Robert Devereux
Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work and Pensions
What were your biggest policy and delivery challenges in 2013, and how did you handle them?
Starting the live operation of a series of huge welfare reforms. In April, we started taking claims for Universal Credit in Ashton and the new Personal Independence Payment for disabled people. We also began capping benefits in Hackney, removed the spare room subsidy in the North-West, devolved parts of the Social Fund to local government, and abolished Council Tax Benefit. That’s just six – and I’ve got sixty measures we’re delivering this Parliament.
After several years of developing legislation, guidance, IT, and supporting contracts, the critical challenge this year has been to ensure our frontline colleagues are well prepared to do what they do best: provide crucial services to millions of people, including some of the most vulnerable in society.
Where have you made the most progress in implementing the Civil Service Reform Plan, and what are your reform priorities for 2014?
DWP is striding forward with civil service reform. We’ve made progress in all areas.
An organisation of our size needs great leadership at every level, and in every part of the country. I’m delighted that the effort of thousands of leaders has resulted in a big increase in our people’s engagement within DWP (up six percentage points on 2012, and 10 on 2011), with recognition of better learning and development, better feedback on performance, better management of poor performance.
This is having a profound effect on the quality and cost of what we deliver. By enabling frontline staff in the way they work together, we’ve rapidly increased the number of claims made online for Jobseeker’s Allowance. Additionally, we have seen calls to our benefit enquiry lines reduced by over 22%, and far shorter times for claims to be decided.
We’ve also taken action on digital and commercial capability which will remain a focus in 2014.
What are your key challenges in the last full year of the Parliament, and how will you tackle them?
Even though we’ve already started virtually all the government’s welfare reforms – and are already running the department on a budget £2bn smaller than before this Parliament – we need to do more on both reform and efficiency in 2014.
We’ll continue to focus on the quality of leadership in DWP, so we ensure that all our people give their very best.
What would you most like Santa to bring you this year? And what would you like him to take away?
Anthony Trollope’s Last Chronicle of Barset: I’ve been reading the other chronicles this autumn, and marvel at their insight into human nature. Santa can take away persistent domestic plumbing problems.