How to fix the participation crisis

Data on everything from routine operation waiting lists to accessing GP appointments points to an NHS under incredible strain. And recent research from University College London has shown that more than one in three British adults already have two or more chronic conditions in their 40s, such as back problems, mental health problems, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Meeting the needs of the millions of people with chronic physical and mental health conditions both in and out of work is going to be immensely difficult, but it couldn’t be more important, not just to our national health and wellbeing, but also to our economy. This has to include a focus on primary and community care, and on occupational health.

We also need to think differently about how we provide employment support. Current labour market policy interventions focus heavily on unemployment. The Restart programme is focused on long-term unemployed benefit claimants. The Kickstart scheme provides wage support for employers who take on young people at risk of long-term unemployment. Even the welcome recent announcement of investment in employment support for people over 50 is focussed principally on Job Centres – places that the current swathe of people no longer working may have never visited or never intend to visit.

While these are all worthy initiatives in themselves, they aren’t going to solve the participation crisis. We need to change approach. We need to find much better ways to engage and support people to get back into work that works for them.

Work currently underway in Greater Manchester could form part of the answer. The Combined Authority is working with the charity Centre for Ageing Better and the DWP to co-design better approaches with local people over 50. So far, they have prototyped two interventions that offer personalised support in ways that people value and say they want. One is a digital service, which enables people to identify existing and transferable skills, develop career goals and plans, and link them to local employment sectors that are growing and recruiting. The other is a radically different approach to the local procurement of employment support services that aims to remove barriers to small, more holistic and more innovative local providers from winning contracts to provide support.

What these approaches have in common is a desire to meet people where they are, and tailor support and advice accordingly, something that will be critical to support not just active jobseekers but also people who have never accessed DWP services. We will need more of these ideas in the months and years ahead. More local roadshows that bring employability professionals and CV writing clinics out of the job centre and into other settings. More targeted returner campaigns for local industries. More good quality, evidence-based careers guidance and support not just for school leavers but for adults of all ages. More employers actively seeking out people over 50 to fill their vacancies.

As yet, few employers are as enlightened as this. According to a recent poll from the Centre for Ageing Better, only 1 in 6 employers are very likely to introduce policies on age-inclusion in the workplace in the next 12 months. And more than a third of older workers feel their age would work against them in getting a new job. At the Phoenix Group, we’re taking part in a trial looking at how to eliminate age bias from the recruitment process. 

But bringing people over 50 back to work isn’t just about recruitment. It’s also about working conditions. When the Office of National Statistics explored with economically inactive people over 50 what would encourage them back work, flexible working and support for caring responsibilities ranked as the most important things they would look for. Getting serious about offering flexible working can feel difficult for some employers, but work from Timewise and the Institute for Employment Studies has shown it can deliver a return on investment even for sectors like construction, teaching and the NHS in terms of reduced sickness absence and improved retention within just a few years. At the moment, employees must have been employed for 26 weeks before they are entitled to make a flexible working request. We need to change this to a day one right, as committed to in the 2019 Conservative manifesto.

We also need to see more support for people with caring responsibilities. The 2019 Conservative manifesto also committed to introducing five days statutory unpaid carers leave for all workers, but has also yet to be legislated for. Recognising the reality of a two-parent working families, acknowledging that people need time and support to be able to able to care for children, for partners for parents, will be critical to encouraging more people back to work, particularly women on whom the responsibility for unpaid family care so often falls. When Beveridge set out his blueprint for what would become our welfare state, he assumed ‘during marriage most women will not be gainfully employed’, leaving them free to raise children and care for elderly and sick relatives and neighbours. It is the giant outdated 20th century cultural assumption that strangles our attempts at delivering a welfare state and decent employment conditions in the 21st century. 

Finally, we need to think differently about adult learning and skills.

We need a system that supports people to learn, upskill and change careers across their lives. But very little of our current learning and skills provision is targeted at people at mid-life and older. There’s a huge potential untapped market for the education and training providers who see the opportunity to target and tailor courses to help those mid-career and older. In a recent poll we conducted, 79% of people agreed that offering formal training beyond the basic functions of a job has a positive effect on people’s performance at work, and 81% agreed that getting formal training can greatly increase the chances of finding a job for those who are unemployed or at risk of redundancy. But 61% of those in work said they have not been offered any formal training through their job in the last 12 months. Trends in employer investment in training are worryingly in decline, just at a time when investment in skills is so critical to our economic growth.

None of these ideas are quick fixes. None will give the new Prime Minister a chance to don a hard hat and stand in front of some grand new infrastructure project. They are the messy work of recalibrating relationships and expectations. Between people who are ill and the health care system. Between employees and employers. Between people who don’t see how they can earn money again and services that can really help them. But they are absolutely fundamental to fixing our participation crisis and growing our economy.