Review of Employment and Skills
The UK Commission was commissioned by government in 2009 to assess the progress being made towards integrating the UK’s employment and skills systems and to make recommendations on what more needs to be done to integrate services further.
The review was conducted with local partners from across employment and skills services. The recommendations in the report are based on observations from local fieldwork activity and capture examples of effective joint working between stakeholders in the employment and skills systems.
Main findings:
The employment and skills systems need to work together to support individuals into employment with the skills to progress, and in turn, to provide the skills employers demand. In 2006 Lord Leitch recommended the development of an "integrated employment and skills service to help people meet the challenges of the modern labour market", however, this has not yet been achieved systemically. What has occurred is joint working at a local level, driven by the ambition to deliver better outcomes for customers, which often takes place despite inflexibilities of the systems.
Throughout the Review we sought to stand back and identify where there is the opportunity to work together to achieve better results. Our recommendations are built on the experiences of local stakeholders; based upon examples of services working together to mutually benefit the employer and individual. The recommendations in this report are to be taken forward by local partners to ensure the flexibility offered in the new policy landscape maximises outcomes for individuals and employers. Where relevant, the report also makes recommendations for national departments and agencies to address remaining barriers to joint working at a local level.
Read the Review of Employment and Skills report (PDF, 1.4 Mb)
