Eqia Employment Strategy

Equality Impact Assessment

LB Tower Hamlets - Employment Strategy

‘Getting Neighbourhoods Working’

1. Introduction

The focus of this equality impact assessment is to assess the Employment Strategy prepared by LB Tower Hamlets. The document is a partnership document and sits within the Local Strategic Partnership as employment is a key them of the community plan.

The strategy sets out a framework to tackle the complex issues of worklessness and child poverty within the borough. Tower Hamlets has the fastest growing local economy in the country with more jobs than economically active residents. In contrast it has one of the worst unemployment rates.

It is critical to assess the equality and diversity impacts of this strategy both in its design and in its likely longer term impact. The strategy itself sets out an evidence base and rationale and a series of priorities and outputs. These will be tested and will be reviewed to establish likely positive and negative impacts on the borough equality and diversity strands as well as to establish whether the strategy supports the borough’s policy commitment to equality and diversity and whether the strategy meets the borough’s legislative responsibilities.

1. Employment Strategy

2.1.A Challenging Background

In terms of the challenges facing the borough in tackling worklessness and child poverty the economic situation in Tower Hamlets is unique.

• Tower Hamlets has seen unprecedented jobs growth of 56% over the last 10 years compared with a 7.7% growth in London.

• Tower Hamlets has at least 2 jobs for every economically active person yet only 58% of the population is working.

• Youth unemployment is higher than the London average (17.7% compared to 11.8%) there are high numbers of workless families and one of the highest percentages of child poverty in London.

• There is a lack of role models for the borough’s young people and families need help to convince them that work can pay.

• Whilst there are 50,000 residents not working, 42,000 state they do not want to work, the majority of these being female. Of those who do want to work 4,100 are male and 4,000 female.

• 2,325 residents claiming Job Seekers Allowance are under 25, 3,820 are between 25 and 44 and 1,610 are over 45.

• There are specific target groups that need specialist support and help including people with disabilities and older unemployed residents.

The evidence base of the Strategy will be reviewed in more detail below. However a review of the date informs the reader of the context of Tower Hamlets within London with several tables of comparative information with other London Boroughs. The tables below set out some basic equality and diversity information relating to the percentage of population employed compared to the percentage of the population employed nationally and across London.

The table clearly shows the Tower Hamlets percentage to be below both the UK and London rates with non white employment well below the all people rate in Tower Hamlets and significantly below London and UK.

The table above sets out the economic activity of male and female and compares this across the UK, London and Tower Hamlets. It is clear that the borough’s economic activity in generally below UK and London Rates and female rates of economic activity are at approximately 50% where are London is just below 70% and UK just above 70%. This data needs to be further reviewed as detail in both this information will provide more effective analysis for this assessment.

2.2. Employment Strategy Key Issues

A partnership approach

In order to start to address these key issues Tower Hamlets have a developed partnership through its LSP which includes the following key stakeholders: Jobcentre plus, Tower Hamlets College, Education Business Partnership, East London Business Alliance, Community sector, Primary Care Trust, Connexions, Learning and Skills Council, Head Teachers and 14-19 Hub.

The partnership has ‘ownership’ of the Local Area Agreement delivery plan and the Employment Strategy offering a co-ordinated approach to tackling worklessness. It seeks to offer additionality to mainstream Government programmes through working closely with Jobcentre plus to offer a unified programme of community engagement, family focused work, pre-employment skills activity, job brokerage and creative pathways to employment.

The strategy outlines the following key issues.

• The deep seated issues of unemployment have a serious impact on prosperity, health and housing.
• The impact of having Canary Wharf and the City Fringe as international centres of employment can serve to further polarise the local community.
• It is essential that Tower Hamlets avoid this situation with the opportunity of the Olympics.
• Tower Hamlets has excellent partnerships and considerable success in developing programmes which tackle the issues, these should be stepped up in volume but recognising that these are offered as a wrap around service to mainstream programmes of Jobcentre Plus and Learning and Skills Council.
• Tower Hamlets has the opportunity to create a unified co-ordinated service for employment and skills through the emerging Multi Area Agreement, ensuring that national mainstream programmes have a local dimension.

1. Local Imperatives

The strategy states that ‘Increasingly the issue is one of helping people who face a range of difficulties and constraints, not just relating to qualifications, skills and attitudes and motivation to work, but also to their household or family circumstances and to problems such as poor health and disability.’...... ’Existing labour market policies and programmes, while broadly successful in overall terms in reducing worklessness, have been less effective in helping particularly disadvantaged groups in deprived neighbourhoods. Addressing this broader agenda successfully requires co-ordination of the work of a wider range of agencies. Such co-ordination is most effectively achieved through partnership working at borough level, particularly in areas such as Tower Hamlets with an effective Local Strategic Partnership (the Tower Hamlets Partnership).’

