FÁS Annual Report & Financial Statements 2004

The primary aims of FÁS Employment Services are to help job-seekers to obtain jobs, either directly or following a period of further training, education or work experience and to help employers to fill their vacancies. The Social Inclusion Unit ensures that FÁS policies and services reflect best social inclusion and equality practice and increase participation and progression levels of disadvantaged groups into the labour market.

In 2005, the focus of the Social Inclusion Unit was on integrating equality objectives into the FÁS Business Planning process - as a key mechanism to begin measuring progress regarding equality outcomes being achieved by FÁS. A range of diverse activities in respect of social inclusion were carried out during the year, including:

The Social Inclusion Unit continued to assist in building the capacity of the organisation to meet the needs of socially excluded and/or diverse groups in co-operation with the other functions of FÁS, including working with Services to Business in promoting basic education within the workforce. The Unit also worked with numerous external organisations in its drive to ensure social inclusion within a labour market context; including the Office of Social Inclusion as part of the consultation process on the National Anti-Poverty Strategy; the NESF Project Team on Creating a More Inclusive Labour Market; the Equality Authority, on Implementing Equality for Carers; the Sub-Group on the Employment of Travellers - chaired by Minister Killeen; the Equality Proofing Working Group and the National Childcare Committee under the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

In 2005, the Social Inclusion Unit also participated in a number of European Initiatives under EQUAL, a Peer Review in Portugal under the European Union Open Co-ordination Process, and presented an overview of Ireland’s policies in relation to the employment of disabled people to a Conference of the European Blind Union. It also worked closely with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in matters of social inclusion and particularly labour market provision for disabled people.

FÁS Employment Services acts as a Gateway to all FÁS training and employment services and is responsible for the development and delivery of a wide range of vocational guidance and placement services - which help jobseekers to find the best possible job and employers to find the most suitable staff. (An illustration of the services provided by FÁS Employment Services through its Gateway is given in the diagram overleaf.)

FÁS has a network of 70 plus Employment Services Offices throughout the country. During 2005, FÁS registered 76,893 new clients. On average, each FÁS jobseeker will have at least three interactions with a FÁS Employment Services Officer. During the year, the service placed 15,560 jobseekers in training, 17,336 in employment and 24,966 on employment programmes. A customer satisfaction survey in 2005 showed that 76% of jobseekers were satisfied/fairly satisfied with the service they had received from FÁS Employment Services.

FÁS Employment Services provides services to a wide range of client groups including:

FÁS continued to provide a free recruitment service to employers wishing to advertise vacancies with FÁS. Employers have the option of telephoning, faxing or e-mailing details of the job vacancy directly to the National Contact Centre staff, or they can input the vacancy directly on to the FÁS Jobs Ireland website. Employment Services Officers are available to assist in drafting job vacancies for display on the FÁS Jobs Ireland website, as well as providing information on employment and equality legislation and salary rates to prospective employers. Vacancies are also viewable on the touch-screen kiosks located in all FÁS Employment Service Offices and Training Centres nationwide.

FÁS developed an Employer Strategy to enhance interaction with employers. The strategy comprised an Action Plan for engaging with employers and all Employment Services Officers undertook appropriate staff development to support the delivery of the new strategy. An employer pack, consisting of comprehensive information on services available to employers and how FÁS services can improve their recruitment needs, was also developed. A survey was undertaken to establish the extent of employers’ knowledge of, and satisfaction with, FÁS services.

During the year, the FÁS National Contact Centre (NCC) promoted its services to jobseekers and job-ready clients were encouraged to use the freephone number where FÁS staff were available to provide them with up-to-date information on the vacancies that most suited their needs.

The number of job vacancies notified to FÁS in 2005 rose by 28% to 132,000 compared to 105,500 in 2004. A follow-up survey with employers, for the first six months of the year, showed that 82% of vacancies notified to the NCC were filled. Of these, 37% were filled by a FÁS referral, 35% from non-FÁS referrals and 28% of vacancies were filled from unknown sources.

