8 September 2008

Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP

Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform

DWP Summer School

Kings College, Cambridge

Monday 8 September 2008

[Check against delivery]

Let me welcome you to your first day at the DWP Summer School. I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak to you all this afternoon. I read that the purpose of summer school – introduced over 50 years ago – is “to present a challenging opportunity for students to experience learning in an academic environment”. It’s certainly a great environment, and I welcome the fact that, as a result of success last year, there will be two Schools this year.

This year the focus is on the Department's Change Programme, specifically on leadership and customers. I hope you'll be able to take your learning back to your job, sharing it with colleagues, helping us do a better job still in the future.

The first point I want to make is to express thanks to everybody for your work on the part of the department. It hasn’t been an easy few years for this department. We have demanded a great deal of the people working for us, and in response they have delivered. There has been a radical reduction in the size of the department, far reaching changes in the way services are delivered, and it has been accomplished with an impressive high level of professionalism. And I think its important for Ministers to take advantage of opportunities like this to express thanks for what has been achieved.

This department has an immense impact on households in the UK, and on whether we achieve our goals:

• An 80% rate of employment;
• An end to child poverty by 2020;
• Security and dignity in retirement for all;
• Equality for disabled people.

You may work for the Child Support Agency processing payments. Then you’re also reducing child poverty by helping families get the support they are entitled to. Maybe you work for the Pensions, Disability and Carers Service. You’re helping people gain more independence and control over their lives. Or you’re a personal adviser at Jobcentre Plus. You have been helping people into jobs, and helping them also realise their potential, build their skills and confidence, improve their health, and improve both their children’s lives now and their children’s prospects in the future. And in all these areas we have been making far reaching changes, imposing major upheavals on staff, re-organising to ensure our services can meet the challenges which we know are ahead.

And nobody reviewing what has happened in the department in the last few years can fail to be impressed by what has been achieved. The roll-out of Jobcentre Plus has delivered an impressive transformation, from impersonal and often, frankly, grim benefit offices, to a welcoming, modern retail environment. Jobcentre Plus was commended by the National Audit Office for delivering this roll-out under budget and on time, earning a rare tribute from the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. “Other government projects”, he said, “should look at the successes that this project has had, and try to introduce the best practise lessons into their own work.”

The changes delivered substantial cost savings – and as Chief Secretary to the Treasury II had good reason to be grateful for them – but they have also enabled us to do a better job for people. I’m responsible for Jobcentre Plus’ programme of LEPs which is a new way of working – delivering to employers disadvantaged jobseekers who have been specifically trained for that employer’s vacancies. We have been doing, according to the employers I speak to – a much better service that we used to – and providing a better service therefore for jobseekers, with 25 000 people so far into work through LEPs, with a target of 250 000 by the end of 2010.

DWP helps 25 million people every year. You come from very different parts of the Department, and do completely different jobs. But everyone plays an important part in providing security and opportunity at every stage of people’s lives. These are challenging and difficult times, and we have a lot of work to do, but there is plenty of success that we can celebrate as well.

I have a long association with this department and its predecessors. After the 1997 election I was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the then Minister of State for Employment, Andrew Smith, in the year when we introduced New Deal. I then became Disability Benefits Minister, followed by Pensions Minister before moving to a ministerial role in the Treasury. And then I came back as pensions minister for a second stint after the 2005 election, before returning to the Treasury again, and taking my current role when James Purnell became Secretary of State in January.

I have responsibilities for the labour market, Welfare Reform, Jobcentre Plus, Employment programmes, Lone parents, Childcare, tackling Child Poverty, including links with other Government Departments.

Economic Overview
The past decade has seen a period of unprecedented economic success. The UK economy has experienced 63 consecutive quarters of positive growth, a prolonged period of low inflation and low interest rates. And we have grasped the opportunity to lift the rate of employment to a historically high level, with more people in work in Britain today than ever before in our history, and to reduce unemployment to levels not seen since the 1970s. The world economic climate has been favourable, its true, but we have done better than other major economies, and we shouldn’t underestimate the achievements of this department in helping people in to work and changing their lives for the better. The department can be very proud of what it has achieved.

However, there is much more still to be done, with still many pockets of persistent disadvantage. And in any case we are moving into more challenging times in the economy. Twin global shocks – the credit crunch, the surge in food and energy prices have hit all the world’s economies. The credit crunch is affecting homebuyers and businesses. The boss of Halifax said last week that it wasn’t going to change until house prices started to rise in the US – not a matter susceptible to much influence by the UK Government. The global surge in food and energy prices affects everyone. It is all feeding into a wider economic slowdown and weaker growth than we have seen in the past.

But the past decade of rising incomes and job creation – the fact that we have more people in work than ever before – puts us in a strong position to deal with today’s challenges. We have today the kind of open and flexible markets that make it possible for businesses to react quickly to changing and difficult circumstances.

It is going to be a challenging year for all of us. We already have a demanding reform programme to implement. And now the immediate outlook suggests the prospect of rising unemployment. Minimising the effects of the slowdown means we need to keep an effective JSA regime, and maintain our rights and responsibilities approach for inactive groups as well as for JSA claimants. We need to keep people attached to the labour market, and not repeat the mistakes of past downturns when people were encouraged to drift into inactivity in order to reduce the numbers claiming unemployment benefit.

The Green Paper
In July we published a Green Paper on welfare reform: “No-one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility”. ”No-one written off” is a good slogan for our department, and the green paper sets out proposals to reduce welfare dependency, help more people into work, provide greater support and control for disabled people and strengthen parental responsibility.

There is no right to a life on benefits for those who are capable of working. Paid work is the best route out of poverty. Each of us has a role to play in contributing to the society we live in. No-one should be left behind, so we will provide personalised support to everyone who needs it, to ensure they have the opportunity to get into and progress in work.

We want people to have more choice and control over their lives, and, with the right support, more responsibility for themselves and their families.

This is an ambitious programme of reform which presents significant challenges for the department, and for every one of you in your jobs. You’ll have plenty of opportunity to focus on DWP’s Change programme this week. But the drive to improve further the way in which public services are delivered is all the more important if we want this ambitious programme of reforms to succeed.

I hope you will find this week fruitful, and that you will enjoy the unique opportunity to share ideas with colleagues from different parts of the Department. Summer School is the ideal forum for interesting and lively debate, so let me open the floor to comments and questions.