JobsPlus is a community-led employment scheme that aims to help people into work through on-site employment services, community support, and financial incentives.

This pilot programme is funded by the Department for Work and Pensions through His Majesty’s Treasury’s Labour Market Evaluation and Pilots Fund and managed by Learning and Work Institute with support from Communities that Work, the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) and MDRC. Youth Futures Foundation (YFF) has partnered in designing a robust evaluation approach and will contribute further funding to the programme’s delivery.

Previous research from L&W, Communities that Work and IES found that social housing residents are nearly twice as likely to be out of work as those in other tenures. This is linked to a combination of housing allocation policies and labour market disadvantages. These tenants are also:

• more than twice as likely to be disabled
• more than three times as likely to be lone parents or to have no qualifications.

When in work, social housing residents are:

• twice as likely to work in lower-skilled jobs
• on average paid a third less than people who live in other tenures.

JobsPlus is backed by evidence in the United States, showing partnership between landlords, tenants and key local agencies can lead to better, long-term employment outcomes for residents and for their children, even 20 years later.

The Work and Pensions Select Committee officially recommended that the UK Government trial the US-style JobsPlus programme in 2023. This followed L&W working proactively with 19 social landlords convened by Communities that Work between 2016 and 2018 to develop a proposal for testing the JobsPlus model in the UK.

From July 2024, JobsPlus will be piloted by housing associations and their residents in ten sites across England. The pilot sites are:

• East Finchley, London, led by Barnet Homes

• Penge, London, led by Clarion Housing Group

• Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, led by Clarion Housing Group

• Wybourn, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, led by Great Places

• Leyton, Waltham Forest, London, led by L&Q

• Wirral, Birkenhead, Liverpool, led by Magenta Living

• Toxteth, Liverpool, led by Plus Dane

• Swale, Kent, led by Southern Housing

• Maltby, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, led by South Yorkshire Housing Association

• Stockton, Tees Valley, County Durham, led by Thirteen Group