Patrick Hughes Director for Jobcentre Plus London and Home Counties 23 May 2011 Getting Londoners into work LONDON EMPLOYMENT & SKILLS CONVENTION 2011

2 Jobcentre Plus London’s labour market in summary; Welfare Reform – the national context; The Jobcentre Plus offer to individual unemployed people; Joining up employment and skills; Engaging with London’s employers; Working with partners and providers throughout the system; Looking forward to the coming year Summary Overview

3 Jobcentre Plus A very large labour market: 3.8m employed; 380 thousand unemployed, and 220 thousand claiming JSA; A very active labour market: currently over 40 thousand people flow into; and out of JSA every month; We have details of about 30% of vacancies in London – 30 thousand per month; Fewer than half these vacancies are for types of jobs unemployed people say they want – a significant mismatch of skills and expectations; Overall JSA unemployment looks to be plateauing in London: it has remained between 222,400 and 214,100 for each of the last 12 months. London Labour Market in summary;

4 Jobcentre Plus The Government continues the transformation of the welfare system leading toward the introduction of Universal Credit from October 2013; Before then the Work Programme goes live in London in June; Continuing movement of lone parents with children of school age moving onto JSA; Reassessment of Londoners claiming Incapacity Benefits gathers pace at an estimated 1200 people per week. So that quite rapidly, most unemployed Londoners claiming benefits will receive either JSA or ESA… Welfare reform – the national context;

5 Jobcentre Plus Working with local, sub-regional and London-wide partners to develop a joined up approach to employer engagement. Smarter use of joint marketing … JCP, NAS, WP providers and Colleges – at a minimum – must together be centre-stage… Making employability a key element of the offer; Linking recruitment and skills more creatively; Coordinated focus on development localities building on emerging good practice (Olympics, Crossrail etc) Building on the goal of recruiting more Londoners into London vacancies. Engaging with London’s employers…

6 Jobcentre Plus We want it to be more personal, more local, more flexible with focus on diagnosing and responding to individual needs; Each claimant will have a named personal adviser who has more flexibility to respond to these needs; Including immediate access to a range of support programmes and modest extra financial help Prior to the Work Programme, building on this personal advice service we will offer help through a network of 84 Work Clubs and Enterprise clubs; and volunteering opportunities (Working Together). Especially keen to develop work experience: over 1200 opportunities with numbers set to grow fast; Seeking to make Londoners more active, employable and competitive… The Jobcentre Plus offer to individual benefit claimants

7 Jobcentre Plus Nextstep and JCP: an engaged and well coordinated retail front-end to the system; Colleges/Providers and JCP: tailoring training to meet needs of local communities re basic skills, pre vocational, ESF, etc, focussing on JSA and ESA (Work Related Activity Group) customers who attract full fee remission; Apprenticeships – growing interest in linking with Work Experience. Sector-based service academies - local colleges, employers and JCP working together to offer training and work experience appropriate for the local labour market and employment sector, leading to a guaranteed job interview. Importance of coherent sub-regional and local alignment of employment and skills. Joining up employment and skills:

8 Jobcentre Plus We continue our commitment to partnership working… Commit to our well established partnerships with GLA, local authorities, employers, providers, community and voluntary organisations. Delivering employment services in London with Work Programme primes and other providers that get Londoners into work. Work with Colleges to provide unemployed customers with employability and skills training. Working with employers to ensure our customers are able to gain relevant skills to compete for their vacancies, and develop the most appropriate recruitment practices; Continuing to invest in our own local managers with partnership development skills and accountabilities; and the authority to take personalisation and flexibility decisions locally. Working with partners and providers throughout the system:

9 Jobcentre Plus Work closely with local partners to refine and enhance our joint customer offer inc. Local Authorities, Colleges, local community groups, etc; Develop a coherent and joined up employer engagement strategy that delivers real added value to local employers; Work closely with providers to ensure best possible outcomes for our customers and provide value for money e.g. ESF; Work Programme providers; and other programmes Seeking to make a reality of our commitment to personalisation and flexible delivery, with a particular focus of activity at local community level. And all, of course, in context of our own organisational change – and very tight resources like so many of us here today – so that effectiveness and real value for money are at a premium. Looking forward to coming year

10 Jobcentre Plus At the start of the recession we said our approach has three key components: “Everybody active; No one left behind; All working together”. We think that still holds good. Everybody active: we encourage ‘activity’ for every unemployed person, through jobsearch, training, work experience, volunteering and improving their health; No one left behind: we systematically identify the most disadvantaged and offer them extra help. All working together: and we do all this in partnership, because no one organisation can deliver this agenda alone. In Summary