Work Local: Get Britain working locally

In July 2024 we published our ‘Work Local’ offer on employment and skills for the new Government. Since then, we believe our proposals have had a significant impact on national policy, and we want this to continue.

The new Government has set out through the Get Britain Working White Paper, a radical agenda for improved support for people who are not in work, as well as proposals in the Pathways to Work Green Paper for support to those who have long-term health conditions. 

We are at a significant point of transition in how we build the employability of England’s working population. We are moving towards a new approach embedded in the principles of local leadership, placed-based policy and local knowledge – providing the services that local people need to build their careers and improve their health and well-being. We also recognise that employers want to create and preserve jobs and they need a skilled workforce to recruit. We set out how we can effectively transition to a new system that will better serve residents and local employers. 

The paper recommends building a strong and effective partnership between local and national government to deliver reforms between now and the end of this Parliament. We also recognise that the future context will be strongly influenced by local government reforms and devolution set out in the Devolution White Paper. Our primary focus is on Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) given it is actively working with local government to localise and devolve responsibilities. However, further work is needed with Department for Education (DfE) on how it too can embrace a more place-based approach to skills provision through devolution and localisation. This paper has been informed by discussions with a representative range of councils and strategic authorities.

Devolving employment and skills is fundamental to dealing with today’s labour market context:

• Economic inactivity due to ill health has increased and will be the main labour market supply challenge for the foreseeable future
• the employment rate ‘gaps’ for disadvantaged groups have barely improved and some have worsened
• meeting the skill needs of employers is more vital if we are to accelerate economic inclusive growth, as well as meet the career aspirations of our residents
• the level of young people who are NEET and young people with health conditions have both increased
• to meet the ambition of an 80 per cent employment rate we need the areas that lag to catch up.

These challenges are far better addressed locally. We believe continued reform is needed across four key areas:

1. Personalisation of services: most economically inactive people, and those in disadvantaged groups, are out of work for a range of complex reasons. Their route to progression will be challenging, varied and often take time – we need public services that go with them on this journey.
2. Health, work and skills: a strengthened emphasis on how local government and the NHS work together to tackle the social and economic determinants of ill health, and how we bring this together with the skills system.
3. Supporting employers: working with the local business community to put in place tailored solutions for training, recruitment and HR to support ‘good work’.
4. Local economies matter: investment is needed in growth sectors, infrastructure, and enterprise and skills so that no areas are left behind.

A more ambitious approach to public sector reform is needed for delivering employment and skills services. This is all the more important for areas which have low employment rates and significantly lag behind the 80% employment rate aspiration. How different funding pots work together in these areas is not just important for encouraging inclusive growth but also the efficiency of public sector investment in employability and skills.

The temptation of all governments has been to run short-term programmes that deliver to restricted numbers and are governed by complex rules on eligibility and contractual requirements. The LGA has always argued for reforms that will remove complexity and Whitehall silos, provide strong local leadership, and deliver for local people and employers. Recent proposals such as Total Place 2.0 could help speed up the process to reform the design and funding of public services – initiated in 2009 under Gordon Brown it encouraged a new approach to examine what was collectively spent in an area and then redesign services around the needs of residents.

The publications of Get Britain Working and Pathways to Work mark a watershed in the devolution of employment support. Whilst it is still early days, we set out below how the government currently measures up against our 2024 Work Local proposals.

Young people

Work Local proposed ‘Youth Pathways’ to “help young people (16 to 24) ‘not in employment, education or training’, or at risk of NEET, find their first job or put them on a career path”.

We welcome the introduction of a Youth Guarantee for 18-21 year olds. It has real potential to make a difference, and is a major step towards the LGA’s proposed Youth Pathways.

However the LGA urges the Government to take a wider look at the problem by broadening the age group to 16-24 – acknowledging that earlier, more preventative engagement at age 16, or earlier, can stem the flow of young people being unemployed at 18, as well as ensuring outcomes are sustained to 24. In recent years many councils have reported a decline in the amount of support available for NEET young people, so a first task will be to rebuild the local capacity and funding to support young people into positive training and employment, which requires discussions between local government, DWP and DfE. Vulnerable young people are a major priority for local government and support for them co-ordinated by local authorities should be a fundamental building block of the Guarantee.

The GBW White Paper commits to “ensure there is clear leadership and accountability for coordinating the Youth Guarantee” but does not say who will be providing the leadership. We believe it should be routed through local government given their post-16 duties and their role in Youth Futures and Youth Employment hubs. Currently there are also eight Youth Guarantee trailblazers (They are in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough; East Midlands; Liverpool; London; Tees Valley; West Midlands; West of England that will 'test ways to tackle persistent challenges around co-ordination, engagement and accountability' and we are hopeful the trailblazers will yield valuable lessons.)