These statements in the strategy serve as defining a commitment to equality and diversity in particular but more generally set the aim of the strategy to go further to address the needs of different groups in the community and there is a clear recognition of a wide variety of barriers to employment which the strategy needs to address. It also recognises the need for different ways of working which may support these achievements and meet this aspiration. It refers to partnership work but it is likely that specific firms of mitigation will be needed to address the needs of different groups.

The Tower Hamlets Community Plan is an overarching plan for the future of the borough, describing the kind of place that the people who live and work here want it to be and offering a vision to 2020. It also outlines aims and objectives, which are reflected in the targets agreed between the Council and central Government through the Local Area Agreement. The priorities identified in the emerging Community Plan to increase employment and skills are:

Supporting lifelong learning opportunities for all by:

• Investing in the under 5s whose development provides the best possible foundation for long-term success.
• Providing high quality schools, so that young people acquire the knowledge and skills they need to fulfil their full potential.
• Providing continuous learning opportunities, so everyone can learn basic and new skills at any age.

Reducing worklessness by:

• Helping families escape poverty, by providing employment support and advice on debt management.
• Identifying and removing barriers to employment for target groups.
• Helping people to get employment by ensuring there is support and training before and after they land a job.

Fostering enterprise by:

• Providing incentives that encourage both business and social entrepreneurship.
• Maximising the opportunities for local businesses from key growth sectors, and the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
• Promoting Tower Hamlets businesses and encouraging growth and tourism, with particular emphasis on the Olympics and Paralympics.

The focus of these actions are addressing work with young people by supporting lifelong learning for all, reducing worklessness and by fostering enterprise. There are some inherent equality and diversity foci of activity in particular there is reference to target groups positive action and tackling deprivation. Nonetheless there are no real clear equality and diversity actions which do seem somewhat limited due to the disproportionate volume of unemployment and economic in activity in certain ethnic groups, women, young people and the disabled.

1. Beneficiary performance

The strategy itself looks forward but this section of the review address the current performance of interventions that have been funded by partners to address unemployment and economic in activity in the borough. This data is not comprehensive but give some level of indication of outputs and beneficiaries of activity sponsored by the partners engaged in this strategy.

The date set out below relates to SkillsMatch a targeted employment programme delivered by Tower Hamlets. It shows the strengths of the programme in delivering against the needs of the local community.

This data shows the broad age profile of the participants on the Skills match project for 2007-08.

This table shows a low level of engagement of disabled people in the SkillsMatch programme.

The gender profile of SkillsMatch is broadly in line with the gender profile of the borough.

The ethnicity profile of SkillsMatch shows a programme that has benefited Bangladeshi people predominantly with 50.09%, with White British representing 22.22%, Black African 6.50% and Black Caribbean 5.81%. This profile is not consistent with the borough population profile but does address the targeting of need for unemployment in the area.

The strategy suggests that local people feel that there is not enough being done to address worklessness. In states: ‘Despite the plethora of activity (see Fig 1) resident’s perceptions (measured through recent consultation on the revised Community Plan along with annual resident’s surveys) are still of a borough with no jobs and not enough provision to help them secure jobs and training’. This is a very interesting statement and further examination of this perceptions reveals (insert views of male and female respondents to this statement)

1. Strategy Priorities

The employment Strategy has set out a series of objectives and linked to these it has defined a number of interventions. These are critical as they define what the strategy is seeking to achieve and to deliver. Indeed it is these specific objectives and their sub interventions that are examined in section 7 to ascertain the likely direct and indirect equality impacts of these actions.

Objective 1: Improved co-ordination of employment related activity and funding.

Interventions:

• Confirm the Employment Task Group as local co-ordinating body for all resources connected with employment related activity.
• Secure greater involvement in tender/commissioning/allocation process for DWP/JCP/LSC funding for employment related activity in the borough at local and sub-regional level, working towards a Multi Area Agreement amongst the 5 Olympic Host boroughs.
• Identify and secure further freedoms and flexibilities to national programmes to fit local need.
• Further development in understanding key intervention points for working with young people and families, and encouraging the joining up of related services.
• Further commission research into specific barriers or target groups.
• Improve the quality of offer from providers and develop an effective tracking and monitoring database between providers.
• Improve the co-ordination of responses to Government consultations
• Ensure that sustainability of employment is measured in all activities at 13 and 26 weeks setting a minimum of 70% sustainability.
• Improve the co-ordination of post 16 activity with employment related activity.

