Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senators for their contributions and expressing their concerns. I have taken some detailed notes. Unfortunately, the Minister cannot be here. Hence, I am in attendance. I will not be able to answer many of the questions asked, but the Minister has provided me with a statement which I will read. I hope it will address one or two of the issues raised.

As a human being and Minister of State, I believe any person who is unemployed should be treated with the greatest of respect and dignity by any individual or company when attending any service. I totally condemn any action by any service or individual that would make anybody feel he or she could not participate in any service. That is wrong. People should be treated with dignity and respect.

On an issue raised by Senator Frances Black, I was in the Chamber when Deputy Murphy referred to an individual who believed they were being unfairly treated. All I can tell the Senators is that the Deputy's office was contacted by the Minister's office about the allegations made. It asked that details be supplied in order that it could have a full investigation carried out. To date, the details have not been supplied to the Minister. I am making this point in case people believe matters are not followed up.

I am thankful to have the opportunity to attend on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Regina Doherty, to speak about her Department's activation polices and, in particular, the important role of the JobPath service. The JobPath service has made and is continuing to make a difference to those who have been unfortunate enough to find themselves in the position where they are long-term unemployed. The results are positive. The feedback from those who have participated in the initiative has been overwhelmingly positive. We all know that a small number of poor outcomes for participants can attract negative commentary. A young girl came to my office who had a difficulty with what she had been asked to do under the JobPath programme. I contacted the Minister and the office and believe the matter was dealt with substantially. I have only encountered one case, but I assure the House that independent reviews of outcomes of initiatives are very positive.

The JobPath service was designed to improve and complement the Department's existing employment service capacity, including that provided by the Intreo service, the Local Employment Service and the Jobs Clubs service. The additional capacity provided through the JobPath service has allowed the Department to provide services of the type and intensity required by jobseekers, particularly those distant from the labour market. The JobPath service is particularly tailored to meet the needs of the long-term unemployed. It was designed to address capacity issues within the Department's internal activation service which now caters mainly for the short-term unemployed.

For the purposes of the JobPath service, all long-term unemployed persons on the live register are categorised into groups based on their duration of unemployment, for example, one to two years and two to three years. Selection by the Department of long-term unemployed persons for referral to the JobPath service is by means of stratified random sampling using groupings such as those I have mentioned. The objectives are to ensure equity in selection and that people referred to JobPath are representative of the long-term cohort on the live register. The Department refers each customer selected to the JobPath service for a period of 12 months.

There are two contractors delivering the JobPath service - Turas Nua and Seetec. Generally, Turas Nua provides services in the southern part of the State, while Seetec provides them in the northern part and Dublin. The contractors provide services from locations that are accessible to the customer by public or private motorised transport, with a normal journey time of no more than 60 minutes. Where such transport services are not provided, the Department will quickly engage with the JobPath provider to ensure they are, or that our clients are supported in gaining access to the service.

It is important that I set out how the JobPath providers engage with the clients referred by the Department and some detail on the level of service provided for each client. In this context, I remind the House that before the implementation of the JobPath service, long-term unemployed persons received very little support from the State's employment services. That is why the Government has focused considerably on putting resources in place to make sure all unemployed persons receive an employment activation service.

The JobPath service provider writes to each individual jobseeker referred to it by the Department, inviting him or her to attend an initial information session presented jointly by an official from the Department and a representative of the contractor. The initial letter or invitation includes a standard notification to the customer about the need to engage with the JobPath provider and the nature of the services that will be provided. The first engagement for referred customers is a joint information session hosted by departmental officials and the JobPath provider. In this session customers will be provided with information on customers' rights and responsibilities; the JobPath programme; the service provided by the contractor; and a copy of the service statement. After attending the information session, customers are given an appointment for their first one to one meeting with a personal adviser provided by the JobPath service provider. This meeting should take place as soon as possible after the information session. The date of the first one to one meeting is the start date of the 52-week engagement period on the programme. At the first meeting with the personal adviser, each customer receives a guaranteed baseline service and is assisted in developing his or her personal progression plan. The personal progression plan sets out the skills and competencies of the customer, identifies barriers to employment and helps the customer to identity his or her particular goals and interests in a return to employment.

With the JobPath service, jobseekers have access to a personal adviser who works with them in two phases. In the first phase of 12 months' duration the adviser provides practical assistance in searching, preparing for, securing and sustaining employment. The second phase starts if the jobseeker is successful in finding work. During this phase the personal adviser continues to work with the jobseeker to provide any support needed for a period of up to 12 months.

Senators will be aware that when the Department has referred a customer to the JobPath service, it requires that he or she engage appropriately with the service provider. The JobPath service provider is required to make every effort to encourage the customer to attend. Customers who do not attend or engage with the service can be referred back to the Department by the service provider. In such cases, the Department will consider all of the circumstances of non-attendance and seek to facilitate the customer's engagement with the JobPath provider. I stress that any decision on entitlement or payment is made by officials of the Department alone, not by the staff of the JobPath provider.JobPath is a payment by results model and all costs are borne by the companies themselves. The payments made to a JobPath provider include an initial registration fee which is only paid on completion of a personal progression plan. Fees are only paid when a client obtains employment and sustains that employment. Sustainment fees are paid where clients sustain employment outcomes of 13, 26, 39 and 52 weeks duration. The gross cost of the service since July 2015 to the end of September 2017 is €71.2 million. The overall cost of the service will be determined by the number of people who engage with the service and the number of jobseekers who successfully sustain employment.

