Further evidence will need to be collected to decide the value of audio recording as part of work capability assessments (WCA)
During yesterday's debate on the audio recording of work capability assessments (WCA) Employment Minister Mark Hoban said that the Government “fully appreciated” the benefits of offering audio recording to those who requested and acknowledged an increasing demand for audio recording. However this demand needed to be balanced against potential costs.
At present claimants can ask for their assessments to be recorded, either by means of the service offered by the Department for Work and Pensions and Atos Healthcare or through the use of their own recording equipment.
These request must be made in advance so that recording equipment can be made available and ready for use. The Minister also said that for the purpose of simplicity it would be beneficial if recording equipment was clearly offered so as to avoid complications but that a claimant has no legal right to an audio-recorded assessment, and neither the DWP nor Atos Healthcare has a legal obligation to provide an audio-recording service or equipment.
Mr Hoban said that the first audio pilot took place in the Newcastle assessment centre during spring 2011 and the results of that pilot showed that less than half of the 500 people who were offered the chance to have their session recorded did so.
“The results also provided little evidence that audio recording of face-to-face assessments improved the quality of assessments..”
Less than 0.2 per cent of the 1.5 million assessments carried out since September 2011 have been recorded but the evaluation period for audio recording had been extended until the end of the summer to enable the Government to gather additional data before deciding on the fate of audio recording.
Labour MP Sheila Gilmore asserted that the employment and support allowance (ESA) system was in need of reform, with Atos facing criticism about the nature of some of the questions asked and the attitude of assessors. She said that the audio recording of assessments would go a long way in solving disputes between participants and those running the programme and provide “new evidence” in the event of appeals as well as improve the overall “quality of assessments.
Ms Gilmore referred to evidence from Atos’s pilot recording programme between March and May 2011, which concluded that 68 per cent of customers agreed to the recording when contacted by telephone prior to their appointment.
She had concerns that it was not easy for claimants to get hold of a copy of their recording, and highlighted that a request in writing often had to be made in order for a recording to be released.
She said that it was poor that two years after the pilot in Newcastle the Department had not been able to add “a sentence to include in letters to claimants and asked that the Government accept on the basis of how the pilot was carried out that “requests for copies of audio recordings should not be cited as a reflection of demand”, and instead to accept that the “number of people who want to have their assessment recorded was a more appropriate measure to use.
[Source: Hansard 12 Jun 2013 : Column 456]
You can view the results of the audio recording pilot