Welfare to work and accessibility

Jobcentre Plus is an executive agency of the Department for Work and Pensions. The Department was created in June 2001 with the aim 'to promote opportunity and independence for all'.

In 2002 the Department was set ten Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets to be achieved by 2006. Jobcentre Plus will play an important role in delivering eight of the ten targets. Those targets relevant to the SEU report are:

• To demonstrate progress by Spring 2006 on increasing the employment rate and reducing the unemployment rate over the economic cycle;
• Over the three years to Spring 2006 increase the employment rates of disadvantaged areas and groups, taking account of the economic cycle - lone parents, ethnic minorities, people aged 50 and over, those with the lowest qualifications and people in the 30 Local Authority districts with the poorest initial labour market position, and to significantly reduce the difference between their employment rates and the overall rate;
• To reduce the proportion of children in households with no-one in work over the three years from Spring 2003 to Spring 2006 by 6.5%;
• In the three years to 2006 increase the employment rate of people with disabilities, taking account of the economic cycle, and to significantly reduce the difference between their employment rate and the overall rate. Work to improve the rights of disabled people and to remove barriers to their participation in society;
• Make significant progress towards modernising welfare delivery so that by 2005 85% of customers have their benefit paid into their bank accounts;

Through our network of Regions, Districts and Jobcentres we aim to contribute to the Government's aim of tackling poverty, reducing worklessness, promoting growth and opportunity and modernising Government. It is our aim to work with a wide range of partners to provide work as the best form of welfare, help unemployed and economically inactive people to move closer to the labour market and compete effectively for work while providing appropriate help and support for those without work.

We recognise that this is a huge challenge and commitment and that those customers we are helping face a number of diverse barriers and issues - including those of transport and accessibility.

In delivering these commitments a major issue which has had to be taken into account is the recent re-structure of Jobcentre Plus which has sought to re-focus the shape of the organisation and has resulted in greater levels of responsibility and anatomy at the business/delivery end. District Managers now have far greater opportunities and flexibilities to design and define initiatives to more effectively meet the changing and specific needs of their locality. Partnership activity is essential to achieve this.

Jobcentre Plus remains fully committed to delivering its business objectives and to tackling the many and diverse barriers that our customers face, including those related to the accessibility of employment opportunities. Many jobseekers experience difficulties accessing interviews and traveling to their jobs for various reasons, and Jobcentre Plus encourages the use of a wide range of flexible and workable approaches and initiatives to help to resolve these difficulties.

Such approaches include the Adviser Discretion Fund (ADF), which aims to give certain jobseekers financial assistance to purchase appropriate goods or services which will help to overcome barriers to work; and the Travel to Interview Scheme, which helps unemployed people by paying the cost of travelling to a job interview which is beyond daily travelling distance of their home.

Jobcentre Plus also works with its partners to resolve work accessibility issues, for example through the Private Sector-Led (PSL) delivery of New Deal for Young People and New Deal for people aged 25 and over.

In addition Jobcentre Plus provides many forms of financial and practical help such as the Access to Work scheme for people with disabilities, and financial help for people living in rural areas with inadequate transport facilities for young people starting in employment and training, and for those returning to work through schemes such as Job Grant.

Through the SEU Report's Accessibility Strategy, Jobcentre Plus has made commitments to carry out various report recommendations to further improve and expand one of its original commitments to helping people to find and retain work. by improving accessibility. These include:

Travel to Interview Scheme

Jobcentre Plus has extended the Travel to Interview scheme from April 2003 to cover claimants of more benefits including Incapacity Benefit, and local journeys which cost over £4 on a discretionary basis.

The ATOC Agreement

Jobcentre Plus, the Association of Train Operating Companies and Transport for London Agreement was implemented in 1998/99 for New Deal 18-24 customers, extended to New Deal 25+ customers in 2000, and further extended to New Deal 50+, disabled and lone parent customers in November 2002. The Agreement provides New Deal participants in England and Wales with a 50% reduction on the cost of rail travel.

Increasing Awareness

Jobcentre Plus issued the SEU report to each of its Districts, writing to all District Managers to set out their key roles and showing how, by talking to transport planners, Jobcentre Plus Districts can play their part in SEU's strategy to ensure that people have access to work.

Extension of the Eligibility for the Adviser Discretion Fund

Jobcentre Plus extended the eligibility criteria to all benefit claimants from the sixth month of their claim and to anyone joining the New Deal for Lone Parents from April 2004. In addition, Jobcentre Plus are now developing new flexibilities for their Districts to respond to local labour market conditions, which will be available from April 2004.

The Transport Projects Fund (TPF)

DWP and Jobcentre Plus introduced a £5M Action TPF in April 2002. The fund supports employment-related transport projects run by Action Teams for Jobs. DWP is currently seeking Ministerial approval to continue TPF to a third phase of April 2004 to March 2006. Jobcentre Plus has recently introduced a 'fast-track' process for purchases of services etc of less than £10K, which could be procured by local Action Teams rather than Regional Contract Teams.

Travel Information and Journey Planning Fund

A £3M fund has been introduced to improve travel information and journey planning in Jobcentre Plus offices. Plans currently being developed include: a software package to enable customer access to information in each Jobcentre via a kiosk; kiosk access will enable customers to access the 'Transport Direct' and housing sites; plans to site kiosks in external locations. This should be completed during 2004/05.

Jobcentre Plus Districts have become, and will continue to be, key to the first of the SEU Strategy's two main themes - a new framework of accessibility planning - along with central government departments who are already working on achieving the second theme - national policy changes to improve public transport, planning and so on. It does this by sharing and extending good practice, and by talking to Local Authority transport officers about transport problems that are making it difficult for our customers to secure work.

Text supplied by Jobcentre Plus, August 2003