recommendations include that continual training and development and what constitutes a quality service for unemployed people should be a priority for the Intreo service. We had a sense that staff who have good people and interpersonal skills should be allocated to what we call front-line roles in Intreo offices, where they would meet and deal with unemployed people face-to-face. The use of text messaging and e-mail as a means of communication has been highlighted as being useful.

It is very important that communication by the Intreo service should be in a clear and as positive a manner as possible and also that the group engagement invitation letters should promote the positive benefits of engaging with people in the Intreo process. We got a sense that the way the Department communicates with unemployed people in the context of Intreo was that in some way the Department was not selling the service to people. I think it was more that they were, in some respects, threatening people with the service in the way some of those letters were worded. We are pleased to note that there have been some positive changes in that regard.

With regard to the group engagement session, in general, the people we spoke to had a sense that the group engagement sessions were probably overall not that useful and did not work particularly well for many of the people we met. We recommend that additional information should be sent in advance of the meeting, for example, that the presentation should be sent in advance to the unemployed people who have been invited to attend. In terms of the profile of participants at the group engagement session, it would be useful if those invited had broadly similar profiles.

It is important that the structure of the group engagement session be considered. There should be an introduction, people should be taken through the process, and the Intreo service should be explained. The purpose of the group engagement session should be explained and the next steps should be outlined. It is important that the content be conveyed in a clear and easy-to-understand manner.

The group engagement sessions need to comprise a real engagement opportunity. We propose that there be a 30-minute session followed by an optional 30 minutes for those who would like to discuss aspects of the presentation further. It is important that those presenting the sessions highlight upcoming events, such as roadshows, job fairs and career zoos, and give the relevant information to clients at the group engagement sessions. We felt a number of people were invited to the group engagement sessions who probably should not have been there. I refer, for example, to people on the back-to-education allowance. They were invited although it was known they were returning to their education programme later in the year.

With regard to meeting case officers, the group engagement sessions were certainly useful in terms of setting up a meeting. The case officer role is critical. Our research shows unemployed people generally felt particularly positive about their experience of meeting a case officer on a one-to-one basis. They felt there was adequate time allocated for the meetings and welcomed the fact that there was a relatively quick appointment following on from the group engagement sessions.

Let me outline some of our recommendations. Case officers should work with people until they find suitable and sustainable work. They should contact unemployed people proactively to inform them of relevant upcoming events and work, training and education opportunities. There should be an option of a second meeting to agree or finalise a progression plan. The officers should utilise the expertise that exists externally, including in the adult education guidance service and NALA. In the event of a breakdown in the relationship between the case officer and unemployed individual, there should be an option to transfer the latter to another officer. One should prioritise continuous training and development for case officers.

On the progression outcomes and key recommendations, I must hammer home the point that the service should work with people until they find a job. Links to employers should be prioritised. It is important that Intreo do so and that proper job-matching arrangements be put in place. With regard to the ultimate aim of our project, we are anxious to map the journey of the longer-term unemployed and work through two different Intreo offices. We thank the departmental officials and regional and local managers for their support and assistance in facilitating this work.  I thank all the unemployed people who participated in the project and also the joint committee for its interest in this work.