Why earlier access to employment support is critical to unlocking growth

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Increasing the employment rate and tackling inactivity remains at the top of the policy agenda. Reports suggest a number of new employment programmes and initiatives are set to be announced around the upcoming Budget. From a health perspective, the recent review by Lord Darzi sets out the positive personal and societal benefits of being in work, and the role the NHS could play in supporting this.

This focus is welcome. But while policy sets the direction, it’s important to understand how that translates into delivery on the ground. Over recent months, at a series of roundtables I’ve attended as part of a Demos research project, I’ve heard from dozens of organisations that work with individuals who are either seeking employment or struggling to remain in work because of a disability or health condition.

It’s clear that too often the system is disjointed and difficult to navigate for the individual. I’ve long believed we need a more holistic approach, based less on funding streams and more on helping someone navigate the different services available to them, accessing the best of provision from the public, private and voluntary sectors.

One of the greatest barriers to accessing effective employment support, whether commissioned locally or nationally, can be long delays and strict access criteria often attached to programmes. This can lead to significant delays, which can be critical in preventing a quick return to the labour market. We need to think differently about how people access employment support, when, and how it is promoted. The evidence is clear that for many, when accessing support, it’s a case of ‘the earlier the better’.

The recently published Demos report on the subject, supported by Maximus, estimates that at least a million people not currently in work would benefit from accessing specialist support. The report also looks more broadly at access to support, rather than the traditional focus on individuals already out of work. Disabled workers move out of work at nearly twice the rate of non-disabled workers, so improving workplace support also has huge potential.

The report identifies six ‘engagement points’ to consider:

  • When leaving education and looking to make a transition into employment
  • Starting a new job and ensuring adjustments, adaptations and workplace support are in place
  • Finding work difficult due to disability or ill health, including coping with an acquired condition and making required adjustments
  • Being off work due to ill health or receiving a sick note, accessing interventions to enable a return to work
  • Leaving a job due to ill health, facilitating more rapid support to return to employment or retrain
  • Going through the benefit process, improving awareness of the specialist support available if an individual is interested in employment.

They estimate that earlier intervention, and raising awareness and take-up of support already available, could increase employment by around 130,000 and add £5 billion to real GDP, as a first step as part of wider reforms. That is a significant contribution to overstretched public finances, and a strong return on investment.

There are some fantastic initiatives taking place at a devolved level to knit together employment, health and skills provision locally, including Work Well. And we see through our place-based delivery, where effective case management and integration of services can operate at scale, with thousands supported through provision like Work and Health Programme Pioneer. With that provision now ended, it is essential that new provision encouraging a more integrated service approach is activated quickly.

As the government prepares to announce its next steps, let’s be ambitious and invest in wider access to specialist support. The benefits could be huge.

21 October, 2024

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