The Get Britain Working Again White Paper

Britain’s labour market has faced numerous challenges in the last few years, with 2.8 million people reportedly unable to work due to long-term sickness^[1], one in eight young people not being in education or employment^[2] and having been most impacted by covid lockdowns in comparison to similar countries^[3]. It is further reported that health benefits in the UK have increased from £36 billion to £48 billion in the last financial year as a result of mental health worsening during successive lockdowns^[4].

With this in mind, the Government has published ambitions to implement a three-pillar strategy (detailed below) to improve economic inactivity in Britain, with a long-term goal of achieving an 80% employment rate:

1. Modern Industrial Strategy and Local Growth Plans: to create more good jobs in every part of the country.
2. Plan to Make Work Pay: to improve the quality and security of work.
3. Get Britain Working: to reform employment support.

The third limb in this plan has been set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper. The Paper has indicated aims to address six issues:

1. People being excluded from the labour market, especially those with health conditions, caring responsibilities or lower skill levels.
2. Young people leaving school without essential skills, access to learning or work.
3. People becoming stuck in insecure, poor quality and low-paying work.
4. Women caring for families experiencing challenges staying in and progressing at work.
5. Employers being unable to fill vacancies due to labour and skills shortages.
6. Disparity in labour market outcomes between different places and for different groups of people.

The Paper details several proposed actions and changes:

1. Improve the impact of the NHS 

   The Paper aims to tackle health conditions which are seen to contribute to unemployment, such as mental health, smoking and obesity. The support is to include Talking Therapies, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill and new treatments for obesity. Treatment for such health conditions will include improved access to employment advisers and Individual Placement and Support (IPS). The goal is to provide these services to 140,000 more people by 2028/29.

2. Give control to local areas 

   There will be funding of £125 million to introduce eight ‘trailblazers’ into local authorities in 2025/26. They will be tasked with connecting relevant local services and trialling new interventions.

   Local areas will be supported to create their own Get Britain Working Plans and engage with local partners to assist with their implementation.

   A Connect To Work programme will assist up to 100,000 people a year with employment, supported by the Shared Prosperity Fund, a locally controlled fund.

3. The Youth Guarantee 

   The Youth Guarantee aims to ensure young people aged 18-21 are learning or earning.

   There will be 8 Youth Guarantee trailblazers working with £45 million of funding in 2025/26 to design and develop the Guarantee to improve opportunities for young people. The Apprenticeship Levy will be redeveloped to become more flexible and renamed the Growth and Skills Levy. They will create new foundation apprenticeships and shorter apprenticeships in key sectors. New partnerships will be developed to generate opportunities for young people.

4. Improve Jobcentre Plus

   There will be funding of £55 million to reform Jobcentre Plus in 2025/26. It will build new relationships with employers. It will be integrated with local partners and aims to bring employment and careers advice together.

5. Review how employers promote healthy and inclusive workplaces

   The review ending next summer will assess how the government can better support employers to:

• Improve the recruitment and retention of disabled people and people with health conditions.
• Prevent their workforce from becoming unwell.
• Promote healthy workplace environments.
• Implement early intervention for sickness absence.
• Improve the rate of employees returning from sickness absence.

This review will complement the Make Work Pay reform, which aims to address job insecurity and expand flexible working.

Next steps

The government further plans to reform the health and disability benefits system and will bring forward a Green Paper in spring 2025.

For employers, there may be opportunities to embrace these initiatives but they should be considered carefully in the context of presently increasing employment law rights. Now is the time for employers to be agile and ready for change. It is essential that employers’ policies and procedures are tailored to drive recruitment and career development, whilst maintaining clear and robust procedures to address performance and conduct issues. For more information, speak to our team of specialist employment advisors at Tees.

Resources

[1] INAC01 SA: Economic inactivity by reason (seasonally adjusted) - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

[2] Young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

[3] Health-related benefit claims post-pandemic: UK trends and global context | Institute for Fiscal Studies (ifs.org.uk)

[4] Sick pay timebomb that risks a lost generation of workers - BBC News