Speeches by Timms.

“It is, on the face of it, quite surprising that the Serious Case Panel does not look at serious cases. It looks at themes, as Neil has said. It does not look at individual cases. That is one of the things we just need to reflect on—whether that is right or whether there is something missing in the system that we ought …”

“We are looking at this. There is an argument for a more proactive approach here, but we do have to work through the various legal issues. It could involve providing information to a family member who did not previously know about a particular thing that was going on, and all that needs to be thought about. However, in …”

“Yes.”

“Let me start. It is very important that there is much more openness in the future around this whole process. You have asked about the criteria and that is one area, but also about what is learned from these reviews and what the upshot of them is as well. That has been pretty opaque in the past and that needs to change.…”

“Should there be better data? I would certainly welcome there being better data. The question, I suppose, is how such data would be gathered. The Department works quite hard to gather information from as wide a range of sources as possible about what is going on. You may want to talk to me about the Serious Case Panel t…”

“A big part of their job is engaging with people outside the Department, including giving their phone number and just making sure that they are able to provide an effective link.”

“Let me start with that. I think it is very useful. The memorandum itself has been a helpful initiative. It has been in place nearly a year now and seems to be working well. I wondered, actually, whether the Committee might like to see it. It is a helpful document to read and says a fair amount about the approach that t…”

“I will ask Neil to pick that one up as well.”

“Can I just add that the Department meets regularly with quite a large group of national stakeholder organisations—68, according to my briefing—who have expert knowledge about the needs of vulnerable people. CPAG is one of them. I was on a very useful call with Neil a few weeks ago. I am not sure how many people were on…”

“This is a very important subject. We are getting towards the end of the migration to Universal Credit and some of the more vulnerable people who need to be migrated will be migrated over the next few months. I will ask Neil to say more about exactly how that is being done. A point that intrigues me about all this is th…”

“It is true as well that the Department is experimenting with how to use those visiting officers and where they should be. Maybe they should be in a place that a number of people come to, which is not the jobcentre, as well as actually going to people’s homes.”

“Is the 400 additional a doubling? Do you know what the number was before?”

“First of all, I think Help to Claim is a very important service and Citizens Advice does a good job in delivering it. As you say, it was, to begin with, to a fair degree a face-to-face service; the current contract is just about telephone and online support. It is not something that I have looked at very much since Jul…”

“Advice is crucial. I have referred a number of times to the Green Paper that is coming up. We are working on that at the moment and Gail is part of those conversations. The advice that she gives is a very important part of the input that we are drawing on to put together our proposals.”

“Yes, the trauma-informed approach, and trauma awareness, is something that the Committee has taken fairly recent evidence, is that right? Certainly, we took evidence when I was here about the trauma-informed approach and how that is being rolled out across the Department. Perhaps I can ask Liz to say a little bit more …”

“There are a number of initiatives that have already been announced. There is the Connect to Work programme, which will be rolling out this year. What that is doing is taking an IPS approach— individualised placement and support—which we know has worked well for people with serious mental health problems and is increasi…”

“We will welcome opportunities to come back and talk about how we are getting on as things progress, yes. I will be delighted to have the Committee’s interest.”

“This is crucial, and we will say more about it in the Green Paper. I first took responsibility for disability benefits as a Minister in 1998. One of the things I was responsible for at that time was the launch of the New Deal for Disabled People. I remember nobody really knew how to set about helping people who were on…”

“Yes, it is right to raise concerns. We have talked a little bit already about what we are doing to make sure that staff in the Department are able to spot vulnerability and respond appropriately to it. There is specific training and guidance right across the Department on all this. There is also the customer additional…”

“Gov.uk provides an opportunity for whole-of-Government information to be provided in a way that is not siloed—it is all there in one place. We obviously have to make sure that people can find their way to it, but the provision of online information gives us quite a good opportunity to overcome that very real difficulty…”