Late Expectations

1
Late Expectations
Has we expected too little for too long in
tackling worklessness amongst the most marginal?
Jerry Stokes
2

• Abel Magwitch
• Dickens archetype of the offender made good
• A career in crime for want of honest occupation
• An early Australian welfare to work initiative

3
About Work Solutions

• Not-for-profit company tackling worklessness
• 13m turnover, 250 staff
• Part of not-for-profit group Economic Solutions
• Operate across Greater Manchester Merseyside
• Economically inactive adults e.g. Pathways
• Offenders e.g. OLASS
• Social employment agency Aspire
• Pre-recruitment for large employers
• Train to Gain for those in work
• Redundancy outplacement

4
Impact

• Over 360 people supported into work each month
• Over 3 million training hours delivered per
  annum
• Each week, over 365 residents use our services
  for their first time
• 400 employers supported with recruitment at any
  point in time
• Over 250 residents employed by Work Solutions,
  working with other employers, at any one time

5
Some experiences

• Day services
• SRB/ESF funded ETE services in East Lancs.
• Progress2Work
• Programmes versus personalisation
• Distance travelled versus hard outcomes
• Intermediate versus full employment
• Prescription versus abstinence
• Employment a key predictor of drug outcomes

6
The new policy landscape

• The Green Paper
• LAA planning structures
• LAs gain greater role in learning skills
• New national drug strategy
• Recovery agenda in drugs field
• Responses to recession whats next?

7
Drug Treatment Employment

• Day services legacy
• Therapeutic inactivity as a right?
• The Progress2Work experience (un-evaluated)
• Employers Are drug users a saleable product?
• The new strategic framework LAA priorities
• The new drug strategy the recovery agenda
• The new day services Employability for drug
  users

8
Drug Treatment the balance sheet

• Strong on engagement
• Massive capacity improvements
• Some progress on quality
• Weak on progression
• Isolated from other areas of social care and
  regeneration
• New drug strategy explicitly acknowledges need
  for broader agenda
• New recovery agenda has increased receptiveness
• Employability now recognised as key to progress

9
Same people - different prisms

• Drug users
• Offenders
• Homeless
• Workless
• Theyre not different species!
• Connected problems need connected responses

10
Weve passed this way before

• The danger of re-invention
• Breaking out of field isolation
• Resisting professional urges to nanny
• Cross sector working maximises learning
  minimises duplication of effort
• Cross-sector commissioning to challenge the
  provider market
• Cross-sector service re-design by providers

11
Working with offenders Some pointers

• A third of adult males with convictions by age
  30
• Sustained employment is single biggest single
  factor in preventing re-offending
• 70 of employers state they would not consider
  employing offenders
• Green Paper recognises key role of employment in
  re-offending
• Shifts emphasis onto learning skills
• Emphasises need for employer involvement in
  learning skills
• Acknowledges need for greater employer
  engagement
• OLASS 157 job outcomes in year to date

12
Working with the economically inactive Some
pointers

• Pathways programme experience in Wigan and
  Stockport
• Tough proposition of stock IB claimants
• Legacy of JSA-IB shunting
• 30 of claimants reporting drug or alcohol
  problems
• Strong (but variable) results shown in latest
  DWP data
• Positive but assertive approach to engagement
  has yielded results
• Experience and learning will be applied to
  Flexible New Deal

13
Recession what are the real risks?

• Disadvantaged groups young people the most
  vulnerable
• Deprived neighbourhoods
• Retreat into agency silos
• Pessimism running ahead of reality

14
Conditionality Are we over-reacting?

• A bit part in the Green Paper picture
• How much of the consultation has focused on it?
• Social control conspiracy theory alive well in
  the drugs field

15
Ways forward

• Recognition that were frequently dealing with
  the same groups through different prisms
• Cross-sector commissioning - shaping the market
• Cross-sector partnerships - service design
  outside the box
• Programme benefits flexibilities to minimise
  barriers

16
A new approach

• A new partnership
• Work Solutions a national drug alcohol
  provider organisation
• Developing a new model of employment focused day
  services applicable to the drug alcohol
  treatment field
• Actively seek the input of commissioners from
  both the drugs employability fields

17
Some questions for you

• Is the relationship between recovery employment
  linear or reciprocal?
• What are your experiences of employment as a
  dynamic factor in recovery?
• Do you have good experiences of cross-sector
  working in this area?
• What needs to happen to facilitate this?
• Do we expect enough?