Passionate about our people

Apr 3 2007 By Melanie Laws, The Journal

Tackling employability is a key regional priority, says Melanie Laws, director of the Association of North East Councils, the political voice for local government in North-East.

North-East local government remains committed to accelerating the pace of change across the region and to reducing the economic gap that exists between the North and the rest of the country.

Since the legacy of industrial decline and the subsequent changing skills requirements of the labour markets of the 1950s and 1960s, the North-East has been subject to consistent - geographic - pockets of high and sustained levels of unemployment and economic inactivity. These levels currently stand at 3.5% higher than the national average and remain a considerable inhibitor to the economic growth of the region.

This has had significant impact on some communities and neighbourhoods in the North-East where high numbers of individuals who want to work have been incapacitated through ill health and disability.

And, with the North-East striving to make significant economic and social progress, local government is committed to working with those individuals to help them back into economic activity wherever possible.

Understanding the importance of employment

Increasing economic activity promotes regional productivity benefits and economic gains. But the solutions for getting people back into work and making them economically active do not just revolve around job creation: there is also a strong social dimension where the benefits of working also include improving people's social well-being.

Addressing employability is a complex issue and requires a flexible, holistic and responsive approach, based on individuals' needs and circumstances.

It also requires us to have a clearer understanding of the many barriers to employment that exist. So, while social factors such as people's general health, access to work and good public transport, their level of skill and training and educational attainment can positively contribute to their motivation and chances of successfully finding employment, they can, also become barriers to success.

The Government's role

We need to ensure that future strategies and policies relating to employability reflect not just a strong economic agenda, but also a strong social one which recognises the linkages between employability and health, transport, skills and employer engagement; one that aims to not only promote the chances of successfully finding employment but also seeks to remove the barriers that could prohibit or discourage economic activity.

There is clearly a key role for local government in this and employability remains high on the national agenda. The Government's Welfare Reform Bill is progressing through Parliament while considerable debate was created by March's radical review of the welfare system, Reducing Dependency, Increasing Opportunity, by David Freud.

In the North-East, local government will continue to share and develop its wealth of experience and good practice, and work in partnership with citizens and communities, education and skills providers, employers and the business community, including its representative bodies, to identify opportunities for collaboration and joint approaches to tackling these key issues. The employability-related challenges facing the North-East are significant, but so too are the potential economic and social benefits should we succeed.

Further information: www.northeastcouncils.gov.uk