Scottish Government

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The contents of this report form the evidence for, and recommendations to, the Scottish Executive on what the Employability Framework should contain. Publication is not an undertaking that the Scottish Executive will implement its recommendations. The findings of this report will be addressed by the Framework document when it is published later in the year.

Summary and Recommendations

The purpose of the Employability Framework review as a whole was to provide evidence and information that could improve the way in which we help the workless, particularly the 'hard to reach', towards and into work. Within our own Workstream we were asked to develop a clear picture of the workless client groups, the barriers that prevent them from entering the labour market and from sustaining meaningful employment, and the opportunities available to enable them to overcome those barriers. On the basis of this we were asked to provide recommendations regarding the targeting of the framework and the principles of intervention that could act as the basis for the Framework.

We have understood employability as the ability to both gain and sustain employment in the open labour market and have focused on those with the greatest risk of not achieving this transition, because they face additional barriers that prevent them from entering the open labour market or make it difficult for them to sustain employment.

The review has convinced us that a number of significant challenges have to be addressed in drawing up the Employability Framework. These are:

• A client group that is not easily measured and is best seen as a continuum from those closest to the labour market (and possibly even involved in the elementary jobs that leave them at risk of falling back into worklessness) to those whose circumstances prevent them from thinking employment is even possible, when evidence points to it being a real possibility for them.
• Finding ways to overcome a set of barriers facing the workless that involve issues around employers, carers, advisers, family and friends - as well as the workless themselves.
• Finding ways of using a well established understanding of good practice on how to help clients. An understanding, moreover, that is based on experience gathered in the last decade and which could provide the basic principles for intervention, but which a context of competition between services and experience of short term funding has prevented from fully developing.
• A need to clarify ownership and leadership of the overall framework and its constituent parts.

We examine a number of these below and provide some initial recommendations on how the challenges can be faced.

The Client Group

In this section we noted that drawing a complete picture of the workless client group and its component parts is extremely difficult due to data limitations. Nevertheless we found that the overall figure is somewhere near 640,000 and risk factors include:

• Low or no qualifications. Rates of worklessness peak in the 'no qualifications' group at 48.7% (247,000). Those with no qualifications represent just over 35% of the workless population.
• Lack of employment experience. The longer an individual is unemployed the more likely it is that their worklessness will continue. There is a growing divide between work rich and work poor individuals and households. About two thirds of the workless group have been out of work for over 3 years or have never worked.
• Caring and parenting responsibilities. Lone parents remain one of the largest groups who are workless and want to work. They and others with caring responsibilities often face a combination of low skills, lack of work experience, poorer health and inflexibility in the hours available for them to work.
• Mental health, long term illness and disability. Measuring the numbers of people with mental health problems and/or a physical illness/disability who wish to work is difficult but they represent one of the main target groups that the DWP Pathways to Work Pilots policy are trying to address. The success of this pilot goes some way to demonstrating that people with an illness or disability are capable of, and willing to, work. Over half of the workless client group declare a health problem. Mental health problems represent a major risk factor amongst this group and health is the most significant secondary barrier for most of the client groups within the workless population.
• Location. While not totally related to locality, worklessness is concentrated in certain areas. For example, excluding students, 41% (286,000) of the workless group is found in the 7 local authorities targeted by CtOG Target A, and Glasgow alone accounts for 15.7% (109,000). In addition, the workless are further concentrated in the 15% most deprived areas in each local authority.
• Age. Worklessness increases with age and rates of inactivity within the over 55 age group are extremely high.
• Scotland also has a rate of youth unemployment that is higher than most European countries.
• Smaller but significant groups amongst the workless include those with substance abuse problems, the homeless and ex offenders. Whilst relatively small in number they represent some of the hardest to reach for any employability programme.
• Ethnicity. When the employment levels of all ethnic minority groups are combined and measured against the level of Whites a gap is found. This is called the employment rate gap. In England this gap has persisted for over 15 years at around 16 percentage points. In Scotland, the gap is greater - it is 19 percentage points. The Pakistani, Bangladeshi and African/Black Scottish groups have the highest unemployment rates, and are comparable with rates in England.

Key issues that the workstream discussed as part of its overview included the difficulties of measurement and the need to recognise that judgements will need to be made over the groups that become the focus of a Scottish Employability framework. There are difficulties in measuring the exact size of the workless group and its sub sections. Different methods of measurement, for example, exist between the Census, Labour Force Survey, and for some sub groups there is simply no accurate way of estimating numbers involved. Decisions over priorities will therefore involve some element of political and value judgement. Decisions must also be taken over the extent to which resources should take into account the situation where some groups presently receive very limited support. Simply focusing on the 'workless who want to work' may limit the possibility of reducing over the longer term the more intractable barriers that discrimination and social exclusion create and the lack of engagement with work that results.

