Last week I had the pleasure of speaking at the Employment and Skills Convention in Birmingham, which brought together commissioners and providers to discuss the future of the sector and consider the implications of a change of government on how our services are delivered.
I was asked to speak about the new Government’s ambition to increase the UK’s employment rate to 80%, which would put our rate amongst the highest in the world. The UK rate currently sits at below 75%, having fallen over the past year as economic inactivity has continued to rise.
It’s a bold, and welcome, ambition. My argument was that, in order to meet it, we need a transformation in employability and skills, and not merely an evolution of what has been done for decades.
Our sector does fantastic work, transforming the lives of hundreds of thousands of people every year through quality and effective programmes. However, in many cases, the programmes commissioned and delivered aren’t fundamentally different to those in operating ten or twenty years previously. To move the dial, we need to collectively challenge ourselves to think differently.
What does transformation look like? I suggested three areas of focus.
Integration and alignment
Employment, skills and health provision is typically commissioned in silos, across different departments or at different levels of government. They also typically operate with different objectives, commissioning cycles and geographies. It’s welcome that the Labour Government is committing to integrated plans at a devolved level, to bring these strands together.
This has the potential to make services more locally responsive and break down the barriers to genuine integration. Combined authorities will also have flexibility to combine budgets and develop new solutions while working at a large enough scale to have a genuine impact.
Expanding access
A significant barrier to higher employment rates is access to effective support. The Learning and Work Institute estimates that only 1 out of 10 unemployed disabled people, and other groups underrepresented in the labour market, receive the support they need.
Restricting access to employability provision, with complex referral mechanisms and eligibility criteria, excludes many from support, especially disabled people or those who aren’t currently engaged with the benefits system. There are some great programmes looking at different approaches, which could be scaled up or adapted for use nationally. We should take services to potential service users in local communities, offer ‘day one’ access when claiming benefits and reduce any risk of exploring opportunities to enter the workforce or taking the first steps towards work.
Embracing technology and innovation
Every aspect of our lives has been transformed by new technologies, but too often services are commissioned that fail to embrace this transformation or adapt to innovative new approaches. The challenges presented by the pandemic proved that many services can be successfully delivered online, in an accessible way, for most people. AI has the ability to reduce administration and allow advisors to spend more time with an individual offering tailored support. It also has the potential to support training for jobs of the future.
With the combination of commissioners creating an environment that encourages more innovation and risk taking, and providers being prepared to invest and pilot new ways of working, there’s a real opportunity for new breakthroughs and service transformation.
This is an exciting time for the employment and skills sector, but also a time of change. Developing a long-term approach to meet the 80% challenge requires all of us to embrace the transformation ahead.
