The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the acting chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Mel Groves. I have asked the acting chief executive to provide the right hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Mel Groves:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking how many and in what locations Jobpoints have been set up outside Jobcentre Plus since their inception. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
Locating Jobpoints with external partners is part of our vision to meet the challenge of helping more customers find jobs and remain in work using modern technology. In particular, we are keen to use this approach to focus more on customers with the greatest disadvantages and those who are not in touch with the labour market.
There are currently 108 Jobpoints located away from Jobcentre Plus offices. The locations of these Jobpoints are in the attached annex.
Libraries Name Location Number of jobpoints Ambleside North West 1 Attleborough East of England 1 Bakewell East Midlands 1 Bewdley West Midlands 1 Bramsholme Yorks and Humber 2 Broadway West Midlands 1 Brynmawr Wales 1 Croxteth North West 1 Dawlish South West 1 Denbigh Wales 1 Easterside North East 1 Eckington East Midlands 1 Gorleston East of England 1 Grove Hill North East 1 Hemlington North East 1 Kelso Scotland 1 Knighton Wales 1 Loanhead Scotland 1 Ludlow West Midlands 1 MileCross East of England 1 Newbridge Wales 1 North Ormesby North East 1 Peebles Scotland 1 Prestatyn Wales 1 Rhymney Wales 1 Risca Wales 1 Shotts Scotland 1 Stourport West Midlands 1 Swaffham East of England 1 Watton East of England 1 Wells Next sea East of England 1 Ystrad Wales 1
Name Jobcentre Plus Number of jobpoints University College, Worcester West Midlands 1 Learning 744, Boscombe Bournemouth South West 1 Thorntree Development and Training Centre, Thorntree North East 1 New Mills Adult Education Centre East Midlands 1
Name Jobcentre Plus Region Number of jobpoints Broadwater Farm Primary School, Haringay London 1 Integrated Children’s Centre, Cardiff Wales 1 Robert Owen Early Year Centre, Greenwich London 1 The Children’s Centre, Bradford Yorkshire and Humberside 1 Tipton Children’s Centre, Tipton West Midlands 1 Warren Hills Children’s Centre, Leicester East Midlands 1 Gilmerton Children Centre, Edinburgh Scotland 1
Name Jobcentre Plus Region Number of jobpoints Beaumaris Community Centre Wales 1 Killamarsh Community Centre East Midlands 1
Name Jobcentre Plus Region Number of jobpoints Acklington North East 2 Brixton London 2 Featherstone Yorkshire and Humberside 1 Leeds Yorkshire and Humberside 2 Lewes South East 2 Ranby East Midlands 2 Swansea Wales 2 Woodhill East of England 2 Hollesley Bay East of England 1 Northallerton North East 2 Glen Parva East of England 2 Rochester South East 2
Name Jobcentre Plus Region Number of jobpoints Rainbow Leisure Centre, Middlesbrough North East 1 Tonyrefail Leisure Centre, Rhondda Wales 2 Neptune Centre, Middlesbrough North East 1
Name Jobcentre Plus Region Number of jobpoints Birkenhead North West 1 Rock Ferry North West 1 Llandeilo Wales 1 Wychavon West Midlands 1 Caerphilly Wales l Centenary Court Bradford 1
Name Jobcentre Plus Region Number of jobpoints Boness Scotland 1 Bromyard West Midlands 1 Denny Scotland 1 Droitwich West Midlands 1 Halewood North West 2 Kilsyth Scotland 1 Motherwell Scotland 1
Name Location Number of jobpoints ASDA Swindon 1 Co-op Teignmouth 1
Name Location Number of jobpoints Arts Factory London 2 Bloxwich West Midlands 1 Bulith Wells Enterprise Centre South West 1 Careers West Wales Wales 1 Cyfle Ffestiniog Cyf Wales 1 Hemlington Comm. Partnership North East 1 Ledbury Info Hereford Hlp Pnt West Midlands 1 Llantwit Major Outreach Office Wales 1 LymeNet Community Learning Centre South West 1 North Lanarkshire Volunteer Development Agency Scotland 1 Norton Radstock Infoplus South West 1 Stansted Airport East of England 1 St. Helen’s Starting Point North West 1 Trafford Centre North West 2 Treharris Communities First Wales 1 Working for Families Fund Scotland 1 Wythenshawe Forum Futures North West 2
The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the acting chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Mel Groves. I have asked him to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Mel Groves dated 21 April 2009:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking what estimate he has made of (a) the number of people who have used the Jobcentre Plus rapid response service in the last 12 months and (b) the number and proportion of those people who found employment through the service. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
The rapid response service (RRS) was expanded in November 2008. The service is now available whenever an employer is faced with a possible need to make people redundant. We contact each employer who notifies the Insolvency Service of a proposal to make 20 or more people redundant at one establishment. We also offer RRS support to other employers who we know are going to make people redundant whenever we judge that the potential impact on the local labour market of the cumulative effect of recent redundancies justifies using RRS.
