Contracting Out (Functions Relating to Child Support) Order 2006

My Lords, I thank the noble Lords, Lord Skelmersdale and Lord Kirkwood, for their general support for what is proposed, which I welcome. The noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, asked how I could come to the House after 13 months in the job and offer a solution to the long-standing problems of the agency, which have defied the best endeavours of not only my Government but his Government. All I can say is that we have reached a significant stage in the life of child support in this country. The Government have acknowledged that the agency and the system as they stand are not fit for purpose. Sir David Henshaw has been commissioned not to review but to propose a redesign of the whole system. The intention is that Sir David will report to the Secretary of State before the Summer Recess. I cannot go any further than that, I am afraid. In due course, the Secretary of State will come to the other place to make a Statement and Sir David Henshaw’s report will be published, but I cannot give a date; clearly, his redesign proposals will need to be carefully considered. However, I give the assurance that we do not want to hang about on this. We are anxious to see progress as quickly as possible. The operational improvement plan is a token of that wish. We are producing extra resources for the agency to spend; I have already referred to the £30 million that will be spent on the debt-collection companies, which is part of our work in endeavouring to ensure that the agency’s performance is enhanced in the three years, alongside whatever actions we take towards the redesign. I certainly accept the implication of the remarks of the noble Lord, Lord Kirkwood, that the proposals in the order, the overall operational improvement plan and Sir David’s redesign have to be seen as a cohesive process. I agreed very much with the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, about parental responsibility and the role of the state. I also agreed when he said that the broad formula—he rightly said that it was simplified at the beginning of the decade—seemed to have stood the test of time. It is everything else that has caused problems, as he knows. In the past year under Mr Stephen Geraghty, the new chief executive, the performance of the agency has been stabilised. The operational improvement plan is about improving that overall performance, and various targets have been set over the next two to three years. For instance, by March 2008 we expect that the time taken to clear an application in around 80 per cent of cases should be no more than 18 weeks, and by March 2009 no more than 12 weeks, a significant improvement on current performance. There are other performance measures as well. Mr Geraghty has strengthened his senior management team. To pick up the point about staff morale, I should say that I agree of course with the noble Lord’s comments about motivation and how staff have worked under considerable pressure and criticism. There is much to be admired in the agency’s workforce, and Mr Geraghty has spent some considerable time in communication exercises with the staff, including a series of meetings throughout the agency after the announcement of the operational improvement plan. I have spent some time meeting staff; clearly, it will be critical over the next two to three years to communicate with them and ensure that they feel their job is valued. We are hopeful that the use of private contractors in relation to debt collection, tracing and the clerical cases will enable certain areas of dedicated service to be undertaken, while allowing the agency to focus on clearing the backlog and sorting out some of the system problems that it has had to cope with over many years. In answer to the noble Lord, Lord Kirkwood, part of the resource is being spent on the training and development of staff and ensuring that the new teams that are developed work effectively. A lot of the resource is being spent on up-skilling the staff working within the agency. The noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, asked why we were working through the DWP contractual arrangement, rather than the CSA. My answer, I suppose, is: why not? The DWP has experience in this area. It is not unusual for some of the CSA’s activities to be undertaken through more general DWP contracts—indeed, in relation to IT systems. On the need of the department as a whole to improve its efficiency, there may be many cases where a departmental approach may help the agency and other parts of the organisation.