Regeneration and Transport Select Committee
Review Title: Employability
The following provides some initial background information regarding the “employability” agenda, formerly known as “worklessness”. Some of the detail and tables have been captured from a draft research document written for the Tees Valley Unlimited City Region Employment & Skills Board.
Worklessness/Employability Policy context
Government policy has given increasing emphasis to tackling worklessness as a mechanism to boost economic competitiveness and reduce poverty, through both the New Deal for Welfare Green Paper and Bill and the subsequent Freud Review of Benefit Dependency in March 2007. These policies are to reduce the number of Incapacity Benefit claimants, extend support to lone parents into work and assist older adults to extend their working life by delivering a more coordinated and integrated programme of employment, skills and health support for those seeking to return to the labour market, particularly in the most employment deprived cities and city regions.
The link between low rates of economic participation and low skills levels is also a fundamental element of Lord Leitch’s Review of Skills. Leitch argues that to sustain our economic competitiveness, the UK must become a world leader in skills by 2020; this will mean doubling attainment at all Levels and securing a commitment from employers, individuals and Government agencies to achieving this.
Leitch advocates a more integrated system of employment and skills support, which is driven by the needs of employers, and proposes the creation of a UK Commission for Employment and Skills, which will
· improve basic skills for those out of work, embedding this support for disadvantaged people and repeat claimants;
· work with employers to create sustainable employment and progression opportunities; and
· develop a network of employer led Employment and Skills Boards (ESBs), building on current models, to influence delivery at City Regional or local level and to create opportunities for joint commissioning and better use of existing resources;
At a Regional level, One NorthEast and its partners have developed the Regional Employability Framework (REF) to take forward the Regional Economic Strategy’s (RES) commitments to reduce worklessness and increase participation in economic activity.
The REF sets out a series of principles and operational agreements agreed between funders, employers and delivery agencies which will enable the North East to increase employment by 80,000 over ten years and reduce the numbers on benefits.
The REF also identifies an ‘Employability Service Model’ which identifies the key stages in the process of moving from inactivity to sustained employment and which it proposes should be adopted by the key funding and delivery partners across the Region:
Employability Services Model
Effective Incentives
CLIENTS
Effective Case Management:
Common Reporting, Definitions and Tracking System
EMPLOYERS
Effective Case Management:
Common Reporting, Definitions and Tracking System
Baseline – worklessness in the Tees Valley
In 2005 the working age population of the Tees Valley was 399,200 – of which 42,270 are in receipt of Incapacity Benefit; 32,470 Income Support and 15,014 Job Seekers Allowance, representing 10.6%, 8.1% and 3.8% of the working age population respectively. The Stockton figures are shown in bold in the table below.
Tees Valley claimant overview
Claimant Count JSA / Incapacity Benefit / Income SupportNumber / % / Number / % / Number / %
Darlington / 1,707 / 2.8 / 5,450 / 9.1 / 4070 / 6.8
Hartlepool / 2,454 / 4.7 / 7,290 / 13.2 / 5090 / 9.4
Middlesbrough / 4,203 / 5.1 / 10,410 / 12 / 9120 / 10.7
Stockton on Tees / 3,615 / 3.3 / 9,980 / 8.5 / 7540 / 6.5
Redcar and Cleveland / 3,035 / 3.8 / 9,140 / 11 / 6650 / 8
Source: Claimant count 2007, DWP benefit claimants 2006, National Statistics 2006
Unemployment
The Claimant Count rate (JSA) in Stockton is currently 3.0% (June 07), which has shown a 0.3% reduction since April and a 0.6% drop from January 2007. However, this is not representative of some of the wards in the Borough. The table below shows that there are currently six wards in Stockton whose overall JSA rate is 5% or higher, these wards are highlighted.
