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This section provides a digest of current thinking to help you to understand how employer engagement and demand-led policies are integral to the Employment and Skills system.    Much of this information has been generated by the National Employment Panel of which Employer Coalitions was formerly a part.   You will also find links to other websites and resources relating to our field of work which will help you in your search for information.

 Below is a list of recent key documents on Welfare Reform and Employment and Skills including legislation.

Key Documents on the Employment and Skills System available on the Department of Work and Pensions Website

• Improving health and work: changing lives - December 2008 - Government response to Working for a Healthier Tomorrow, Dame Carol Black's Review of the health of Britain's working age population (Working for health website)
• Realising potential: A vision for personalised conditionality and support - December 2008 -On 2 December 2008 Professor Paul Gregg delivered his independent report on conditionality and support ‘Realising potential: A vision for personalised conditionality and support' to the Department for Work and Pensions.  This report sets out Professor Gregg's vision for a single personalised conditionality and support regime, where virtually everyone claiming benefits and not in work should be looking for or engaging in activity to help them move towards employment.
• Raising expectations and increasing support: reforming welfare for the future - December 2008 -Following the publication of the Welfare Reform Green Paper No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility in July 2008, the Government held a consultation to which they received over a thousand responses.  This White Paper 'Raising expectations and increasing support: reforming welfare for the future' sets out how they plan to take their proposals forward as part of a vision for a personalised welfare state, where more support is matched by higher expectations for all.
• No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility - July 2008  - published by the DWP, this paper outlines the next step in the journey of welfare reform and how the Government will simplify the benefits system and deliver greater and more personalised support for people in return for more responsibility.
• Work Skills - June 2008 - published by DWP and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), Work Skills outlines detailed measures to make training more flexible and accessible for individuals and employers in England
• Life Chances, Supporting people to get on in the Labour Market - an analytical discussion paper - March 2008 -
• Working for a healthier tomorrow - March 2008 - Dame Carol Black's review of the health of the working age population, jointly commissioned jointly by DWP and the Department of Health.
• DWP Commissioning Strategy - February 2008 -  provides details of a new approach to sourcing, procuring and managing employability provision.   It aims are to increase the number of people entering and staying in work, reduce costs and achieve the best individual outcome for each customer. 
• Ready to Work, Skilled for Work: Unlocking Britain's Talent - January 2008. Sets out how government and business working together, can unlock Britain's talent, ensure employers have access to the skills they need to prosper, and give millions of people the chance to realise their potential and change their lives
• Transforming Britain's labour market - Ten years of the New Deal - January 2008. Reflects on the success of the New Deal over the last ten years and looks forward to the future. 
•  ‘Ready for work: full employment in our generation' - December 2007. Responds to the ‘In work, better off' consultation and sets out the steps the Government will take to reach the goals of an 80 per cent employment rate and working people with world class skills 
• ‘DWP Commissioning Strategy - interim report' - November 2007. Outlines some of the main ways the government intends work in partnership with the private, public and third sectors. 
• ‘Opportunity, Employment and Progression: making skills work' - November 2007. Sets out how the Government will move forward on the employment and skills agenda.
• 'In work, better off‘ - July 2007. Sets out further measures to achieve the Government's goal of employment opportunity for all. 
  Welfare Reform Act 2007. The legislation bringing into law measures including, reform of incapacity benefits and Housing Benefit, and other measures to amend the benefit system.
• ‘Working for Children' - March 2007. The Government's strategy for tackling child poverty. (This link takes you to the child poverty pages of the DWP site.) 
• ‘Reducing dependency, increasing opportunity: options for the future of welfare to work' - March 2007. David Freud's independent report to DWP for the Government's long-term review of welfare to work strategy. 
• The Welfare State: the next 10 years' seminars - January / February 2007. A series of seminars to discuss key issues in the development of the welfare state in the next decade. 
• ‘Prosperity for all in the global economy - world class skills' - December 2006. Lord Leitch's review of long-term skills needs. (This link takes you to HM Treasury website.)
• World Class Skills: implementing the Leitch Review of Skills in England - July 2007.  The Government's response to the Leitch Review of Skills and sets out how Government will lead the country into a skills 'revolution.'http://www.dius.gov.uk/publications/worldclassskills.pdf
• ‘Delivering on Child Poverty: what would it take?' - November 2006. Lisa Harker's report to DWP on their child poverty strategy. (This link takes you to the resource centre of the DWP site.) 
• ‘A new deal for welfare: Empowering people to work' - January 2006. Sets out proposals including reform of incapacity benefits and Housing Benefit. 
• Local Employment Partnerships (LEPs) are an exciting new collaboration between Government and business to tackle the increasing recruitment and skills challenges of our labour market and economy. Employers across the country have signed up to working in partnership with Government to open up opportunities for people who, for whatever reason, have not yet been able to take advantage of the employment opportunities that are out there.  By 2010, Local Employment Partnerships ( 748KB)will help into jobs more than 250,000, realising the untapped potential of those whose ability and talent has been too often overlooked in the past.
• City Strategy - http://www.dwp.gov.uk/welfarereform/cities_strategy.asp  -The City Strategy aims to tackle worklessness in our most disadvantaged communities across the UK - many of which are in major cities and other urban areas.   The strategy is based on the idea that local partners can deliver more if they combine and align their efforts behind shared priorities, and are given more freedom to try out new ideas and to tailor services in response to local need.