Focussing on the 'workless' as a whole may produce so wide a group as to make policy and resources too widely spread. Decisions over priorities will have to involve an assessment of the cost and benefit of including the hardest to reach groups or those closest to the labour market in the short, medium and long term. In addition members of the group also felt that there was a need to complement initiatives currently being undertaken by Job Centre Plus with particular groups, if Executive money is to add most value. At the same time members felt that it was important to recognise the additional groups that could be brought into a Scottish employability framework to ensure that it is not totally dominated by Job Centre Plus policy.

Client group recommendations.

On the basis of this review we would like to recommend that:

• Improved baseline information is required for sub-groups of the workless population, if realistic targets are to be set for improvements in the rates of worklessness among particular groups.
• The national aspiration to halve the differential between employment and unemployment rates amongst the most and least disadvantaged wards be reaffirmed as part of the Employability Framework.
• The Employability Framework sets ambitious targets for a reduction in the differences in the employment rate between the working age population as a whole and lone parents, people in ethnic minorities, those with health problems, the homeless, ex offenders and those recovering from substance abuse.
• The CtOG target F, to improve the attainment of the lowest performing S4 pupils be incorporated into the Employability framework.

Barriers and routes into work

Key points that we have made in this section are: -

• Worklessness may, in part, result from an overall shortage of job opportunities and requires action to stimulate local job generation but 'economic' development and 'employment' development are not automatically linked. There is no guarantee that new jobs will be accessed by those who are workless.
• Worklessness may reflect a weak connection between the job opportunities that are available and the ability of workless people to access these opportunities.
• We have identified a large number of barriers that affect a client's chances of obtaining and retaining a job. Each individual faces a unique set of barriers, although certain barriers are more prevalent among particular client groups. We concluded that the barriers to sustainable employment can be divided into:
• • Structural: Barriers such as the cost, availability or ease of access to services and benefits as well as the state of the local labour market.
  • Attitudinal: Including the attitudes and recruitment practices of employers, or of carers and support workers (institutional or family) whose low expectations may lead to low levels of support or inappropriate support.
  • Personal: The circumstances, skills and attitudes of the workless individual themselves, including fear of losing benefits, low self-esteem, an inability to self motivate, a lack of skills, poor health, caring responsibilities, poor employment record and/or a lack of mobility/willingness to travel.
  • Programmes that seek to address the barriers to employment facing individuals have tended to focus on facilitating the transition into work. However, it is important to recognise that worklessness is not a static condition. The way in which people return to work after a lengthy period out of work is an issue that needs to be addressed, as well as the type of jobs that are available for this group. Barriers to successful sustained employment change as an individual progresses along the route to employment. In the next chapter we examine the stages on an individual's journey into sustainable employment.
• Programmes focussed on tackling the barriers facing individuals trying to enter employment have tended to focus on facilitating the transition into work. However, it is important to recognise that worklessness is not a static condition.
• The way in which people return to work after a lengthy period out of work is an issue that needs to be addressed, as well as the type of jobs that are available for this group. Barriers to successful sustained employment change as an individual progresses along the route to employment.
• The route into work is a complex one that involves engagement, developing skills, gaining appropriate work experience, readjusting other elements of an individual's life, changing clients' attitudes/ambitions, and developing an ability to make sense of Benefit rules and employers demands.
• It is a route that is made more easily by some than others even within the 'hard to reach' group and is one that does not always produce effective means of overcoming poverty.
• Profiling an individual's position on the route - i.e. the distance they have travelled is an important way of identifying current and future needs.
• Access to appropriate services for specific groups and specific stages are key to successful and long term progress towards work that pays.

