Agenda item

Report from the Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment.

Recommendations:

That Cabinet:-

1. Approve acceptance of the Council’s indicative allocation of the Economic Inactivity Trailblazer funding to deliver activity targeted at implementing an integrated employment, skills and health system.

2. Approve use of the funding to manage the programme, commission community-based engagement activity, and personalised support (to include flexible support budgets), activate employers to create job opportunities for participants, pay for additional staff salaries (within RiDO, Employment Solutions and for other Pathways to Work roles within the Council) and cover miscellaneous costs.

3. Delegate authority to the Strategic Director, Regeneration and Environment, in consultation with Cabinet Member for Transport, Jobs and the Local Economy and the Section 151 Officer to determine detailed use of the grant or make any subsequent amendments to the proposed budget allocations.

Consideration was given to the report which outlined a strategic initiative to be implemented across South Yorkshire to reduce economic inactivity by integrating employment, skills and health services and sought Cabinet approval to accept funding and implement the programme.

With £1.7m in funding for Rotherham from the Department for Work and Pensions, the programme was set a target to engage with over 1,000 economically inactive residents and transition 400 into employment in 2025/26.

The report highlighted the complex barriers to employment for economically inactive residents including health conditions, caring responsibilities and skills gaps and stressed the need for multi-agency collaboration across local authorities, health services and community organisations.

The Cabinet Member for Transport, Jobs and the Local Economy outlined that the UK's population was ageing and businesses were already experiencing high levels of job vacancies. The cost to the economy of more people out of work due to ill health, post-pandemic was over £15 billion and rising. Labour market shortages were a huge constraint on growing the British economy.

In Rotherham, around one in three of the working-age population were not working and numbers were moving in the wrong direction. Most people who were economically inactive were in this category for reasons which were often complex and multilayered. The current system was not succeeding in helping those people into work.

The Economic Inactivity Trailblazer stemmed from the Go get Britain Working initiative with pilots in nine areas of England and Wales, one of which was South Yorkshire. In South Yorkshire the initiative would be known as ‘Pathways to Work’ and was an approach to change the employment support system across South Yorkshire to enhance connectedness and deliver more person-centred interventions. It was to be championed and delivered by the Local Authorities across the county, the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority and the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and held ambitious and stretching targets.

The Assistant Director, Planning, Regeneration and Transport highlighted the key components of the new system as described at section 1 .5 of the report:

·       A System Steward – operating at regional level with responsibility for policy, regulatory, funding and quality parameters of the employment service system.

·       System Service Manager – at local authority level with responsibility for driving system change.

·       Engagement with potential beneficiaries delivered at a hyper-local level.

·       Personalised Support - Intensive Case Management (ICM) for people who have complex needs and/or significant barriers precluding them from securing employment.

·       Employment activation - a set of targeted interventions focused on employers to enhance the employment opportunities for those that are economically inactive.

The OSMB Chair advised the report was the subject of lively debate at scrutiny, with questions raised concerning integration with the Council’s existing Employment Solutions Team, and visibility of tangible results that targeted support where it was most needed in co-ordinated partnership with health services and other relevant partners.  It was also noted that scrutiny was keen to see that veterans received support through the initiative.

Cabinet was advised that OSMB had requested a 4 month and subsequent 12 months update following implementation to afford oversight of the initial set up and pilot phases, and had supported the recommendations in the report.

Resolved:

That Cabinet:

1.    Approved acceptance of the Council’s indicative allocation of the Economic Inactivity Trailblazer funding to deliver activity targeted at implementing an integrated employment, skills and health system.

2.    Approved use of the funding to manage the programme, commission community-based engagement activity, and personalised support (to include flexible support budgets), activate employers to create job opportunities for participants, pay for additional staff salaries (within RiDO, Employment Solutions and for other Pathways to Work roles within the Council) and cover miscellaneous costs.

3.    Delegated authority to the Strategic Director, Regeneration and Environment, in consultation with Cabinet Member for Transport, Jobs and the Local Economy and the Section 151 Officer to determine detailed use of the grant or make any subsequent amendments to the proposed budget allocations.