Written answers

Wednesday, 20 April 2016

Department of Social Protection

Employment Support Services

Photo of John HalliganJohn Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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67. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the details of her contract with Turas Nua; the process by which persons are selected from the live register; if persons who have been engaging with the Tús and Gateway programmes can be selected; the fee she pays to Turas Nua for each person returned to the workforce; if there are stipulations as to how permanent the positions need to be; the number of persons who have been returned to the workforce since the inception of this programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7619/16]

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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JobPath is not a programme but a new approach to resourcing and delivering employment activation services to people who are long-term unemployed and those most at risk of becoming long-term unemployed. In this regard it complements the service provided by the Department’s own staff in Intreo Centres and by the Local Employment Service providers.

Turas Nua Limited is one of two companies with which the Department has entered into contracts for the delivery of JobPath services. The other company is Seetec Limited.

Under the contract the companies act as agents of the Department and must accept, work with and deliver a service to all and any clients that are referred by the Department. The companies must deliver a guaranteed baseline level of service to all clients. Participants on JobPath receive intensive individual support to help them address barriers to employment and to assist them in finding jobs. Each person is assigned to a personal advisor who assesses a person’s skills, experience, challenges and work goals. A “personal progression plan” is drawn up that includes a schedule of activities, actions and job focused targets. Participants are also provided with a range of training and development supports including online modules, career advice, CV preparation and interview skills. Clients receive this service over the duration of a year or until they find employment and if they are placed into a job they continue to receive support for at least three months, and up to twelve months, while in employment.

JobPath providers are paid fees if and when they place clients into sustained employment. In this regard employment is defined as work of at least thirty (30) hours per week lasting for at least thirteen (13) weeks. Contractors are paid a fee, in arrears, for each thirteen week period of employment up to a maximum of four payments or one year’s work. This payment approach incentivises the contractors not just to find work for people but to strive to ensure that the work is full-time and sustained.

For the purposes of JobPath all long term unemployed jobseekers on the Live Register are categorised into groups based on their duration of unemployment (e.g. 1- 2 years, 2 - 3 years etc.). Selection for referral to receive employment activation services from a JobPath provider is by means of stratified random sampling using these groupings; the objective being to ensure equity in selection and also that people referred to JobPath are a representative of the long term cohort on the Live Register.

Participants on TÚS and Gateway are not eligible to receive the JobPath service while they are on such programmes. However, once they have competed their time on TÚS or Gateway they may then be selected for JobPath.

It is not intended to publish the individual fees that are payable to the JobPath companies as these are commercially sensitive and to do so would place the State at a disadvantage both in terms of the contracts now in place and any future procurement that may be undertaken.

The roll-out of JobPath is not yet completed. It is expected to be finalised towards mid-year. Given that clients will spend 52 weeks on JobPath it is necessary to allow sufficient time to elapse before a meaningful assessment can be carried out. At the present time it is too early to undertake an evaluation of job placement performance. As indicated in “Pathways to Work 2016 – 2020” the Department intends to publish JobPath performance statistics from Q3 2016.

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