EMPLOYMENT AND SKILLS STRATEGY
LONDON BOROUGH OF CROYDON
Fourth Draft Nov 2010
1. Introduction
Increasing levels of employment and skill has been a major priority of both central and local government for some time. Substantial changes to delivery and provision have been implemented over the last 12 years with the aim of not just getting people who are unemployed into jobs, but helping them to remain and progress in work, find suitable work that is fulfilling and offers opportunities to develop and improve.
Work supports families out of poverty, improves people’s health and independence and supports the economy and local communities. There is a continued priority from both Central and Local Government to set clear stretching targets to both improve and maintain the employment opportunities of communities.
The overall employment rate for the borough of Croydon has been consistently at a relatively high level compared to other London boroughs, and currently stands at just under 2 percentage points above the London average. However, comparisons at ward level show that the overall employment rate masks areas of the borough suffering high levels of unemployment and income deprivation.
Past statistical data demonstrates that Croydon recovered at a significantly slower pace from the last recession than was evidenced nationally and as the economy recovers from the current recession it is projected that this pattern will be repeated. 46% of Croydon’s workforce are employed in vulnerable sectors, compared with a national average of 41% (Local Futures Group). As the economy moves into recovery it will be vital to consider the likely impact of the recession in the longer-term, particularly on those areas of the borough traditionally suffering low incomes and unemployment.
Responding to the stated ambitions of Croydon residents and taking account of the changed economic context for London and the particular challenges for residents and business created by the downturn in the economy, the Council has recently agreed a refresh of the Economic Development Strategy. This provides a framework for economic development in Croydon over the long term with a defined series of priority actions and targets over the next 2 years.
Opportunity Croydon outlines the determination and vision of the Council to harness support and investment to connect local people with high quality employment opportunities, raise skills levels and encourage enterprise and entrepreneurship as part of a place-focused investment approach to transform the economy. It welcomes the recognition of the effective role that local authorities must play in shaping local outcomes along with their key partners.
The successful securing of Local Economic Growth Initiative funds (LEGI) by the Council steered provision towards the required three main themes of: increasing entrepreneurial activity, business growth and attracting inward investment. Without funds such as Working Neighbourhood Funds the Council has not been in a position of significantly investing in employment and skills needs.
A major priority for Croydon is to improve the employment rate in neighbourhoods with the poorest labour market position, drive up adult skills levels and raise the competitiveness of Croydon’s residents in the local and London labour market. A clearer alignment of education and employment objectives is essential to secure an outcome of improving the transition from education to employment, ensuring local young people are able to secure the skills that will lead to sustainable employment and career enhancement.
The Economic Development Strategy refresh identifies the economic context of Croydon, highlighting the opportunities and potential of the place for new business, industry and employment as well as its unique position within a growth corridor and a key opportunity area. Although Croydon has a large economy by national standards and relatively high levels of productivity with a good business and enterprise profile, the borough’s labour market performance is more modest with economic growth rates being low over recent years compared to those for London.
Unemployment levels have risen dramatically since the summer of 2008. The rise seems particularly significant when compared to boroughs with high deprivation levels which would normally experience a rise in unemployment during a period of recession but within the latest recession maintained stable unemployment rates. This may indicate a more fundamental issue of unemployment in Croydon.
With regard to educational standards significant improvements have been made over the last few years but the transition from education to employment is not reflecting that improvement and there is concern over the rising numbers of young people claiming Jobseekers allowance. Whilst the proportion of young people claiming unemployment benefits has reduced, there has been over the last 4 years a steady increase in the number of under 25 residents claiming Jobseekers Allowance and a doubling of the figure for those aged 25 – 29. Five wards have economic activity levels lower than the London average.
There are some excellent examples of partnership working within the borough, with key stakeholders attempting to address issues of skills improvement, offering increased provision to support target groups and improve links with employers. However, existing labour market policies and programmes, whilst broadly successful in overall terms in support local communities to secure employment, have been less effective in helping particular disadvantaged groups. Addressing this broader agenda requires further co-ordination, improved integration and an extension of some of the successful existing activity.
The Council has a major role to play in:
· Promoting, facilitating and delivering economic development.
· Providing career pathways and employment opportunities as a major employer
· Procuring services , boosting the local economy and promoting skills training and apprenticeship opportunities.
The positioning of the borough, over the long term, as a major economic centre within London, taking advantage of locational advantages, transport and housing infrastructure and attracting and sustaining high value business investment, depends on securing high quality local employment and ensuring that local residents are able to compete for the job opportunities this will bring. It is clearly imperative that action is taken to reduce the inequalities across the borough, improve the career and skills prospects for young people and embed the importance of skills attainment within family units
This document aims to offer a framework for an integrated approach to issues of employment and skills enhancement, bringing together the work of key stakeholders and building on current opportunities.
Local authorities are increasingly taking responsibility for leading and co-ordinating the work of their local partnerships in supporting economic development, raising skills and tackling worklessness. This plan will provide a mechanism for influencing the co-ordination of local partner activity through mapping activities and resources, agreeing roles and relationships and rationalising service provision.
The agreed actions within this document will enable the Council to put in place a strengthened infrastructure and to clarify relationships between existing partners and the Skills Funding Agency (or potential replacement body), National Apprenticeships Service and Adult Advice and Careers Service at a local level. It will also provide a chance to support further and higher education to increase higher level skills and explore further opportunities to improve the co-ordination of employer engagement.
