How we'll improve the way the system works on the ground
Chapter 2 has set out how, in the light of the skills challenge facing the UK, we will deliver our ambition to create integrated employment and skills services that are more responsive to the needs of individuals and employers. This chapter focuses on how DWP and DIUS will work with all our partners to deliver these services (1).
Many local areas are already making progress to deliver just this kind of responsive service, developing a personalised approach to individuals' and employers' circumstances. Each area is different, and a tailored approach needs to be driven by people on the ground. They are the ones who understand the opportunities available in the local economy, and who are close enough to the actual delivery of services to ensure that these are working ever more closely together. Employers have a critical role to play as they are best placed to identify the support that will meet the business needs of today and of the future. And third sector organisations have a unique contribution to make; as employers themselves, as service providers to disadvantaged communities, and as trusted intermediaries.
The problems facing each local area will vary. The last ten years have seen significant progress towards full employment in all the regions and nations of the UK. Despite these improvements, there are too many local communities, particularly in our major cities, where worklessness and deprivation remain higher than we believe is acceptable. A key focus of our policies is to drive further improvement in employment and prosperity by ensuring that individuals living in these areas are just as able to take advantage of opportunities to find and progress in work as those living in other parts of the country. The challenge here is two-fold: to connect the people in areas of high worklessness with the opportunities available in their wider local economy; and to bring together the full range of support that can help those with multiple disadvantage move forward in their lives. This may include help to manage a health condition, to arrange childcare, to find a job or to gain the skills that will allow them to move on. Again, developing the truly local solutions that build on the national successes of the last decade will involve devolving some powers to local communities.
So we want to:
- make the system less top-heavy, devolving responsibility to collaborative partnerships with employers at their centre;
- pursue the new opportunities for working more closely together at a local level that this devolution presents; and
- commit ourselves to a clear ambition about how our services will have changed and improved by 2010-11.
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