Identifying and discussing clients’ needs

As discussed in Section 3.2.1, people required different types of support to move into work. This section explores how effectively these needs were identified and assessed. Clients had mixed views on how well they thought their needs were identified by the Job Broker service. Where they felt the Job Broker understood their needs, this was generally through comprehensive discussions with Job Broker advisers where they felt that advisers took time to listen and fully explore their circumstances and what they required to move toward work. Advisers’ understanding and empathy were seen as important, as was working at the right pace for people. This was noted, in particular, where people had enduring mental health conditions or lacked confidence about moving into work.

Some clients reported that their needs had not been identified effectively by their Job Broker. This emerged where they had not been offered the type of help they wanted or needed and felt ‘pushed’ towards a type of employment or training that did not suit them. An ineffective exploration of clients’ needs was seen to have resulted from not having had enough contact with an adviser. There were examples of ten minute interviews, follow-up appointments cancelled by the Job Broker, or clients left ‘in limbo’ where a relationship with an adviser had not got off the ground. In some cases, people felt that this was because advisers had wanted to make the

‘figures look better’, thereby trying to get people into jobs as quickly as possible irrespective of their individual needs. Others felt that advisers could not make an effective assessment of what they needed to get into work – they lacked an understanding of some fluctuating health conditions and that while advisers may see clients on ‘good days’, they did not understand the impact on a client’s ability to work on a ‘bad day’.

Overall, clients emphasised that the key to a Job Broker service identifying their needs was the individual adviser, the relationship they had with them and being able to talk to them openly. Some even gave examples of how they felt different staff members from within the same organisation had different understandings of what

they needed to move into work. Regular contact with an adviser, particularly over the longer-term, was helpful for some clients with multiple barriers to work, though again a key issue was the attitude and understanding of a particular adviser. For example, personal issues were discussed with an adviser and counselling suggested where contact had been over a period of time, but the importance of having an adviser who ‘listened’ and seemed ‘genuinely interested’ was stressed.

Job Brokers also emphasised the importance of clear dialogue between them and their clients in assessing a person’s needs of the service, but they varied in how they approached this. When people contacted the service (either by telephone or in person) initially, their eligibility (in terms of qualifying benefits) was assessed and varying levels of information on what the service offered was given. Some Job Broker staff began making a more detailed assessment of the clients’ requirements of the service at this stage, others waited until a subsequent meeting but began it before registration, while others waited until after registration. Where it happened after registration, some reported that they used the Action Plan as a tool to assess and monitor clients’ requirements of the service. While some found the requirement to complete an Action Plan for each client ‘onerous’, it was commented that they could be ‘revelatory’ in identifying what would help a client move towards work. Tools such as the Action Plan or other assessment forms to facilitate clients in discussing their needs were seen as particularly helpful where clients were unclear about what these were and what they wanted from the service. There was limited awareness of Action Plans among clients and from their perspectives, did not seem to be a particularly significant part of the process of assessing their needs.

Irrespective of the stage at which assessments were made, Job Broker staff explored issues such as clients’ qualifications, work experience and health status. They also explored what clients’ expectations of the service were, their motivation for looking for work and general mindset in relation to work.

Job Broker staff emphasised that some requirements did not become apparent in their early meetings with clients. This was related to the types of needs involved, how forthcoming the client was in talking about the barriers to work they faced, the extent to which clients recognised their needs and a Job Broker’s ability to assess them. Issues that were identified as only emerging after a longer period of time were mental and physical health conditions, criminal convictions, alcohol and drug misuse, debt, personal relationships, and poor basic skills. Some Job Broker staff said that trust and rapport were essential before clients would talk about issues faced in these areas. Clients did not specifically report holding back on discussing these issues, but their emphasis on developing a good relationship with their adviser may suggest the need to develop trust and rapport before feeling comfortable to discuss issues such as these.

3.3

Changes in clients’ circumstances since registering