As part of the wider economic assessment for the borough this document offers some statistical information on employment issues,highlights the local, regional and national context and identifies some specific barriers to employment. An action plan reflects the aims and objectives for employment and skills as stated in the economic development framework.
The resulting proposed integration of activity will cement existing partnerships putting the Council and its partners in a strong position to continue to secure any potential devolvement of influence and investment to meet the aims of improving the employment and skills of the local community.
2. Context
National
Tackling unemployment and welfare reform is likely to remain high on any Government agenda and a key focus of any new government.
The recent recession has emphasised the need to ensure that local employment and skills services are responsive to the needs of individuals and areas. All government support is likely to continue to be directed at improved integration of employment and skills activity, with a key priority of strengthening support to help young people by ensuring a guarantee of a job, training or work experience, helping to mitigate the effects that the recession has had on this target group.
A policy report from the Economic Dependency Working Group of the Centre for Social Justice, Dynamic Benefits, discusses the concept, currently being considered by Government, that the biggest barrier to employment could be the benefit system itself, identifying that the financial margins of working as opposed to receiving benefits are often not enough to encourage people to consider employment. This has led to the suggestion of far reaching changes to the welfare system and three sets of announcement have given us a picture of short term cuts and a long term ambition of the current Government for a more integrated plan to support people of working age, whether in work or not. These include:
· The emergency budget of June 22nd introducing net cuts to the welfare system of £11bn a year by 2015
· The Comprehensive Spending Review of October 20th adding another £7bn to the total cuts.
· The White Paper, Universal Credit: welfare that works, published on November 11th which will replace the current mix of benefits for those of working age
At its heart the Universal Credit has a simple ambition –‘to make work pay, even for the poorest. This will finally make it easier for people to see they will be consistently and transparently better off for each hour they work and every pound they earn’.
Headlines from the impending reform of welfare benefits include: the replacement of Incapacity Benefit with Employment Support Benefit, changes to benefit payment for Lone Parents, a cap on Housing Benefit and changes to Working Tax Credits. The introduction of the single Work Programme is designed to offer intensive support to job seekers to support their entry to sustainable employment.
Appendix B offers a short summary of all impending welfare changes.
There is clearly an emphasis on the expectations of the contribution and role of local authorities and partnerships within the localisation agenda.
It is widely recognised that in order for the prime agency, Jobcentre Plus, to be able to continue to respond and offer a model of flexible, personalised support it will need to further develop local partnerships with local authorities, local employers, and private and voluntary sector providers. This builds on the identified need for local solutions to local challenges with further flexibility devolved to local Jobcentre Plus districts.
The need to further invest in family learning and offer interventions at the earliest opportunity is also recognised along with the policy approach to continue to move towards better integration between employment and skills systems as well as the introduction of Community Budgets to help co-ordinate work with families tackling the problems around families with complex needs.
The Houghton report clearly acknowledged and supported the role played by local authorities and local partnerships and set out a framework for sub-regional and local partnerships to further tackle worklessness, highlighting the importance of having a formal framework and plan of action to tackle worklessness and skills issues. This is mirrored in the current Government approach to localism and although the intention is that the Work Programme will be delivered in the main by the private sector it is acknowledged that there must be a robust private, public and voluntary sector partnership approach to ensure effective delivery.
With current arrangements needing simplification and clearer responsibilities a framework will make it easier for partners to work together as well as offering more opportunity for central government to devolve more responsibility with confidence.
A framework offers the following:
· A single conversation for delivery establishing shared roles and objectives
· The basis by which partners can be held accountable and local scrutiny can be directed
· Establishing a common basis for the local commissioning of provision, identifying appropriate responses to local need and supplementing the national spine of provision
· Demonstrating the added value of the contribution of partnerships.
· A basis to work with departments and agencies to develop an influence over and contribute to the commissioning of other contracted provision
· Ensure appropriate customer journeys are mapped
There is a potential for local partnerships to have a greater influence over commissioning and strategy setting powers and responsibilities, allowing for the development of interventions which are truly responsive to local needs and issues.
Regional
Many of the South London boroughs have had limited success in eligibility to access discretionary funding or opportunities to secure competitive funding for employment and skills activity. The context within which local partnerships are now working is changing rapidly in line with the need to consider an economy slowly emerging from a recession and major reforms within government direction, programmes and welfare benefits affecting local communities.
South London is clearly particularly vulnerable to the effects of the economic downturn with high numbers of jobs in sectors where employment contraction is likely to be greatest. (Local Futures Group).
Within this context there is an opportunity to build and promote a case for securing the essential additional resources needed to tackle the growing number of unemployed and workless residents and to consider the possibility of joint commissioning of public funds across the sub-region, working with LDA/GLA and DWP.
The introduction of Local Enterprise Partnerships is designed to provide strategic leadership to set out local economic priorities helping to rebalance the economy towards the private sector by creating the right environment for business growth.
Croydon is a partner to the ‘Coast to Capital’ Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), a partnership covering an area from the West Sussex Coast, through the Gatwick Diamond to the London Borough of Croydon. It was one of the first tranche of LEPs to be given the green light by the Government to develop its proposals. Key aims are to increase private sector employment by creating the right conditions for businesses to grow as well as increase the skills levels of local people within the area.
Local
Opportunity Croydon – a local compact to support success, published in December 2009 sets out the vision for Croydon following a year long participatory ‘Imagine Croydon’ process. Responses from 18,000 residents underpin the emerging policy framework. The document highlights the borough’s ambitions for economic revival and its determination to connect local people with high quality employment opportunities and to raise skills levels.