One of the benefits of a national quality system, based on the Q Mark, is that it guarantees a consistent level of service to customers throughout the country.
An ethos of continuous improvement is required to ensure that services remain customer-focused and that on-going efforts are made to meet the changing needs of the clients. During 2005, the Excellence Ireland Quality Association (EIQA) undertook an external audit of FÁS Employment Services nationwide. The application was successful and FÁS became the first organisation in Ireland to achieve the Q Mark for a national system.

FÁS Employment Services Offices (ESOs) operate as resource centres or ‘One Stop Shops’, providing ease of access to information and a customer-friendly atmosphere for clients. Free services available to clients include details of job vacancies, a customer service desk, newspapers, free use of telephone to contact employers, internet access, photocopying, and access to PCs, printers and fax machines.

The range of self-service resources available to jobseekers includes:

FÁS also offers a ‘screening’ service to jobseekers interested in vacancies advertised with FÁS. Employment Services staff will assess the jobseeker’s suitability for a particular vacancy, based on the information which has been provided by the employer with respect to a vacancy. 175,000 such screened referrals were made to employers’ vacancies from FÁS Employment Services Offices in 2005.

Local Labour Market Consultative Groups were set up as a response to Section 18 of the Sustaining Partnership Agreement 2003-2005. It was agreed that FÁS would facilitate these groups and representation would be drawn from FÁS and the parties to the Agreement. These groups were in operation in all FÁS regions in 2005.

National Resource Centres for Vocational Guidance (NRCVG) acts as information centres for EU Member States to access information, advice and guidance on the placement of young people who wish to undertake a period of study or training in another Member State. In Ireland, there are two National Resource Centres, the FÁS National Resource Centre for Vocational Guidance (NRCVG) providing information on vocational training and labour market opportunities within the EU and the National Centre for Guidance in Education (NCGE) providing information on educational opportunities within the EU. These Centres form part of the Euroguidance Network. In 2005, the FÁS National Resource Centre was involved in delivering an information service to EU and EEA nationals, hosting regular study visits from visiting practitioners from, for example, Latvia, Denmark, Israel, Italy and Hungary; and promoting its services through exhibitions and other forms of media.

FÁS continued to play a significant role on the National Guidance Forum (NGF) - a collaborative initiative between the Department of Education and Science and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The NGF was established in 2004 to enable quality lifelong and lifewide guidance to become a reality. FÁS continued to participate on the NGF Steering Group, the NGF Quality in Guidance Sub–Committee and the NGF Competencies Framework Sub-Committee. The two Sub-Committees are currently developing guidelines to assist organisations/agencies involved in guidance-related activities to improve the quality of service provision to clients and to establish a competency framework to identify the competencies required of a guidance service.

During 2005, FÁS continued to operate the National Employment Action Plan (NEAP) Preventive Strategy. NEAP was adopted by the Irish Government in response to the European Employment Guidelines; and includes a commitment to a more systematic engagement by the Employment Services with the unemployed.

During the year, a total of 40,718 persons were referred to FÁS, and 28,714 persons were interviewed by FÁS staff. Of all those referred to FÁS, 60% had left the Live Register by the end of January 2006. Equally, 60% of those interviewed by FÁS had left the Live Register. (See Appendix 4 for more details.)

As the NEAP Preventive Strategy evolved over the years, FÁS developed a number of special initiatives in response to the emerging needs of clients. These include the Customised Training Fund, the High Support Process and the Pathways Programme. The Customised Training Fund continued to provide a fast and flexible response to the particular training needs of individual clients. In 2005, expenditure on customised training was €1.4 million, an increase of €200,000 on 2004 expenditure. Approximately 3,000 clients benefited from training courses such as ECDL, Safepass, Driving Lessons (incl. HGV), Forklift Driving, Scaffolding and Childcare. An evaluation of the Customised Training Fund was conducted by FÁS Planning and Research in 2005 and demonstrated the benefits of the programme. Certain areas for improvement were identified and these will be addressed in 2006.

The High Support Process (HSP) is a flexible process designed to assist FÁS Employment Services Officers to better meet the needs of clients who, because of health, literacy or other difficulties are experiencing major barriers in progressing from unemployment to work. Multi-agency teams play an integral part in the HSP and include representatives from agencies currently involved in the provision of services (e.g. FÁS, Department of Social and Family Affairs, the Health Services Executive, VECs).

