Policy

In a feature article for Indus Delta, Huw Davies of the British Association for Supported Employment (BASE) sets out a future policy agenda for disability and employment.

In our second regular commentary by industry leaders, Roy O’Shaughnessy, Chief Executive of Careers Development Group says we need a visionary and long-term commitment to eradicating poverty and worklessness.

In the first of a series of articles by leading industry figures, Rob Murdoch from A4E argues that the whole sector is facing grave uncertainty. The drop in FND1 volumes and the dramatic downwards readjustment of predicted volumes for FND2 threatens to diminish the industry's future capacity to meet the number of economically inactive people who need help.

All 3 main UK parties have explained their different approaches to worklessness and their plans for welfare reform in 3 articles published today by Inclusion. The articles feature in the monthly journal Working Brief.

A Conservative government "will tear up the old ways of dealing with worklessness" and "end the free ride for those who fail to take responsibility" according to David Cameron launching a new policy paper last week.

Huw Davies, Chief Executive of the British Association for Supported Employment (BASE) has written the third of our series of articles setting out the expectaitons of the trade associations. Hugh offers a dissenting voice on the effectiveness of commercial supply chains in supporting into work people with significant disabilities.

Amanda McIntyre, Director of the trade body the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA), writes for Indus Delta this week arguing that a new Ministerial Team at DWP needs to be "brave enough to make significant change". The challenge is to achieve more and better outcomes for the country's 8.1 million economically inactive population. She says that a new contracting model is needed to make outcome based commissioning work.

The eclectic think tank, Demos, has today published a collection of essays which argues that Government should aggressively focus the welfare state on its core purpose of getting people back into work rather than treating the benefits system as a catch-all for every social problem - such as family breakdown, child development and community cohesion. The authors and editors of the pamphlet “Liberation Welfare” argue for a welfare system that reduces dependency, empowers claimants and gets away from an old agenda based on reciprocal “rights and responsibilities”.

The Party leaders’ debate on live TV last night scarcely mentioned the state of the labour market or the Parties’ ambitions to overcome unemployment and economic inactivity. The questions covered immigration, crime, MPs’ expenses, schools, armed forces, NHS and care. Despite much discussion about the state of the economy, jobs and public finances, only Brown specifically mentioned unemployment … and he did that four times.

The three main Party manifestos were published this week. The Labour and Tory documents underline the growing convergence between the two parties on welfare reform. But there are some marked differences too. The Lib Dems say relatively little about the labour market but promise a temporary work experience and training programme for young people.

The General Election has beeen called and Parliament will be dissolved early next week. Indus Delta will follow the "purdah" convention during the election period. Although things will get a little quieter, we shall still bring as much "news" as we can.

In a pre-election manifesto for skills and employment, the ALP is calling for a “simpler and more competitive funding system” for FE which, they say, would better serve individuals and their employers.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer just announced the Pre-Budget Report, and I've be updating this story with news and analysis as it comes in - feel free to add your own comments if you have any thoughts on what's going on.

You can watch the PBR live on No. 10's website here