Question to the Minister for Social Protection (Ms Joan Burton, TD)
To ask the Minister for Social Protection her views on the Harmon report issues on the evaluation of revised employment action plan, which found that data and IT systems are largely aimed at the provision of a claimant system rather than for the production of management information. – Jerry Buttimer.
For WRITTEN answer on Thursday, 18th July, 2013.
REPLY
My Department collects a wide range of data in engaging with jobseekers, which is mainly used at present to establish entitlements and for monitoring fraud and abuse. This information can also be more systematically used as a basis for evaluating progression outcomes for the Department’s customers and schemes, which was the focus of the Harmon report referred to in the question. A ‘jobseekers database’ is being developed in response to the report and in order to support the Department’s research capabilities in this area. Any demographic, employment, education, training or scheme related data currently available to the Department at Personal Public Service Number level will be considered for inclusion in the database, which will mainly involve restructuring of existing data into a consistent time series at customer level. Periods spent on activation or employment schemes can be related to subsequent work and benefit outcomes on this basis.
Analysis of customer outcomes using the database will be made available when the technical and data validation work is completed.