An external evaluation of the programme was conducted and considered in early 2005. In response, eligibility for the HSP was extended to a wider range of disadvantaged client groups who have difficulty accessing employment. The eligible supports were also extended to other employment-related needs such as counselling, interview travel costs, purchase of tools and/or clothing. The funding available for the purchase of any required intervention was increased from €2,200 to €2,500.

In 2005, approximately 1,400 clients were interviewed under the HSP, of whom approximately 700 (an increase of approx 85% on 2004) availed of interventions purchased through the HSP budget. Expenditure under HSP in 2005 was approximately €460,000 (an increase of almost 56% on 2004).

A review of the National Employment Action Plan (NEAP) process was carried out for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (DETE), in conjunction with FÁS and the Department of Social and Family Affairs (DSFA), by Indecon Consultants and was completed in 2005. The overall thrust of the report was positive.

The Consultants, in their conclusion, state that, “having regard to the data available and taking account of constraints, our analysis suggests that the NEAP process has been a success”. The report highlighted that this finding was consistent with previous research which has shown positive outcomes for this form of active measure, i.e. that counselling and jobsearch assistance measures are effective and relatively inexpensive. The report makes a number of recommendations for the future operation of the NEAP; which will be part of an action plan for the future operation of NEAP to be developed by FÁS in co-operation with its partners in the process.

The results of an econometric assessment carried out by the Consultants on the net impact of NEAP suggest that “NEAP participation impacts positively and significantly on labour market outcomes i.e. exit probabilities are higher for programme participants than for non-participants”. The econometric analysis suggests an improvement in exit probability of between 10% and 20%, depending on the model specification. However, in the light of uncertainty with the estimates, the Consultants adopt a cautious approach in assessing benefits and assume that the likely savings on unemployment payments could be up to 5% of total expenditures. The figures quoted in the report translate into a positive net benefit of about €35 million per annum due to the NEAP.

The report notes that the NEAP has encouraged early exiting from the Live Register and appears to have reduced the likelihood of long-term unemployment and has also helped to reduce Ireland’s estimated structural rate of unemployment. It further notes that there is some evidence that NEAP has encouraged a migration to other Social Welfare schemes. However, the Consultants conclude that they do not believe that this effect would significantly reduce the estimated positive effects of the NEAP.

FÁS frequently conducts new pilot initiatives to seek ways of better meeting the needs of its clients. In January 2005, FÁS, in conjunction with the Department of Social and Family Affairs (DSFA) and the Health Services Executive (HSE), commenced a pilot employment initiative for disabled people in the Midlands region. The aim was to provide an integrated employment support approach for disabled people. It was recognised that though a range of employment supports for people with a disability were already available from DSFA, HSE and FÁS, they were provided on a separate agency basis and generally operated independently of each other. The pilot examined whether a more integrated approach to the delivery of training and employment supports for disabled people was warranted. The pilot was implemented over a 12-month period and operated in the Midlands Region - comprising the counties of Longford, Laois, Offaly and Westmeath. A final report on this pilot is expected in 2006.

FÁS and officials of the DSFA also implemented two pilot programmes to address the issue of progression of younger persons under 25 years of age, who were long-term unemployed, or in danger of becoming long-term unemployed. These programmes were conducted in Donegal and showed promising results.

The Local Employment Services (LES) is part of the dual-stranded National Employment Service. The overall service consists of the FÁS Employment Service and the Local Employment Service (LES) - which operates under contract to FÁS, mainly through locally-based Partnership Companies. The objectives of the LES are to focus on the provision of services to the most disadvantaged and socially excluded in the labour market and to provide a direct local response. In 2005, the LES operated with a budget of € 18 million and registered 5,447 clients.
In 2005, FÁS negotiated with PLANET (the Network of Area Partnership Companies) a new Agreement and Activity Schedule in relation to the operation of the LES. It includes clear targeting of socially-excluded client groups, having regard to local and regional needs, and will result in a greater complementary of service delivery within the dual-stranded National Employment Service. A comprehensive set of financial and monitoring guidelines for the LES was put in place during 2005.