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Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has asked Government for greater powers over employment support funding to help support over 150,000 city-region residents back into work.
The city-region is proposing a new approach to address root causes of worklessness with positive tailored support to grow confidence, wellbeing and skills. Plans would be delivered through neighbourhood ‘Live Well’ centres, in partnership with the NHS and local voluntary and community organisations to bring health services, social prescribers, skills and employment support and housing advice all under one roof.
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, explained:
“The current welfare system is based on distrust and too often leaves people feeling worse about themselves and further away from work. ‘Live Well’ will build self-esteem and get people ready to move into work.
“Here in Greater Manchester our economy is growing faster than the UK average. There are high quality jobs here, but many people struggle to access them because they are weighed down by worries, health problems, financial barriers and insecure housing.
“By providing wraparound support to tackling the everyday issues holding our residents back, we can transform their lives and help them enjoy the stability, dignity and sense of community that comes with a decent job.
“The Government is rightly taking a more preventative approach to health and unemployment. The Secretary of State has talked about the importance of joining up support for work, health and skills to tackle the root causes of worklessness and here in Greater Manchester, we’re ready to make that vision a reality.
“Building on the innovative work our NHS has done around social prescribing and in partnership with our fantastic community organisations, we will help residents to improve their health and get a decent job.
“Not only will this reduce the inequalities in our city region and boost life chances and wellbeing, but it will also cut the benefits bill and ease pressure on our NHS.”
Proposals for addressing economic inactivity in Greater Manchester build on the success of the existing ‘Working Well’ pilot, which has helped around 27,500 people into new jobs, and provided a further 76,500 with access to new skills and training, and ranking the service among the top performing for similar DWP contracts. Nationally, 2.8 million people are out of work due to long-term ill-health, up 800,000 on pre-pandemic levels with most of the rise attributed to mental health conditions.
Data shows that in Greater Manchester there are around 80,000 people who want to work but struggle to get a job due to long-term sickness. There are also a further 75,700 people currently unemployed and looking for work. Research shows that helping people overcome the barriers holding them back that the Live Well programme seeks to address could get 150,000 people in Greater Manchester into employment in the next five years.