Recommendations relating to reducing the barriers and widening the routes into work

On the basis of our review we would like to recommend that:

• Full account of local labour market conditions is taken when developing local elements of the employability framework.
• Employers, carers and communities should be made more aware of the benefit of work and their potential role in implementing the recommendations of an Employability Framework.
• More should be done to reach people who currently slip past existing active labour market policies.
• A major emphasis of support for workless people should be on the enhancement of their skills and opportunities to engage with the existing labour market.
• The needs of specific groups of excluded people should be recognised and specialist support provided that moves them towards more generic employment provision and sustains them once they enter the labour market.
• Improved access to realistic activities and proven services that have the confidence of unemployed people and convince them they will get and hold down a job i.e. able to engage and support at each stage, including post employment;
• The development of soft and hard skills at appropriate points and in ways that inspire confidence;
• The development of job search and work experience at appropriate stages, and based on choice;
• Access to specialist advice when needed before and after entry to employment, including information about relevant skills training, financial advice about debt or benefit entitlements, childcare and information about sources of help for people with housing difficulties;
• Access to impartial and flexible employment and benefits advice and support; and
• Access to employment focussed support from an early stage.

Current provision and good practice

Key points that we have made in this section are:-

• The types of services which offer routes into work differ greatly depending on which type of economically active individual is being supported. There is a huge spectrum of activity already occurring.
• Existing services can, however, be categorised into a number of stages that a client may undertake on their path towards employment. These include services for those who are not yet job ready, those who are and those who have entered the labour market. At present services tend to mainly focus on the job ready.
• Activities involved in developing employability among those some way from the labour market include: direct services to clients; cross agency work developing policy; some elements of co-ordinated delivery; and attempts to move mainstream services towards a recognition of the relationship between employability and social disadvantage.
• Key stakeholders in the sector feel that there are gaps in current provision: not all clients are served adequately; funding regimes and target setting support cherry-picking of 'easier to help' clients; expertise is often lost due to short term funding and some groups needs are met in a way that separates them unnecessarily from others (e.g. refugees). Preferences for a future 'employability service' include: generalist support alongside referral to specialist services; improved case management of clients; increased accessibility of the New Deal to those furthest from the labour market; and the availability of both short and long term support for clients.

Recommendations for developing good practice

Our recommendations are:

• Both generalist and specific services need to be incorporated into the Framework.
• Services should be available for those not yet job ready, those who are and those who have entered the labour market, but particular attention should be paid to service gaps for those who are furthest from the labour market and those who have recently entered employment.
• Competition for funding should be replaced by coherence and pooling of funding.
• Existing good practice should be drawn on and shared in planning and delivering the Framework.

Principles of intervention

We explored what sort of services would be most appropriate for the groups that were the focus of our Workstream and identified a number of principles of intervention for adoption by all agencies as part of a future Employability Framework. These are listed below, with related recommendations.

1 Geared to Client Needs

The wide, but often overlapping, range of needs of disadvantaged groups trying to progress towards work relate to differences in the structural, attitudinal and personal barriers they face, and also in their progress on a range of indicators (including both personal/social and employment related). We therefore recommend:

• Client centred services in order to respond to the range of individual needs. But care should be taken to avoid any silo effect (i.e. services should not result in labelling groups in inappropriate ways).
• A holistic approach that assists individuals to overcome their unique set of personal, social and institutional barriers; from engagement through to sustained employment.

2 Employability focused

Evidence suggests that many within the workless group view work positively, but that the concept of working is often not incorporated into the advice and support they receive from specialist agencies. We therefore recommend:

• The enhancement of work related advice in environments that are trusted by the most disadvantaged, but where employability advice has historically been low.
• Raising awareness of positive attitudes amongst employers and agencies involved in supporting many of the groups we have been considering.

3 Flexible

Clients move towards employment through different routes, some faster than others, some only after a few 'starts'. This relates in part to the difficulties faced by individuals themselves, but also to the nature of entry level and low paid jobs in the labour market. We therefore recommend:

• The development of flexible routes into work and acceptance of incremental as well as systematic change.
• The encouragement of progression alongside continued support and a willingness to 'stay with' the client even when progression falters.
• Discretion and flexibility when dealing with clients.

4 Evidencing progress

Two key issues for those some distance from the labour market, or even engaged in low skilled and low paid jobs appear to be a lack of confidence and a lack of skills. This is often reinforced by a lack of tangible progress as a result of employability interventions - the 'cycling' effect as clients pass through a range of similar services without progressing. Interventions must therefore be 'for a purpose' and must evidence some measurable benefit to an individual on a model of 'distance travelled'. Too many interventions are focussed on 'throughput' and not enough success is measured by 'outcomes' for the client (be they 'soft' or 'hard'). Providing positive feedback to those with low self-esteem is an important part of support towards employment. We therefore recommend:

• A key worker or mentoring approach where individuals can be encouraged to see the developments they have obtained (however small) and helped to identify their own goals
• The development of a common tracking system whereby 'distance travelled' information is available to and owned by both client and case manager.
• The passing on of clients and their 'case history' between support agencies when appropriate.
• A greater focus in funding agreements for employability services on client 'outcomes', rather than 'output' measures.

