Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 41: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the point at which it is intended to establish the national employment and entitlement service; if community employment schemes will continue to form part of the mix of options; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15318/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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My Department is establishing a new National Employment and Entitlements Service, as provided for in the Programme for Government, which will integrate employment and benefit payment services within the Department. In establishing and developing the National Employment and Entitlements Service the Department has set out to design the new service based on a case management approach with the objective of providing a more customised and personal service to customers. In line with international good practice, this new service will focus primarily on activation. The objective is to encourage and enable customers to embark on developmental pathways appropriate to their needs; pathways to employment and/or training and/or personal development. A key feature of the new service will be that customers will be expected to engage with these options in order to retain their entitlement to full benefit payments.

As part of the process of developing and implementing this new business model the Department has commenced a major and comprehensive programme of change management entailing the integration of services previously, or currently, provided by other agencies – including both the Employment Services and Community Employment Programmes of FÁS and the Community Welfare Services (CWS) of the HSE.

With regard to the timeline for the development of the National Employment and Entitlements Service the assignment and integration of functions and the full transformation to a case management approach focussed on activation, will be a multi-annual programme of work. However, significant progress has already been made and many aspects of the new service will be delivered within the coming twelve months. The administration of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme has already been transferred to the Department of Social Protection with the secondment of the Community Welfare Service from the Health Service Executive at the beginning of this year. The intention is to have the staff fully transferred into the Department by the end of September this year. This will enable the Department to integrate the payment of all benefits into one organisation simplifying customer processes.

Planning for the transfer and integration of the Employment Services and Community Employment Services of FÁS to the Department has already commenced and it is envisaged that the transfer of staff will commence later this year. Again this will enable us to simplify and integrate the delivery of employment support services to customers.

Even in advance of integration, FÁS and the Department are already working on a number of pilot projects in relation to the development of case management, the identification of those who are most at risk of falling into long-term unemployment, and the provision of appropriately tailored responses to their needs. These pilot projects will be completed and evaluated in the coming months after which approaches will be developed for their roll-out nationwide as part of the National Employment and Entitlements Service. A key objective of the Government in relation to the new service is that it will offer users a high level of personalised employment support and prioritise the provision of more intensive support for those on the live register who are identified as being most at risk of long-term unemployment. This will be achieved through the use of proactive approaches and modern case management systems.

As part of such an approach, FÁS and the Department are collaborating on the development the National Internship Scheme. This scheme which will provide 5,000 internships of up to nine months duration will be launched on 1 July 2011. Participants will retain their social welfare entitlements and will also receive a 'top-up' of €50 per week. The scheme, which will be the first public manifestation of the National Employment and Entitlements Service, is already receiving strong support from the business community and potential participants.

As regards the Community Employment scheme, the aim of the scheme continues as an active labour market programme with the emphasis on progression into employment and/or further education and training. The programme will continue to be managed towards this objective in order to meet the needs of participants and the community. It should be noted that responsibility for skills training undertaken by FÁS currently resides with the Department of Education and Skills. The future development of the training and skills services of FÁS is a matter for the Minister for Education and Skills.