The Commission on the Future of Employment Support was launched in November 2022, to develop evidence-led proposals for reform of our system of publicly-funded employment support and services. These services can play a key role in supporting economic growth and social inclusion: by helping people who want to move into work, stay in work or progress in work to do so; and by helping employers to find, recruit and retain the right people. However with participation in the labour force at its lowest in 25 years, record numbers off work due to ill health and one third of all vacancies going unfilled because of labour and skills shortages, it is increasingly clear that we need to reform our approach. This Commission was set up to gather evidence on what has worked and what needs to change, and to set out what a better system could look like.

The Commission has been overseen by ten commissioners who have brought a range of perspectives, expertise and experience in employment support, public services, business and civil society. The Institute for Employment Studies has provided the secretariat for the work, with funding and support from abrdn Financial Fairness Trust.

Over the last two years we have heard from and spoken to hundreds of people and organisations in what we believe is the largest consultation on our system of employment support in at least a generation: from national and local governments across all four UK nations; those working in employment, skills and careers services; large and small employers and representative organisations; people working in wider services including health and housing; academics and researchers; international experts; and people with direct, recent experience of using employment support. This has included running a major Call for Evidence in early 2023, with nearly one hundred responses and around 250 evidence submissions; delivering twenty consultation events to learn more about what was working and could be improved; conducting an extensive review of the literature around ‘what works’; and over the last year running 15 further workshops and roundtables first to explore and co-design options for reform, and then to develop and refine these.

This report begins by setting out the case for reforming our system of employment support. It builds on and updates the arguments set out in our launch report and interim report, which described the key issues that we are facing in the economy and labour market, how our system measures up, and what needs to change.

1. Set three over-arching ambitions for the next five years:

• To raise the employment rate from 74.5% to 77% on the way to the government’s long-term goal of 80% employment

• To reduce the share of people in insecure work or living in poverty in working households to 2010 rates

• To significantly narrow the ‘gaps’ on these measures for those who are most disadvantaged in the labour market

2. Create a cross-governmental Labour Market Board to oversee these goals and drive change

3. Establish an Employment Advice Guarantee that sets out that if you want jobs and careers advice then you will be able to get it

4. Establish an Employment Support Guarantee for those who are more disadvantaged in the labour market, to guarantee access to specialist adviser support and appropriate additional services

5. Develop Charters for Employment Support and for Employer Services, that set out the standards and expectations for support across national, local and wider employment services 

6. Fully devolve responsibility for employment to Scotland and Wales on broadly the same basis as Northern Ireland by the end of this Parliament – including services currently delivered through Jobcentre Plus 

7. Work towards a Jobs and Careers Service based on three pillars:

• Online – a new national digital service for information, advice and access to additional resources and support

• On the high street – a single national network of publicly accessible centres where people can access employment, careers, skills and wider support

• On the doorstep – with employment and careers advisers co-located and integrated within wider services that can reach people not yet ready for a job or actively seeking work

8. Develop a single system for employers that can work across different employment programmes and services to deliver a clear offer around advertising and filling jobs, brokering people into work, and providing specialist advice on workplace support 

9. Consider the case for developing a wider support offer for employers on ‘people’ issues that can then join up with employment services, in particular the scope to build on recent trials being run by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

10. Create a clearer separation between employment support and social security delivery, with the Jobs and Careers Service focused on forward looking, employment-related support and with more flexibility to tailor the approach to engagement for those claiming benefits 

11. Reform the Claimant Commitment and introduce new Action Plans for jobseekers, to support a more forward looking, empowering and less threatening approach 

12. Introduce new Labour Market Partnerships in England, that will lead on developing and agreeing local plans, joining up service delivery across the employment system, and overseeing the commissioning and implementation of specialist support

13. End the 35-hour jobsearch requirement for unemployed claimants and return to broadly the rules that previously existed

14. Remove requirements to undertake ‘work related activity’ where people have significant health conditions or very young children, so that the core requirement would be to attend periodic meetings with a specialist adviser where individuals can then engage with support on a voluntary basis

15. Remove jobsearch and work availability requirements from people in work and on low incomes, with people in work only required in future to attend periodic meetings 

16. Reform the sanctions system to introduce stronger checks and balances in how decisions are made, to reduce the severity of sanctions and to strengthen safeguards for people who could face hardship

17. Revisit the issues raised by the National Audit Office in 2016, to ensure that there is transparent reporting on how sanctions rules are being applied and active management where there are risks of inconsistency or unfairness

18. Ensure that the new Youth Guarantee is built on integration and co-location of youth services and support, including the proposed new Young Futures hubs, and that this is led and taken forward through local partnerships

19. If possible, work with a small number of local areas to test a full ‘jobs guarantee’ for young people, building on the Youth Employment Guarantee which was in place between 2009 and 2011 

20. Work to make employment services and workplace practices more age inclusive, with clear performance measures within services to narrow gaps in outcomes for older workers; and by getting behind the Age Friendly Employer Pledge 

21. Create a new Implementation Unit to support local partnerships to build capability, develop local partnerships and plans, and join up support and services

22. Establish a What Works Office for employment support, that can synthesise evidence, develop tools and resources, and work with partners to apply these

23. Continue to invest in data and insight – including through the development of local datastores and Observatories, by joining up national government initiatives on skills and employment data, and extending the DWP Datalab 

24. Work with partners to develop the common standards that will underpin a more devolved system – including the new Service Guarantees and Charters, a single commissioning strategy, common success measures for provision, and a joined-up approach to accreditation and professionalisation of employment advisers

25. Create a new Employment Support Quality Team to provide oversight and assurance on the delivery of services 

26. Ensure that there are mechanisms in place, for example through the cross-government Growth Mission or Local Growth Plans, to join up across wider drivers of employment growth and good work – including social security policy; workplace regulation, enforcement and practices; skills policy; health and social care; and local economic growth

27. Work to go live with the new Jobs and Careers Service, Labour Market Partnerships, and the Advice and Support Guarantees from Spring 2026 – with detailed co-design and testing over the next 18 months and transitional support in place to provide a ‘bridge’ to the new system