5 Long term support

Although support needs will vary across different groups, the complex nature of barriers, and the evidence that barriers re-appear at different times and in different contexts suggests there is a need for long term support as well as short term interventions. There is also evidence that suggests that more support is needed once clients enter work, to enable them to tackle the barriers that may then arise, enabling them to sustain work and prevent them 'cycling' in and out of low paid, low skilled work. We therefore recommend:

• Long-term support towards employability that follows clients for a significant period and supports them up to and into employment.
• Support that encourages engagement and is able to refer clients towards the activities that address the personal, family and skills issues that arise at different times and affect their employability (often at times of crisis/change).
• A key worker approach that enables personalised, long-term support to be provided by a trusted individual who can identify the most suitable service for an individual to help overcome specific barriers.

6 Based on trust and honest brokering

Many of the groups we have been asked to consider will have experienced discrimination and exclusion. Research suggests that they find it difficult to trust employers and official employment agencies. In addition, as mentioned above, a lack of tangible progress may reinforce feelings of mistrust whereby clients do not perceive that they are being helped to make progress. We recommend:

• A non judgemental but honest environment of support where trust can be developed between client, support agency and employer.
• The availability of workers with employment guidance skills in environments that are trusted by disadvantaged groups. This could also include job-brokering skills to assist the negotiation between potential employer and client.
• Responses that allow clients and employers to 'test the water' - for example, flexible benefits that encourage clients to make the transition to work.

7 Based on a co-ordinated response

There is growing evidence that advice and referral between agencies can lead to the 'transferability' of confidence and commitment. We therefore recommend:

• Continued moves towards a more co-ordinated response between agencies e.g. health/social care and employability.
• Cross sectoral training to allow greater understanding of the role that different agencies and professionals can play and the potential for referral.
• The development of a common tracking system that enables distance travelled to be measured and the effective transfer of clients between agencies.

8 Engaging with clients to develop services

Incorporating the views of end-users/clients into the design and review of services has been shown to have the potential to improve their effectiveness. Whilst some clients will not be willing or able to contribute to service development, particularly at times of crisis and change, others will want to contribute their views and experience to service development, or at least to plans for delivery of their own service. We therefore recommend:

• The incorporation of the views of clients and frontline workers into service design.
• Early recognition of an individual's ability to contribute to their plans for progression.
• Stronger recognition of how client views can improve the quality and efficiency of service.

9 Cross sectoral work that also maintains specialist knowledge

Whilst the above are principles of intervention that could be incorporated into many existing services (and indeed may already be so) evidence suggests that some agencies are probably better placed to work in certain ways or to address particular barriers. We therefore recommend:

• Continual cross sectoral training where good practice can be shared and referral possibilities explored.
• Maintenance of specialist knowledge for particular client groups or particular points on the 'distance travelled' model.
• The adoption of the principle of 'comparative advantage' when tailoring a package of support for individual clients - that ensures that the most appropriate agency tackles a particular barrier or development need. One agency need not provide all the services a client needs. Rather, if effective tracking and co-ordination is in place, a range of agencies can provide different elements of that support when best placed to do so.

Ways forward

Our final task was to identify how our recommendations could be taken forward. We spent less time on this than the other tasks we were charged with as the Interventions Workstream were looking at it in some detail. Nevertheless we identified some essential ways forward for the short term (i.e. in the next three years):

• A focus on those who want to work, or those that previous experience has shown want to work if barriers are addressed;
• The balancing of supply and demand side policies - i.e. ensuring that the workless are equipped with the skills and knowledge required to undertake the jobs that are, or are likely to become, available locally;
• A policy framework that adds to UKDWP strategy, but does not merely parallel or duplicate that strategy;
• A focus on changing hearts and minds of employers and key workers;
• Creating a clearer funding structure, and encouraging more 'pooled bids' for resources by local and national partners;
• A clarification of the policy framework, with clear Ministerial ownership and a Lead Partner accountable for implementing specific elements of the Framework. We did not identify who the lead partner should be but felt that if the Framework was to produce effective change there needed to be a system of ownership and accountability;
• A clarification of frameworks for funding services, managing delivery, developing support systems and co-ordinating staff development at a local level; and
• The establishment of bilateral or multilateral agreements between agencies, where necessary to devolve and hold implementation accountable.