WIDER POLICIES
Scotland-Specific Work Policy

Key policies:

Policies concerned with helping people into work are essentially the responsibility of the UK Government (the Department of Work and Pensions).  As such, the main policies in place relate to the:

• New Deal and Building on the New Deal
• Progress to Work/Progress to Work Link Up (see UK Work Policy section) 

The New Deal operates across Scotland, and from October 2006 Building on the New Deal will be piloted in the Ayrshire, Dumfries, Galloway and Inverclyde JobCentre Plus district.  The Progress to Work/Progress to Work Link Up programmes are also currently operating in Fife, Tayside and Glasgow.  In addition to UK-wide policies, there is a clear agenda in Scotland on how to improve employment among homeless people.  This derives from both the Scottish Executive's strategy of employment as a route out of exclusion and, more specifically, the Homelessness Task Force recommendations relating to work.

The  Homlessness Task Force recommendations called for greater pre-vocational activities, transitional Employment Programmes, better access to Job Centre Plus, and greater private sector involvement (working with public and voluntary sector).  It thus spans access at a wide range of levels, reflecting the varying levels of preparedness for work found among homeless people.  Most of the activities within the Socttish Executive's remit, but also in the way in which the Scottish Executive seeks to influence the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), are steered by these recommendations of the Homelessness Task Force.

The Scottish Executive's Employability Framework provides the overall context within which employability initiatives among homeless people fit.  The main initiative is the New Futures Fund.

A network funded by the Scottish Executive specifically to develop homeless employability has also been established - the Scottish Homelessness Employability Network.

Implementation of JobCentre Plus initiatives

Other Jobcentre Plus initiatives on homelessness in Scotland include:

• Two 'Passport to Work' courses in Edinburgh to help improve the skills of homeless people.
• Step Up pilots in East Ayrshire and Dundee and Wise Move in Edinburgh, to help those that have been unable to find employment after passing through the New Deal. 
• Job Centre Plus contract with Big Issue in Edinburgh.
• New Deal Innovation Funding to assist the voluntary sector engage with the private sector to support homeless people into work (Streetwork in Edinburgh).
• Development of a joint protocol which enables New Futures Fund Initiative projects (see below) and Jobcentre Plus to work together.  This protocol ironed out conflicts and promoted joint working between voluntary sector and job centre plus.  It has been promoted across Scotland.

The Employability Framework

In 2004, the Scottish Executive published a new social inclusion strategy, Closing the opportunity gap.  One of its objectives is "to increase the chances of sustained employment for vulnerable and disadvantaged groups - in order to lift them permanently out of poverty".  The target is to "reduce the number of workless people dependent on DWP benefits in Glasgow, North and South Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and Inverclyde, Dundee and West Dunbartonshire by 2007 and 2010."

In order to help Scotland achieve this objective and target, an Employability Framework has been established, which was launched on 12 June 2006.  The Framework aims to improve access to jobs as well as quality of jobs.  Five working groups have been set up, one of which will deal with the ‘workless'.  The remit of the group is to look at barriers to work, and what can help disadvantaged groups (one of which is homeless people).

The New Futures Fund Initiative

The New Futures Fund Initiative was a pre-New Deal approach, which aimed to reduce social exclusion and disadvantage amongst 16 to 34 year-olds in Scotland, by providing funding for a range of projects to help vulnerable young people who have problems getting a job, and for whom Jobcentre Plus initiatives are too structured and difficult to access.  It was a pilot scheme, which ran in two phases: Phase 1 from April 1999 to March 2002 and Phase 2 from April 2002 to March 2005, after which a Ministerial decision extended the fund's operation to March 2006, for the projects which had not secured alternative funding at the end of the second phase. 

The projects funded by the New Futures Fund were considered to be unique by the way in which they provided a bridge between social support and economic activity for those population groups not catered for by mainstream services.  Operating principles included a focus on the individual client, voluntary participation by client, benefits support (re-imbursement of lost benefits), an assessment of barriers to work, provision of links to other services (e.g. New Deal where appropriate) and ‘after care'.  Its emphasis was on ‘distanced travelled', raising employability and long term career planning, rather than moving people quickly into employment. 

The initiative had a considerable impact on homeless people.  For example, 19 of the 71 projects directly targeted homeless people.   An evaluation of Phase 2 of the New Futures Fund recorded that 6,900 people had been involved, of which 1,500 (20%) were identified as homeless or facing housing problems.  The initiative is also known to have helped influence the employability element of local authority homelessness strategies.

In terms of outcomes, the results are not known for homeless people specifically.  However, for the initiative as a whole, the recent evaluation reported that a fifth moved into employment.  Clients also improved their soft skills as well as resolving the main problems they faced in entering the labour market - around half reached 'positive outcomes', even if these could not be reported as 'hard outcomes'.

The New Futures Fund evaluation in 2005 recommended a wider roll out after the expiry of the pilots (on condition that strong local action plans were in place to deliver it).   Some projects managed to secure mainstream funding after the second phase of the pilot programme, for example from their local authority.  A Ministerial decision was taken after the end of the second phase, to extend the New Futures Fund for a further period up to March 2006, for those projects which have not secured alternative funding.  It is the Scottish Executive's intention that the Employability Framework, which was launched in June 2006, will help support the shift away from projects to more comprehensive sustainable local provision.

The Scottish Homelessness and Employability Network

The Scottish Homelessness and Employability Network (SHEN) was set up in 2004 to improve employment opportunities and promote employability for homeless people in Scotland, particularly to ensure the mainstreaming of provision piloted under the New Futures Fund.  It is funded by the Scottish Executive and Communities Scotland.  It links voluntary organisations working in homelessness services with policy officers and statutory organisations, and works with businesses to help vulnerable people into the labour market. 

In 2005, SHEN published a strategy entitled Working it out: towards an employability strategy for those facing homelessness, which sets out recommendations on how to mainstream employability practice and integrate it into local homeless strategies in Scotland.  Its ethos is one which seeks to encourage an employability model that sees employment addressed as early as possible within a homeless career, rather than simply as a consequence of resettlement.  More specifically, it recommends that:

• Employment and employability should be recorded when registering as homeless
• A tracking system needs to be established to ensure a progression through employability provision towards employment
• Local mapping of available training and support needs to be carried out and transferred to the national level
• Measurement systems need to be in place to ensure quality of provision
• Partnerships need to be established at the local level to provide coherent support and expertise
• Once services are mapped, flexible routes through to employment need to be identified

Although only recommendations at this stage, they are nonetheless of interest since they set out the intended future direction of employability provision for homeless people in Scotland.

Page last modified on 30/06/2006 at 10:48