This isn’t working: Reimagining employment support for people facing complex disadvantage
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The DWP-led employment support system is failing millions of people who face complex disadvantage, often involving disabilities and long-term health conditions.
Too often, the current system is built around the needs and objectives of those administering it, rather than those it is supposed to support. Processes are transactional at the expense of building meaningful relationships. There is a focus on people’s deficits rather than their capabilities. And a rigid system is incapable of responding to the reality of people’s lives – a problem that has been made more acute by the current pandemic.
Our panel discussion focused on New Local’s latest report, This isn’t Working: Reimagining employment support for people facing complex disadvantage, supported by Lloyds Bank Foundation, which sets out a new vision for a system in which power is devolved to create local, community-led forms of employment support.
How can people currently on the receiving end of “the system” be empowered by it? How can the DWP work in a more enabling way that fosters stability and trust? And above all, how can we ensure that people’s needs and aspirations are both met?
Speakers:
- Jessica Studdert, Deputy Chief Executive, New Local
- Lisa Connelly, Employment Services Manager, Halifax Opportunities Trust
- Kaliya Franklin, Disability Rights Campaigner
- Tom Pollard, social worker/policy expert and main author of the report
- Cllr Kieron Williams, Leader of Southwark Council
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