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Jobcentre Plus

Answer

The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. She will write to the hon. Member.Letter from Lesley Strathie, dated 12 December 2005:"The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your questions concerning Jobcentre Plus' Response to Displayed Vacancies (RDV) system. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.""Prior to the creation of Jobcentre Plus, the Employment Service embarked on its Modernising Employment Service (MES) programme. Part of this programme was to change RDV (card vacancies) to touch screen kiosks or ““Jobpoints””, whilst ensuring that the needs and expectations of individual customers were met. As RDV was the preceding system, I have taken your question to be referring to Jobpoints.""A wide variety of research has been carried out to assess the impact of these changes, and the use of Jobpoints, on local communities and the effectiveness of Jobcentre Plus systems. This includes:""a Jobseeker Direct Customer Satisfaction Survey;""a quantitative telephone survey of over 3,000 Jobcentre Plus customers;""Greater London Enterprise carried out three sweeps of the Qualitative Employer Survey and the Customer Service Centre Case Studies;""an Econometric/Statistical Analysis of the impact of MES;""Jobcentre Case Study research and analysis of the Jobseeker Surveys;""a follow-up national telephone survey of 3,411 Jobcentre Plus customers to provide representative data on customers' experience of, views on, and satisfaction with, Jobcentre Plus services; and""a Jobcentre Plus National Customer Satisfaction Survey.""Furthermore, an independent evaluation of customers' reactions to these changes, carried out in January 2003, showed that between 31% and 48% of jobseekers reported an increase in the numbers and types of vacancies they looked at, the number of applications made, and their confidence in getting a job.""An analysis of the costs to Jobcentre Plus of introducing Jobpoints was included in the overall MES evaluation in 2003. When set alongside reduced resources for operational delivery during MES implementation, this supported the conclusion that MES enabled improved efficiency, accuracy, flexibility and responsiveness of work processes.""I hope this is helpful."

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

30361; 440 c1767W;440 c1767W

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Jobcentres Jobcentre Plus Research Vacancies Labour market

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk