02 March 2007
Ministers must commit Whitehall departments to new joint Public Service Agreements if they are to tackle the growing gap between unemployment and skills in the North of England compared with the South, according to an influential think-tank.
Sue Stirling, director of the Institute for Public Policy Research North, told Public Finance that Whitehall departments must share responsibility for education, skills, welfare and employment more effectively if they are to tackle the rising regional gap between the numbers of unemployed older people.
A report by Stirling's team, published on February 26, shows that 32% of people (more than 1 million) aged over 50 in the North are unemployed, compared with 24% (3.8 million) in the South. Manchester has the highest proportion of working age people claiming unemployment benefit – 3.7%.
Stirling believes that the gap could undermine several key government policies.
Ministers want Britons to work until at least 67 before claiming their state pensions, to help the economy deal with an ageing population. They have also introduced targets for an ambitious 80% total employment rate; improving skills to put the UK at the forefront of the global economy; and getting people off benefits and into the workplace.
'It's clear that…what is required is greater, and better considered, joined-up government. It's impossible to deal with the improved skills agenda effectively unless the Education and Skills department is working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions,' Stirling said.
Departments are working on a new system of outcomes-focused PSAs with the Treasury, which is overseeing the process.
Stirling stressed that a culture of joint ownership at the centre of government was not enough. She said: 'There must also be a degree of flexibility for regional or local control of skills and employment programmes… Skills requirements in the Northwest, for example, will be fundamentally different to those in the Southwest.'
The IPPR North study, The sand timer: skills and employment in the Northwest, also suggests that programmes aimed at particular deprived areas are not the best way to improve work rates. The study claims that effective 'travel to work' areas, based around strong, accessible commercial centres, are more important.
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