Key Policy Documents from Devolved Administrations and other Government Departments 

• Skills for Scotland, A Lifelong Skills Strategy sets out the Scottish Government's objectives to develop a lifelong learning system centred upon the individual but responsive to employer needs. It provides a framework to set out a new agenda for skills and learning in Scotland and our ambitions for skills in a lifelong learning context from early years to the work place. Plans to bring a national focus on skills by bringing organisations together into a single skills body were announced by the Scottish Government in September 2007.
  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/09/06091114/0
• Success through Skills - Skills Strategy for Northern Ireland - February 2006
  The Government's aim is to enable people to progress up a skills ladder, in order to raise the skills level of the whole workforce; to help deliver high productivity and increased competitiveness; and to secure Northern Ireland's future in a global marketplace. The Skills Strategy sets out how the Department for Employment and Learning will take these proposals forward in partnership with employers and their representative bodies; individuals and trade unions; training and education providers; the community and voluntary sector and other Government departments and agencies in order to deliver on a long term vision for skills in Northern Ireland.

   http://www.delni.gov.uk/index/publications/pubs-sectoral/skills-strategy-ni.htm

• Skills that Work for Wales - January 2008

This document consults on a skills and employment strategy to raise skills levels and increase the economic activity in Wales.

http://new.wales.gov.uk/consultations/currentconsultation/educat_skills/skillsthatwork/?lang=en

WVUK/NEP Research

NEP Legacy Report - April 2008 The NEP existed (initially as the New Deal Task Force) from 1997 to 2008. It provided advice and challenge on labour market issues across Government from the employer's perspective.  Its members numbered some of the UK's most senior business leaders, and respected figures from other fields. The NEP existed (initially as the New Deal Task Force) from 1997 to 2008. It provided advice
and challenge on labour market issues across Government from the employer's perspective.  Its members numbered some of the UK's most senior business leaders, and respected figures from other fields.  In 2004 the Chancellor of the Exchequer asked the Panel's Chair, Lord Leitch, to review the UK's skills needs. He published his review in 2006, and recommended setting up the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. In 2008 the NEP merged with the Sector Skills Development Agency to create the new UK Commission.  Along with Employer Coalitions, this report outlines the NEP's distinctive legacy of:

• principles for designing and operating welfare-to-work programmes, based on research and practice; and
• a distinctive political and institutional experience of bringing outsiders into Government and equipping them to make a difference.

Fair Cities Report - March 2008  Fair Cities had both an operational and a strategic impact. Operationally, it got over 1000 people into work - the vast majority of whom would otherwise have struggled to find jobs. These were people from some of the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods in the UK. And they were drawn largely from segments of the working age population who face difficult barriers to employment.

60/76 - The Business Commission Report on Race Equality in the Workplace
The NEP launched 60/76, the final report of its Business Commission on Race Equality in the Workplace on October 11 2007. The NEP set up the Commission in 2006 at the request of the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown. The Commission's task was to recommend policies and practical measures to increase recruitment, retention and progression for ethnic minorities in the private sector.

Other NEP Publications available from WVUK on request

London Employer Coalition Report
Published June 2005 | PDF (56kb)
Able to Work - Report from Employers Working Group on Disability
Published January 2005 | PDF (2.4mb)
SME Lambeth, Southwark and Wandsworth Report: Pilot project independent benchmark report
Published June 2004 | PDF (585k)
Effective Joint Working - Jobcentre Plus and London Boroughs: Resource pack to help build recruitment partnerships
Published May 2004 | PDF (3.57mb)
Small employers, big opportunities: Practical no-nonsense advice on how to do better business with small employers
Published May 2004 | PDF (239k)
NEP: Leading change, changing lives
Published May 2004 | PDF (513k)
Fair Cities: Employer led efforts that produce results for ethnic minorities
Published March 2004 | PDF (2.2mb)
Ambition Stocktake: An interim report on the development and progress of the Ambition Initiative
Published March 2004 | PDF (424k)
Skills: Welfare to Workforce Development
Published March 2004 | PDF (251k)
A New Deal for All: report of the NEP's working group on New Deal 25+
Published January 2004 | PDF (436k)
London Employer Coalition: Annual Report 2003/4
Published 2004 | PDF (399k)
South Yorkshire Employer Coalition Annual Report: Putting you in the Picture 2003
Published 2004 | Hard copy only
Tyne & Wear Employer Coalition Annual Report 2003
Published 2004 | Hard copy only
The NEP's Employer Coalitions... engaging local employers in welfare to work
Published June 2003 | PDF (442k)
Work Works: the Final Report of the NEP's Steering Group on Lone Parents
Published February 2003 | PDF (237k)
Contact Centre - a Good Call: Employment opportunities in the Contact centre industry
Published July 2002| PDF (254k)

Publications as the New Deal Task Force:

Tyneside Employer Coalition New Deal
Hard copy only
Promising Practice Guide to New Deal Recruitment in the NHS in London
Published 2001 | Hard copy only
Business on Board: recommendations for increasing Employer engagement in New Deal
Published July 2001 | PDF (355k)
Secure Transitions: Building on the success of the New Deal for Lone Parents
Published May 2001 | PDF (310k)
Improving the Employment Prospects of Low Income Job Seekers
(Case Studies)
Published May 2000 | PDF (214k)
Improving the Employment Prospects of Low Income Job Seekers
(Main Report)
Published May 2000 | PDF (110k)
Going Public: Opening up New Deal opportunities in the Public Sector
Published November 1999 | PDF (201k)
Bridges to Work: New Directions for Intermediaries
Published September 1999 | PDF (114k)
Design for Success - recommendations for engaging Sheffield Employers in the New Deal
Published March 1999 | Hard copy only
Meeting the Needs of Disadvantaged Young People
Published November 1998 | Hard copy only
Lasting value: recommendations for increasing retention within the New Deal
Published July 1998 | Hard copy only