Employability Update
North Lanarkshire Council · 17 February 2023
Back to Enterprise and Fair Work Committee — 17 February 2023 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Enterprise and Fair Work Committee Does this report require to be approved? ☐ Yes ☒ No Ref JO’N/PK Date 17/02/23 Employability Update From Janie O’Neill, Head of Education & Families (South) E-mail oneillja@northlan.gov.uk Telephone 07790 894444 1. Background 1.1 Driving up the employment rate in North Lanarkshire is a cornerstone of The Plan for North Lanarkshire and ensuring employability support is available to all is recognised as a major contributor to both local economic development and tackling poverty. Reducing poverty is central to each of these programmes and, in line with The Plan for North Lanarkshire, including all residents in the economic growth of our area is viewed Executive Summary This report provides an update on the decision by Committee at its meeting of 29th August 2022 to approve that steps are taken by Council officers to secure an extension of the current EU funded employability programme from December 2022 until June 2023 and the outcome of those actions. The report also provides information on the measures in place to ensure that the transition from EU funding to the Shared Prosperity Fund, as a key source of external funding allocated to employability, provide continuity of these services and meets the needs of our communities. It also provides a brief update on the current labour market in North Lanarkshire and the current and forthcoming challenges. Recommendations It is recommended that Committee: (1) Note the outcome of the proposal to the Scottish Government that the current EU funded employability programme is extended from December 2022 until June 2023. (2) Consider the information provided on the transition to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and the labour market in North Lanarkshire. The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority Improve economic opportunities and outcomes Ambition statement (11) Increase economic opportunities for adults by understanding, identifying, and addressing the causes of poverty and deprivation and barriers to financial inclusion
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as central to the work on employability. Over half of the Council’s employability support to residents is funded from its EU funded programme through an agreement with the Scottish Government. This funding comes from the European Social Fund (ESF) and the current programme, known in North Lanarkshire as ‘Prospects for You’, had an end date of December 2022. 1.2 In North Lanarkshire the programme is led and co-ordinated by the Council’s employability team which also provides the key function of engaging employers onto the programme. Routes to Work Ltd are funded to provide specialised case worker support to unemployed residents as well as support with accessing vocational training and the short-term costs associated with moving from benefits to employment such as childcare and travel. They also provide in-work support for up to 6 months for those participants that require it. The External Funding team within Enterprise and Communities are also funded through ESF to provide a compliance and verification role on the distribution of the funding. The programme is co-funded by the Council and EU with 46% of funding coming from the EU and has an annual cost of around £4.5 million and funds the 82.44 fte staff delivering the programme as well as the other costs associated with training for participants, wage subsidies to employers, childcare, and vocational qualifications. 1.3 In recent years employability support has also been significantly bolstered by increased levels of funding from the Scottish Government through its No One Left Behind, Parental Employment Support and Young Persons Guarantee funding and these have been integrated and aligned with the existing EU programme to broaden its range and deepen its penetration into under-represented groups in the labour market. 2. Report 2.1 As reported to Committee in August 2022, the Scottish Government had indicated to North Lanarkshire Council that there was an opportunity to extend the operational delivery of the EU funded employability programme from December 2022 until June 2023. The negotiation has been undertaken with a reprofiling of the budget and additional outcomes from the programme submitted to the Scottish Government and the new end date of the programme is June 2023. The total cost from January to June 2023 of the extension is £1,796,750. The EU, via the Scottish Government, will fund 46% of this total cost. Therefore, the extension costs consist of EU grant of £826,505 and Council match funding of £970,245 coming from existing budgets allocated to supporting externally funded employability projects with an additional 360 people supported into fair and sustained employment as a result. 2.2 The UK Government’s replacement for EU funds is the Shared Prosperity Fund and the recent approval of North Lanarkshire’s investment plan, as part of the Glasgow City Region bid, has secured broadly similar levels of funding for employability support in North Lanarkshire until March 2025. With the support of the Council’s Workforce for the Future Steering Group, discussions have begun with the Council’s key delivery partner, Routes to Work Ltd, the Local Employability Partnership and other Council services to identify opportunities which are available within the remit of the new fund that could lead to innovation in services while maintaining an employability service that can meet the needs of all unemployed or economically inactive residents. Examples of where these innovations may be drawn from are: (i) New initiatives based on experienced gained in the delivery of two recent Community Renewal projects delivered by Routes to Work Ltd and the Supported Employment team, one of which was a place-based community