We are concerned that responsibilities for the Youth Guarantee will be split between multiple agencies, potentially lessening its impact. Skills and apprenticeship funding will play a vital role, and there will need to be a renewed emphasis on how skills policy and funding is devolved and aligned with local economies.

The position of vulnerable and disadvantaged young people in the Youth Guarantee needs scrutiny, especially for:

• SEND, and other vulnerable young people – will the Youth Guarantee be sufficient and suitable for SEND young people?
• Health, especially mental health, should have a higher profile in the design and delivery of the Youth Guarantee
• Care leavers – a key test of the Youth Guarantee is to deliver significant improvement for care leavers
• Young ex-offenders, for whom the Guarantee should play a role in helping prevent re-offending.

Adults experiencing labour market disadvantage 

Working Futures was our proposal for adults who are 25 and over, and “are disadvantaged in the labour market, and who need personal support to find work or better work.”

The LGA welcomes the introduction of Connect to Work (formerly Universal Support); the continuation of the WorkWell Vanguards; and the launch of the Economic Inactivity Trailblazers. These are all based on an increased role for local government along with local partners, especially the NHS Integrated Care Boards.

How these initiatives are delivered will provide valuable learning on the next steps to devolving to every local area. There are already lessons emerging on how national and local partners work together but there are insufficient means to collectively understand and agree on steps to improve.

To fulfil the Working Futures vision of a truly personalised service for people experiencing disadvantage, will mean local government co-ordinating a wide range of functions and services, such as:

• access to high quality assessment leading to personal plans
• options to co-locate with the new Jobs and Careers Service
• provision of job search support, job placement and support for self-employment
• replacing Restart with a devolved programme when the current contracts finish
• boost employer engagement for placements and recruitment
• managed routes into specialist provision, such as for health and disability, ex-offenders, drug, and alcohol rehabilitation, etc.
• improving access to new and better qualifications, including apprenticeships
• help to resolve problems such as housing, childcare, financial advice, etc
• in-work support, when appropriate, to promote sustained employment.

So whilst new initiatives and trailblazers are a welcome first step there remain significant reforms before we can claim to offer a personalised service.

Skills 

Work Local’s Skills for All was a dual offer for employers and residents. It aimed to help employers of all sizes and in all sectors, address their workforce needs. It called for new powers for councils to manage local adult skills and community skills as well as giving councils more influence over enterprise and apprenticeship funding. Whilst Mayoral Combined Authorities have made a success of managing their devolved Adult Skills Fund (Adult Education Budget), most acknowledge there remains a long way to go on the skills devolution journey. DfE’s decision on the future of ‘Local Skills Improvement Plans’ (LSIPs) will be critical for the improved local coherence of plans. A sensible next step will be to consolidate GBW Plans and LSIPs into a single process with local government leading on the co-ordination of partners and stakeholders.

Local agreements 

‘Local Employment and Skills Agreements’ (LESAs) were our proposal to “reflect the varied needs within an area and its communities, and the respective roles of local and national government, all set within a clear framework.”

The new local Get Britain Working (GBW) Plans announced in April 2025 and led by local government, could be a strong foundation for building Local Employment and Skills Agreements. The key difference between a GBW Plan and a LESA is that the latter is intended to set out performance, spending plans and budgets. However, GBW plans will be important in developing strong labour market analyses in every area, working with partners including health, to agree how to prioritise for action.

Reforming Jobcentres

We proposed reforming jobcentres into “a ‘one stop’ all-age service bringing together careers advice, employment support, training and apprenticeships, and business support.”

This is why we welcome the proposals for a new Jobs & Careers Service. One of the five Pillars (See Chapter 5, Get Britain Working White Paper) for the reform is to make the new service "more locally responsive, embedded and engaged" and a commitment to “….design, develop and test this service in partnership with mayoral authorities, local authorities and devolved governments2 (See Executive Summary, Get Britain Working White Paper). This represents a significant change. All councils directly deliver or commission services that will be vital to users of the new Jobs & Careers Service – this is why links between the new service and every local authority in England must be integral to the reform. Connect to Work (CtW) will also require increased partnership working between local jobcentres and councils.

We are on the right track, but firmly believe joint work with Government is vital to delivering the next stages of these reforms and better outcomes.

