Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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237. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if it is the sponsor or supervisor that has responsibility for the implementation for the daily running of community employment schemes, including the new welfare partners website; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53277/17]

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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238. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the additional training provided to sponsors, community employment supervisors and assistant supervisors in respect of the new welfare partners website; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53278/17]

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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239. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the additional training provided to sponsors, community employment supervisors and assistant supervisors in respect of additional responsibilities such as being responsible for and ascertaining the way in which coaching and mentoring takes place and providing evidence to their community development officer of this being done; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53279/17]

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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241. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to issues in relation to the helpline for community employment supervisors and assistant supervisors; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53281/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 237 to 239, inclusive, and 241 together.

Community Employment (CE) schemes are typically sponsored by groups (known as CE sponsors) wishing to benefit the local community. The CE sponsoring organisations are the legal employers of CE supervisors and assistant supervisors.

My Department is committed to modernising its service delivery and developing systems to support its functions. Responsibility for CE transferred from FÁS to my Department in January 2012 and continued to be delivered on a legacy IT platform. Recently, the CE Programme has been integrated onto my Department’s IT infrastructure. As part of this implementation, a new digital service - Welfare Partners - was developed for organisations who engage with the Department, with a specific focus on providing an online service to CE sponsors and other business partners.

My Department undertook nationwide consultation workshops with key CE scheme sponsors and supervisors during May and early June. As part of these consultations, sponsors were informed that my Department would be implementing a new IT platform/Welfare partners, on a phased basis. All sponsors and supervisors were invited to attend specific information sessions, held nationwide, on how to use the Welfare Partners platform. A dedicated helpdesk was established to provide assistance to sponsor groups with getting started on Welfare Partners. Additional resources have recently been allocated to this helpdesk to assist sponsors and supervisors with any access issues they may have. In addition, sponsors and supervisors have been provided with a Welfare Partners User Manual and further guidance, including a FAQ section, is available onwww.welfare.ie.Each scheme also has a dedicated local DEASP Officer who is available to help with any further queries.

The sponsor is responsible, through the supervisor, to ensure that the developmental needs of each CE participant on the scheme are catered for. It is the responsibility of the supervisor to ensure that a profile of each participant’s needs is drawn up through one-to-one consultations, and that this profile is reflected in the Individual Learner Plan (ILP), which must be approved by the Department. Each scheme must designate a member of the Project Management Committee to fulfil the role of the participant development officer. This officer must give full support to the supervisor in the identification, preparation, procurement and delivery of all relevant training, as outlined in the ILP. It is the individual sponsor’s responsibility to meet their contractual obligations and to manage and direct their staff.

Briefings are provided to sponsors, by Departmental staff, as and when required, to assist them in the management and delivery of the CE scheme, specifically in relation to participant development and scheme governance.

The IT enhancements outlined above will have a positive impact for CE sponsors as it will ease the administrative burden and improve operational processing. Customer service is at the centre of my Department’s strategies and business and we will continue to develop and extend the range of online services in line with the service delivery modernisation programme.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.