It’s no secret that the employability and skills system is broken but whose job is it to fix it, and why hasn’t it been fixed already?

When you look under the bonnet, there are some longstanding and fundamental problems which have never been addressed.

In 2013, The Social Mobility APPG found that the system is the issue, so we need to change the system.

What and How? – The Starting Point

Are jobseekers entitled to the best possible help and support (including provision) back into work or not?

Currently, and in practice, the answer is no, as confirmed by Mel Stride, DWP Secretary of State in response to John Penrose’s call for transparency in the performance of employment support programmes. This call has also been made by the National Audit Office and the DWP Select Committee amongst others and still DWP refuse.

This has been raised repeatedly with HM Treasury. Why are they giving DWP funding if they are not measuring return on investment? It has also been raised repeatedly with Cabinet Office who have been unable or unwilling to act.

The inability to challenge or take action when challenged and course correct, is possibly the single biggest issue in Whitehall, but this also flows through combined authorities, local authorities and their partners, engendering learned helplessness.

Research by INLOGOV (Institute of Local Government Studies – University of Birmingham) found the need to change the thinking and behaviours of the professionals before they can affect service users. In Whitehall departments, there is an imagined order that doesn’t exist. Who holds Whitehall to account?

Opening The Too Difficult Box

Labour are going to have to do this and we are ready, willing and able to help.

A suggested starting point is to include measuring the performance of employment support programmes in the access talks. This will necessitate transparency and highlight the huge waste, cost and dysfunction of the employability and skills system.

It will incentivise and force change to get government departments to act. It will also enable employers, local and combined authorities and their partners to speak up with confidence, call out long-standing problems and get what they want and need from the system.

And help people get the life and career they want!

John McDonough

MD – Recro Consulting

07837 663 969 / john.mcdonough@recroconsulting.co.uk