Accessing Jobcentre Plus Customer Services: a qualitative study

In recent years Jobcentre Plus has introduced a number of initiatives to improve the delivery of services to customers. There has been a rapid expansion in the use of telephony and web-based services, and so the number of ‘channels’ through which people can access Jobcentre Plus services has increased. The Accessing Jobcentre Plus Customer Services (AJCS) model was introduced into offices to help deal with rising levels of unappointed footfall and to help customers utilise the service channel that best meets their needs. This evaluation provides early feedback following the national roll-out and examines whether AJCS is operating as intended. The evaluation focused on ten Jobcentre Plus local offices and their associated Benefit Delivery Centres (BDCs) and involved: observational studies and in-depth face-to-face staff interviews in the selected Jobcentre Plus local offices; telephone interviews with staff in the five BDCs; and a focus group with the National Jobcentre Plus Customer Representative Group Forum (hereafter referred to as customer representatives).