Dáil debates
Thursday, 17 June 2021
Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate
Employment Support Services
7:35 pm
Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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This year, there will be two important developments for the jobs club networks and local employment service networks across the country. One is that we will have an extension of the services to those areas that are not currently covered, which I welcome. We have strong local employment services in our area and we greatly value the contribution they make. I can imagine the gap they would leave if communities did not have them, so I welcome that development.
We will also see the roll-out of a tender scheme for the rest of the country. While there has not been a tender scheme for the best part of 20 years, and I understand from speaking to the Minister that there is no other option but to tender for this service, I have real fears, as do the local employment service operators, that the model that is being used, and the lots that may be allocated, may mean that services are missing from our local communities.
Let me talk the Minister of State through that concern. The Dublin North West Area Partnership operates the local employment service in Rosehill House. People tell me that their fear under the new contract is that it is effectively an “in and out” payment process and it does not take into account the strong and quality work that is done with clients, particularly clients who might be experiencing addiction and who are working into recovery, people who have been long-term unemployed for many years and people who are changing career. A simple entry meeting, exit meeting progression tick is not the normal path for many of those clients.
If we only pay the local employment services based on that model, then we will not get the service that we currently have.
We have the Ballymun Job Club. It predates the local employment service. It was a co-operative established by the community to address some of the social needs in Ballymun many years ago. It has worked with different local partnership companies over the years but it has appeared independently. It is concerned about the lots that will be allocated. I understand that there are currently 11 lots. If there is a reduction in the number of those lots, it will effectively force different local employment services to compete against each other for existing territory. That is not what any of us want to see. We know these organisations are doing a good job and there are mechanisms to make sure that they are and that where organisations are falling down, that can be addressed. We are concerned about the model, the technical guidelines of how they will be paid and the number of lots. The fear is based on what happened with the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP. Everybody in this House knows that genuine mistakes were made with SICAP. Whether one believes that it was an attempt to privatise the service which failed because private operators could not deliver the same service that community operators could or whether one believes that the tender was allocated poorly, we have to learn from the mistake. We have to make sure that the local employment service contracts that are rolled out do not decrease the lots, and capture the quality of work needed from many of these agencies.
7:45 pm
Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy McAuliffe for raising this issue and having this debate. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, sends her apologies. She would like to have engaged with the Deputy directly but could not. She engaged with the committee on the subject yesterday. If Deputy McAuliffe has not received the message yet, the Minister has agreed to meet with him and a delegation to tease through the concerns about this issue and hopefully allay the Deputy's fears. I think she will be able to do that because some of the fears expressed by Deputy McAuliffe and others here are well allayed in my view from my time working in the Department of Social Protection. I am mainly in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment but I also have a leg in the Department of Social Protection and work with it on many issues related to labour activation, with people who are looking for jobs, and directly with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys. I am quite confident, from engaging with it, that it has the needs of individuals in mind here. I will return to the formal statement shortly. This model is mainly based on progression, personal development and engagement. I assure that Deputy that it is not just about going in and out. I urge anybody concerned to get involved in the tendering process when it comes their way and to go to the workshops. They will then realise that it is about progression and engagement, which is what the main part of this will be about.
I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss matters surrounding the provision of employment services in the State. The Department of Social Protection published a request for tender on 26 May for the procurement of regional employment services in parts of the State where there is currently no employment service. This is a welcome expansion of employment services, announced last year in the July stimulus package. This expansion of services involves tendering for four lots across seven counties in the north west and midlands. Those lots are Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim, Longford and Westmeath, and Laois and Offaly.
The existing contracts of the Department of Social Protection's main contracted employment services providers, including local employment services, job clubs, and JobPath, all expire at the end of this year. Not replacing these contracts would entail a significant reduction in public employment service capacity. Instead, the Department is now increasing its capacity, through the expansion of a new regional employment service model throughout the State. Parties interested in the current tendering process now have until 7 July to prepare tenders. While the procurement is competitive, in line with legal requirements, there are numerous local and community bodies in those counties already supplying similar services on behalf of their communities. They will be well positioned to tender for these new lots and have been fully engaged at various meetings and workshops with the Department over the last couple of years as we prepared for these changes.
