Written question asked by David Kidney (Labour) on Tuesday, 17 May 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 19 May 2005. It was answered by Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour) on Tuesday, 24 May 2005 on behalf of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Interchange Scheme

Question: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what assessment he has made of the operation of the Interchange scheme for providing broader work experience for local government staff.

Answer: I have been asked to reply.Interchange opportunities between staff in local and central Government are arranged by individual Departments.The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister currently has 10 members of staff on secondment to local authorities and 26 local authority staff working in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on secondment in areas including Housing, Homelessness, Social Exclusion, Local Government Legislation, Urban Policy Unit, and Local Government Strategy Unit. Such opportunities provide useful development and training opportunities for individuals to develop new skills and new ways of working and for organisations to benefit from the exchange of new ideas and ways of working. An evaluation process is in place to assess the benefits of each secondment.It is however for the local authorities to develop their own interchange policy and make decisions on the number of their staff they can release on secondments. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has no input into these policies.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 434 c64-5W;434 c68-9W; 80
Session: 2005-06
Subjects: Civil servants Government departments Local government Staff Work experience Secondment Interchange initiative
Contains statistics: Yes