Recommendation 15

The National Audit Office reported that the Department originally planned to have 125 caseworkers, but at the launch of the scheme it only had six.58 The Department told us it had entirely rebuilt its capacity plan since ‘October or November’ 2020.59 However, the National Audit Office reported that, at March 2021, the Department struggled to provide a clear picture of the caseworkers it needed and this capacity plan differed from the figures presented to the scheme’s senior management team.60 The Department explained that, at the end of March 2021, it had 53 caseworkers working on the scheme with plans to recruit another ten. It went on to tell us that it now had plans to recruit another 15 caseworkers, of whom five had arrived, with an additional five in training and 20 ‘in the pipeline to arrive’.61 Despite having fewer caseworkers than it requires for the scheme, the Department told us it did ‘not have too much of a problem’ recruiting caseworkers. However, it pointed out that it had identified the retention of people with caseworking skills as a major risk.62