The key requirement in the request for tenders is quality of service. That is key, so we can ensure, and will be happy to ensure, that those who are long-term unemployed will receive a high quality employment service. This procurement will ensure the State extends the range of employment services it provides to seven counties, which is a welcome and timely development because those counties did not have the service. I know there is some concern among current service providers as the State moves to an open competitive procurement process and moves on from the "cost met" funding approach of current local employment services and job clubs.
The current contracts operate on an annual basis, provide only partial State coverage and have largely gone unchanged in two decades or longer in some cases. In some cases, they are cumbersome and administratively burdensome for the service providers and the Department and are not procured in a way that is in accordance with national and EU procurement rules. The new funding approach, with payments tied to the actual number of clients supported and weighted towards the client’s engagement and progression with the service, which is key, will be multi-annual, enabling providers to plan how best to meet the needs of their clients across different calendar years.
Phase 2 of the procurement process, which will occur later this year, will see the Department of Social Protection issue requests for tenders to provide employment services nationally. A series of separate requests for tenders will issue to complete the roll-out of the new regional employment service State-wide. It is expected that existing local community providers will be well placed to submit quality tenders for these new regional employment services. The Department recognises that quality that can be found locally. The Department of Social Protection will consider any lessons from the phase 1 procurement process and apply them in the design of the multiple requests for tenders that will be published later this year under phase 2. They review their ongoing work over the last seven or eight years too, with all the changes through the Intreo offices and the expansion of services here. All of that feeds into the changes that are coming through the system this year and next year.
Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I have heard the Minister of State's contribution here and heard the Minister's yesterday. I welcome that she will meet with a number of Fianna Fáil backbench Deputies about this because we are greatly concerned about it. My local employment service, as with many across the country, issued a press release last week stating that the Government was implementing a for-profit model that would reduce community services. I hear the Minister of State and he is saying that that is not true and that, when the tender comes out, that will not be the case. If the Minister of State knows many of these local employment services, they do not normally engage in that type of vocal political criticism of a Government. If they are doing so, it is because they are concerned. I ask the Minister of State to make sure that local focus happens. He referred to engagement and progression being important. Engagement is the more important of the two. We need to ensure that those local services remain.
I am concerned about the use of the term "regional employment services" as opposed to "local employment services". That comes back to the lot numbers. How many lots will there be in Dublin? With the previous SICAP model, Ballymun lost its local partnership. It did not lose the service. A neighbouring partnership took over that contract and delivered the service but we lost the local focus. We want to make sure that does not happen and that something that is not intended, which the Government does not want, which is the progression of a for-profit model, does not happen by accident because we issued the wrong number of lots and end up with different local organisations competing with each other. I ask the Minister of State to impress on the Minister for Social Protection the concerns raised here tonight. I raised them with her directly. She has been forthcoming and has given us many assurances. Tender processes are rigid and sometimes have unintended consequences and outcomes.
Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy McAuliffe for raising this and assure him that the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, is happy to engage with him to reassure him. I am interested in this area myself from chairing the committee and working in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment on the matter of job creation previously and now again. That is about creating good quality jobs and making sure that everybody has the opportunity to avail of those jobs. There are also other reasons why I am interested in this matter. Being based in the Department of Social Protection, I am familiar with the two local services that the Deputy mentioned and I have engaged with them over the years. I am confident that the Department and Minister understand the importance of engagement and progression. If we are to provide a successful employment service to anybody, whether recently unemployed or long-term unemployed, there has to be engagement which is about a person's personal progression and a specific plan to bring them on that journey. Sometimes they need additional services or time. We are determined to give people the best opportunity.
That is what these contracts will reflect.
I thank the Deputy for his contribution. I would like to reiterate some key points. The recent tender published is the outcome of a lengthy process of engagement and consultation with all employment services. The tender will allow the Department to contract out employment services on a legally sound basis and in line with national and EU procurement rules. It will also increase our capacity to provide a top-class service as soon as people need it because we recognise the pressure that might come on the system in the time ahead.
No existing local employment services will be impacted by this current tender phase, as I am sure the Deputy is aware. There will be time to review that process as we make changes for the second round later in the year. This process – both phases of procurement – is essentially focused on expanding employment services, primarily for the long-term unemployed. The Department is seeking to procure high-quality employment services focused on supporting those individuals, jobseekers and other cohorts, who are furthest from the labour market.
This will be a tailored intensive employment service designed to address the needs of the people who are supported by the service and bids will be evaluated on the basis of their quality and demonstration of how they meet their clients’ specific needs.