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:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking what the rate of (a) absence and (b) absence resulting from injury at work was among Jobcentre Plus employees in (i) Essex and (ii) Castle Point in each of the last five years; and what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of these absences. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
The system we use to monitor sick absence is a relatively new system so I am only able to provide data from May 2007 to June 2009. I have therefore detailed below the average working days lost per member of staff in Jobcentre Plus in Essex between June 2007 and May 2008, and between June 2008 and May 2009 along with the associated financial cost. I am unable to provide you with details for Castle Point as we do not record them for this area specifically.
Average work days lost to sickness (in days) Total cost of sickness days lost (£) June 2008 to May 2009 8.79 964,874 June 2007 to May 2008 11.17 1,072,866
The level of sickness absence data that Jobcentre Plus collects does not allow us to identify specific work related injuries as the cause of sickness absence.
Jobcentre Plus is very aware of the negative impact of sickness absence on customer service and is committed to improving performance in this area. Indeed, our strategies are delivering considerable success, with the latest data confirming the improving trend we have seen over the last 16 months. We remain committed to securing further improvements.
In addition, we are embarking upon a major health and wellbeing programme across all of our sites. The programme provides staff with a wealth of information and guidance to support healthier lifestyles. It gives them access to a confidential on-line health and wellbeing assessment and delivers targeted solutions to support the individual. The programme also provides managers at our Jobcentres with comprehensive information about the potential health risks to staff, ensuring specific preventative action is taken to address the issues.
My District Manager for Essex, Neil Brettell, will be happy to talk to you further if you have any further questions. He can be contacted on 01245 214242, by post at Government Buildings, Beeches Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 2RT or by email at Neil.Brettell@jobcentreplus.gsi.gov.uk
All Jobcentre Plus offices have access to all vacancies advertised by Jobcentre Plus. Each office has jobpoints that allow jobseekers to search for jobs by various criteria including location. Therefore jobseekers using the Jobcentre Plus offices in Essex and Castle Point will be able to access the same vacancies as would a jobseeker in any other part of the country.
The number of vacancies advertised for Essex and the Castle Point constituency in the latest 12 months for which data are available are shown in the following table.
Essex Castle point Essex Castle point June 2008 8,144 331 6,606 331 July 2008 6,706 270 6,662 366 August 2008 8,203 210 6,633 259 September 2008 6,299 263 5,939 253 October 2008 6,864 263 6,185 318 November 2008 6,855 180 5,803 188 December 2008 3,923 135 4,311 168 January 2009 2,241 108 2,687 103 February 2009 6,150 329 3,890 164 March 2009 4,782 254 3,954 226 April 2009 4,534 231 3,758 125 May 2009 5,503 246 4,112 241 Notes: 1. Interpretation of these data need to take account of changes in recent years to Jobcentre Plus procedures for taking and handling vacancies. These figures are not fully comparable over time and may not indicate developments in the labour market. A more detailed explanation is available on the nomis website. 2. Notified vacancies include any speculative placings recorded by Jobcentre Plus. Datasets from May 2006 may reflect substantially reduced levels of speculative placings as part of the notified series. Consequently, care should be taken in interpreting time-series data. 3. The stocks of unfilled vacancies reflect more accurately job opportunities available via Jobcentre Plus. In the case of unfilled vacancies, use of the figures on live vacancies is recommended (that is, excluding suspended vacancies), and this is the default option. Live vacancies may still include some vacancies which have already been filled or are otherwise no longer open to recruits, due to natural time lags in procedures for following up vacancies with employers. 4. Data are unrounded. 5. Comprehensive estimates of all job vacancies (not just those notified to Jobcentre Plus) have been available from the monthly ONS Vacancy Survey since April 2001, based on a sample of some 6,000 enterprises. However, the ONS survey is currently designed to provide national estimates only. Source: Jobcentre Plus Labour Market System.
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:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking whether free at the point of use telephones are available to Jobcentre Plus customers in each Jobcentre in Essex. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
We have Customer Access Telephones in all our Jobcentres in Essex. These telephones are free for our customers to access a range of services. They are primarily used to make enquires about benefit claims and other services offered by us. They can also be used to contact employers and other agencies that can help customers find work. On request we can also make other telephones available, at no cost, for customers to telephone prospective employers or make other relevant calls.