Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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594. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of complaints made about participation in or interaction with the JobPath programme, by county, in tabular form; her plans to review the operation of this programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49244/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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To date 131,986 Jobseekers have been referred to the service, with 421 complaints received in total – 0.32 per cent. 305 of these were related to Customer Service, 61 involved policy issues, 40 related to client not wishing to engage, 8 Data Protection queries and 7 related to Legislation.

As of 10 November, 366 of these complaints have been resolved to a satisfactory level; the remainder (55) are being investigated at present.

A breakdown of the number of complaints on a county by county basis is not currently available.

Each JobPath provider has a comprehensive Complaints Procedure which is advertised in every location. The procedure contains levels of escalation whereby complaints are dealt with at the appropriate level of authority and ensuring that matters are fully addressed. In the event a customer has availed of this procedure but remains dissatisfied with the response to their complaint, they may request my department to carry out a review.

The JobPath providers log and record all complaints they receive and submit the total twice monthly to my Department. Likewise, my Department log and record all complaints received directly in respect of the JobPath service and forward them to the JobPath provider in line with their contract obligations.

JobPath is assessed on an on-going basis through regular inspections and performance reporting.

The inspections monitor 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, the checking of Job Sustainment Fee Evidence Types and Exit Plans.

To date, 46 on-site inspections have been carried out at provider service delivery locations, 9 of which were un-notified.

My Department has begun publishing a performance report for the service on a quarterly basis. The most recent report was published on the Department’s website in June and can be accessed at - .

It is intended that a full econometric evaluation of the service will commence in early 2018.

In addition my Department commissions regular, independent, Customer Satisfaction Surveys to ensure that services are being delivered satisfactorily.

The outcomes of the customer satisfaction survey, also published in January, indicate that jobseekers are having a positive experience with the service. For example, jobseekers felt that they were receiving a good service (with 71 to 86% satisfaction vs. 5 – 8% dissatisfaction) and that the staff of the service made them feel valued (90+ %). Finally, the Department intends to commission a full econometric evaluation of the service towards the end of 2017, when a sufficient number of jobseekers will have completed their engagement period with the service and when a robust set of outcome data will be available to facilitate the analysis.

I trust this clarifies the matters for the Deputy.