Taking steps towards a devolved employment and skills service
Local government leaders know how vital a joined-up employment and skills offer is to creating inclusive and sustainable local economies where people want to live and work, and where employers want to invest.
To make this happen, we need an ambitious, reformed and devolved employment and skills service, linked to local services and meeting local needs.
The LGA’s new employment and skills offer, agreed by our boards in June, sets out practical steps that the Government can take, working with us to move towards a devolved model across England.
Our proposals will help the Government deliver on its missions to boost growth and break down barriers to opportunities, and should be used to further shape the manifesto commitments to support more young people and adults into work, and deliver a highly skilled workforce.
Building on our 2022 Work Local proposals, our new proposal recommends moving forward via three interlinked offers:
- Youth Pathways – to help young people (age 16-24) not in employment, education or training (NEET), or at risk of being so, find their first job or put them on a career path
- Working Futures – for adults who are disadvantaged in the labour market, and who need personal support to find work or better work
- Skills for All – to provide a better match of skills supply and demand, and a skills and learning offer linked to local careers advice and jobs, and promote lifelong learning.
Initially, the three offers would be delivered using existing programmes and devolution deals, as part of local government’s place-shaping role.
Existing devolved authorities and their constituent councils have already made significant strides over recent years to negotiate deals and deliver tangible benefits. With their collective expertise, they can deliver more and at a quicker pace. For other parts of England, there should be a review of the devolution deal process to put them on a more ambitious path.
The three offers should be locally planned and commissioned through outcome-focused ‘local employment and skills agreements’, which would run for at least three years. These would reflect the varied needs within an area and its communities, and the respective roles of local government, set within a clear national framework.
Other measures needed to kick-start this process include: creating a new ‘duty to cooperate’ on all partners; a programme of joint working and co-location of Jobcentres and councils; an early call for new initiatives or pilots; new policy, planning and delivery networks to promote dialogue and learning; and a minister-led joint national board to coordinate detailed planning.
Previous independent cost-benefit analysis revealed that, across a local area, pooling budgets and working collaboratively has the potential to increase by 15 per cent the number of people moving into work and improving their skills, thus delivering benefits to people and places, reducing costs to the public purse and contributing to growth.
The LGA’s proposals are key to providing a better offer to individuals and employers by enabling councils to use their local knowledge to reach into communities across England. We are confident that our approach will make a tangible difference to how local areas tackle long-term unemployment and economic inactivity, and help employers across all sectors recruit.
This is vital to breaking down barriers to opportunity and boosting inclusive economic growth. We stand ready to work with government to implement these.
- Read the LGA’s employment and skills offer in full.