Tees Valley Joint Strategy Unit / N221134Jobseekers Allowance Claimants as % of Working Age population
Wards of Stockton-on-Tees
June 2007
Male / Female / Total
Num / Rate / Num / Rate / Num / Rate
Billingham Central / 113 / 5.7% / 37 / 1.9% / 150 / 3.8%
Billingham East / 164 / 8.0% / 40 / 2.0% / 204 / 5.0%
Billingham North / 66 / 2.0% / 23 / 0.7% / 89 / 1.4%
Billingham South / 107 / 5.2% / 31 / 1.5% / 138 / 3.4%
Billingham West / 29 / 1.6% / 14 / 0.8% / 43 / 1.2%
Bishopsgarth and Elm Tree / 52 / 2.5% / 14 / 0.7% / 66 / 1.6%
Eaglescliffe / 64 / 1.9% / 18 / 0.6% / 82 / 1.3%
Fairfield / 35 / 1.8% / 14 / 0.8% / 49 / 1.3%
Grangefield / 54 / 2.7% / 16 / 0.9% / 70 / 1.8%
Hardwick / 185 / 9.6% / 54 / 2.6% / 239 / 6.0%
Hartburn / 28 / 1.3% / 7 / 0.4% / 35 / 0.9%
Ingleby Barwick East / 35 / 1.1% / 17 / 0.6% / 52 / 0.8%
Ingleby Barwick West / 39 / 1.1% / 15 / 0.4% / 54 / 0.8%
Mandale and Victoria / 243 / 7.3% / 96 / 2.9% / 339 / 5.1%
Newtown / 197 / 9.0% / 60 / 2.7% / 257 / 5.8%
Northern Parishes / 4 / 0.4% / 7 / 0.7% / 11 / 0.5%
Norton North / 130 / 6.6% / 42 / 2.1% / 172 / 4.3%
Norton South / 137 / 4.6% / 30 / 1.4% / 167 / 3.3%
Norton West / 30 / 1.5% / 9 / 0.5% / 39 / 1.0%
Parkfield and Oxbridge / 225 / 9.3% / 55 / 2.6% / 280 / 6.2%
Roseworth / 149 / 7.2% / 42 / 1.9% / 191 / 4.4%
Stainsby Hill / 124 / 5.9% / 45 / 2.2% / 169 / 4.0%
Stockton Town Centre / 289 / 13.1% / 82 / 4.5% / 371 / 9.2%
Village / 98 / 4.9% / 32 / 1.7% / 130 / 3.4%
Western Parishes / 28 / 2.8% / 6 / 0.7% / 34 / 1.8%
Yarm / 56 / 1.7% / 25 / 0.9% / 81 / 1.3%
Source: ONS/JSU
Jobseekers Allowance Claimants by Age and Duration – June 2007
Stockton-on-Tees / North East / Great BritainNumber / % / % / %
By Age of Claimant
Aged 18-24 / 1,155 / 33.2 / 33.0 / 29Aged 25-49 / 1,710 / 49.3 / 50.2 / 53
Aged 50 and over / 570 / 16.4 / 15.9 / 16
By Duration of Claim
Up to 6 months
/ 2,195 / 63.2 / 65.0 / 64Over 6 up to 12 months
/ 675 / 19.4 / 18.8 / 18Over 12 months
/ 600 / 17.3 / 16.2 / 17Source: ONS Claimant Count June 2007 – age and duration
Incapacity Benefit
The table below shows the proportion of the working age population claiming Incapacity Benefit in the Tees Valley has remained well above the national average since 2000, although there has been a marginal decrease in all five local authority areas. The most recent statistics (Nov 06) indicate that there are 9850 residents in Stockton in receipt of incapacity benefits.
Source: DWP Benefit Claimants
Key Benefit Claimants
Working-age Client Group – Key Benefit Claimants
November 2006
Stockton-on-Tees
/North East
/Great Britain
Number / % / % / %Total Claimants / 20,240 / 17.4 / 19.3 / 14.6
Jobseekers (June 07) / 3435 / 3.0 / 3.1 / 2.5
Incapacity Benefits / 9,850 / 8.5 / 10.5 / 7.3
Lone Parents / 2,770 / 2.4 / 2.4 / 2.1
Carers / 1,610 / 1.4 / 1.4 / 1.0
Others on income related benefits / 560 / 0.5 / 0.5 / 0.4
Disabled / 1,100 / 0.9 / 1.0 / 0.9
Bereaved / 440 / 0.4 / 0.3 / 0.3
Source: DWP Benefit Claimants – working-age client group, November 2006.
Employment Rate
The employment rate represents the percentage of the working age population that are available for employment and are actually in employment at that time.
ONS Annual Population Survey
Employment rates have been increasing at a faster rate than the national average in all of the Tees Valley authorities except Darlington, where the rate of increase has mirrored the national average. Stockton is currently 72.3%.
Skills
The table below shows that across the Tees Valley a higher or equal proportion of residents have no qualifications in comparison to the regional and national average. Stockton has the highest proportion of working age adults qualified at NVQ Levels 1,2 and 3 and Middlesbrough the lowest. DATE
Tees Valley Skills Profile
No Qualifications (%) / Qualified to level 1 and above (%) / Qualified to level 2 and above (%) / Qualified to level 3 and above (%) / Qualified to level 4 and aboveDarlington / 20.8 / 74.1 / 60.5 / 41.8
Hartlepool / 20.2 / 74.4 / 58.7 / 36.4
Middlesbrough / 19.8 / 71.1 / 56.7 / 35.3
Stockton on Tees / 14.3 / 81.4 / 67.2 / 45.9
Redcar and Cleveland / 17.2 / 75.6 / 60.9 / 39.4
North East / 15.6 / 77.7 / 62.2 / 40.3
Great Britain / 14.3 / 77.2 / 62.9 / 44.4
Source: ONS Annual population survey
Glossary
Unemployed: Refers to people without a job who were available to start work and were actively seeking work.
JSA claimant count: records the number of people claiming Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) and National Insurance credits at Jobcentre Plus local offices. People claiming JSA must declare that they are out of work, capable of, available for and actively seeking work during the week in which the claim is made.
DWP Working-Age Client Group: the number of working-age people (m:16-64, f:16-59) who are claiming one or more key DWP benefits. The key benefits are: bereavement benefit, carer’s allowance, disability living allowance, incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance, income support, jobseeker’s allowance, and widow’s benefit.
Economically inactive: people who are neither in employment nor unemployed. This group includes, for example, all those who were looking after a home or retired.
Worklessness: people who are either unemployed and claiming JSA and all those people who are economically inactive.
Economically active: People who are either in employment or unemployed.
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