Since the service was expanded, over 1,000 employers have accepted offers of RRS support for employees facing redundancy, or the possibility of redundancy. Our administrative records suggest that, all told, more than 150,000 employees were facing possible redundancy in those situations.
We do not record the numbers of people finding jobs during the delivery of RRS support. The RRS is just one part of the overall service we provide to people who lose their jobs and need help to move back into work as quickly as possible.
The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the acting chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Mel Groves. I have asked the acting chief executive to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Mel Groves:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking how many (a) benefit delivery centres, (b) customer-facing jobcentres and (c) contact centres Jobcentre Plus operated in each (i) region and (ii) Jobcentre Plus District in each year since 2002. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
Jobcentre Plus inherited around 1,500 offices from the merger of the Benefits Agency and the Employment Service in 2002. We have modernised our Jobcentre network to improve customer service, rationalising our estate to provide excellent coverage with integrated customer facing offices, at the same time reducing cost to the tax payer. We remain the largest office network in Government with 741 modern Jobcentres. These offices are supported by modern Contact Centres and main Benefit Delivery Centres.
The great majority of our services (in common with most large, modern organisations) are now delivered through the telephone and internet. For example, to give customers more convenient access, we have around half a million vacancies on-line at any time (our website receives close to one million job searches every working day), and new claims to benefit are predominantly taken by telephone with some taken on-line. This has brought our customer facing services together in a more coherent and integrated network and I believe Jobcentre Plus is well-placed to respond to the full range of economic conditions.
Our Contact Centre network was set up in 2006 and there are currently 31 Contact Centres. Our Benefit Delivery Centre network was established in late 2007 with 79 centres and all remain in place. The information you have requested is only available at regional/country level and can be found in the following tables.
Regions/Country Benefit Delivery Centres Customer Facing Jobcentres Contact Centres East of England 6 57 2 East Midlands 7 53 3 London 7 74 0 North East 3 45 2 North West 12 97 6 Scotland 9 99 3 South East 8 74 0 South West 6 57 4 Wales 5 63 4 West Midlands 8 63 3 Yorkshire and the Humber 8 59 4 Totals 79 741 31 Source: Jobcentre Plus
January each year Region/Country 30 March 2009 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 East of England 57 57 66 67 72 84 85 90 90 East Midlands 53 53 54 56 69 71 75 83 83 London 74 77 80 90 114 121 132 138 139 North East 45 45 47 49 53 60 64 65 65 North West 97 97 104 112 129 139 153 160 160 Scotland 99 99 100 103 125 139 150 153 153 South East 74 74 77 82 97 107 121 123 123 South West 57 57 79 83 91 102 114 118 118 Wales 63 63 63 64 87 95 108 111 111 West Midlands 63 63 67 79 98 105 108 115 116 Yorkshire and the Humber 59 59 60 61 68 79 87 88 88 Totals of all regions 741 744 797 846 1,003 1,102 1,197 1,244 1,246 Note: The Jobcentre Plus customer facing service delivery network comprises of Jobcentres, Benefit Delivery Centres, and Contact Centres. Head office, regional offices and district offices are not included. Contact Centres operate nationally and their location bears no relation to the customers they serve. Source: Jobcentre Plus