Get Britain Working: Local Solutions to a National Challenge

After much anticipation, the Government has released the Get Britain Working White Paper. The White Paper, along with the Employment Rights Bill, sets out the Government’s plan to reduce economic inactivity and work towards their ambition of an 80 percent employment rate.

We support this ambition, something that Learning and Work Institute has championed for some time, as our analysis shows that an 80 percent employment rate will benefit people, employers and the economy.

A key theme in the White Paper is empowering local areas to tackle economic inactivity through greater coordination and trialling new approaches. The approach makes sense – local leaders can be well placed to know what their communities need and the best way to deliver it.  

We must take action to address regional disparities

Across the UK, there are vast differences between areas in terms of employment, incomes and opportunity. A simple illustration of this is the economic inactivity rates, ranging from 28.5% in Northern Ireland to 18.6% in the South West. It’s no wonder that there are differences, each local labour market has different jobs, histories and geographies. Because of this a centralised, one-size-fits-all approach to addressing economic inactivity will not work.

Empowering local areas to make decisions about the design and delivery of integrated support has the chance to deliver better outcomes. It makes the most of local knowledge and connections, so that support can be tailored to the needs of residents and employers. But we mustn’t lose sight that the primary aim is better outcomes for people; that’s why we’ve argued for outcome agreements to make sure there is accountability for services to deliver better results.

Trailblazers, but who will follow?

The White Paper sets out the Government’s proposal for £125 million for eight ‘Trailblazer’ areas across England and Wales, to design and deliver local work, health and skills support.

The introduction of the Trailblazers initiative will help test approaches by providing these areas with greater powers over the design and delivery of services. Trailblazers have the opportunity to improve coordination across employment, skills, health and economic development – if they are given the time and support to get this right.

But what about the areas without a Trailblazer programme?

One risk with this approach is that it may deepen regional disparities by benefiting the areas that are already well advanced on their devolution journey. We hope to see more action from the Government to help areas that don’t have MCAs, to improve their services and build capacity of local government over time.

Not just plans, but progress

All areas in England will be expected to put together a local Get Britain Working Plan. The Plans are expected to set out the actions to address inactivity in that area and further local collaboration.

We support this approach. Our recent work for Health Equals set out recommendations for how action plans should be designed, delivered and evaluated across local authorities to support healthier working lives. But action plans are only as good as the action taken, the investment committed, and the differences made.

What remains to be seen is what will be required of MCA and local authorities, and how will they be supported? Leaders in these areas want better outcomes for their people – if the solutions were simple, they would already have solved it. Areas will need additional support with building capability, evidence on what works, genuine collaboration from the relevant government departments and a clear framework for how success will be measured.

And most importantly, the Plans need to lead to real change. It is all well and good to produce a plan, but this needs to be followed up with action and accountability.

What next?

Taking a local approach to issues isn’t a new or novel idea. There have been repeated efforts to tailor support to local needs, improve coordination and align this with local growth and development. Through our research we’ve seen that the impact of local government can be limited by a lack of funding, fragmentation, multiple overlapping initiatives, and a lack of robust evidence. And of course, some things are best done nationally.

To avoid these pitfalls the Government, in partnership with local leaders, should:

• Give careful consideration to balancing local control and flexibility within clear national frameworks to ensure the quality and availability of support is consistent. The Government also has a role to play in providing evidence on what works and share lessons.
• Ensure long-term and sustainable funding. There has been a repeated trend of short-term funding leading to instability and uncertainty for providers and services users. While the purse strings are tight, it would be reassuring to know the longer-term plan for funding to avoid future funding cliffs.
• Ensure a cross-system approach that brings together economic and social policy. Getting people into employment requires good work being on offer. We must make the most of the employment opportunities from the development of local growth plans and the Industrial Strategy.

By Elizabeth Gerard, Deputy Director, Learning and Work Institute