The roll-out of the Jobcentre Plus Office network

Transcription

1 Departmet for Work ad Pesios The roll-out of the Jobcetre Plus Office etwork REPORT BY THE COMPTROLLER AND AUDITOR GENERAL HC 346 Sessio February 2008

2 SummARy What is the Jobcetre Plus roll-out? 1 The roll-out of Jobcetre Plus is oe of the largest public sector costructio programmes udertake i the Uited Kigdom i recet years. It eabled the Departmet for Work ad Pesios to itegrate the work of two govermet agecies (the Employmet Service ad the Beefits Agecy) ito Jobcetre Plus i 2002, ad the ratioalisatio of a estates portfolio of 1,500 offices. 2 The roll-out programme was lauched i October The aim was to re-desig, re-brad ad refurbish over 800 former Jobcetres ad Social Security offices ad make the job-seekig ad beefit claimig experiece more like that experieced i a bak or moder retail eviromet. The mai objectives of the ew etwork were to: improve service to the customer by movig to a moder office eviromet; improve efficiecy by reducig the size of the estate ad automatig processes; ad to provide the ifrastructure for a more tailored service ad help reduce uemploymet. 4 THE ROLL-OuT OF THE JOBcENTRE PLuS OFFIcE NETWORk

3 3 We examied the roll-out of Jobcetre Plus offices as it represets a profoud chage i the way the largest govermet agecy does busiess with its five millio customers. It itroduces a radical shift from the former impersoal surroudigs of the Jobcetre ad Social Security offices to a moder retail-style eviromet ad has a major impact o the way staff iteract with customers ad hece the quality of service provided. 4 The focus of our report is o the programme to trasform the estate ito a moder office etwork, icludig the evidece o customers reactio to the ew offices. It examies whether the etwork has bee delivered cost-effectively, whether the project maagemet ad procuremet approach represeted good practice, ad whether the office etwork allows Jobcetre Plus to deliver a good service. 5 We did ot set out to examie progress i reducig uemploymet or the effectiveess of Jobcetre Plus s ew busiess processes themselves. It is, for example, difficult to disetagle the ifluece of the Agecy s ew office eviromets from the impact of programmes such as the New Deal for Loe Parets. Other NAO examiatios have reported o the performace of the Govermet s welfare to work programmes i helpig specific customer groups, such as older workers, disabled people, ad workless households, ad the Departmet s mechaisms to deliver the programme, such as the effectiveess of cotact cetres ad Persoal Advisers. Value for Moey assessmet 6 Jobcetre Plus did well to deliver early all the plaed offices while makig savigs agaist the agreed budget of 2.2 billio. Jobcetre Plus succeeded i keepig the etwork operatig while brigig ew offices o stream. Deliverig the offices usig a more covetioal procuremet strategy would have cost aroud 15 per cet more. The ratioalisatio of the Jobcetre Plus estate had saved 135 millio a year by The roll-out has also cotributed to improvemets i customer service. The way the project was maaged compares well with exteral good practice ad there are importat lessos for other govermet trasformatio projects. Staff reductios ad chages to the way services are delivered mea that 858 offices have bee rolled out, fewer tha the 1,000 origially evisaged. However, this has ot sigificatly affected accessibility to customers. 99 per cet of the plaed offices have bee rolled out. The itetio was to complete the programme i four years, but the chage of pla resultig from the cetralisatio of beefit delivery affected the timetable, with 80 offices beig delivered i a fifth roll-out year. This reductio, the itroductio of a more costeffective procuremet strategy ad tighter project cotrol mechaisms have eabled Jobcetre Plus to deliver the project for 314 millio less tha the 2.2 billio allocated to it i Of this reductio, approximately 136 millio resulted from reducig the size of the programme, millio from improved procuremet ad aroud 50 millio from other efficiecy improvemets. Although the ew estate is 12 per cet more expesive to ru per square metre because of higher quality ifrastructure ad locatios, the estate ratioalisatio has released about 20 per cet of the Jobcetre Plus estate, resultig i a overall savig of 135 millio a year by A umber of mechaisms were itroduced to cotai the costs of the project durig the desig ad costructio phases, icludig a gateway process for estates expediture, which defied the scope ad requiremets for each office, ad a stadard desk allocatio model. I decidig how to use the office etwork i the future, Jobcetre Plus will have to take ito accout a umber of ew developmets, for example a icrease i madatory customers as the Employmet ad Support Allowace is itroduced, ad greater collaborative workig with other public services. The etwork is well-placed to respod to ay chagig demads placed upo it. To evolve i the future Jobcetre Plus will, however, eed to review its operatig model ad i some areas it will be beeficial for the Agecy to pursue greater collaboratio with other orgaisatios, such as local authorities, rather tha expad the services delivered from Jobcetre Plus offices. The roll-out of the Jobcetre Plus Office etwork 5

