Active Labour Market policies for vulnerable groups : an overview

1. Active Labour Market policies for vulnerable groups : an overview Professor Dan Finn, University of Portsmouth Associate Research Director, Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion

2. Context • European Employment Strategy: Employability, Social Inclusion and Economic Activity Rates • Unemployment, ‘Worklessness’ and Economic Inactivity • Impacts on poverty, ill health, youth disaffection, crime and family breakdown • Impacts on Minority Ethnic Communities, new migrants and refugees • Spatial variations and concentrations in cities where implementation tends to be weakest

3. Active Labour Market Programmes: What Works • From ‘passive’ to ‘active’ strategies - commitments to provide ALMPs in the European Employment Strategy • Four Basic ALMPs: • Job Search Requirements and Assistance • Employment Subsidies • Training and Education • Work Experience Programmes • Evaluation Evidence –‘Net’ Impact Studies (compliance and treatment effects) and Implementation/Case Studies • Most programmes work best for those who are relatively ‘job ready’. Most are least effective for the ‘hardest to help’ (basic skills, ex-offenders; substance abuse; mental health problems).

4. Implementation • National Programmes & Local Flexibilities (national policies are only as good as their local delivery systems) • ‘Joining Up’: barrier reduction and other support services (esp. basic skills, substance abuse reduction, child care, transport and easing transitions) • Partnerships, with Economic Development, Employers, and Workforce Development Systems

5. The Demand Side: Understanding the Local Economy • Labour Market Intelligence: the Jobs Available and Characteristics of Workless People • The interaction with the ‘hidden’ or illegal economy • The balance between job search assistance (turnover and new jobs) and employment creation (social economy & self employment) • Even where there are jobs, other barriers on the demand side: • Direct and Indirect Discrimination (access to vacancies, informal networks and job specifications) • Location and transport (& links with other services, such as child care)

6. The Supply Side: Individual Employment Barriers • Job search: reduction in frequency, losing touch, perceptions of suitability and availability (mistrust of official agencies) • ‘Employability’: basic skills & language, ‘job readiness’ and confidence, work experience, health, and accommodation • Interaction between state benefits and work incentives (the role of ‘compulsion’) • Financial and transition risks (especially debt) • Particular problems facing new immigrants (e.g. restrictions on employment, transferability of skills)

7. No Simple Answers But Evidence Suggests • ‘Targeted’ Approaches: add value to mainstream programmes, esp. amongst the ‘hardest to reach’ (outreach important) • Local coordination and cross referral to health and child/elder care services • ‘Client centred’: assessment & profiling tools and ‘action plans’, esp. for those with multiple barriers • ‘Realistic’ work experience: building bridges to local employers, use of subsidies, ‘local labour’ contract clauses • Job search assistance: matching and ‘after care’ • Making Work Pay and being seen to pay (support with ‘transition’ costs)

8. Measuring Impacts: Indicators • Definition: “Measurement of an objective to achieve, a resource mobilised, an output accomplished, an effect obtained or a context variable (economic, social or environmental) (source: EC, ‘Evaluating socio-economic programmes’, vol 6, 1999) • Quantitative and Qualitative Indicators used to measure facts or opinions (e.g., % of trainees who get a job or who claim to be satisfied with their training) • Must provide simple information that both the supplier and user can easily communicate and understand. Assists managers of public interventions to communicate, monitor and assess success. • Indicator must be ‘sensitive’, in that the item measured must vary significantly in relationship to the intervention being assessed. • Usually measured by means of surveys or statistical data (importance of monitoring systems)

9. Social Inclusion Indicators • Social exclusion – a multi dimensional and relative concept. Many definitions. • In EU context most commonly interpreted as exclusion from the labour market; acute poverty and material deprivation; and to a lesser extent an inability to exercise basic social rights. • Good Starting point is the common indicators identified by the EC Social Protection Committee at Laeken in 2001. • Consisted of 18 indicators, 10 ‘primary’ and 8 ‘secondary’, spanning the themes of income, employment, health and education. • The employment related indicators included: • Primary: ‘Long-term unemployment rate’, ‘People living in jobless households’ and ‘Regional Cohesion’ (coefficient of variation of employment rates) • Secondary: ‘Long term unemployment share’; ‘Very long-term unemployment rate’

10. Measuring Employment Impacts • Impact Assessments (evidence base for original objectives): • Labour Market Activity • Job entries and sustainability (surveys and statistics) • Self employment and other economic activity • Income and income gain • Distance Travelled • Barrier reduction (initial assessment and at leaving) • Skills/qualifications gained • Cost Benefit Analysis (savings and ‘net’ benefits/impacts) • Learning the lessons – ensuring take up in mainstream provision