Get Britain Working White Paper
The end of November saw the release of the Get Britain Working White Paper, the Government’s drive to reduce economic inactivity and increase the employment rate to over 80%. The budget announced investment of £240m to support the range of activity within the White Paper and some of the proposed activity will link across to other policy statements including the Invest 2035: Modern Industrial Strategy Green Paper, the forthcoming Devolution White Paper, the Ten Year Health Plan and the Plan to Make Work Pay.
The premise of the strategy is the high and increasing rate of economic inactivity within the UK, driven largely by ill health of those of working age. In total 25% of all 16-64 year olds have some long term condition(s) that limit their day-to-day activities, and this group are three times more likely to be economically inactive than those without such constraints. Half of all of the UK’s economically inactive due to ill health are agreed 50-64, but the steepest increase has been in those aged 16-34. These trends have been exacerbated by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and wider demographic and technological changes.
“This is about how we ensure everyone, regardless of their background, age, ethnicity, or where they live, has the opportunities they need to achieve and thrive, to succeed and flourish”
The White Paper also recognises that current state-led employment support is too heavily focussed on unemployment rather than inactivity, linked to a binary benefits system that classifies and labels people as being either fit or unfit to work, rather than adapting and accommodating to people’s changing needs and supporting a change in culture in employers to offer more employment practices.
The White Paper aims to tackle six key issues within the UK labour market, including:
- supporting people that are excluded from the labour market;
addressing the numbers of young people leaving school without qualifications or essential skills; - supporting people in insecure, poor quality and low paid work;
- helping those with caring responsibilities (especially women) that face challenges entering and progressing in the labour market;
- supporting employers that can’t fill vacancies; and
- addressing disparities in labour market outcomes between places and different groups of people.
The challenge of reducing inactivity is to be a shared objective across Government, recognising challenges in health and mental health, benefits, education and skills provision and making work pay. Locally, the development of Local Get Britain Working Plans will bring together stakeholders to tackle inactivity and support economic growth.
Alongside the previously announced launch of Skills England to refresh the skills system, local Get Britain Working Plans will be supported by a Connect to Work employability programme to support 100,000 people, funded by £115m of devolved funding for 25/26 (with some funding to be incorporated into integrated settlements with some Mayoral Combined Authorities). The Connect to Work programme will provide grants across 43 clusters of upper tier Local Authorities, with a single accountable body. Grants are based on an allocation of number of ‘starters’ on programme and a unit cost variable by area, drawn down in arrears, rather than a global allocation figure. CEDOS will be providing further updates on the Connect to Work programme in due course.
The White Paper acknowledges that much of the benefits and employment support system is heavily centralised, siloed, both nationally and locally and heavily focussed on compliance. A Green Paper will be released in spring 2025 on reform proposals for health and disability benefits that will help people enter and remain in work, especially those who have fluctuating healthcare situations and needs.
For young people there will be a Youth Guarantee, to help those aged 18-21 to either earn or learn. The Young Guarantee will provide all young people aged 18-21 not engaged in education, employment and training:
• A range of funded education provision leading to a qualification, including in English, Maths and Digital Skills
• A range of Apprenticeships, including shorter and foundation Apprenticeships where there is a route to a career in a key sector
• Skills Bootcamps
• A range of Employment Support and Careers advice
Overall, the aim is to help young people to upskill and develop their careers, with obligations to take up any suitable support on offer and do everything they can to find work. There will also be apprenticeship reform, including the previously announced changes from an Apprenticeship Levy to a Growth and Skills Levy – although what this will mean in practice is still unclear.
There will be a merger of Jobcentre Plus and the National Careers Service into a Jobs and Careers Service, with an expanded set of digital services, more focus on personalisation and an expanded team of Job Centre Work Coaches. There will also be some reorganisation of current Jobcentre Plus administrative areas to be co-terminus with some Mayoral Combined Authorities.
The White Paper wants to see the Jobs and Careers Service expand from a focus on benefits and compliance, which can push people away who need help, and develop:
• A new enhanced relationship with and service for employers
• A revised focus on supporting progression and good work through aligning employment support and having it work better with skills and careers advice
• A locally responsive, embedded and engaged organisation
• A digital, universal and fully inclusive service
• A provider of high-quality personalised support to help people into work, support training, and get on in work
The White Paper also introduces an Independent Review into the role of UK employers in promoting healthy and inclusive workplaces, which will be led by Sir Charlie Mayhew. The review is set to run until next summer (2025).