4 Lessos ad recommedatios 7 We cosider that a umber of stregths i the way the programme was maaged cotributed to its successful delivery, while there are some areas where there is scope to improve further. Similar projects i the Departmet for Work ad Pesios ad elsewhere i govermet should embrace these priciples. 8 The key factors leadig to this success icluded: Commuicatig a visio of improvemet Commuicatio ad leadership provided by seior maagemet (paragraph 3.6) was importat i esurig staff buy-i to the roll-out. Where staff had a positive reactio to the roll-out, this reduced the risk of a egative impact o customer service. Cosistet leadership, strog goverace ad close moitorig by a cetral project maagemet team Project maagemet structures ad processes sigificatly improved as a result of the experiece ad challeges faced whe rollig out the first 225 offices (paragraphs ). This icluded: the establishmet of a core project maagemet team ad a Seior Resposible Ower; a clearer uderstadig of the roles ad resposibilities of key stakeholders; recogised owership ad accoutability for the programme by seior maagemet; more structured reportig ad decisio-makig arragemets; ad stability of the core project maagemet team. Chage was maaged well at sites that leared from previous experiece Local maagemet had the support of experieced implemetatio maagers. I some areas local iitiatives were also put i place, such as staff shadowig the work of offices which had bee rolled out. Our site visits highlighted that where appropriate chage maagemet processes were put i place at a local level, the roll-out was delivered effectively ad staff felt cofidet with the ew delivery of services to customers (paragraphs ). Usig parterig to icetivise cotractors to iovate ad reduce costs The parterig approach adopted from 2003, ad i particular the target pricig method ad performace maagemet of cotractors (paragraphs ), combied with other iitiatives to drive dow the cost of the programme. It allowed for a ope ad o-cofrotatioal eviromet for cotractors to work with the Departmet as oe team. Beig prepared to lear as the roll-out progressed As a result of the experiece of the iitial phase, Jobcetre Plus udertook a review of the project delivery arragemets ad idetified a umber of improvemet measures (paragraphs 3.5, 3.23). This icluded the appoitmet of a works programme maager from the private sector to assist i makig radical chages to the maagemet of the programme, such as the procuremet arragemets ad the adoptio of a sigle stadardised desig model. This opeess to chage also allowed the programme to respod to developmets elsewhere i the Departmet (paragraphs 1.10, ). Plaig i detail ad developig a replicable process A sigle replicable office desig ad a stadard seve stage estates gateway process for each site roll-out (paragraph 3.31) allowed costs to be cotrolled closely. 6 The roll-out of the Jobcetre Plus Office etwork

5 9 There is scope to build o this i future projects by: More use of quatitative data o customer volumes ad the costs associated with the estate Whe the roll-out was plaed Jobcetre Plus had o choice but to use a locally-drive model to pla the roll-out, but there is ow scope to combie more quatitative volume plaig, modellig ad use of Geographic Iformatio Systems to map office locatios i relatio to their customers i respodig to future policy developmets, icludig the implicatios of the Employmet ad Support Allowace (paragraphs 3.10 ad 4.14). Without these there is a risk of missig opportuities for achievig efficiecies ad of deliverig a icosistet quality of service across the etwork. Earlier itroductio of cetralised plaig ad maagemet processes, ad a stadardised desig approach At the begiig of the programme, detailed plaig of the roll-out was delegated to local districts. Districts were cosidered best placed to uderstad the requiremets of the service i their areas ad the coditio ad cofiguratio of the estate. A year ito the roll-out; the core project maagemet team cocluded, however, that it eeded more cotrol over the directio of the programme to esure the roll-out was completed to time ad budget. The move to more cetralised plaig ad maagemet processes, i partership with the itroductio of more prescriptive desig guidace, was effective, while some offices i districts which were rolled out early have subsequetly bee closed (paragraphs 2.3, ). Fidig out i advace what is importat to customers ad buildig i ways of measurig improvemets Customers reacted favourably to the trasformed office eviromet, but other aspects of service, some of which were also chaged by the roll-out, were more importat to them (paragraphs ). Trackig progress i achievig o-fiacial beefits such as chages i customer service would have idetified where beefits were ot beig achieved, allowed local targets ad a better uderstadig of what improvemets the ew etwork has delivered (paragraph 3.25). The roll-out of the Jobcetre Plus Office etwork 7