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Get Britain Working endorsed the Government’s commitment to devolving employability services to Combined/Local Authorities. This policy intent is welcome, especially the acknowledgement that health and employment systems need better coordination through locally agreed plans.
Devolved Complexities
The size, scale and scope of deals vary across geographies which makes it difficult to develop core approaches and manage service delivery. Successive governments have tried to embed synergies between health and employability systems with limited success.
Currently, only 50% of the population of England is covered by devolution deals. The delay in publishing the devolution White Paper (end of this year) highlights the difficulty in negotiating with local areas to define geographies and degrees of power.
National vs Local Provision
Get Britain Working focuses primarily on devolved employability services with no mention about a national replacement for DWP CAERHS framework, or the mandatory Restart programme. This suggests no immediate replacement until the end of the new funding settlement (three years). The future of national mandatory provision needs to be clarified.
Through 50 Degrees’ Research and Advisory work, we encountered no appetite within local government to commission or deliver mandatory programmes.
National vs Local Provision
Get Britain Working focuses primarily on devolved employability services with no mention about a national replacement for DWP CAERHS framework, or the mandatory Restart programme. This suggests no immediate replacement until the end of the new funding settlement (three years). The future of national mandatory provision needs to be clarified.
Through 50 Degrees’ Research and Advisory work, we encountered no appetite within local government to commission or deliver mandatory programmes.
Market Implications
- Devolution Size and Scale: Devolution covers around 50% of the English population. There is a danger that a two-tier system of support could emerge unless non-devolved areas receive the same funding and flexibility as devolved areas
- Engaging Economically Inactive Claimants: The Connect to Work programme has modest targets and will not solely focus on hardest to help claimants (over 40% of Universal Credit caseload). Performance expectations need to be managed
- Market Fragmentation: Providers will need to allocate large business development resource to demonstrate engagement with place-based initiatives across multiple geographies with differing devolved landscapes
- Joint Commissioning: To fully release the benefits of devolution, Integrated Care Boards and Combined/Local Authorities need to agree commissioning plans based on shared strategies, budgets, and outcomes
- The Role of Mandating/Conditionality: Get Britain Working highlighted that UC claimants would need to “accept a Claimant Commitment”, including the “attendance of a work-focused interview”. A national programme would be required to implement this given the lack of local appetite.