There is much more to be done and a joint roadmap will be needed for the next few years. DWP has set a clear direction of travel on the role of local government, and is already working with all local authorities (Connect to Work and local GBW plans). Other Whitehall departments should also follow suit. Specifically, Department for Education needs a clearer roadmap for all local authorities on their role in working with employers and boosting the skills of the workforce. Alongside this, only Strategic Authorities need a Local Growth Plan and whilst we acknowledge the progress by Mayoral Combined Authorities, the ambition must be that all local authorities have a pathway to hold the levers for achieving inclusive growth.

A significant challenge to local services in the future will be the replacement for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) from April 2026, with the Government’s June 2025 Spending Review committing to new targeted long-term funds including a Growth Mission Fund and investment in deprived communities. How successor arrangements to UKSPF are administered and targeted should be the subject of a rapid review after the Spending Review and with the active engagement of local government. For example, there is a strong argument that the pipeline for local employability and skills projects should be managed through GBW Plans – so the national policy context can be set by DWP and DfE but with local plans prioritising local spend. Pulling together different devolved funds for employment and skills is why we think a Local Labour Market Fund (guided by GBW Plans) should be developed at speed.

Currently we are at an important juncture as local areas develop Connect to Work and their local Get Britain Working Plans and, at the same time, grapple with tight budgets and local government reform. But we need to keep our sights on longer-term reforms that will provide common devolved services across the whole country. It will take time but what are the next steps?

Devolution needs robust systems and new ways of planning, however these have not yet been fully developed. In the past, the absence of these systems has meant that responsibilities and budgets have not been fully devolved, instead central government has ‘delegated’ responsibilities for managing programmes with little ability to vary design at the local level.

This is why we proposed a new way of working which would require:

• a joint national board, chaired by a Minister
• a new national and local government Joint Unit.

We welcome the new regular meetings between DWP Ministers and LGA politicians. The next steps should be to develop these meetings so that they can cover cross-departmental matters and set the direction for implementing devolution.

The Government is already requiring local partners to be actively working together to develop and approve GBW Plans – this is one step closer to a national framework for planning our employment and skills systems.

Under all governments, there have been ways which enabled providers, local government and national government to have a dialogue on policy and delivery. The current landscape provides an opportunity for local and national government departments to plan a roadmap for a new framework for planning and dialogue.

A further task is to boost the capacity and capability of local government and/or local partnerships. There has already been one-off financial support for local authorities to develop GBW plans. In addition, there has been financial support to develop Connect to Work and the WorkWell Vanguard Partnerships. However, these are short-term and very specific in scope. Instead there is a need to reduce uncertainty and give a minimum three-year funding settlement with increased flexibility for councils to invest in the capacity they need. Steps need to be taken to build trust to enable greater certainty of budgets and flexibility to respond to changing economic conditions.

A substantial shift will be needed in the future if we are to benefit from the efficiencies brought by stronger integration of services. This is where a ‘systems approach’ could make a significant difference in the future. From the health system we can learn from the development of ‘Integrated Care Systems’ and their governance bodies – Integrated Care Boards and Integrated Care Partnerships. A similar approach and structure could be explored for how we bring together a range of services such as employment support, careers, adult learning, skills training, self-employment, business start-ups and financial advice – an integrated employability system. Local authorities as strong local co-ordinators of services will always be more effective at planning and delivering personalised services.

We recognised in Work Local that a devolved system must be capable of delivering service guarantees across England in our rural areas as well as our towns and cities. This is why we are in favour of developing universal offers to all citizens planned and delivered locally. The Youth Guarantee is a good start but aside from broadening the Youth Guarantee there should also be guarantees for other groups. An example is the Pathways to Work proposal in the Green Paper for “disabled people and people with a work-limiting health condition [to] have a support conversation. This will focus on their goals and act as a gateway to a range of personalised support to help achieve them, for anyone who wants it.”

Meeting the aspiration of an 80 per cent employment rate across the UK will need to recognise that different areas will have different contributions to make. Some areas may need to focus on skills and in-work support, others on closing employment rate gaps, others on unemployed people where there are high numbers. However, all areas will need to address economic inactivity in general and specifically inactivity due to ill health.

Finally, there is little doubt that digital delivery and the use of AI can bring some significant productivity gains. It is a good example of where there can be strong collaboration across local government and with national government. An example is the development of local referral systems – matching individuals with the most appropriate local provision. Collaboration makes sense rather than multiple systems commissioned separately.