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project in Airdrie Central that tackled economic inactivity and the other which sought to engage increased numbers of people with disabilities into work. Evaluations of these projects are almost complete with clear indications that both are very positive and can inform future work. (ii) Recent work, funded by the Scottish Government, with the local third sector in North Lanarkshire has demonstrated their unique ability to engage with their communities and draw them into the pipeline of employability support funded by the Council. (iii) Further alignment and integration with the Education and Families Pathways Programme for school leavers who may enter a negative destination. (iv) Targeted support on young people with additional support needs who aspire to enter employment on leaving school delivered by the Supported Employment team. 2.3 In terms of the labour market the story of North Lanarkshire over the last 18 months has closely reflected that of the Scottish and UK markets over that period. Far from the high levels of unemployment and redundancies that were expected to result because of the restrictions placed on the economy by the pandemic, a complete and unprecedented reversal in the labour market occurred in the last 18 months resulting in an inadequate supply of labour and with all sectors struggling to fill existing vacancies and it became clear that a major factor in this shortage of workers was due to people leaving the labour market. 2.4 The North Lanarkshire claimant count, which acts as a measure of unemployment, was 14,415 (6.6%) people in March 2021 compared with 8,225 (3.8%) in March 2020, a 75% increase on the pre-pandemic level. However, in December 2022 it had decreased to 7,420 (3.4%) and average earnings in North Lanarkshire are now above the Scottish and UK averages for the first time. This is good news but real challenges remain due to levels of economic inactivity. The number reported as ‘long term sick’ in North Lanarkshire has increased from 14,900 in the 12 months up to December 2019 to 28,400 in the 12 months up to September 2022 and the number reported as ‘looking after family/home’ in the Council area increased from 8,500 to 9,600 in the same period. While unemployment is lower than pre-pandemic levels the number of people in the workforce in North Lanarkshire has reduced from 174,000 (78.1%) in December 2019 to 156,500 (68.8%) in September 2022. Throughout 2023 unemployment is expected to rise again as the UK enters recession and high inflation continues to hinder economic growth. From an employability perspective this simply reinforces the need to continue to support those further from the labour market in North Lanarkshire to gain the skills needed to get a job and continue to work with employers to create opportunities for our unemployed residents, including those who are economically inactive. 2.5 In terms of the Council’s strategic response the Employability team play a role within the Workforce for the Future, Programme of Work P077.1, which has a broad range of workstreams focused on ensuring that every resident has access to the support and advice they need to secure fair and sustained employment or training in North Lanarkshire. This group is also engaged with employers to make sure that the advice and support delivered meets their current and future needs in terms of skills and labour supply. A key contribution made by the team is also to the Programme of Work P005.2, Tackling Poverty through its work on increasing residents’ incomes from employment and specifically through its work on Parental Employment Support to combat child poverty.
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3. Measures of success 3.1 The extension to the EU funded programme is fully utilised to support employment in North Lanarkshire. 3.2 The transition to funding employability services from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund is seamless for unemployed residents seeking support. 4. Supporting documentation Janie O’Neill Chief Officer for Education (South)
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5. Impacts ( http://connect/report-template-guidance ) 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☒ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Equality Impact Assessment will be developed in tandem with the development of the Shared Prosperity Fund project plan. If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality- and-fairer-scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Finance? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Council resources to match fund the EU activity is from NLC Match Funding allocated to employability projects and these will also be used to support Shared Prosperity activities. 5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People Resources? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☐ No ☐
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5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Where the impact identifies a requirement for significant technology change, has an assessment been carried out (or is scheduled to be carried out) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed? The service risk register encompasses those risks related to external grant funding. 5.10 Armed Forces Covenant Duty Does the report require to take due regard of the Armed Forces Covenant Duty (i.e. does it relate to healthcare, housing, or education services for in-Service or ex- Service personnel, or their families, or widow(er)s)? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the provision which has been made to ensure there has been appropriate consideration of the particular needs of the Armed Forces community to make sure that they do not face disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public services. Within all Council employability programmes ex-services personnel are immediately eligible for support alongside other priority groups.