The Department publishes performance reports on JobPath, and should Senators wish to examine them in detail, they are available on the Department’s website. The initial data on the impact of the service is encouraging, showing high satisfaction levels among clients of the service, and that people who engage with the service are more likely to secure employment than those who do not. The JobPath service was rolled out across the network of JobPath provider’s offices over the period June 2015 to July 2016. The numbers referred initially were low but have increased, with over 125,000 customers having commenced with the service to date. Statistics on outcomes have been published on a quarterly basis this year, covering persons who commenced with service between the third quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016. The next publication is due shortly and will include those who commenced with the service in quarter two of 2016. The latest published data indicates that full-time job starts under JobPath exceed the target rate of 36%. The results of an independent customer satisfaction survey undertaken earlier this year indicates that jobseekers feel that they are receiving a good service, and that JobPath has improved their chances of securing employment. The customer satisfaction survey indicates that jobseekers feel that they are receiving a good service under JobPath. Between 76% and 81% of customers were satisfied with the service provided and only between 5% and 8% of customers expressed dissatisfaction. Over 90% of customers reported that JobPath staff made them feel valued and that they have a good relationship with their JobPath adviser. They also felt that the JobPath service has improved their chances of getting a job. These are very important findings by the independent review carried out for the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Doherty, and her Department.

I note concerns regarding the operation of the contracts. I can assure the House that there is significant oversight of the operation of the contracts and the delivery of the service through a robust complaints process and a rigorous inspection regime. Where a client has a complaint or where he or she feels the service he or she has received is deficient in some way, each JobPath provider has a complaints process, which it is obliged to have in place and to which clients are directed to in the first instance. There have been only 400 complaints out of over 125,00 people who have engaged with the service. The Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Doherty, does not agree with any suggestion that people are afraid to make complaints. In the Department the inspections regime monitors compliance with the service level agreement and the contract generally, including the suitability and standard of accommodation, staffing levels, Irish language compliance, customer service and customer feedback, checking the client’s personal progression plan, review meetings compliance and payment issues. To date, 46 on-site inspections have been carried out at provider service delivery locations, nine of which were un-notified. It is intended that the Minister and her Department will commence a full review of the performance and delivery on the contracts commencing the end of this year.

I would like to speak to some of the points within the proposed amendment. In 2016 local employment services, LES, providers were asked to increase the frequency with which they engage with jobseekers to enhance the quality of the services they provide. To facilitate this more intensive engagement, caseloads were reduced in each LES company. For 2017 the Department has contracted 22 private contractors for the provision of LES in 26 locations. The funding for the LES is being maintained at existing levels. Prior to the introduction of Intreo and JobPath, the Department had a total of approximately 300 case officers, including LES, working with over 471,000 people when the live register was at its highest. This was an extraordinarily high ratio of clients to case officer, far in excess of what it should be. The Department has increased the number of case officers to approximately 1,250, including in Intreo and JobPath services. With the reduction in the unemployment rate from a peak of 15% in 2012 to 6% now the average caseload today is around 230 clients to one case officer. In order to maintain a more intensive level of service to the long-term unemployed the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is seeking to maintain LES and JobPath caseload ratios of between 100 to 125 clients to each case officer. This is in line with OECD caseload benchmarks for the long-term unemployed.

The impact of an increasing number of people at work and the continued reduction in live register are all factors in recruitment to work programmes. It is also important to note that the number of people on community employment, CE, fluctuates on an ongoing basis as vacancies arise and are filled on schemes. However, the numbers on CE schemes at the end of September this year are almost the same as they were in mid-2012. In recent months the Department has introduced changes to CE, including reducing the qualifying age from 25 to 21 with the purpose of broadening the availability of CE to a greater number of people on the live register.

The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection does not generally encourage moving from one activation service to another until each service has maximised the available benefit to the customer. In regard to having an assessment or probation period when a client is referred to JobPath, the House may wish to note that any client referred to JobPath has been long-term unemployed and as such they will have benefitted from the services of the Department’s own internal activation service where they would have an opportunity to express and an interest and if appropriate apply for a CE scheme during one on one sessions with a case officer. Clients referred to JobPath should have these opportunities available to them prior to their referral.

We are all to be encouraged by the improvement in our economy and that we are experiencing a jobs led recovery, a phenomenon that did not happen when we emerged from previous recessions. This is very welcome news for all of us, but particularly for those who are returning to work. We know that it is hardest for those who are long-term unemployed to return to the workforce for a variety of reasons, and JobPath is one of the targeted measures introduced by this Government to assist those returning to the workforce. The results are encouraging and exceeding expectations and we hope to see continued successful delivery of the service in conjunction with other activation and employment support measures, including the local employment services, the jobs clubs service and employment opportunities which follow from participation on community employment schemes. We have seen and heard and lot of negative, uninformed and unsubstantiated criticism of the JobPath service. This is a disservice to those who are benefitting from the JobPath service and it is insulting to those who are striving to deliver it. In all this criticism we have not heard any positive proposals on what alternative form of activation service that should be delivered. I would join the Minister of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Doherty, in welcoming constructive engagement on these matters and any proposals which we have heard this evening and which merit further consideration will be given just that. On behalf of the Minister, I thank the members again for the opportunity to speak and look forward to further discussion on the matter this evening.