Speeches by Pinto-Duschinsky.

“I will be very brief. We have talked about training very briefly. How might jobcentres better support people to retrain and develop and how, within that, do you think careers advice could be best tailored to people? Could you keep your answers short?”

“That leads to my second question. Clearly, the training journey and the support journey should not, ideally, finish when somebody gets a job. What in-work support would you like to see from jobcentres to support people and to help them move on in the labour market? Because the best way we can tackle poverty is not just…”

“Brilliant. Thank you all so much.”

“I would like to declare membership of UNISON and GMB.”

“One of the issues that comes up repeatedly is about the balance between monitoring, compliance, and providing support. Martin and Angela, in your submission you say that the jobcentre service should move away from arbitrary engagement targets and sanctions. Given that we have to police benefits in some way, what would …”

“But with three strikes, what does “you’re out” mean then?”

“Thank you, Angela. Martin, do you have anything to add on this?”

“Building on that, how should DWP determine who does and does not have an in-person interview? You talked before, Angela, about the conveyor belt as part of a moderation programme, almost. Then again, back to that question; given that, how should it be determined, in your view?”

“So you would maintain sanctions then?”

“Great. What do others think?”

“I want to thank you for mentioning the new deal. I worked on it many years go and I agree with you that it was a fantastic programme. Already a lot of conversation has begun to home in on one of the central trade-offs between work coaches and staff supporting people on the one hand, and checking compliance on the other…”

“I will ask a follow-up question on that, and I am interested in your views, too, Martin. Some commentators and analysis suggest the reduction in face-to-face interviews has contributed to much lower off-flow rates from benefits—basically they are not as rigorous, and there are issues with them. How would you respond to…”

“Can I follow up on one point and then put it to Sam and Abdi? You mentioned time. Work coaches are often very time constrained. How would you fit that richer interaction into a smaller timeframe? Are there things that we can be doing to save time, so to speak, and to lift pressure from work coaches to allow them to hav…”

“Can I pick up on a point you made, Abdi, and put it to Sam as well? Do you think, especially when facing people with complex needs, a work coach model that is a generalist model works, or would the disability employment adviser and lone parent adviser model be a better road to go down and be something that we should be…”

“Thanks, that is very helpful. We have talked a lot about DWP and a lot about customers, recipients and vulnerable claimants, but we have not talked about the third leg of the stool, which is employers. What else should work coaches be doing that they are not doing at the moment to help build those links with employers,…”

“What is driving this? Why is there this differential trend? There is a separate discussion about levels of spending in the UK versus other places, but why are we going up when others are not?”

“Thank you for this—it is very interesting. I want to come back to mental health in a moment, but first I want to touch on a couple of things to do with off-flows in other jurisdictions. First, we have heard conversation that the UK is a relative outlier in terms of rising levels of caseload and cost. Can you provide so…”

“Picking up on the labour market point, one of the things the Government is talking about in the review is looking at the legal duties in the Equality Act, particularly around the role of the EHRC, HSE, ACAS and so on. What changes would you like to see made in those areas? I am particularly looking at you, Angela.”

“I am grateful to you for mentioning the right to try. If we had more time, I would ask questions about how that would work, because it feels like an important part of the equation. Another part of the equation is around Access to Work. The Government is consulting on the future of Access to Work and has launched a Keep…”

“Thank you. Given that we have only two minutes left, I will be unbelievably brief.”