The following details have been supplied by the PCS DWP Group:
As part of the government’s ‘Get Britain Working’ initiative, Jobcentre Plus advisers can offer JSA claimants aged 18 to 24 a period of work experience with employers for between 25 and 30 hours per week.
PCS believes that while work experience clearly has a role in helping people back to work the government should be investing in real jobs, not cutting them as it is currently doing in DWP and all major government departments.
DWP, as an employer, is participating in its own flagship scheme and will therefore be offering work experience placements to JSA claimants in its offices. The intention is for DWP to offer around 1,500 work experience placements each year. The placements will last between 4 and 8 weeks. A JSA claimant can be offered a placement in any part of DWP apart from any Jobcentre Plus office that deals with any element of their JSA claim.
These work experience placements are not DWP employees and are not subject to DWP terms and conditions or HR policies. They are not paid by DWP while on work experience but continue to receive their benefits, plus any additional travel or childcare costs.
Safeguards in Place
The supposed aim of the work experience placements is to provide participants with the opportunity to gain some experience of work to improve their job prospects and real life experience of the workplace. Placements should be given real and meaningful activities but they cannot be used to replace employees who may be leaving DWP.
Strict rules which prevent them from having access to the Department’s main computer systems should mean they cannot replace paid staff. Placements should be given no expectation of a permanent or temporary job at the end of the placement. All placements will have to complete security checks prior to them starting their placement.
PCS Concerns
PCS has raised concerns over the use of placements in DWP offices. No extra resources have been made available to managers to support the use of placements. We believe it will be a further unwelcome burden on hard-pressed staff and managers to carry out inductions and ensure that meaningful activities are made available for people on placements while having to do their ‘day job’ at the same time.
The use of work experience placements on this scale in DWP is unprecedented. It is therefore quite probable that issues and concerns will arise over the coming period as the placements start to appear in offices.