The NHS will also be expected to support Get Britain Working, including investing to address key public health issues that contribute to worklessness, such as expanding talking therapies, providing new treatments to tackle obesity and providing access to Employment Advisors as part of relevant treatment pathways. Waiting lists for routine operations are contributing to inactivity rates. The NHS will be expected to support local action to reduce economic inactivity due to ill health and work in partnership around local Get Britain Working Plans.
The White Paper makes a link between employment support and devolution, acknowledging the current system is too centralised, does not effectively engage employers and is too focussed on compliance with national objectives.
Individual areas will be expected to develop their local Get Britain Working Plans to identify how they will reduce inactivity and take forward the Youth Guarantee offer, which will be developed on either a Mayoral Combined Authority or Local Authority groupings level geography. The Plan will be expected to analyse local challenges, identify what actions will improve outcomes for local people and convene local partnerships between Local Authorities, the NHS, Training Providers, Jobcentre Plus, the Voluntary Sector, employers and trade unions. These plans are expected to complement Local Growth Plans.
The refocussed approach on tackling inactivity will be spearheaded by eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers across England and Wales, focussed on Mayoral Combined Authorities, supported by £45m of investment. The English Trailblazers are Liverpool, West Midlands, Tees Valley, East Midlands, West of England, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and two London areas.
There will also be eight wider Place Based Trailblazers across England and Wales, sharing £125m of funding, with three Trailblazer areas receiving a share of £45m of funds for dedicated input from local NHS Integrated Care Systems. The Place based Trailblazers are West Yorkshire, North East, South Yorkshire, York and North Yorkshire and Greater Manchester, along with two areas of London.
Trailblazers will test and trial a more joined up local approach, commencing in 2025/26. Trailblazers will develop clear plans for delivery with agreed outcomes, enable data sharing, test governance models, enhance levels of engagement and provide a targeted expansion of provision. These Trailblazers will help to define the model for wider areas going forwards.
Conclusions
The White Paper presents a comprehensive overview of the challenges facing the UK labour market and its impact on growth, economic inclusion and the public finances. Some thinking of changes to key aspects of the system are more developed in terms of thinking than others, with benefits reform and work with employers more longer term ambitions. The approach will depend on cross-Government coordination and investment, which will either help or hinder efforts at a local area where policy is expected to knit together.
The significant focus on young and inactive people could expand the labour supply, a key component to supporting economic growth. However, there is a geographical context in that more people may become work ready in the same geographies where there are the fewest vacancies. Likewise, increasing labour supply only marginally in areas with low levels of inactivity and the highest labour demand (possibly with employment opportunities that may be unsuitable for many entering or returning to the labour market from a low skills base) will have only a limited impact.
The success of the approach will largely depend on the responses of employers, especially in areas of high inactivity, and the ability to drive faster economic employment growth in these areas. The mood music at present from organisations such as the British Chambers of Commerce and the CBI is that businesses are looking to manage their headcounts carefully post-budget.
CEDOS have also identified a gap of detail within the National Industrial Strategy Green Paper related to overcoming barriers to growth in key sectors relating to skills shortages, especially high level skills. The Get Britain Working White Paper, highlighted as a key enabler for overcoming sector skills barriers in the Green Paper, does not really add as much detail as expected given its focus on inactivity.
It is positive that there is again a clear role for Local Government in supporting local people back into work, both in terms of the agenda set out in the White Paper and through investment in the Connect to Work programme. However, a single year allocation of resources does create some uncertainly, especially with the forthcoming release of the Devolution White Paper, which again may change the dynamics and levels of responsibility and accountability for programme delivery. The payments system, with likely fixed costs upfront and payment based on a theoretical number of starters may create some risk for lead and partner Authorities, coming at a time when most Authorities are trying to reduce their exposure to financial risk. All this whilst Authorities will have to invest in their capacity in an area that they have played a more diminished role in of recent times.
There will be a challenge over the next financial year in some areas to try and align any skills provision under UKSPF with the Connect to Work programme, especially where the geographical disconnect is largest, In reality, it may result in some UKSPF Accountable Bodies, especially in lower tier Authorities, reducing provision in this area and focussing in business and place.
The link between Devolution and active labour market policy appears to be positive, although the ‘geographical clustering’ approach outside of Mayoral Combined Authorities may be a sign of things to come in the Devolution White Paper. There is also the potential, with the proposed Trailblazers, that learning and emphasis is placed on highly urbanised Mayoral Combined Authorities, which end up being the focus on policy and investment, and have more flexibilities in funding and programme delivery.