We can work it out

February 1, 2010

Nick Hope, Senior Researcher
Public Sector Executive

The economy has been dealt a severe body blow. It will not be easy to get our country back on its feet and when we do, it must be stronger and more dynamic if we are to compete with the global economic heavyweights. To achieve this will require nothing less than a transformation of our employment and skills system.

We must be leaner; which will require us to strip out the complexity and bureaucracy of the current system. We must be more responsive; both to the needs of citizens and business. And we must intervene earlier and be more tactical; so that we can create and exploit opportunities for growth and prosperity.

In NLGN’s latest report ‘We Can Work It Out’, we make a series of recommendations on how this can be achieved – calling for a far more integrated, devolved and strategic approach to employment and skills governance.

We argue that democratically elected councils must sit at the heart of a complex ecosystem of services, and must develop their role in order to ensure greater co-ordination of support for people at the frontline. Skills quangos at the regional spatial tier should be streamlined to cut out the complexity of the current system, and local authorities must take the lead in commissioning welfare-to-work programmes away from the corridors of Whitehall.

To be in a position to take on these new responsibilities, councils must adopt a more collaborative approach, so that they match functional economic sub-regions and better encompass the area in which citizens live their lives and businesses tend to operate. The challenge of pooling sovereignty should not be underestimated and the step-change many councils will have to make to the way they work will be tough, but institutional convenience must be of secondary concern.

In the report we also argue that policy makers need to move beyond the concept of “demand-led” skills, where employers and learners drive learning but risk perpetuating a short-sighted approach that can reinforce industrial weaknesses. We call for a move towards a “place-led’ skills strategy, where funding is directed in a way that takes greater account of an area’s unique assets, characteristics and economic potential. Local authorities must take the lead in this new era, working collaboratively to orchestrate opportunities and drive economic growth.

We suggest that learner-led ‘skills accounts’ could be reshaped to act as the mechanism through which individuals are empowered with more choice over the training they receive and, simultaneously, councils are given a greater democratic strategic steer.


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