Another staff transfer announced

The following details have been supplied by PCS DWP Group:
Hot on the heels of last week’s staff transfer announcement, DWP are today (2nd July 2014) announcing their latest staff transfer plans.

• In Hastings a team of 18 EO’s in Hastings Job Centre will become a satellite benefit centre
• In St Austell 5 EO’s will be moved from the Job centre to the Benefit Centre
• In Milton Keynes around 10 EO’s will move from the Job centre into the Benefit centre
• EO’s in the WSD Gloucestershire & West of England district will be asked to volunteer to transfer to Bristol Benefit centre to do Personal Independence Payment (PIP) work.
• AO’s in certain Job Centres in the Cumbria & Lancashire District will be asked to volunteer to transfer to Warbreck House in Blackpool to do PIP work.

Just one week after DWP released over 600 EO’s from Benefit Directorate under the exit scheme, they are now desperately trawling around the department to find other EO’s to replace them. This exemplifies the complete lack of workforce planning within the department at present and looks like a very bad deal for the taxpayer.

This announcement is the latest in a series of panic measures to try and find staff from one part of Operations to fill a gap in another part. It is time that DWP accepted that is not addressing the underlying problem.  DWP does not have enough staff and senior managers and Ministers must accept that they have no alternative but to start permanent recruitment again.

The decision to create Benefits satellite sites within Job Centres is clearly preferable to compulsorily transferring staff to other benefit centres, though it does raise issues around accommodation, line management provision, training and the type of work that the staff will be expected to do.