Employment Support Allowance and Universal Credit | House of Commons

Locally commissioned employment support programmes can help to provide tailored support to people who have complex conditions and find it difficult to overcome certain barriers to access the jobs market.

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Key messages

National employment support programmes have helped many people into work. However, they have continued to struggle to support those people who have less opportunity to get into work. These programmes have been less effective in providing support for people furthest away from the labour market, including those with disabilities and health problems.

In our Autumn Statement submission, we have called on central government to work with local government to create a new, coherent and locally relevant public employment and skills service.

Our skills system is fragmented, broken and must be fixed urgently. Moving pre- and post-16 skills policy, apprenticeships and careers guidance into the Department for Education creates an exciting opportunity to do things differently.

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