The Department is committed to continuing to deliver for customers, families and the economy, and yesterday announced its strategic ambition for its back-of-house services, i.e. those that are delivered virtually and where customers are not seen face to face. This will not affect any public-facing roles, or any Jobcentre Plus services.
I want to provide reassurance that this is not a plan to reduce our headcount—where possible, our colleagues in offices due to close are being offered opportunities to be redeployed to a nearby site, or retrained into a new role in DWP or another Government Department. That is alongside our effort to utilise our hybrid working policy to help facilitate more inclusive workplaces, which are capable of adapting to the needs of employees and the Department.
The Department’s plans for transformational change will support delivery of the Government priorities for getting people back into employment, deliver long-term savings and meet Government modernisation commitments. The Department has developed a strategy which will, over the next 10 years, reshape how, where and when it delivers its services. Over the 10-year period the Department will transition to an estate that is smaller, greener, and better—making DWP more efficient. By having a smaller footprint, this helps us to be greener. This type of bold modernisation can support efficiencies, create value for money, reduce fraud and error, build resilience and sustainability, and achieve improved customer outcomes and experience.
To ensure that DWP can continue to build on its success, it needs to make progress over this spending review period to set the foundation for more significant changes in the future. The Department needs to take advantage of shifts in post-covid expectations around customer service delivery and ways of working, build on digital transformations of services and make use of estate lease breaks in 2023 to enable the Department to achieve its future service delivery aspirations.
The Department currently operates from over 920 buildings and employs over 92,000 people. Reducing the Department’s estate footprint will deliver value for money for the taxpayer and enable investment to improve the working environment for colleagues in our remaining buildings. Modernisation will enable a customer-focused, digital-first organisation with more self-serve and automation.
That transformation needs to be viewed alongside the massive recent investment in frontline services. Since the start of the pandemic, we have opened over 170 new temporary jobcentres as part of our rapid estate expansion programme. We have also recruited 13,500 new work coaches in order to provide our claimants with the tailored face-to-face support they need.
The plan also supports three other key Government strategies—strengthening the Union—ensuring the Department maintains a footprint in Scotland and Wales; Places for Growth—by committing to move roles out of London; and levelling up, by retaining a presence in some of the most deprived areas throughout the nations and regions.
This change to our estates will have different implications in different places, so I have sent a letter to each MP with an affected site in their constituency explaining what the change will mean in their specific case. The letters include notification of a virtual surgery I will hold on Wednesday 23 March to hear feedback from hon. Members. I have also sent a “Dear colleague” letter to all Members, which includes the detail of the sites affected.
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