In this report we have made no assumptions about the speed and nature of local government reform and what the coverage of Strategic Authorities may look like in 2029. Instead we are setting out the change we think can be achieved in all areas across England irrespective of their devolved status. Delivering in every area is an important principle – we want every citizen to have access to good quality support if they need it. We have four broad proposals:

1. Evolving GBW Plans into a Local Employment, Health and Skills Agreement (LHESA) for every area which sets out the deal between central and local government. Since we first proposed the development of Local Employment and Skills Agreements, the focus on health and economic inactivity has increased significantly, mostly because of the impact of the pandemic. This is why we’re adding ‘health’ to the Agreements – to make it overt that health partners have a critical role to play. As we have said, GBW Plans are an important start but now need to be developed into multi-year agreements with budgets and outcomes.
2. A new Local Labour Market Fund combining support for local employability, skills and health initiatives to replace the relevant parts of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The end of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund could mean the devasting loss of funds to support local action. Not only should there be a commitment to maintain at least the current level of funds but also a commitment to urgently review how the funds are managed. In principle the revenue funds to support employability should be aligned to Get Britain Working policies and managed and distributed at the local level. This is why there are distinct advantages of a new, discrete fund with DWP as the responsible department.
3. A unified and universal one-stop advice and referral offer (online and on high street) including the new Jobs & Careers Service, local authority services, and independent organisations. we consistently argued that ‘one-stop centres’ or ‘hubs’ are the best and quickest way to combine resources to provide a universal offer to local citizens. The new Jobs & Careers Service can play a central role in developing these centres – planning staffing and premises with local government. Allied to this there will need to be strengthened accountability and performance management of local jobcentres – so they are fully playing their role in achieving the aims of local GBW Plans linked to the national aspiration of an 80% employment rate. One-stop centres will also need to be highly responsive to the growth needs of local employers, ensuring skills investment is well targeted and adults have access to relevant upskilling through, for example, Skills Bootcamps.
4. A new collaborative governance structure providing a dialogue and planning framework bringing a systems approach to integrating services and building capacity. Devolving responsibilities and funding also brings its challenges: new accountability and governance frameworks; building new and different capacity and capabilities; reinforcing planning and commissioning at the local level; sound evidence-based analysis in local Plans. It also involves new expectations on providers and how local government builds stronger partnerships with colleges and independent Training Providers. Currently, there is a complicated (and confusing) mix of: areas at different stages of devolution; overlapping or non-aligned agency and government boundaries; new and changing funding for provision; multiple trials, trailblazers and pilots. This amount of change needs clear channels to promote good dialogue. As yet, we only have elements of a new system in place and we need a jointly owned timetable for a new system to be fully in place by 2029.

There are stages that will be needed for each of these if they are to be in place by 2029. They should be subject to co-design processes, pilots, trailblazers, test and learn, and capacity building initiatives. However, we think a joint roadmap setting out a delivery schedule can readily be developed and agreed, and subject to joint scrutiny.

Achieving the aims of Get Britain Working is a ‘joint venture’ between local and national government. That brings responsibilities on both sides to work together productively. At the national level the LGA is committed to bringing together the voice of all local authorities to work actively with national government. However, more needs to be done and we need to explore how local government can:

• provide on-going expert advice to central government through secondments, working groups and other co-design processes
• put in place learning networks between councils, especially those areas that have similar economic, social and demographic characteristics
• develop in every council the skills for managing the new systems
• collaborate to identify those issues that are best delivered together, such as new digital solutions
• explore a new framework between central and local government for metrics and evaluation of devolved services.

At the same time, we need to successfully deliver Connect to Work and WorkWell, which is why we will establish dedicated forums to identify delivery successes and problems to share with government. These (and other actions) will require upfront financial investment by central government in local capacity – investing in the new infra-structure for Get Britain Working.

The ‘to do’ list is extensive for both local and national government but at the same time resources are constrained, so (in no particular order) what should be our immediate joint priorities?

1. getting Connect to Work up and running everywhere and delivering it successfully
2. a Get Britain Working Plan in every area by September developed with the active involvement of health
3. ending uncertainty of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and ensuring there is a successor to fund local employability projects
4. ensure local priorities for spending on skills and apprenticeships are always included by integrating ‘Local Skills Improvement Plans’ into local GBW Plans in partnership with employer representative bodies.
5. a decision on continuing and extending WorkWell to run alongside Connect to Work
6. active involvement by local government in the design and delivery of the Youth Guarantee, learning from the Trailblazer areas and exploring widening the guarantee
7. expand the trial areas for the new Jobs & Careers Service and develop and test this service in partnership
8. co-design a ‘one-stop centre’ model for local partners to use when integrating provision for personalised services to individuals and for employers
9. a national dialogue to produce a new governance framework for devolved employment and skills services based on local agreements.

Investment of time and resources will be needed but these actions will go a long way to achieving real and lasting change.