Benefit Safeguards - policy issues

https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/coffey-scrapped-plan-for-independent-review-of-sanctions-dwp-admits/

DWP on the Excellence Plan: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/33934/documents/186025/default/

Hi,

I am currently being met with a wall of silence when emailing the ACSSL email address or certain Area Leads - am I missing a new email address or new guidance does anyone know?  Using the address sparingly when all other avenues exhausted.

Thanks so much for any feedback or shared experiences of late.

HI Suzie

We were told at one of our recent stakeholder meetings that advisers are not allowed to contact ACSSLs directly! We’re still awaiting new escalation routes…

Last time we met with our local ACSSL lead, she told us that we have to go through the Local Partnership Manager for an issue to be escalated to her.

Daphne - 22 February 2023 04:01 PM

HI Suzie

We were told at one of our recent stakeholder meetings that advisers are not allowed to contact ACSSLs directly! We’re still awaiting new escalation routes…

We provide PB advice nationally and it is a nightmare identifying Partnership Managers let alone getting contact details!  Will be pleased to hear from them re updates!

Daphne - 22 February 2023 04:01 PM

HI Suzie

We were told at one of our recent stakeholder meetings that advisers are not allowed to contact ACSSLs directly! We’re still awaiting new escalation routes…

My colleague, Carri, took the following notes on the presentation by the speaker from the Advanced Customer Support Team at this 15/11/22 meeting of OSEF:
- In 2020 DWP introduced advanced customer support (ACS) Teams and network of advances customer support senior leaders (ACSSLs) were appointed
- We were told today: job of ACSSLs is to work with DWP staff with cases of concern, on a consultancy basis. They don’t take on cases. They don’t produce any kind of broader written guidance. They do feed back in to DWP policy work with observations about the cases they’re seeing. Other work includes participating in Safeguarding Adult Boards and Safeguarding Adult Reviews (though we were told again that “DWP doesn’t have a duty to safeguard”)
- We were told: ACSSLs are only intended to work with very limited external partners - at the moment, local authorities only - in their geographical areas. Although individual ACSSLs are free to ‘build relationships’ with other external orgs there are DWP concerns about their capacity which means that previous OSEF sharing of ACSSL contact details has been disowned/retracted by DWP and we are no longer invited to use the central inbox email address.
- However, DWP is “trialling a single digital gateway” for partner org to refer cases in to the ACS Team – will start with a “proof of concept test” with a specific DWP “product” in mind – probably Pension Service and the relevant OSEF members for that claimant group. No timetable for this project and can’t confirm what the referral criteria will be.
- DWP is also planning an ‘advanced customer support strategy’; its objectives are: “getting it right first time; listing, learning and improving; providing targeted support to claimants in immediate need; promoting an inter-agency approach”

New report from Nottingham City Safeguarding Adults Board looking into the death of Errol Graham -

https://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/media/3377147/billy-final-sar-for-publication-11th-may-2023.pdf

See also in the Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/may/12/erroll-graham-missed-chances-man-who-starved-nottingham-report

Daphne - 15 May 2023 11:08 AM

New report from Nottingham City Safeguarding Adults Board looking into the death of Errol Graham -

https://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/media/3377147/billy-final-sar-for-publication-11th-may-2023.pdf

This includes some interesting context on the case conferencing process: “There had previously been provision to convene a case conference, but this was not well supported by policy and guidance.”

I think I’d assumed that the case conferencing process was a new process, but it seems that isn’t the case.

I’d also note that Vulnerable Customer Champions (see Q428 here https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/1630/html/) seem to have already existed.  The IPRs refer to relaunching the role (at 67): https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/965160/response/2299314/attach/3/2023%2024124%20Annex%20A%20redacted.pdf

p9 includes a reference to DWP collecting data about complex needs https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1164782/E02931147_CP_847_Government_Response_to_the_Committee_of_Public_Accounts_on_the_Forty-second_to_the_Forty-seventh_reports_from_Session_2022-23_Accessible__002_.pdf

18 new staff to support ACSSLs - p.63 of web-ready PDF https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-to-2023

I don’t know what these roles are

Owen_Stevens - 12 February 2019 10:00 AM

DWP have committed to encouraging further uptake of joint working protocols between LAs and JCPs for care leavers. 

The response adds that “local processes will be put into place to ensure contact is made with the young person’s personal adviser in the event of a sanction being considered. This will allow all relevant information to be taken into account”.

The following text has been added to the DWP care leaver covenant:
“When considering a sanction on a care leaver, our work coaches must notify the care leaver Special Point of Contact, who will then contact the LA to see if there is any evidence or good reason why the care leaver should not be sanctioned.” https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-work-and-pensions-care-leaver-covenant-offer

I’ve just had this FOI response through: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/iris_common_risk_engine#incoming-2420044

DPIA 917 appears to touch on the creation of a ‘Citizen Event History data asset’

I have no way of knowing, but I wonder whether the DPIA might be related to this:
https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/9149/P105/#81249

edited to point out that, while the intention appears to be that the citizen event history data asset will help achieve statements from the DWP Business Strategy consistent with segmenting claimants and focusing intervention on those with greater need, this particular DPIA appears to be a lot more prosaic - focused on understanding the operational productivity of people wfh as compared to from an office.  Is the SSWP checking up on staff, or on claimants? I’m not sure…

The Serious Case Panel minutes from September 2023 refer to DWP’s Customer Experience Centre of Expertise.  This appears to be a new team which uses ‘journey mapping’ to pick up on problems experienced by claimants.
https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/dwp-serious-case-panel
https://www.sitemanagerjobs.co.uk/job/deputy-director-customer-experience-centre-of-expertise-cecoe/

PMIU report https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/papers_7a_7b_from_the_221019_ucp?nocache=incoming-2465973#incoming-2465973

The covering letter is careful to note that “this report was never a statement of Government Policy, rather it reflected the observations of individuals in the Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit at the time.”