Councils have an important role to play in joining up support for people retraining or facing unemployment.
As we look to recover from the pandemic, and with the ending of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, there could be an increase in the number of people facing unemployment or seeking to retrain to enter a new career.
The latest long-term unemployment projections suggest that there could be an increase of one million people out of work by the end of this year, with those predominantly affected being young people aged 16 to 25, as well as older people who have fared less well when trying to re-enter the labour market after previous recessions.
Throughout the pandemic, local government has been trusted to coordinate employment, training and business support for their local area. Many set up redundancy taskforces, delivered grants to businesses, supported employers to create new Kickstart placements and created more within their own councils, and kept adults learning through community provision and online support.
As the vaccine is rolled out and the economy opens up, local government is turning its attention to planning and supporting recovery. Councils are uniquely placed in their communities to convene and work with local and national partners to address these challenges.
With adequate resourcing and powers, and the ability to work in partnership with national government and others at an early stage, councils can help well-intended, but often disconnected, national schemes keep people in work and businesses recruiting.
This is why, working with the Learning and Work Institute and Rocket Science, we have produced a dedicated local employment and skills recovery hub, pulling together best practice from across the sector, as well as helpful jobs and skills recovery guides.
“Councils are uniquely placed to convene and work with local and national partners”
Although each council featured in the hub approached their response in different ways, the common thread among them all was local leadership and partnership.
Whether they were focused on shifting their service to online, working directly with businesses to mitigate impact, or developing a coherent council-wide response, there have been some big shifts in the position of councils’ employment and skills functions and offer, and this provides important learning for the whole sector.
For example, Devon County Council had to respond rapidly to the collapse of one of the region’s biggest employers, Flybe, as well as the other economic impacts brought on by the pandemic.
It swiftly set up a redundancy support team – the ‘joining glue’ for local support – which linked recently redundant workers to training support, both through the adult education budget and a £750,000 fund to provide training focused on transition to growth sectors.
The complexity of employment and skills policy means there will often be areas where better join-up would deliver better results. Given all delivery is ultimately local, this can only be done locally, and is a key role for councils.
Perhaps the biggest message across all the guides is the role local government can play in making sure local growth, development and regeneration deliver good jobs and skills opportunities, and that local people can access these opportunities.
We face a big year, to help increase employment, skills and growth. By working together locally across the sector, we have the passion and expertise to rise to the challenge.