Objective 2: An effective range of employer led interventions

Interventions:

• Develop a co-ordinated framework of activities (local and sub-regional) identifying the variety of help and support available and the pathways essential to securing employment.
• Expand the extent and range of transitional programmes such as Skills Ladder and Earn as You Learn, internships and National Skills Academy programmes to a wider range of employers. Specific sectors will be: financial services, hospitality, leisure travel and tourism (HLTT), health and public services, business to business services.
• Embed the Skillsmatch job brokerage offer within the East London Business Place programme, capturing job vacancies from the growth of the small business sector.
• Capitalise on opportunities arising from the Olympic and Paralympic Games through partnership agreement with Olympic Development Agency.
• Develop a recruitment and training centre on a major development site in conjunction with the Wood Wharf Partnership.
• Secure further employer input through the development and planning framework securing ringfenced employer recruitment as well as revenue sources from s106 agreements
• Maximise employment, placement, apprenticeship and training opportunities for workless people in the public sector, building on good examples within the private sector and specifically developing activities within the Council and Health services.

Objective 3: Improve the transition from education to employment

Interventions:

• Ensure that all 16-17 year olds have a guaranteed learning opportunity leading to employment.
• Develop the 2013 curriculum entitlement to Diplomas and apprenticeships in order to build successful transition into employment
• Launch a significant public sector apprenticeship programme as part of a wider public sector corporate responsibility initiative
• Improve the IAG activities which enable young people to plot an aspirational but realistic path to a successful career
• Embed employability into the 14-19 and adult curriculum including the widespread use of the Passport to Employability
• Optimise the use of new 14-19 qualifications to develop learning opportunities matched to local growth sectors and employment opportunities and secure employer input into 14-19 learning programmes by developing the sector pathway model across all significant local employment sectors
• Develop opportunities for young people with learning difficulties to progress into supported employment, further study and/or independent living
• Support the development of Foundation Degree programmes and initiatives to promote graduate employment
• Improve the tracking of post 16 activities to reduce the drop out rate from post 16 provision.
• Deliver a range of activity to engage parents and families with NEET young people or young people at risk of becoming NEET including the City Strategy Single Point of Access model
• Explore the opportunity for the Employment Task Group to enhance delivery of the Flexible New Deal programme.

Objective 4: Create a seamless pre-employment to post employment skills offer

Interventions:

• Integrate and promote a range of Train to Gain programmes with all customer-led pre-employment programmes providing seamless progression to earning and further learning for local job seekers.
• Support the development of ESOL linked to employability skills and encourage and incentivise the acquisition of English and numeracy skills from entry level to level 1 and 2.
• Further develop an integrated Information Advice and Guidance (IAG) offer linking the work of Connexions with the proposed Adult Careers Service

Objective 5: Develop an effective engagement programme ensuring specific activity for target groups

Interventions:

• Further develop the Community Hub model and network of voluntary and community groups.
• Identify future sources of potential funding and tender out provision by September 08.
• Integrate the services of the Community Hubs with Extended Schools Service and Children’s Centres mirroring the super output geographical areas.
• Identify specific target groups, including older job seekers, people with learning, physical and sensory disabilities and implement a range of support activities.

The strategy goes on to stress that ‘Achieving a long-term change in the Tower Hamlets Employment Rate will only be secured through concerted and co-ordinated action that addresses the following key issues’:

• The young population, the high levels of unemployment amongst young people and the number of workless families offers the conclusion that in order to break the evidenced pattern of worklessness and to achieve a step change in the employment rate within a reasonable timeframe, a co-ordinated effort to secure sustainable pathways to employment for young people, helping them to secure and sustain employment should be our main priority which will ensure a difference is made to improvements in the Employment rate for decades ahead.

• In the short term this will directly target the largest cohort of unemployed and inactive residents. The current structure of much of the population, with high number of large households, many with one or neither parent working, offer the opportunity to bring more income into these families, potentially reducing child poverty, by targeting young people. In the longer term, focussing on young people will reap major benefits, allowing today’s young people to grow up with income, skills and attitudes that they can pass on to their children thus preventing another generation of workless families.

• Parents should be supported to help their children secure and retain sustainable, rewarding employment. This can be achieved by building on the Council’s commitment to supporting parents and families to provide confident, positive parenting from birth through to teenage years and by linking employability services to extended schools and Children’s Centres in line with objectives of the Single Point of Access, City Strategy programme.

• This does not mean that adult employment and skills are unimportant. Life Long Learning and continuing the provision within the Extended Schools service, Children’s Centres and Ideas Stores will be an important factor in helping parents to achieve skills, especially numeracy and literacy. This is turn will have a beneficial effect on the aspirations and achievements of their children.

• The City Strategy programme working with families has already secured high results in increasing the numbers of economically inactive residents moving into sustainable employment. Joining up existing provision and increasing engagement are key to the success.

• Major change will only be achieved through radical new approaches to funding and delivery agencies to secure an integrated skills and employment infrastructure. Efficient and effective service delivery requires more effective co-ordination of current programmes and the elimination of barriers for local job seekers that are often created by the plethora of opportunities.

1. Baseline employment data

LBTH Employment Strategy EQIA 1126-Nov-18