A new ‘Work & Skills’ initiative is needed for people who are long-term unemployed. Next year there could be between 1 to 1.6 million people who have been out of work for 12 months or more. This could be the highest since the 1980s and will have drastic implications for families and whole communities across the UK.
There needs to be a universal offer for all long-term unemployed people introduced in 2021. Our proposed universal offer is:
Our three-stage plan to implement ‘Work & Skills’ is based on Prevention, Provision and Perseverance. We need to do as much as we can to prevent longterm unemployment (especially for young people), we need high quality and personalised provision as soon as someone has been unemployed for 12 months, and for all those that are still unemployed for two years we need a new approach.
‘Work & Skills’ will need to: