work in geographically concentrated areas of the North East Lincolnshire ..... who were advised by academic staff from the Higher Education section of the.
Neighbourhood Renewal Fund Research Project
Subjectively experienced barriers to get into work
Grimsby, April 2008
By Bill Gourley, Tom Feldges, Sonia Pieczenko
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SECTION ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.0 This report provides an overview and analysis of research conducted between February and March 2008 into the causes of worklessness and barriers to gaining work in geographically concentrated areas of the North East Lincolnshire unitary authority (see appendix A). Twelve of these areas were designated Super Output Areas (SOA’s) where highly concentrated levels of worklessness and multiple deprivation was most prevalent (according to national statistics of deprivation). According to the index of deprivation for 2007, that attempts to rank deprivation across the three hundred and fifty four local authority areas North East Lincolnshire came 49th in the country, a further decline from its place as 52nd worst in the indexes 2004 figures. 1.1 The availability of jobs in North East Lincolnshire is obviously a factor in finding work and the local labour market in North East Lincolnshire is clearly an issue. However, there are substantial pieces of research that have already been done across the country that suggest certain groups have more serious problems in finding work. These are: the lone parent group, black minority ethnic groups (BME’s), those on incapacity benefit, the over 50’s, an ex-offender group and the homeless. This research concentrates on those six groups, gathering data through the administration of a semi-structured questionnaire to workless groups, through interviews with significant stakeholders possessing knowledge of and expertise in dealing with the workless locally and through one focus group (see methodology section). 1.2 Other factors identified in national research significantly influencing the prevalence of worklessness, other than labour market demand, includes the individual attitudinal, behavioural, cultural and household characteristics of residents in these areas. These contextual and situational factors are explored in a local context that recognises there may be factors in North East Lincolnshire that are distinct to the area as well as factors held in common with other parts of the country. 1.3 Local patterns of worklessness were claimed to be linked to a culture of low aspirations and low skills levels and was virtually a universal comment in the stakeholder interviews conducted as part of the research. The low level of skills among the workless and claims of low aspirations among the six groups targeted were supported by the questionnaire responses. 1.4 The inter-relationship of local labour market factors, both in terms of supply and demand, individual and household characteristics linked to behavioural and attitudinal factors that are claimed to be part of a generationally transmitted culture are highly complex and not well understood. What the research revealed, in a way the national statistics cannot, were the highly localised and nuanced complexities of these issues from the perspective of both client groups and the stakeholder organisations tasked with dealing with the problem. 1.5 Historical factors and references to the generational transmission of worklessness were common responses in stakeholder interviews as in a few were claims about working in the black or informal economy. Whether these claims are supported by evidence or not is clearly a difficult problem but the perception was real. The overarching claim made was that the decline of the fishing industry was a major
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reason for contemporary problems surrounding worklessness. This may need to be treated with some caution in as much as stakeholder organisations dealing with workless groups are now dealing with the generations who have had no experience of the fishing industry. 1.6 The experience of multi-agency working was considered an integral part of the research and findings on its effectiveness were mixed. In the majority of cases eight or nine of the interviews, partnership working was not considered to be terribly effective. There was a clear split between the larger statutory organisations, who had a more positive view of partnership working and the voluntary sectors, and smaller organisations who were more critical. In one case it was claimed there was no real culture of partnership working and, in other cases, that some organisations felt they were invited to the table but only as a token presence. This was a strong theme throughout the interviews. 1.7 In terms of understanding the causes of worklessness and barriers to finding work the stakeholder interviews revealed a degree of consensus. The questionnaire responses revealed that childcare, low or no qualifications, health and transport were the four most frequently identified factors and were considered to be the most significant barriers by clients. 1.8 Many client groups, responses were fatalistic or they aspired to finding low skillslevel jobs, probably in many cases a realistic representation of opportunities and the state of the local labour market. Women and especially lone parents were more positive about what they might achieve in the future than men and this was linked to stages in the life cycle and the number of dependents. One stakeholder interviewee who dealt with the younger age groups said it was often easier to place young females in jobs rather than young men. 1.9 The questionnaires and the stakeholder interviews did not represent random statistic samples nor was there any intention that they should. The methodological principles behind the research design are discussed in more detail in the methodology section. Here, it would suffice to say that the client groups were chosen thematically to represent those six groups identified as being over represented in the workless groups. The stakeholder agencies largely consisted of partner agencies themselves with local knowledge and expertise of the problem. The focus of the research was qualitative and was aimed to be a more in-depth analysis of worklessness in geographically concentrated areas largely, but not solely, represented by the SOA’s that exist in North East Lincolnshire. 1.10 Initiatives to alleviate the problem of worklessness that stakeholder agencies had personal knowledge of and those that worked have been identified in the stakeholder interviews and were those that it was felt had not worked were also considered. Those initiatives that offered job experience or job tasters were among those considered among the most effective interventions. 1.11 Three hundred and sixteen completed questionnaires were returned and twelve stakeholder interview (plus one focus group) completed during the course of the research. The process whereby data was gathered and analysed is discussed in more detail in the methodology section.
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1.12 The research has compiled a localised data base based largely on subjective perceptions of the causes of worklessness and barrier to finding work in these areas that does not exist elsewhere. It, therefore, does not seek to ‘reinvent the wheel’ and replicate local and national statistics that are already available from government and local sources.
1.13 While unemployment has declined in Britain over the last ten years worklessness has not. Worklessness, defined as those economically inactive groups that are in receipt of job seekers allowance, lone parent benefits, incapacity benefits or otherwise economically inactive, has remained persistently high among the six identified groups. There is a general perception that worklessness in the twelve SOA’s targeted here are an extremely serious problem that could lead to a situation of terminal decline if not immediately addressed.
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SECTION TWO: BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
2.1 North East Lincolnshire is a unitary authority established in 1996 with a population of 158,900 (Nomis Statistics - Source: ONS mid-year population estimates 2006). North East Lincolnshire has twelve SOA’s defined as suffering high levels of multiple deprivation and worklessness. A significant proportion of the population of North East Lincolnshire reside in these 12 SOA’s which are amongst the most deprived 10% in the country. Maps of all these areas can be found in appendix A. 2.2 Accessing the six ‘hard-to-reach’ groups that was the main focus of the research was achieved through the sponsorship of local stakeholder agencies with experience of dealing with these client groups and intimate local knowledge of their problems and concerns. They acted as gatekeepers to provide access to client groups and following prior training administered questionnaires to these groups for later analysis by the research team (see methodology section). 2.3 These groups were chosen thematically to coincide with those groups identified in national statistics as persistently over represented in the worklessness count. Consequently what is reported here is not a statistical sample but a qualitative and detailed thematic investigation into perceptions of the causes of worklessness and barriers to finding work for these client groups. This data was designed to compliment the official statistics but to reach levels of detail and nuance that the crude official statistics cannot capture. The result is a local data base produced for the Employing a Joint Approach Group that does not, to the best of our knowledge, exist anywhere else. It was also a capacity building exercise and investigation of the effectiveness of multi-agency working. 2.4 The stakeholder interviews and questionnaire responses from client groups were matched and compared for insights into the different perceptions held of the problems of worklessness and barriers to work in the area. Where these match there was some degree of confidence that a real problem had been identified. Where they did not the different interests and levels of knowledge of the client group compared to stakeholder agencies threw into relief just what those conflicts were. The methodology is discussed in more detail later. Here it will suffice to say that responses were cross checked and triangulated for consistencies and inconsistencies. 2.5 This was also a capacity building exercise designed to pool the resources of the stakeholder agencies and partners and designed to explore how effective partnership working was perceived to be in North East Lincolnshire. 2.6 A training day was held to clarify the research questions being used and the methodology behind the research. Those stakeholder agencies that had agreed to take part in the research were also given training in interviewing. From the start, and as far as possible, the research was designed to provide an audit trail and a robust methodological stance that given the nature of the research problem was fit for purpose in investigating the subjective, attitudinal, behavioural and situational aspects of worklessness in North East Lincolnshire.
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2.7 The research was meant to compliment and not replicate existing statistical data on worklessness in North East Lincolnshire. While it is known which groups are most prevalent in the workless statistics what is not known is how the various individual, household, cultural and local institutional factors interact. The how and the why questions are not yet developed into a coherent explanation of the problem of worklessness in North East Lincolnshire and elsewhere. This research explores such interactions in a specific geographically concentrated area through the perceptions and responses of clients and the stakeholder groups serving those clients in a specific context that largely focuses upon 12 super output areas (SOA’s) designated as being high areas of deprivation according to the national index of deprivation scores for 2004 and 2007. 2.8 As mentioned earlier in 2004 the index of deprivation showed that North East Lincolnshire was 52nd out of 354 local authorities for deprivation and in 2007, the most recent figures, this ranking had dropped to 49th. It appeared that the area was suffering continuing decline according to these figures. 2.9 There were 17,170 total claimants in North East Lincolnshire with 9,425 coming from the SOA’s (ONS Crown Copyright Reserved: -Nomis on 19 March 2008). Of these the following are designated as belonging to the workless category. - Job seekers allowance – 3,640 (2,210 in SOA’s) - Incapacity benefits – 7,060 (3,640 in SOA’s) - Lone parents – 3,040 (2,040 in SOA’s) (Working-age client group - key benefit claimants (May 2007) Source: DWP benefit claimants - working age client group)
2.10 The area exhibits low skills and educational attainment with levels of education and training below the national average. This has clear implications for matching supply and demand in the local labour market when existing skill levels do not match those demanded by employers. Level Number N.E. Lincs (%) GB (%) HND, Degree, 13,500 15.1 27.4 equivalent 2 or more A-Levels 29,400 32.9 45.3 or equivalent 5 or more GCSE’s 50,600 56.6 63.8 A-C or equivalent Fewer than 5 70,800 79.1 77.8 GCSE’s A-C or equivalent No qualifications 10,300 11.5 13.8 Table 3.0 Qualifications (Jan 2006-Dec 2006) Source: ONS annual population
2.11 North East Lincolnshire is also a relatively low wage economy. The average gross weekly pay of a male full time employee in NE Lincolnshire is £460.2 compared with £500.7 nationally. The gap is wider for full time female employees with £290.9 the average locally and £394.8 nationally. (Earnings by residence (2007) Source: ONS annual survey of hours and earnings - resident analysis).
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2.12 The number of residents in North East Lincolnshire’s designated areas of concentrated deprivation suffering from worklessness (largely the SOA’) and claiming benefits are shown below in tables 2.0 – 2. 4 alongside the vacancy profile of the local labour market. 2.13 The main finding that a perusal for these statistics would provide is that the area is a low wage, low economy area with high levels of benefit dependency in geographically concentrated areas. It would also indicate that the jobs that are being created are not in the higher skilled level knowledge economy. They are predominantly low skilled. The impact of that on the local economy for its population is that they leave to acquire these skills and may never return.
Cleethorpes North NRF area
1,600 Cleethorpes Sea Front NRF area
1,400
East Marsh Freeman Street NRF area
1,200
East Marsh Grant Thorold NRF area
1,000
Grange NRF area
800
Hainton Heneage and Park NRF area
600
Immingham NRF Areas
400
Nunsthorpe and Bradley Park NRF area
200
West Marsh Macaulay NRF area West Marsh NRF area
Figure 2.0
7
r-0 7
Willows NRF area
Ap
b07
06
Fe
ec -
D
-0 6
6
O ct
g0
Au
n06 Ju
r-0 6
Ap
Fe
b06
0
Yarborough NRF area
700 600 500 400
age - 16 to 24 age - 25 to 49 age - 50 and over
300 200 100 0 Cleethorpes East Marsh Immingham North Grant Thorold
West Marsh
Figure 2.1.
Vacancies by industry across NRF areas NE Lincs 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 1 01 : Agriculture, forestery and fishing 07 : Manuf chemicals and man-made fibres 13 : Manuf pulp,paper/products; printing etc 16 : Construction 18 : Hotels and catering
04 : Metal manufacture and fabrication 11 : Manuf food, drink and tobacco 14 : Manuf timber,rubber,plastic & other 17 : Wholesale/retail distribution; repair 19 : Transport storage and communications
20 : Financial and business services 22 : Health and social work
21 : Public services,admin and defence 23 : Other service activities
Figure 2.2
8
Vacancies by Occupation (NRF Areas NE Lincs) 1000 500 0 1
11 : Corporate Managers 21 : Science and Technology Professionals 23 : Teaching and Research Professionals 31 : Science and Technology Associate Professionals 33 : Protective Service Occupations 35 : Business and Public Service Associate Professionals 42 : Secretarial and Related Occupations 52 : Skilled Metal and Electronic Trades 54 : Textiles, Printing and Other Skilled Trades 62 : Leisure and Other Personal Service Occupations 72 : Customer Service Occupations 82 : Transport and Mobile Machine Drivers and Operatives 92 : Elementary Administration and Service Occupations
12 : Managers and Proprietors in Agriculture and Services 22 : Health Professionals 24 : Business and Public Service Professionals 32 : Health and Social Welfare Associate Professionals 34 : Culture, Media and Sports Occupations 41 : Administrative Occupations 51 : Skilled Agricultural Trades 53 : Skilled Construction and Building Trades 61 : Caring Personal Service Occupations 71 : Sales Occupations 81 : Process, Plant and Machine Operatives 91 : Elementary Trades, Plant and Storage Related Occupations
Figure 2.3
Benefits by type and location spread
th o N
H
un s
W es
an
rp e
He n
to n ai n
st Ea
st Ea
M ar
sh
M ar
le e
C
C
3.6 MORE CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND HERE?
job seekers
incapacity benefits
others and on income benefits Who arecarers the SOA’ by looking for work not related looking for
Figure 2.4
9
lone parents disabled
s w
rb or ou gh Ya
W illo
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h
y M h
tM ar s
Br d
W es
ac
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m in Im
ea ge
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Pa
G ra n
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St sh
Fr ee
G ra n
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a Se s th or pe
ho r
re et
nt Fr o
th or N s th or pe le e
ge
700 3.14 Some argue that parts of North East Lincolnshire are on the point of a terminal 600 decline and the worklessness issue is a key factor in this scenario that requires 500 addressing. This report investigates the perceptions of client groups and urgently 400 stakeholder agencies in this context. 300 200 100 0
SECTION THREE: METHODOLOGY SECTION
3.0 The research was primarily a qualitative piece designed to tap into the subjective perceptions of client workless groups and the agencies that act as their advocates in geographically concentrated areas of North East Lincolnshire local authority area. In particular, twelve SOA’s that are amongst the most deprived 10% in Britain, according to the index of deprivation, were the main focus of the research. 3.1 The research consisted of a semi-structured questionnaire (see appendix B) that was collaboratively designed by members of the ‘Employing a Joint Approach’ group, who were advised by academic staff from the Higher Education section of the Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education (GIFHE). This was complemented by twelve stakeholder interviews with one focus group conducted by the lead researcher. The research design and the processing and conduct of interviews and questionnaire administration were overseen by a group of six researchers from the GIFHE Higher Education division who met on a regular basis during the course of the research. 3.2 A training event was held at GIFHE (see appendix C) to finalise the details of the questionnaire (which had gone through several drafts), discuss the purpose of the research and research questions being investigated and to train interviewers from the agencies who would administer the questionnaires to their clients. The final draft of the questionnaire can be found in appendix D with guides for interviewees outlined in appendix E. 3.3 After feedback from the training event a revised and final questionnaire was produced and the research question clarified. 4.31 The research questions were:What are the situational, contextual, behavioural and attitudinal barriers that prevent geographically concentrated workless groups in selected areas of North East Lincolnshire areas entering into formal work and employment? How effective are multi-agency working and partnership arrangements in addressing the problem of worklessness in these areas?
3.4 Questionnaires were administered over a three week period to clients and returned to staff at GIFHE. Six members comprised a research team who inputted the data, coded it and analysed it. Three were permanent members of academic staff with social science and business studies backgrounds, one was a full time member of staff from GIFHE’s diversity team and two were third year degree students studying for University of Hull degrees delivered by GIFHE staff in Grimsby who acted as research assistants. 3.5 The lead researcher conducted taped one to one semi-structured interviews with managers of stakeholder agencies lasting approximately one hour (see appendix B). These interviews were transcribed into text and analysed manually and through the use of a leading qualitative computer software package NVIVO 8. The semi10
structured open responses were also processed using NVIVO8 and the closed questions from the questionnaires inputted into the ‘Statistical Package for Social Science’ (SPSS) computer package. 3.6 The research team analysed the questionnaire and interview transcripts collectively to standardise and categorise the responses under a number of agreed headings, themes and categories over a period of approximately three weeks. 3.7 There were 316 questionnaires received and twelve individual stakeholder interviews and one focus group was held. It was decided not to continue with the focus groups because of time constraints. 3.8 The transcripts form an audit trail held on a data base of highly detail, localised but anonymous details of client respondents’ responses and stakeholder interviews. Confidentiality was guaranteed as a condition of doing the interview and any quotes used in this rest of this report do not identify named individuals and where the nature of the quotes are such that they might easily be attributed to a named organisation attempts have been made to maintain that anonymity. 3.9 The report is contextual, area specific and focuses on those parts that the official statistics cannot reach at a level of detail that allows the capturing of behavioural, attitudinal and situational factors that are associated with worklessness in North East Lincolnshire. The methodology chosen reflected the subjective nature of these perceptions and every effort has been made to produce a methodologically rigorous piece of research within the qualitative parameters set by the research questions. 3.10 The results of the questionnaire responses are reported in sections four to ten, with section eleven identifying barriers and issues and attempting to capture points of agreement and disagreement found in the client and stakeholder responses to the question of what the main barriers to getting work are in North East Lincolnshire.
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SECTION FOUR: DEMOGRAPHICAL SECTION.
4.0 This section outlines the main characteristics and demographics of the responses from the questionnaire administered to clients by the stakeholder agencies overall. There were three hundred and sixteen completed responses to the questionnaires administered by the various stakeholder agencies. The following sections (five to ten) break down the responses by the six individual target groups identified earlier in more detail. 4.1 The questionnaire consisted of twenty five questions, mainly sub-divided into sub sections (see appendix d) and broken up into closed and open ended questions. The closed questions were inputted into the SPSS package and the open ended questions were transcribed into word/rtf format and inputted into the NVIVO8 qualitative software package, this allows researchers to search for patterns and themes in the data and considerably speeds up the process of analysis. The data was also analysed manually and the research team met regularly to analyse and input the data as questionnaires were returned. Responses from the questionnaire were then organised into thematic categories such as education and training childcare, transport or health and the research team collectively agreed which category each questionnaire response should fall into, especially where wording was ambiguous or intent unclear. This was a means to standardise the analysis of the data between the members of the research team.
4.2 The breakdown of these groups by SOA is given in figure 4.0. It can be seen that those that are economically inactive and not looking for work in the SOA’s are concentrated in Nunsthorpe (seventeen not looking and twenty four looking) with a smaller number in East Marsh Freeman Street (ten not looking and twenty four looking). The Nunsthorpe respondents were skewed towards the lone parent group and the East Marsh Freeman Street area the homeless group (see following sections for a more detailed breakdown of the different categories of workless). Overall, figure 4.1 shows those in work and those who are workless for both the SOA’s and nonSOA’a. 4.3 The stakeholder agencies and the number of questionnaires administered, and completed by them, have been outlined in figure 4.2. These obviously reflect the commitment and resources available to the stakeholder agencies involved in the NRF project and the EJAG members. As mentioned earlier they are not random statistical samples. Given that the area of interest for the research is ‘hard-to-reach’ groups it is unlikely that these could all be accessed using a random statistical sample especially in those areas for which there are question marks about statistical information available such as migrant workers. In effect they are thematic samples chosen for their relevance to the research question and problem being investigated by the research. 4.3 The number of respondents that were resident in SOA’ is given in figure 4.3. The SOA’s show that approaching two thirds of the respondents were resident in SOA’s but that most of the respondents were accessing services based in SOA’s.
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Overall Sample - Employment Status / SOA 80 70 60 50 40 30 20
econ. active/training
10
econ. inactive/not looking econ. inactive/looking
Hainton, Hennege Park
No Postcode
econ. active/training
East Marsh Fr.St.
West Marsh
West Marsh Mac.
Clee NTH
Willows
econ. inactive/looking Clee SF
Yarborough
East Marsh GT
Grange
Nunsthorpe
No SOA
Immingham
0
Figure 4.0 Overall Sample - Employment Status
5
10
1
18
76
Employed Self-employed Educatin/Training Not working/looking Not working/not looking Other
206
Figure 4.1
13
Overall Sample - Agency West Marsh Development Trust
9
Asian Ladies Sewing Club
6
Open Door
6
St. Hugh's Community
4
Nunthorpe Children's Centre
5
Cleethorpes Children's Centre
8
Cummunity Regeneration
20
Second Avenue
45
Series1
15
GIFHE Access to HE GIFHE Distance Learning
2
GIFHE Diversity
35
Community Chest
58
N.E. Lincs. Council
36
Learning Shop
23
Learn Direct
8
Harbour Place
36 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Figure 4.2 4.5 The level of qualifications and training as shown in figure 4.4 were low throughout the responses and this reflects the official statistics for the area. There were some doubts that the respondents had a clear understanding of what the various levels of qualifications meant (on the research teams later readings and cross checking of responses from the questionnaires) so these need to be treated with a degree of caution. However, it is fairly clear that most of the workless groups based in the SOA’s and beyond are at a disadvantage in terms of the formal qualifications and the skills they posses. Nearly two thirds claimed they had qualifications at less than level two or had no qualifications at all. 4.6 The length of time respondents had been unemployed showed that a total of one hundred and fifty five, almost one half of the total responses, had been unemployed for more than three years with thirty eight never having a job. As a workless group these are clearly the most entrenched group with the long term experience of being without work inevitably impacting on their confidence, aspiration and possession of a work ethic.
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Overall Sample - SOA Distribution 10
No Postcode provided
21
Hainton, Hennege East Marsh Fr.St.
38
West Marsh Mac.
9
West Marsh
23 7
Clee NTH
9
Clee SF
Series1 Willows
4
East Marsh GT
22 2
Yarborough
6
Grange Nunsthorpe
43
Immingham
3
No SOA
119 0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Figure 4.3
Overall Sample - Qualification Level 140
118
120
100
80 Series1 60
55
53
40 26 20
22
18
14 7
3
Figure 4.4
15
er O th
ve l5 Le
ve l4 Le
ve l3 Le
ve l2 Le
ve l1 Le
l Le ve En tr y
tio ca ifi Q ua l o N
no t
kn ow
n
n
0
Overall Sample - Duration of Unemployment 70 63 60 51
50
50
44 38
40
Series1 29
30
20 14 11
9
10
7
0 not known < 6 month 7-12 month 1-2 years
3-4 years
5-10 years
11-14 years
15 and never had more years a job
currently working
Figure 4.5 4.7 The vast majority of the workless group were white British as shown in figure 4.6. However the responses did throw up a relatively high proportion of BME’s and this will be discussed in more detail in the following sections. 4.8 An attempt was made to characterise the type of job respondents aspired to on the basis of their semi structured responses to the questionnaire. This was done by the team collectively going through all the semi-structured questionnaire responses (they had been inputted in NVIVO8 and a data base created) identifying the jobs they aspired to in terms of whether they were low-skilled, high-skilled or medium-skilled. Figure 4.7 breaks these responses down further. Again the number of low skilled jobs mentioned combined with those that did not appear to aspire to any job is skewed towards the low skilled part of the labour market spectrum. This could either be interpreted as a realistic assessment of what jobs the respondents were most likely to get or it could be argued that it reflected a low aspiration culture. This was a dominant theme of the stakeholder interviews. Virtually all claimed that the area suffered from a low aspiration culture of fatalism. 4.9 The housing status of the respondents can be found in figure 5.8 and shows that the number in social housing was eight three which is nearly 25% of the whole set of questionnaire responses with a significant number renting from private landlords.
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Overall Sample - Ethnicities not known/provided
8
Any Other
6
White Other
16
White Irish
3
White British
247
Mixed-Any Other
2
Mixed/White&Black Caribbean
2
Mixed/White&Black African
1
Black/Black British-Other
1
Black/Black British-Caribbean
1
Black/Black British-African
Series1
5
Asian/Asian British-Other
3
Asian/Asian British Bangladeshi
21 0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Figure 4.6 4.10 The gender split across the whole set of responses was roughly equal and in terms of age there were some 34 over fifty (approximately 10% of the responses). 4.11 The extent to which these configurations of worklessness in the SOA’s and in the rest of the North East Lincolnshire local authority area reflects both the official statistics on North East Lincolnshire and the national statistics is significant only to the extent they illuminate similar concerns at a level of detail, geographical concentration, qualitative and subjective perception that adds value to what is known about the local circumstances and problems already identified by official statistics. This is because the responses from the 316 questionnaires of the client group triangulated against the local knowledge, expertise and insights of the stakeholder agencies interviewed, may reveal an additional dimension: how credible do stakeholders consider partnership working designed to alleviate the problem to be?
17
Overall Sample - Aspired Job 80
76
70 60
60 52
49
50 40
Series1
30
24
21
19
20
15
10
ed /
ne ou s M
is
ce lla
hi ng An yt
sk ill ed
m an no n-
hi gh
ua l
ua l ed / sk ill m
m
ed iu m
ed i
sk ill
um
sk ill ed /
no nm
m an
an ua l
ua l m an sk ill ed /
lo w
N
lo w
on e/ n
ot
pr ov i
de d
0
Figure 4.7 Overall Sample - Housing Situation
18
9 50
12
49 Owner occupied Social Housing Privat land lord Living with family Temp. accommodation Homeless 83
Other
95
Figure 4.8 4.12 The demographical overview given in this section of the responses from the questionnaires received from clients reveal: a low wage economy, a low aspiration culture, low levels of education and training possessed by the most vulnerable groups and a constant stress on the insularity of the area. Of course these are highly subjective claims. But they do reflect what is generally considered to be the state of affairs found in North East Lincolnshire and specifically in the SOA’s considered here. Any stakeholder organisation that wishes to consider these issues and that have been involved in the development, administration and implementation of the questionnaires received, could have access to the data base from the 316
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questionnaires involved. These are anonymous and it is not possible to trace respondents from any responses on the questionnaire. 4.13 The stakeholder interviews are also necessarily confidential but reveal some disagreements about the effectiveness of partnership working and its role in alleviating worklessness. This data has also been recorded and archived as an audit trail but by virtue of a small amount of issues which are confidential access must be necessarily restricted. This data is discussed in more detail in the following sections and specifically on the section entitled Issues and Barriers (section eleven). 4.14 The main barriers to finding work that were recorded in the overall responses to the questionnaires were largely based upon an analysis of questions 17 (table 4.1) and 21 (table 4.2). The five most frequently identified responses mentioned by the client groups for these two questions are shown in the tables 4.1 and 4.2.
Question 16: What are you doing to look for work?? Looking in papers Internet Job Centre Training / Study Nothing
Top 5 No. of responses 118 77 69 51 48
Table 4.0 Question 17: Is there anything preventing you from finding work at the moment? No qualifications Childcare Health Need particular qualifications Transport
Top 5 No. of responses 64 54 40 26 24
Table 4.1 Question 21: What changes in your circumstances would there have to be to enable you to find work? Qualifications Childcare Changes to benefit system General Health Transport Training
Top 5 No. of responses 65 39 34 29 21 21
Table 4.2
4.15 The breakdown of barriers identified for each specific group is given in the following sections. Here it is sufficient to say that barriers to getting work for the different groups are not uniform and each one needs to be analysed individually and any interventions constructed accordingly. However, one point of note was the responses to question 16: What are you doing to look for work? Table 4.0 shows that excluding the forty eight who said they were doing nothing to look for work, the largest proportion (almost two thirds of the three hundred and fifteen identified responses) said they used newspapers and the internet to look for work. Relatively fewer (sixty nine of the three hundred and fifteen responses) used a job centre.
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4.16 In this report the main groups of interest have been organised thematically to focus upon the six groups most commonly associated with worklessness: these are: lone parent groups, ex-offenders, the over 50’s, the homeless, those on incapacity benefit and black minority ethnic groups (BME’s). Figure 4.10 gives an overview of the different groups that responded to the questionnaire.
Overall Sample - Divided by Target Groups
55 93
38
Lone Parents Incapacity Benefit Homeless Over 50's Ethnic Minorities Ex-offender No Group
16
18
35 61
Figure 4.9 4.17 The following sections, five – ten, deal with each of the target groups in more detail.
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SECTION FIVE: THE LONE PARENT GROUP 5.0 The ‘lone parent group’ is analysed in this section and specific issues identified with this group are considered in the local context. There was also a focus group conducted with this group to complement the clients’ questionnaire responses and the comments made in stakeholder interviews. 5.1 Out of the returned questionnaires fifty five were from lone parents with the bulk of them in the age group 21 to 39 (forty four returns out of fifty five lone parents identified overall). Two agencies returned the bulk of the group: the Second Avenue Resource Centre on the Nunsthorpe and North East Lincolnshire Council (see figure 5.0). Lone Parents - Agency 2
West Marsh Development Trust St. Hugh's Community
1 4
Nunthorpe Children's Centre Cleethorpes Children's Centre
1
Cummunity Regeneration
5 17
Second Avenue
Series1 GIFHE Access to HE
1
GIFHE Diversity Office
1
Community Chest
2
N.E. Lincs. Council
18
Learning Shop
2
Harbour Place
1 0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
Figure 5.0 5.2 Twenty nine of the lone parent responses were from SOA areas with most being concentrated on the Nunsthorpe according to figure 5.1. The lone parent responses were geographically specific and highly significant. This was mainly due to the methodological selection of thematic groups but official statistics confirm high levels of lone parenthood in these areas. 5.3 Of the fifty of the lone parent responses that were not employed thirty claimed they were looking for work while twenty said they were not looking for work (see figure 5.2). Both the focus group held with the lone parent group and the stakeholder interviews appeared to reveal that there were objective and subjective dimensions to these responses. The objective aspects of the issue were to do with the actual jobs available being predominantly low skilled and the need for adequate qualifications; while the subjective perceptions were linked to the need for confidence building and life cycle issues: for example what would be an appropriate age at which a dependent child could be left to the care of others, whether official childminders or family and
21
friends. There was little perception of their being much in the way of employer child friendly policies. 5.4 In response to question 17 “Is there anything preventing you finding work at the moment?” the issue of childcare was mentioned by just over half of the respondents. Later in question, question 21 which asked “What changes in your circumstances would there have to be to enable you to find work?” there was a similar response with a large proportion mentioning childcare. Figure 5.3 shows the responses of the lone parent sub group to both questions as percentages of those who answered. 5.5 Figure 5.4 shows that in terms of qualifications only six had above level two with one other. Twenty three had no qualifications. Although there was some doubt that respondents had a clear view of what the various levels of educational qualifications were, there is no doubt that the lone parent group suffers from low levels of education and training. Again, in responses to questions 17 and 21 mentioned above and shown in figure 5.3, lack of qualifications were a major barrier to gaining work for this group. The next most commonly mentioned barrier was transport. 5.6 Twenty five of the lone parent group lived in social housing, twenty three had a private landlord and two were in temporary accommodation with two others being owner occupiers. The housing tenure of the lone parent group reflected the general level of association between worklessness and living in social housing found more widely and shows a very low level of owner occupation compared to national figures. 5.7 In terms of ethnicity only two were not white British, with one Asian/ Asian British other and one black/black British African. Lone Parents - SOA Distribution
Hainton, Hennage
1
East Marsh Fr.St.
3
West Marsh
4
Clee SF
2
East Marsh GT
3
Grange
Series1
2
Nunthorpe
13
Immingham
1
No SOA
26 0
5
10
15
Figure 5.1
22
20
25
30
Lone Parents - Employment Status
2
1
2
20 Employed Educatin/Training Not working/looking Not working/not looking Other
30
Figure 5.2
Lone Parents - most commonly metioned barriers
60
50
40
30 Q. 17 Q. 21 20
10
Q. 21
0 Qualification
Q. 17
Childcare Health Transport
Figure 5.3
23
Lone Parents - Qualification Level 25 23
20
15 13 Series1 10 8 6 5 3 1
1
0 not known
No Qualification
Entry Level
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Other
Figure 5.4
Lone Parents - Duration of Unemployment 12 11
11
10
10
8 7
6
Series1 5 4
4 3
3
< 6 month
7-12 month
2 1
0 not known
1-2 years
3-4 years
5-10 years
11-14 years 15 and more never had a years job
Figure 5.5 5.8 There were thirty eight of the lone parent group that had been unemployed for more than three years and of these eleven had never had a job. Figure 5.5 indicates that this group are a deeply entrenched category of the workless in North East Lincolnshire. 5.9 In terms of job aspirations of the lone parent group twenty four fell into the low skilled category and only one aspired to a high skilled job. Figure 5.6 seems to
24
demonstrate that the bulk of the respondents belonging to this group aspired to lowskilled work followed by medium-skilled. The categories low-skilled, medium-skilled and high-skilled were determined collectively by the research team who placed each named response into one of the categories following discussion. 5.10 Twenty two had one dependent, twenty three had two dependents, six had three dependents with three having four dependents according to figure 5.7 We did not have the ages of the dependents but it is apparent that the lone parent group perceive childcare is the key issue rather than qualifications. There was some evidence that this group did aspire to achieve some qualifications in the future. Stakeholder interviews also suggest that in some cases it is more difficult to address the qualifications issue with men rather than women.
Lone Parents - Aspired Job 16
15
14 12
12 10
9
8
Series1
7
6
5 4
4 2
2
1
sk ill ed iu m m
Figure 5.6 Jobs aspired to
25
ne ou s M
is
ce lla
hi ng An yt
sk ill ed
m an no ned /
hi gh
ua l
ua l ed / sk ill um
ed i m
sk ill ed /
no nm
m an
an ua l
ua l m an lo w
sk ill ed / lo w
N
on e/ n
ot
pr ov i
de d
0
Lone Parents - Number of Dependants
other
1
4
3
3
6
Series1
2
23
1
22
0
5
10
15
20
25
Figure 5.7 5.11 The lone parent group were complex and, with the bulk of them female, it appeared that aspirations for finding work were linked to life cycle, the number of dependents and household structure issues. Only four males were in the category lone parent. 5.12 The work aspired to for the whole set of this group of respondents was largely low-skilled as evidenced in figure 5.6. Yet it appears from the focus group and other stakeholder interviews that, for female lone parents, there is not a significant issue about eventually aspiring to employment. It is a case of when or at what stage of their child’s development they desire to do so. The child care issue is therefore paramount for understanding their aspirations for understanding decisions about entering the work force. 5.13 The lone parent group was the only one that was followed up as a focus group after the stakeholder interview and arranged through one of the stakeholder agencies. Other focus groups were not pursued because of time constraints and a need to prioritise the most effective way of collecting data and conducting interviews with stakeholder agencies in a very tight schedule. The outcome of the lone parent group focus group suggested very strongly that confidence, the convenience and local accessibility of childcare provision and the need for advocates drawn from the peer group of lone parents that were accessible role models for the group (in terms of being credible members of their community and of their background) would be the most successful way of helping them into work, education or training. 5.14 For the lone parent group it was clear that this group required confidence building measures to be implemented as a means of getting them into work and that formal educational roots and ‘one model fits all’ solutions would not be the most effective way of achieving this. In several cases the very formality of some educational routes frightened potential recruits and the need for provision that is
26
informal and holistically and credibly part of their own community was suggested as the way forward. This was perhaps one of the strongest findings of the stakeholder interviews. 5.15 The findings of the questionnaire show that the lone parent group is a particular hard to reach group in terms of finding work, while national statistics show a high level of worklessness among this group despite falling rates compared to some other target groups. Moreover compared to other countries the UK has higher rates of unemployment among single mothers.
27
SECTION SIX: BLACK MINORITY ETHNIC (BME) GROUPS 6.0 In the BME group, out of a total of sixty one BME’s identified out of the three hundred and sixteen questionnaire responses, (with an additional eight of the response had not known/not provided), thirty six of the sixty one responses where non white, sixteen white other and three white Irish with a further sixteen white other than British (figure 6.0). 6.1 National BME statistics for Great Britain show that 13% of the population are from the BME group. In North East Lincolnshire the figure is 2.5% of the areas population. It may well be that the figure is slightly higher because of the problems of counting recent arrivals from central European countries. The returns for the questionnaire show approximate 20% of the 316 responses failing into the BME group. This is proportionately significantly higher than local statistics suggests but this is a feature of the methodology adopted here and it cannot be inferred that this is statistically meaningful. 6.2 Approximately just over half of the BME group were from SOA areas (see figure 6.1). The majority of the responses (33) came from the GIFHE diversity office (see figure 6.2). Of these, the Bangladeshi community was one of the largest groups. The gender split was roughly equal. 6.3 As figure 6.3 shows the fifty five not in employment seven were not looking for work. A substantial proportion of the respondents also had no qualifications according to figure 6.4 and as shown in figure 6.5 a large proportion had been unemployed for a long period with twenty four shown as being unemployed for more than three years. 6.4 The type of job that respondents aspired to were split into a number of categories for analysis; the low-skilled, manual and non-manual, the medium-skilled manual and non-manual and the high-skilled manual and non-manual. It appears that compared to the rest of the responses from non BME groups, the BME group has higher aspirations for the jobs they seek overall although in common with the rest of the sample low-skilled jobs were prominent with twenty eight out of the BME group seeking low-skilled employment. Figure 6.6 shows the jobs aspired to.
28
Ethnic Minorities - Ethnicities 8
not known/provided Any Other
6 16
White Other White Irish
3
Mixed-Any Other
2
Mixed/White&Black Caribbean
2 Series1
Mixed/White&Black African
1
Black/Black British-Other
1
Black/Black British-Caribbean
1
Black/Black British-African
5
Asian/Asian British-Other
3
Asian/Asian British Bangladeshi
21 0
5
10
15
20
25
Figure 6.0
Ethnic Minorities - SOA Distribution
Hainton, Hennege
8 6
East Marsh Fr.St. West Marsh Mac.
2
West Marsh
6
Clee SF
6
Willows
1
East Marsh GT
Series1 2
Grange
1
Nunsthorpe
2
Immingham
1
No SOA
25 0
5
10
15
Figure 6.1
29
20
25
30
Ethnic Minorities - Agency 6
Asian Ladies Sewing Club St. Hugh's Community
1
Cleethorpes Children's Centre
1
Community Regeneration
4
GIFHE Access to HE
1 2
GIFHE Distance Learning
Series1 GIFHE Diversity
33 3
Community Chest N.E. Lincs. Council
1
Learning Shop
2
Learn Direct
1
Harbour Place
6 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Figure 6.2
Ethnic Minorities - Employment Status
3
7
2
employed education not working/looking not working/not looking
48
Figure 6.3
30
Ethnic Minorities - Qualification Level 25 22 20
15 Series1 10
9
8 6
5
5 2
3
2
er O th
ve l4 Le
ve l3 Le
ve l2
ve l1
Le
En tr y
Le
Le ve l
n tio ca i fi
no t
N
o
kn ow
Q ua l
n/ p
ro vi de d
0
Figure 6.4
Ethnic Minorities - Duration of Unemployment 14
12
12
10 9
9 8
8
7
Series1
6
6 5 4
3 2
2
0 not known
< 6 month
7-12 month
1-2 years
3-4 years
5-10 years
Figure 6.5
31
> 15 years
never had a job
currently working
Ethnic Minorities - Aspired Job 16 14
14
14
12
11
10 8
7
Series1
7
6 4
4
3
2
1
ne ou s
hi ng
ed /
M
is
ce lla
An yt
sk ill ed
m an no n-
hi gh
ua l
ua l ed / sk ill
sk ill
um
ed iu m
ed i
m
m
lo w
sk ill ed /
no nm
m an
an ua l
ua l m an sk ill ed / lo w
N
on e/ n
ot
pr ov i
de d
0
Figure 6.6 6.5 For the BME group the main barriers to finding work as identified in their responses to the semi-structured questions numbered 17 -“Is there anything preventing you from finding work at the moment?) and 21 –“What changes in your circumstances would there have to be to enable you to find work?” were a lack of qualifications followed by childcare issues. These are shown in figure 6.7 as percentages of the responses given by the BME’s that replied. Interestingly, language did not appear in the top four reasons given by the overall sample, but did appear in a number of cases in response to an earlier question that asked if there was anything preventing them finding work. Language, wearing the hajib and in one case ‘because of my beard’ were examples. However, these were not widespread comments. Ethnic Minorities - Barriers to Finding Work?
18 16 14 12 10 Q. 17
8
Q. 21 6 4 2 Q. 21
0 Qualification
Q. 17
Childcare Health Transport
Figure 6.7 32
6.6 A sub category of the BME’s were the migrant worker group and these consisted of thirteen responses with twelve unemployed. There were eight females and five males in this group and all were resident in SOA areas. 6.7 The migrant worker group was identified by period of residence in the country recent residence being the main indicator. To all intents and purposes this group were eastern European migrant workers. Details of this group are outlined in figures 6.8 – 6.13. 6.8 There was one incident of racism reported that effected these responses (see appendix d). One group of Polish workers who had agreed to be interviewed as part of the programme were subject to a racist incident and did not turn up for interview having gone to ground. One other incident of racism was reported on the West Marsh during the stakeholder interviews indicating some perceived tensions in the area. Migrant Worker - Employment Status
1
Employed Not working/looking
12
Figure 6.8
33
Migrant Worker - SOA Distribution
Hainton, Hennege
East Marsh Fr.St.
West Marsh
Series1
East Marsh GT
Nunsthorpe
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Figure 6.9
Migrant Worker - Agency
Community Regeneration
2
GIFHE Diversity
7
Harbour Place
Series1
4
0
1
2
3
4
Figure 6.10
34
5
6
7
8
Migrant Worker - Qualification Level 8 7
7
6
5
4
Series1
3
2
1
1
1
Level 1
Level 2
2
2
Level 4
Other
0 No Qualification
Figure 6.11 Migrant Worker - Duration of Unemployment 3.5
3
3
3
2.5
2
2
2
2 Series1
1.5
1
1
0.5
0 not known
< 6 month
7-12 month
1-2 years
Figure 6.12
35
5-10 years
never had a job
Migrant Worker - Aspired Job 4.5 4
4
3.5 3
3
3
2.5
2
Series1
2
1.5 1
1
0.5
0 low skilled/manual
low skilled/non-manual medium skilled/manual
medium skilled/nonmanual
Anything
Figure 6.13 6.9 The migrant worker group include the more recent arrivals from Eastern Europe and do not appear to stress language as a problem. The main barriers perceived by them are issues to do with getting a work permit, a national insurance number and other legal issues. However, they were a very small group and clearly one that could be researched in more detail given the current uncertainties about the accuracies of national statistics about these groups.
36
SECTION SEVEN: INCAPACITY BENEFITS
7.0 There were thirty eight respondents on incapacity benefit, twenty three male, twelve female with three not providing details (figure 7.0). Of these eight were over 50 with the majority being between the ages of 21 – 39 (figure 7.1). 7.1 Twenty four of the incapacity group were from SOA’s (figure 7.2) and most were accessed through three agencies: Community Chest, Harbour Place and Second Avenue Resource Centre (all in the voluntary/community sector – see figure 7.3). 7.2 The majority have no qualifications and, of the rest, only three were identified as having level three or above qualifications (figure 7.4). The breakdown of qualifications showed that twenty one had no qualifications and four had only entry level. This group clearly suffered from low levels of formal qualification hindering their job opportunities. In term of their employment status thirty seven were unemployed with over half of the respondents not looking for work and one in the category other (figure 7.5). we should bear in mind the methodological issue that they may not be clear as to what the various levels represent there is nevertheless a clear concentration in the lower skill category. 7.3 Most of the incapacity benefit group were White British (32), with one White Irish and two Asian/ British Bangladeshi’s (Figure 7.6). 7.4 Of those who indicated they were looking for work, the majority of jobs aspired to were roughly equally split between low-skilled and medium-skilled jobs (figure 7. 7) 7.5 Twenty had been on benefit for over three years and six had never had a job (figure 7.8). 7.6 Of the whole set of questionnaire responses (316), fifty six claimed they were not looking for work, therefore the incapacity benefit response constituted almost a third of that group who were not looking for work.
37
Incapacity - Gender Distribution
3
12 Male Female Unknown
23
Figure 7.0 Incapacity - Age Distribution 16 14
14
12
11
10 8
8
6
5
4
2
0 21-29
30-39
40-49
Figure 7.1
38
50-59
Series1
Incapacity - SOA Distribution
No Postcode provided
1 3
Hainton, Hennege East Marsh Fr.St.
5
West Marsh Mac.
1
West Marsh
1
Clee NTH
1
Series1
Clee SF
2
East Marsh GT
3
Grange
1
Nunsthorpe
6
No SOA
14 0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Figure 7.2 Incapacity - Agency
West Marsh Development Trust
1
Open Door
1
Cummunity Regeneration
3
Second Avenue
7
GIFHE Diversity
3
Series1
Community Chest
12
N.E. Lincs. Council
3
Learning Shop
1
Harbour Place
7 0
2
4
6
Figure 7.3
39
8
10
12
14
Incapacity - Qualification Level 25
21 20
15 Series1 10
5
4 3 2
3
3
Level 3
Other
2
0 not known
No Qualification
Entry Level
Level 1
Level 2
Figure 7.4 Incapacity - Employment Status
1
18 Not working/looking Not working/not looking Other 19
Figure 7.5
40
Incapcity - Ethnicities
White Irish
1
Asian/Asian BritishBangladeshi
2
Series1
White British
32
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Figure 7.6 Incapacity - Aspired Job 18 16
16 14 12 10
9
Series1
8
8 6 4 2
1
1
1
1
1
41
ne ou s M
is
ce lla
hi ng An yt
sk ill ed
m an no ned / sk ill
um ed i
m
ed
m
Figure 7.7
hi gh
ua l
ua l m an sk ill
iu m
ill ed / lo w
sk
sk lo w
ed /
no nm
m an ill ed /
pr ov i ot on e/ n N
an ua l
ua l
de d
0
Incapacity - Duration of Unemployment 10 9
9 8
8
8
7 6
6 5
Series1
4 3
3 2
2 1
1
1
0 < 6 month
7-12 month
1-2 years
3-4 years
5-10 years
11-14 years
15 and more years
never had a job
Figure 7.8 7.7 The main issue raised by this group in their questionnaires were unsurprisingly health related issues (identified by approximately 35% in answer to question 17 and 32% in answer to question 21). 7.8 This was followed by lack of qualifications but only by a small number of cases. Figure 7.9 outlines the response of the incapacity group to questions 17 and 21. Incapacity - Barriers to Finding Work?
40 35 30 25 20 Q. 17 Q. 21
15 10 5 Q. 21
0 Qualification
Q. 17
Childcare Health Transport
Figure 7.9 7.9 This could probably be split into mental health problems, long term health issues and transitional problems. As shown in figure 7.8 however, only four had been
42
unemployed less than a year and eight for up to two years suggesting most are long term problems. 7.10 An NVIVO8 search of the responses the incapacity group gave to the questionnaire indicated that mental disability was present in six cased, disabilities acquired through lifestyle in four cases, physical disabilities in nine cases, one with an innate disability was referred to with two making claims they had permanent disabilities and four that they had a temporary disability. 7.11 NVIVO8 also revealed that ten would need medical help to get them into work, three would prefer job experience/tasters, and ten made statements that could only be described as a fatalistic recognition that they would never work. 7.12 Stakeholder interviews that made explicit references to incapacity and disability issues were mainly related to housing. Other implicit references indicating that lifestyle was a cause of disability was found among the ex-offender and homeless groups and these will be dealt with in those sections of the report.
43
SECTION EIGHT: OVER 50’s
8.0 There were thirty five respondents who were over 50, most of whom were in the 50 – 59 age range and with two over 60 (figure 8.0), with seventeen male, sixteen female and with two instance in which gender was not provided. 8.1 Twenty resided in SOA’s (figure 8.1) and most were accessed through one agency (Community Chest), with ten respondents with the rest fairly evenly spread throughout the other stakeholder agencies (figure 8.2). 8.2 Of the thirty one who were unemployed twenty were looking for work and eleven were not looking for work (figure 8.3). 8.3 In terms of qualifications seventeen had no qualifications and only four were identified as having qualifications at level three and above (figure 8.4) with the rest below level two. However, these figures should be treated with caution as it became clear during data analysis that many respondents including the over 50’s did not have a consistent understanding of what the different levels of qualifications may have meant.
Over 50's - Age Distribution 35 32 30
25
20 Series1 15
10
5 2 0 50-59
60 and more
Figure 8.0
44
Over 50's - SOA Distribution East Marsh Fr.St.
1
West Marsh Mac.
1
West Marsh
1
Clee NTH
2
Clee SF
3 2
Willows
Series1 East Marsh GT
3
Yarborough
1
Grange
1
Nunsthorpe
5
Immingham
1
No SOA
14 0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Figure 8.1 Over 50's - Agency
West Marsh Development Trust
2
Open Door
1
St. Hugh's Community
1
Cummunity Regeneration
3
Second Avenue
3 Series1 2
GIFHE Access to HE GIFHE Diversity
6
Community Chest
10
N.E. Lincs. Council
5
Learn Direct
2 0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Figure 8.2
8.4 Approximately one third had no aspirations for a job with a further one third seeking low skilled manual work (figure 8.5) 8.5 There were seventeen male, sixteen female and with two instances in which gender was not provided. Of the overall thirty five respondents two had no dependants, seven had one dependant and one had two.
45
Over 50's - Employment Status
2 2
11
Employed Educatin/Training Not working/looking Not working/not looking
20
Figure 8.3
Over 50's - Qualification Level 18
17
16
14
12
10 Series1 8
6 4
4
2
4
4
2
2
Level 3
Level 4
1
0 not known
No Qualification
Entry Level
Level 1
Level 2
Figure 8.4
8.6 Eleven were classified as owner occupiers, eight were in social housing and nine were in private rental with a further two living with family. 8.7 The duration of unemployment figures showed that six had been unemployed for over fifteen years or more, one had never had a job, five for five to ten years
46
unemployed, another five unemployed for three to four years, five for one to two years and a further five for seven to twelve months and two for less than six months. One respondent was working. 8.8 There were 28 who were White British with 5 British Bangladeshi and 1 White Irish. Over 50's - Aspired Job 12
11
10
8 6
6
Series1
5 4
4
4
2
2
2 1
ne ou s is
ce lla
hi ng An yt
m
ed
m
iu m
sk ill
M
ed /
sk ill ed
m an no n-
ed / sk ill ed iu m
hi gh
ua l
ua l m an
an ua l no nm
lo w
sk ill ed /
sk lo w
N
on e/ n
ot
ill ed /
pr ov i
m an
ua l
de d
0
Figure 8.5
8.9 The main issue that the over 50 group claimed as being barriers to finding work in their questionnaire responses (based upon questions 17 and 21) was health with 26% answering that it was an impediment in question 17 and 20% in question 21 (see figure 8.6). 8.10 This was followed by a lack of qualifications with approximately 17% of responses to question 17 and approximately 15% in question 21. The next most significant factor was transport with just under 12% of responses. 8.11 The over 50’s group did not make any noticeable references to age as itself being a barrier to getting work.
47
Over 50's - Bariers to Finding Work?
30
25
20
15 Q. 17 Q. 21 10
5
Q. 21
0 Qualification
Q. 17
Childcare Health Transport
Figure 8.6
48
SECTION NINE: HOMELESS
9.0 There were eighteen of the 316 responses identified as homeless, fifteen of whom were male and three female. In fifteen cases the respondents were between the ages of 21 – 39 with two over forty with only one under twenty. The homeless group were predominantly accessed through one centre (Harbour Place). In subsequent stakeholder interviews two other significant homeless groups were identified. One was the young homeless and another was a group of abused women living in a purpose built centre. Homeless - Age Distribution 9 8
8 7
7
6
5 Series1 4
3 2
2
1
1
0 under 20
21-29
30-39
40-49
Figure 9.0 9.1 Out of the eighteen homeless in the group identified in the questionnaire responses, a total of eight were out of work and looking for work, nine were out of work and not looking for work and one fell in the category of other.
49
Homeless - Employment Status
1
8 Not working/looking Not working/not looking Other
9
Figure 9.1 9.2 Qualifications levels among this homeless group were low with eleven having no qualifications, two with entry level only and three level two. One fell into the category of other. Homeless - Qualification Level 12 11
10
8
6
Series1
4 3 2
2
1
1
0 No Qualification
Entry Level
Level 1
Level 2
Other
Figure 9.2 9.3 The group was predominantly from one agency (14), a centre for the homeless based on Freeman Street dealing with a larger and older homeless group who arguably be more difficult to help. Two other agencies both in the voluntary/community sectors made up the remainder. Stakeholder interviews provided additional information about the problems this group had.
50
9.4 Only one of the homeless group identified were not White British, with one African-Caribbean. However, it became apparent that migrant workers also accessed these services of some agencies in the course of the research and that these are arguably the most difficult to reach and understand given the relevant recent changes to UK and EU law concerning the status of workers from the EU. In particular the national statistical base is widely regarded to be inaccurate in terms of identifying this group and in need of improvement. Some racist issues that occurred in the course of this research also impacted on the ability to interview some of these workers (see appendix d). 9.5 Thirteen of the homeless group had been unemployed for more than a year with two never having had a job, of these six had been unemployed for three years or more.
Homeless - Duration of Unemployment 6
5
5
4
3
3
3
3
2
2
1
Series1
1
1
0 not known
< 6 month
7-12 month
1-2 years
3-4 years
5-10 years
never had a job
Figure 9.3 9.6 In term of the aspirations of the homeless group they mainly sought low skilled jobs or anything in the case of four and in eight cases there were no answers provided possibly because they were not looking for work (figure 9.4).
51
Homeless - Aspired Job 9
8
8
7
6 5
5
4
4
Series1
3
2 1
1
0 None/not provided
low skilled/manual
medium skilled/manual
Anything
Figure 9.4 9.7 This homeless group identified health problems and the need for security from threat to their own security as their major concerns when an NVIVO8 search was made of the questionnaire responses. Indeed, it appeared that given the frequent comments from stakeholder interviews that this group were subject to chaotic lifestyles and complex historical issues to do with issues that in some cases were quite difficult. One stakeholder interview reported that the administration of questionnaires amongst this group had been far more time consuming than had been initially considered with many respondents using the interview as a means of dealing with unresolved problems in their own lives, many of which were extremely complex and in some cases distressing.
9.8 The homeless group identified health as the main issues that concerned them with just fewer than 17% replying with this response to both question 17 and 21. Other responses from the semi-structured part of the questionnaire seemed to indicate that it was security that was desired by the homeless group and that health issues related largely to drug, alcohol and substance abuse. It was fairly obvious from the stakeholder interviews that this group were perhaps and arguably the most difficult to help. The reference to security appeared to refer to a number of extremely threatening situations that many of them had experienced for a range of reasons. The lack of a home is obviously a basic need for most human beings. Child abuse or neglect in the past of some of the responses reported by at least one stakeholder interviewee appeared to be a recurrent pattern.
52
Homeless - Barriers to Finding Work
18 16 14 12 10 Q. 17
8
Q. 21 6 4 2 Q. 21
0 Qualification
Q. 17
Childcare Health Transport
Figure 9.5 9.9 This group did not mention qualifications as an issue and it appears that they often did not see that they had a problem related to behaviour or in dealing with what was referred to by more than one stakeholder informant as ‘chaotic lifestyles’. 9.10 Subsequent stakeholder interviews identified housing as a cross-cutting issue and it was mentioned with the specific needs of the young homeless (not a group who appeared in the questionnaires, abused women (again not a group that appeared in the questionnaires) and ex-offenders (a group some of which were identified through methodological triangulation within the questionnaires). 9.11 For the young homeless group the lead researcher was informed that the main problems identified were the high cost of hostel accommodation and the need to subsidise rents to ensure that these youngsters could be accommodated realistically: this was not available according to the information given to the lead researcher for much of the hostel accommodation available. It was not feasible to check this claim in the time-frame of the research but could be an area for further investigation. Another issue was that this younger homeless group did not always know how to get information. This links in to issues about the effectiveness of multi-agency working for solving the problem of worklessness in North East Lincolnshire and in particular in the SOA areas identified through this research. 9.12 For the abused women the problem was that they often had to stay in purposebased accommodation longer than either they or the centres would like because of the problems of getting housing. Stakeholder interviews suggested that enhanced multiagency working might be able to begin to address this issue. Throughout the stakeholder interviews housing problems were a constant concern. 9.13 For the older homeless group identified in the questionnaires, and largely through one centre for the homeless based at Harbour Place, it was their past history,
53
chaotic lifestyles and substance and alcohol abuse that was the problem. Indeed the problem appeared to be, according to the stakeholder interviews, that this homeless group did not seem to think they had a problem. This perception would clearly not get them a job if, indeed, they do have a problem. 9.14 Obviously there is more than one category of ‘homeless’ and any interventions would have to be tailored to meet these inter-group differences as each group has different problems and situational factors to deal with. However, this group appears to be predominantly subject to problems with drugs, alcohol, mental health and related issues. This is largely a response to the groups that were accessed through participating stakeholder organisations but reveals a fundamental issue that would have to be addressed if interventions were being designed and implemented to deal with the identified problems: simply some of them cannot be helped. The groups that might be are the younger homeless group, the abused women group and those that are in a transitional phase in their own lives through no fault of their own.
54
SECTION TEN: EX-OFFENDER GROUP 10.0 There were sixteen ex-offenders identified among the questionnaire responses. Of these two were not on benefit, six were on job seekers allowance, one was on job seekers allowance plus other benefits, another three were on incapacity benefit and four came under the category other benefits, twelve were male and four were female. Twelve had no dependants, three had one dependant and one had a single dependent. 10.2 The most significant factor about this group from a methodological point of view was that it was possible to identify those ex-offenders that had not declared themselves directly as ex-offenders in the main questionnaire indirectly through cross checking the NVIVO8 data for a word count that mentioned items such as exoffenders, probation or related words. This helped identify the sixteen ex-offenders. 10.2 Thus it was probably one of the strengths of the qualitative approach adopted here that it was possible to identify these groups because they would be unlikely to self declare in response to a question such as are you an ex-offender? Most inferences in this section, therefore, drew heavily on stakeholder interviews. 10.2 Among the ex-offender group identified three were in social housing, five had a private landlord, three were living with family, two were in temporary accommodation and three were homeless. All were not in work and twelve were looking for work with four not looking for work. 10.3 Two had never had a job. One had been unemployed less than six months and the majority had been out of work from one to two years (five), three to four years (five) and five to ten years (three). This group is an entrenched workless group. 10.4 Six of them had no qualifications, one was at entry level, a further four were at level one, one was at level two, two at level three and one came into the category other. Fourteen were White British, one was White other and one was mixed/White and Black Caribbean. The pattern that emerges from this data is a group that if the responses were accurate the problem most of them had was that they did not possess the skills irrespective of the past history they have of ex-offenders. 10.5 The ex-offender group is obviously a ‘hard to reach’ group often with stakeholder interviewers reporting problems related to drugs, alcohol and substance abuse. A key issue mentioned in stakeholder interviews with probation was the difficulties in arranging housing for ex-offenders thus complicating any job search and the high likelihood of re-offending.
55
Ex-offender - Gender Distribution
4
Male Female
12
Figure 10.0
Ex - offender - Age Distribution 8 7
7
6
5 4
4
30-39
40-49
4
3
2
1
1
0 under 20
21-29
Figure 10.1
56
Series1
Ex - offender - SOA Distribution
East Marsh Fr.St.
6
West Marsh Mac.
2
Clee NTH
1
Series1
Nunsthorpe
2
No SOA
5
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Figure 10.2
Ex - offender - Agency
St. Hugh's Community
1
Cummunity Regeneration
2
Community Chest
1 Series1 1
N.E. Lincs. Council
5
Learning Shop
6
Harbour Place
0
1
2
3
Figure 10.3
57
4
5
6
7
Ex - offender - Employment Status
4
Not working/looking Not working/not looking
12
Figure 10.4
Ex - offender - Qualification Level
1
1
2
1
not known No Qualification Entry Level Level 1 6
Level 2 Level 3 Other
4 1
Figure 10.5
58
Ex - offender - Housing Situation
3
3
Social Housing Privat land lord Living with family Temp. accommodation
2
Homeless
5 3
Figure 10.6
Ex - offender - Duration of Unemployment 6
5
5
5
4
3
3
2
2
1
Series1
1
0 < 6 month
1-2 years
3-4 years
Figure 10.7
59
5-10 years
never had a job
Ex - offender - Aspired Job 6
5
5
4
4
4
3
Series1
2
1
1
1
1
0
0 None/not provided
low skilled/manual
low skilled/nonmanual
medium skilled/manual
medium skilled/nonmanual
high skilled
Anything
Figure 10.8
10.6 The ‘ex-offender group’ showed no clearly identifiable pattern in identifying barriers to work in questions 17 and 21 with a very small number of specific responses to both questions. However, low qualifications appeared to be a problem identified elsewhere. 10.7 It may well be that the ex offender group overlaps with the homeless group, too. Interviews with stakeholders suggested many of the homeless groups had records.
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SECTION ELEVEN: ISSUES BARRIERS SECTION
11.0 This section analyses the issues and barriers that were identified in the research inasmuch as they affect the client group in the opinion of stakeholder agencies who deal with them. 11.1 The questionnaire responses indicated that the most frequent barriers to entering work were childcare, low qualifications, transport and health. In situations where they impacted more on one group compared to the others these issues were dealt with in the previous sections: for example childcare for the lone parent group. The stakeholder interviews revealed a number of similar barriers plus some additional ones including funding and benefit related issues. 11.1 Therefore during the stakeholder interviews a number of themes that crossed over with the questionnaire responses emerged complementing the client’s responses and these were expanded upon from the stakeholder’s perspectives. Others that were designed to tap into the local knowledge and expertise of the stakeholder organisations and that the questionnaire did not explore were investigated further during the semi-structured taped interviews. 11.2 A few were identified in advance of the interview for investigation. Others emerged during the interviews. Those ones identified in advance for investigation in the semi-structured stakeholder interviews included: an overview of the nature of the agencies typical client group; some examples of successful and unsuccessful initiatives for getting people into work; the effectiveness or otherwise of multi-agency working and partnerships in the area for dealing with the workless issue; the characteristics and dynamics of the stakeholders perception of the barriers and causes of worklessness in the area; the impact of employer attitudes; and finally any local factors which were considered pertinent to understanding the nature of worklessness in North East Lincolnshire. 11.3 The responses to the questionnaire identified a number of barriers to finding work and these were compared against the twelve responses given by managers in the stakeholder interviews for consistency and points of disagreement. The following concrete barriers figured most frequently in the overall responses in the questionnaire returns.
Childcare issues low levels of qualifications held transport health issues
11.4 The salience of these factors would obviously vary according to the client group and specific examples have been given of those groups who claim to be subject to specific barriers in the previous sections. The responses of stakeholders are considered below:
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11.5 The stakeholder interviews revealed the most significant factors to be the low levels of aspirations found among the client groups, their low level of education and qualifications, issues related to confidence and basic skill, transport problems, issues with the benefits system and short term funding cycles, engaging with employers and the prevalence of low skilled jobs and agency work in the area and a divided view of the efficacy of partnership working in dealing with worklessness. This latter point was highly polarised with the majority, mostly in the voluntary sector claiming partnership working was not really effective, and the minority, representatives of the larger statutory sector claiming that it was good. There was also a constant reference to the cultural and generational transmission of worklessness, often premised by a reference to the decline of the fishing industry. The main client group that each agency would typically deal with is outlined below. 11.6 A selection of the main stakeholders interviewed and shown below told the interviewer that they dealt with the following typical and representative client groups, with some dealing with more than one group and in some cases all of them (JCP).
Lone parents (e.g., Job Centre Plus, SARC, West Marsh CC, ) Ex-offenders (e.g., Harbour Place, Probation, JCP) The Homeless (e.g., Harbour Place, Doorstep, Shoreline, Women’s Aid) The over 50’s (e.g., JCP, Community Chest, West Marsh Community Centre,) Those on incapacity benefit.(e.g., Community Chest, JCP, SARC, ) BME’s (no stakeholder interviews - accessed through questionnaire responses)
11.7 There were no stakeholder interviews with representative BME groups arranged or carried out due to difficulties in arranging these. However, a high proportion of the three hundred and sixteen questionnaire responses received came from the BME group at almost 20% of the responses. Consequently the BME group, which according to official statistics represents 2.5% of the population of North East Lincolnshire (and 13% of the British national figure) had a comparatively high response rate within the parameters of the highly localised research project conducted here. 11.8 Barriers to finding work were provided by all respondents in response to prompts during the interviews. The most common response was to refer to it being a low aspiration area. Such attitudinal factors are, of course, difficult to quantify, but it was one of the most striking feature about the interviews and a source of almost complete agreement. Other barriers frequently mentioned in stakeholder interviews are outlined in table 11.0. 11.1. At the training day for interviewers, an exercise was conducted on identifying barriers to finding work and these can be found in appendix c. Again they reveal some degree of agreement. In the perceptions of stakeholders the barriers to finding work are not only objective, such as labour market supply and demand factors, low levels of qualifications or a mismatch of skills, but subjective, attitudinal and deeply entrenched. 11.9 These are targeted subjective groups chosen thematically and do not represent a statistical random sample. They aim to tap into local expertise; detailed knowledge and local awareness of inter agency collaboration and act as a conduit to give local residents a voice (the partners having designed the questionnaires collaboratively). 62
Interview No (semi structured)
Barrier no 1
Barrier no 2
Barrier no 3
1 2
Childcare Low aspirations (especially young women) Lack of occupational skills Childcare Benefits trap Transport Accommodation Low level jobs available Criminal record
Benefit Trap Type of jobs available/low wages Lack of basic skills Low aspirations/confidence Childcare Low motivation No recordable work history Hidden economy Lack of confidence/motivation
Cash in hand Loss of fishing industry
Benefit system Personal aspirations (generational) Low skills
Low qualifications Lack of quality jobs -agencies
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Aspirations/confidence
Benefit trap Lack of skills Transport Skills Drugs Prevalence of agency work Insecurity of agency working Homelessness Failure to take up available support Type of job available
Table 11.0 11.9 Examples of successful and unsuccessful initiatives are given in table 11.1. Some of these examples are highly specific to individual agencies but in general the most successful initiatives according to respondents tended to link work experience or work taster initiatives with clients and did not come from formal training roots outside of work to the same extent. The use of mentors or local peer models to build confidence occurs more than once and was linked to outreach work. Failures tended to relate to initiatives that were top down and inflexible or ones that were associated with shorttermism in the allocation of funding streams.
Work Initiatives
Successful initiatives
a b c d e f g
Work experience/Taster/Placement Painting/Decorating initiative New Deal Graduate Programme initiative/ILM’s Premises established (accessibility) Outreach Getting excluded young people into education Web site used for publicity NEETS initiative Providing computer skills/cv writing
h i j k l m n
Failed initiatives
o p q r s t u
E’g., top down Funding runs out (short cycles) NRF Young people and dealing with truancy New Deal E-Factor Short term funding initiatives
v w x
Funding: short termism New Deal Nothing failed just not as successful as would like
Docks training scheme Peer role models Renovating own housing CARE/Salvation Army (housing and work initiatives linked)
Table 11.1 11.10 The success or otherwise of multi-agency working is given in table 11.2. One of the most significant findings to come out of the research was that partnership was not considered to be effective by the majority of respondents and these responses were
63
polarised with the larger organisations having a more positive view of its effectiveness. Ranking of multiagency working Interview number
Poor 1
2
3
1 Statutory agency x (some 5-some 1)
3 Statutory agency
x 1 - 2 at most
5 Charity/Voluntary
x (–variable but often poor)
6 Charity/Voluntary
x
7 Charity/Voluntary
x
8 Charity/Voluntary
x
9 Charity/Voluntary
x
10 Charity/Voluntary
x
11 Charity/Voluntary
x
12 Charity/Voluntary
Excellent 5
x (good)
2 Statutory agency 4 Private sector
4
Minus 3
Table 11.2
11.11 Low aspirations. This is a constantly recurring theme throughout the interviews with stakeholders. It was claimed by stakeholder agencies that the workless clients in the area have low aspirations. However, how such a claim could be assessed or compared to other areas in the country that have or do not have high aspirations is a difficult methodological problem. Nevertheless it was mentioned by virtually all the stakeholder agencies interviewed. The perception was that some workless groups do not have high aspirations in North East Lincolnshire, are insular and that they largely seek low level skilled jobs. The questionnaire responses confirmed that the majority of respondents were seeking low skilled jobs but this could be an accurate reflection of their actual skills and qualifications level and marketability for employers. The issue about whether aspirations were ‘realistic’ or not given the skills and qualification levels of respondents and the match of supply and demand in the local labour market was addressed by triangulating the responses of interviewees from the stakeholder agencies and the questionnaire responses. In general it was considered that aspirations were ‘realistic’ by those stakeholder interviewees were the issue was raised. The preference for low skilled jobs may be a realistic assessment of the opportunities in the local labour market and national statistics tend to confirm that the area is below the national level for educational qualifications and that there is an imbalance towards lower skilled jobs in the local labour market. Several stakeholder interviewees referred to the type of jobs available (usually as not desirable) and the low wages paid as a ‘cause’ of worklessness. 11.12 In one attempt to assess the level of aspirations that workless client groups had for gaining work questionnaire responses were based on the type of jobs that the workless groups were seeking and they were categorised into three main categories. These were low skilled, medium skilled and high skilled and were further sub divided into manual and non manual jobs. Thus Question 21 asked ‘What changes in your
64
circumstances would there have to be to enable you to find work?’ Deciding which of the answers could reasonably be categorises into low-skilled (manual and nonmanual - 136), medium skilled (manual and non-manual -70) and high-skilled (15) was done collectively by the research team to alleviate possible individual biases in interpretation. Clearly job aspirations veered towards the low skilled or towards being willing to do anything (24) according to figure 11.1 Overall Sample - Aspired Job 80
76
70 60
60 52
49
50 40
Series1
30
24
21
19
20
15
10
ne ou s is
ce lla
hi ng An yt
m
ed
m
iu m
sk ill
M
ed /
sk ill ed
m an no n-
ed / sk ill ed iu m
hi gh
ua l
ua l m an
an ua l no nm
lo w
sk ill ed /
sk lo w
N
on e/ n
ot
ill ed /
pr ov i
m an
ua l
de d
0
Figure 11.0 11.13 The benefit system and the insecurity of short cycle or fixed term funding for initiatives was frequently mentioned by stakeholder organisations as a problem in assisting the workless back in to work. However, it was the security of work that was the issue and predictability and stability of work that seemed to be the main factor being emphasised. Several of the stakeholder interviews referred to the dysfunctions of the benefit cycle and short term initiatives that they considered were not sustainable. In a minority of cases there was evidence of a benefit trap but several agencies had mechanisms in place to show how claimants were better off in work rather than benefit.
11.14 The decline of the fishing industry was constantly mentioned. This had provided some 3,000 unskilled jobs without a perceived need to study for formal education and training in the past. These jobs are no longer there in the same numbers. But jobs in the fishing industry surely cannot account for the increasing opportunities for women in the area that in the past would not have worked in the fishing industry, albeit in low paid service sector and stereotypically gendered jobs. To some extent this may appear to be somewhat of a rationalisation for the current problems of the workless. The collapse of the fishing industry took place some thirty years ago.
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11.15 It is claimed that the low level of skills and the low level of education in the area breeds a lack of confidence. This is clearly substantiated by the educational and training statistics that do show that the area is underperforming in terms of education levels compared to the rest of the country. Indeed, one of the areas, the Nunsthorpe, is amongst the worst in the country in terms of educational achievement. 11.16 Employer attitudes. The quality of the jobs and the prevalence of agency working and low wages cannot be divorced from understanding the employer attitudes to workless groups and their willingness to engage with them. Stakeholder agencies identified an ‘ideal employer’ rather than a real world employer in quite a few responses. For example one voluntary agency for the young homeless talked of trying to tap into initiatives launched by church groups with similar sets of values to themselves. The claim was that employment might be found in such cases. Yet on prompting further it was clear that such employers were in a minority although ‘surely’ they were out there. 11.18 Local factors. The relative geographical isolation of North East Lincolnshire without a large concentration of population centres nearby within reasonable travelling distance to work suggests that any solutions to the problems of worklessness will have to come from within. The perception of the role of a declining fishing industry is prevalent as is the viewed that some areas have three generations of the unemployed. 11.19 The local informal and black economies are claimed to be significant sources of alternative income and identity. However, there is little substantial or credible evidence that could be located that would stand up to independent scrutiny that could be substantiated beyond the anecdotal. ISSUES AND BARRIERS FOR THE SIX TARGETTED GROUPS 11.20 The barriers to work for the six targeted groups identified in the research were different for each and the interaction of different factors was complex. Moreover it was possible for groups to have multiple and overlapping identities: eg., one could be homeless and on incapacity benefit. The following section briefly reprises the main barriers for each target group without revisiting in detail points that have already been made in the individual sections 5 – 10 in which they were dealt with. 11.20 Lone Parents. The childcare issue was mention by the majority of the lone parent group in their questionnaire responses. For them childcare needs to be convenient, accessible, reliable and affordable. The focus group with a group of lone parents referred to the problems of formal childcare and a preference for a more informal set up perhaps through integrating family and friends and paying them. Location, cost and safety were prime concerns but paying family and friends may no be a realistic option. Childcare was a common issue raised in stakeholder interviews. 11.21 Transport did not appear to be a major issue for this group and this suggests that their aspirations were highly localised: i.e., they wanted a job on their doorstep. 11.22 Confidence was an issue that came up in the stakeholder interviews and was related to a range of issues. The confidence in having the appropriate skills and
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qualifications was one aspect; confidence in dealing with formal agencies another. Formal provision of education and training and of job search help and information through formal agencies was seen by a significant number of the lone parent respondents as intimidating. Similarly large educational providers got a mixed reception with respondents clearly being aware of who the largest providers were but in many cases lacking the confidence to step into the doors of the providers. What was very clear is that they wanted provision in their own communities, Highly formalised qualifications were mentioned by many stakeholder interviewees as not always appropriate for their client groups who were lacking in confidence and needed to gain work based experience. Too much formality appeared off putting to this lone parent group which suggests that the ambience and attitude of staff is highly significant. 11.23 Job search and job matching according to the overall questionnaire responses were largely through the internet, newspapers or family and friends. Relatively few of the ‘lone parent’ group claimed to use Job Centre Plus as was the case in using the large educational providers (see table 4.0). Matching job vacancies with potential employees remains an issue to be addressed for this group. Newspapers and the internet were most widely used forms of job search. 11.24 Although a relatively low skilled group the aspiration to gain qualification seemed to be related to lifecycle with future plans dependant on childcare related issues. A significant number of this group did have higher aspirations but for the future rather than the present. 11.25 The lone parent group were one of the few that appeared to be a relatively homogeneous group. 11.26 The BME group. The ethnic group response was relatively high at 61 responses out of the 316 returned questionnaires and as the official statistics show North East Lincolnshire as having 2.5% BME’s in its area that in itself is low compared with a national figure of 13.3%. Projected estimates suggest the BME figure is now slightly higher in North East Lincolnshire but these should be treated with caution due to questions about the reliability of statistics for migrant workers and immigration. 11.27 Language and Culture did come out high as a problem in the two main questions in the semi-structured questionnaire designed to identify barriers to finding work (questions 17 and 21) except with the Bangladeshi community Some of these mentioned language as a problem in one part of one sub section of the questionnaire which asked if their background had any impact on their ability to find work. However, it was not mentioned in the main sections which explored perceived barriers to finding work. 11.27 This was also the case with discrimination when a small number of mainly Bangladeshi referred to the wearing of the hajib or in one case the consequence of having a beard. 1.28 For the eastern European migrant sub set of the BME group the problem was more an issue of legal problems with work permits and national insurance numbers.
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Language was not identified as a significant issue in the questionnaire responses for this sub group. 11.29 Other issues such as health, childcare did not appear prevalent among the BME group. 11.30 The stakeholder interviews did not include a representative agency that dealt with these groups but where the issue of BME’s came up in the interviews that were conducted there was the occasional reference to racial tensions mainly with the new eastern European migrant workers in specific areas. One interview had to be cancelled because of a racist incident (see appendix xx) 11.31 The Over 50’s. The main problem for the over 50’s were health related issues according to the questionnaire responses. In broad terms they did not see age discrimination as an issue, or at least that did not appear as a common response in the questionnaire responses. The main involvement of some stakeholders with the over 50 group was in relation to volunteering. 11.32 The most significant issues for the over 50’s apart from health was related to low skills and having no qualifications or inappropriate or obsolete skills. These clearly put this group at a disadvantage in the context of local labour market changes. The recurrent refrain throughout many of the stakeholder interviews was the importance of the decline of the fishing industry and the massive impact that had had on the town. 11.33 There is clearly a need for retraining for many of this group where health is not a problem and there appears to be a more serious problem with male over 50’s than women whose inactivity in the labour market was more likely to be related to carer responsibilities. 11.34 This group are likely to be significantly more important than in the past for making up the demographic shortfall that is the consequence of the ‘greying of the UK economy’. In common with other advanced countries the fall in the number of younger workers entering the labour market and the need to replace the shortfall is likely to fall to some extent on them especially since the increasing longevity of the population means that not only are people living longer but they are in terms of experience and attitude a dwindling asset. INCAPACITY BENEFITS 11.35 Incapacity Benefits. For those on incapacity benefits the prime problems are health related, too: physical, mental and those sometimes related to lifestyle. Incapacity can be permanent or temporary, physical or mental or can be the consequence of discrimination among employers of disabled workers. This was clearly a group that needed to be handled sensitively. 11.36 Issues about discrimination were not explicitly mentioned in the stakeholder interviews.
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11.37 The ex-offender group. These were identified through methodological triangulation and their problems were often linked to substance abuse. Having a record that employers used as a means of excluding them from entry into the workplace was frequently raised as the main barrier to finding work. One of the strengths of the methodology adopted in this research was that it was possible to identify these groups through cross checking responses. Stakeholder interviews with relevant agencies indicated that the risk of re offending was sometimes high with this group and that the success rate for finding work was not great. Employer discrimination did seem to be an issue with this group for most stakeholders. 11.37 The homeless. This was a persistent problem and a theme that effected a number of the other targeted groups in the research although only eighteen of the responses were from the homeless and most of these were from one centre stakeholder interviews revealed problems in housing the young, some women’s groups, ex-offenders and those with disabilities and mental health problems. Communication and coordination between agencies was perceived as a problem by several of the agencies. Indeed this was the dominant theme that cut across the majority of stakeholder interviews. Housing was possibly the most difficult area in terms of partnership working identified during the course of the research. 11.38 The need for safety and security among the homelessness was another issue to emerge from the questionnaire responses of the homeless group apart from the issues already mentioned. Several references were made to chaotic lifestyles where even the permanent was temporary. The homeless suffered multiple forms of deprivation. PARTNERSHIP AND MULTI-AGENCY WORKING 11.39 The issue of how effective partnership working was in North East Lincolnshire was one of the two main research questions and threw up some interesting results. From the stakeholder interviews, during which they were each asked to rate how well partnership working operated in North East Lincolnshire, the responses were polarised. For the larger statutory organisations the response was generally favourable ranking the effectiveness of partnership working on a scale of 0 -5 as good or four and above. Two rated it at three or above or when it was not clear that they wished to give a score indicated it as good. Overall there were clearly some tensions in evidence especially as far as the smaller voluntary organisations were concerned. 11.40 The majority of representative stakeholder organisations and agencies (two thirds) of the respondents indicated that multi-agency working in North East Lincolnshire was poor or unsatisfactory most ranking it at two or below or through qualified comments in response to the question. One referred to it as being abysmal and scored it at minus three. Although the last respondent’s comments were not necessarily typical most stakeholder interviewees considered partnership working in North East Lincolnshire to be less than satisfactory. There was no doubt there was a mismatch here in perceptions even given the different interests of the groups being interviewed. Clearly some claims being made did not have universal agreement. However, in general the importance of partnership working in an ideal world was emphasised. For example, as one stakeholder interviewee said:
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“....but without partnerships; there is no point in everybody working in their own little chimney because if you do, you’ve all got your own little pot of money which will have limited success, because it’s a little pot of money, but if everybody who has a pot of money comes to the table and agrees to work in partnership, then that little pot of money can go a lot further and achieve a lot more, especially if we’re all having our little pot of money that’s aimed at the same customer. It’s much more effective to put all our resources together to work for that customer and that’s why I see partnership working as being essential.” (Statutory organisation) This respondent was the most positive about partnership working describing multiagency working as follows: “… I would see it as a very, very good 4 and as I say, the only thing that would stop it from being a 5 is the fact that sometimes people don’t know that we are there and what our purpose is..” (Statutory Organisation) 11.41 It may well be that the larger organisations are more able to share information across departments or functions because they have the same employer or that they are more familiar with partnership working. However, the community/charity sectors were virtually universal in giving a very different view and often one they made in an unqualified manner. In some cases they felt that although they were at the table they were a token presence. In others they felt partnerships structures had become too formal. “Interviewer. In terms of partnership working, how would you rate the effectiveness? Respondent: Zero – minus 1, minus 3, can we go any lower?! I don’t think people are aware that all the aims and objectives of the different organisations are pretty much the same: Health, improving health, reducing crime. Everyone has the same objectives.” (Non statutory organisation) “Interviewer: how would you rate multi-agency work through your organisation in this town? Respondent:… Gosh, abysmal ….. 2, then …. my fears is that organisations are recognising that they suddenly have to work with the community have to work with organisations like us who genuinely represent the community and my fear is that we could be used as a name on an application or project to demonstrate that you’ve been talked to and we have potentially, by doing it properly, by proper referral it will have huge impact working in proper partnership with organisations……There are some conventional ways that work around urban areas for building partnerships. They usually involve forums, flip charts, put post-it notes on the walls. I’d be interested in looking at “What do we mean by partnerships?” “How can we be innovative?” I’d hate an outcome of this be a forum. I think that would be a failure - A glossy document be produced……I look at it like building a house, get
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everyone together, identify what goals are, and see how you would work together. I don’t know what that means particularly, it may be that the people involved agreeing to spend half a day a week working in a third sector organisation and likewise us doing the same thing. (Charity/Voluntary sector) This comment was fairly typical voluntary/community sectors.
of
the
responses
received
from
the
11.42 There appears to be an issue of trust or a need to develop more effective cross organisational ways of working that cut across the different values, interests and goals of different organisations. Although these are based on perceptions it was one of the strongest findings to come out of the research. BARRIERS TO FINDING WORK 11.43 Each of the different six target groups faces different barriers to finding work and it is unlikely that a one model fits all approach could address this. Most of these specific barriers were outlined in sections five to ten. Here the key responses of those interviewed in the stakeholder organisations that have to deal with some of these client groups are addressed. 11.44 The general classification of the barriers associated with worklessness usually falls into a number of categories based on national research including individual factors, household factors, behavioural and attitudinal issues, policy related concerns and structural factors. These are well known factors found in the broader literature and in the context of research done into worklessnesss in other areas. 11.45 Structural factors are linked to local labour markets dynamics and are unlikely to be solvable at a highly localised level, although intermediary labour markets (ILM’s) may have had some success in other areas. Successful responses are likely to be at the very least regionally based or national. Some of these have been briefly outlined to provide some context for the current research reported here. However, this research has focussed largely on localised factors and on behavioural, attitudinal and situational factors that may be specific to the area. It has been primarily qualitative and has tried to capture local knowledge, expertise as well as the perceptions of those who are workless of their situation. 11.46 For that reason the main strength of the research is its stress on individual, local household structures, attitudinal and behavioural factors and client and stakeholder perception of the local institutional and hence policy environment. 11.47 The significant barriers to finding work that emerged out of the stakeholder interviews included childcare, transport, confidence, the informal economy, generational factors a culture of fatalism and low aspirations and the general seriousness of the problem of worklessness in the areas researched. Indeed it would not be too strong to say that some areas may be on the brink of a spiral of sustained decline. The recent figures released for 2007 showing that the area has dropped from the 52nd most deprived in the country according to the index of deprivation’s findings for 2004 to 49th in 2007 are pertinent here.
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SECTION TWELVE: CONCLUSION
12.0 The research has revealed that many of the problems associated with worklessness in North East Lincolnshire are deep rooted and multi-dimensional with many groups having multiple identities rather than just falling into one of the six target groups. 12.1 Some 62% of the questionnaire responses were from SOA’s with some of them having amongst the highest rates of child poverty, low educational qualifications and deprivation in the country. 12.2 Raising aspirations and low confidence levels among some groups of the workless is crucial but extremely difficult as is the need to raise employer perceptions and awareness of the potential contributions of some workless groups to their businesses. 12.3 The barriers that were most frequently identified by the whole group sample were childcare, low levels of education, training and qualifications, transport issues and health. Specific groups had different barriers and interventions need to be targeted on those rather than adopting a ‘one size fits all’ model. 12.4 The barriers that were most frequently mentioned in the stakeholder interviews were: low aspirations, low qualification and skill levels, transport, child care, the benefit system and a general ethos of local decline. 12 5 There are mixed perceptions about the effectiveness of multi-agency working with the voluntary sector scoring it as poor and the larger statutory agencies scoring it at good. 12.6 Successful initiatives are not necessarily linked to formal qualifications and in some situations formal qualification routes can be seen as a barrier. Work based tasters or placements seemed in the view of interviewees to be among the most effective ways of getting groups into permanent work. 12.7 In terms of job search formal large organisations constituted the main route for only a minority of the total respondents. Other sources of information and informal networks were prominent as means of looking for work as was the use of newspapers and the internet. 12.8 Getting a balance between customer focus and sustainable provision will be a difficult balancing act. The formalisation of qualification routes into employment and the perception that formal provision could be intimidating to client groups was a common theme in the stakeholder interviews. Questionnaire responses indicated a preference for local, accessible and community based provision for helping the workless into employment. 12.9 Short term funding cycles and the disincentives of some aspects of the benefit system were frequently mentioned by stakeholders.
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12.10 Housing was a problem for many stakeholder agencies and coordination between agencies and information sharing was not rated highly by most. 12.11 The methodology adopted in this research was designed to have a qualitative focus that investigated the perceptions of clients and the agencies that dealt with them about the barriers facing the workless in entering employment. 12.12 It was designed to tap into local knowledge and expertise in the area and had an emphasis on the twelve SOA’s identified for North East Lincolnshire. It was not designed to replicate existing statistical sources or seek to re-invent the wheel. Consequently target groups were chosen selectively and in collaboration with key partners who were part of the EAJG and helped design the questionnaire collaboratively. 12.13 As such it was an example of collaborative working. The group was advised on the design and methodological issues by a team of six researchers from GIFHE. 12.14 A data base has been produced of responses to the 316 questionnaire responses that could be used for further analysis.
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SECTION THIRTEEN: RECOMMENDATIONS
13.0 The incapacity rate in some areas of North east Lincolnshire is twice the national average and this is needs addressing and explaining. Is ill health associated with incapacity in itself; or is it to do with the industrial infrastructure and labour market and a legacy of the types of jobs available? 13.1 Contrary to popular belief, the over 50’s group are documented as a particularly reliable group of workers. This needs publicising locally especially given demographic trends that will see a decline proportionally in the number of younger groups entering the workforce because of falling birth rates? 13.2 The low training level is reflected in the data we have. There is a need to raise the profile of education and training in the area as a means of combating worklessness. 13.3 The insecurity of agency jobs is an issue for many of the stakeholders interviewed. There are bureaucratic problems encountered in transferring from benefits to agency work and visa versa and the impact that has on the time it then takes to receive benefits. Streamlining the process could be considered. 13.4 It was claimed that the cost of housing homeless younger age groups in hostels was not subsidised and this created problems. This is something it might be useful to investigate further. 13.5. The local press and media could be approached to help publicise initiatives. Given that a high proportion of the respondents that use them to search for work it might be in their interests to cooperate in such a campaign. Also the potential of the internet to publicise jobs locally could be explored. 13.6 Worklessness is tied up with perceptions of the area and the environment. Improving the image of the area or involving the workless in small scale initiatives to improve their local areas might go down well with some and help get some workless groups back into the work ethic. Any idea of compulsion should be treated with caution, however. 13.7 Groups can have multiple identities (e.g., the homeless can also be ex-offenders) and dealing with these groups may involve a degree of experimentation. There is insufficient known about how the various factors that contribute to multiple deprivation interact and hence what initiatives may or may not be successful. 13.8 Partnership agencies might consider job shares or short term staff secondments to experience each others working situation might be a useful means of familiarisation different relevant agencies with each others modus operandi and to combat tendencies to ‘work in silo’ in the words of more than one stakeholder interviewees. 13.9 One issue may be how to increase data sharing and information between agencies working in partnership with other agencies. There are gaps in the perception of how effective partnership working is and this appears to be felt quite strongly by
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the voluntary sector. There is a need to establish forums for partnership working to enhance the spread of best practice. 13.10 The issue of accessibility of job search facilities and an approachable ambience in organisations dealing with worklessness should be considered. In the questionnaires surprisingly few claimed they use agencies such as Job Centre Plus or the large educational institutions to access help in finding work. 13.11 The voluntary sector consistently claimed that initiatives need to be moved into the community to help get those without confidence a first foot on the ladder to finding work. 13.12 Short term funding cycles are a problem. Thought needs to be given to how initiatives can be made sustainable beyond the initial funding cycle. 13.13 The perspectives held about the effectiveness of multi-agency working was polarised with the smaller organisations interviewed holding a less rosy view of what it happening compared to the larger organisations. There needs to be more done on understanding the dynamics of this and especially on identifying key cross cutting issues such as homelessness. It is generally considered that partnership working is essential to successful interventions. 13.14 Barriers to worklessness such as childcare and problems with transport are not the same as unemployment. They may be barriers to finding work but they are not necessarily the causes of worklessness. Research to establish the complex interplay of different factors creating worklessness could enhance understanding of how such a multi dimensional phenomenon could be addressed. Highly localised qualitative studies such as this could complement a much broader stroke approach involving quantitative and larger statistical samples. 13.15 Successful initiatives for helping getting people into work were characterised as generally falling into the following categories. Work based (tasters/work experience) Sector based (especially construction initiatives) Qualifications based (but not always accredited qualifications) Community based (local and accessible/ less intimidating) Issue based (crosses inter agency self interest and generates a common purpose). Drawing on best practice and sharing best practice needs to be disseminated more widely to interested agencies and interventions that might usefully be based on the above areas generated. 13.16 Employer attitudes and engagement require addressing. Raising the awareness of employers of the benefits of employing some stigmatised groups might be useful. Stressing how embracing diversity may enhance economic competitiveness may be another.
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13.17 Forums to tap into local expertise need to be extended. Partnership differences of perceptions need to be discussed openly. A rotation of the location of these might aid perceptions that some agencies dominate the others. 13.18 The view that partnership working is embedded in actual practice is not a widely shared view among stakeholder agencies interviewed: in fact most respondents suggested the opposite. This seems to be partly related to differences in power, resources and access to resources between agencies. Events that facilitate trust need building up that genuinely offer an opportunity for agencies to set out their stalls. 13.19 National research suggests that training linked to employer placements and work experience have been effective but the degree of employer engagement with workless groups is not. This contradiction needs investigating further. 13.20 Cultural activities could be a tool for addressing worklessness (especially BME’s). Other initiatives calling on local role models such as footballers or local personalities might be one way of exploring this. 13.21 BME groups could be encouraged to volunteer and to act as mentors to others in order to integrate them into mainstream work searches. It appears that they are under represented in the voluntary sector although there are no firm statistics to support this. 13.22 Treating people equally is not the same as making everyone equal. Different groups have different needs. Interventions should be client focussed and evaluated for the extent to which genuine partnership working takes place. 13.23 Identifying employers with similar values to the community/voluntary sector was one possible suggestion for getting more employers interested in taking on workless groups. 13.24 Adopt methods of successful initiatives. For example, it is work experience rather than formal qualifications that seem to work in getting stigmatised groups into long term work according to the stakeholder respondent’s interviews. 13.25 There were few homogeneous groups identified in the research, with the possible exception of the lone parent group, and therefore interventions need to be targeted at distinct issues and needs. 13.26 Establishing work related English language courses for migrants and BME’s (for example being able to read safety notices at work may be an essential requirement for employment) might be a good idea as it could be for those with literacy problems that hinder them getting work. 13.27 Awareness of foreign qualifications among local agencies and employers could be raised in situations where foreign qualifications are equivalent to British ones. A guide to different qualifications could be produced and disseminated.
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13.28 Mentoring through local peer group role models who act as intermediaries or advocates could be adopted as a bridge to getting people into work. A campaign to identify such models could usefully be launched. 13.29 Dealing with the perceptions and fears surrounding formal educational qualifications and fear of education among some workless groups should be a priority. The role of informal training and education which is not certified could be developed further. 13.31 What works and does not work in North East Lincolnshire may not be that simple nor might interventions fit each group equally. What works and what does not work with different groups could be explored in more detail. 13.32 The perceptions of different agencies on the effectiveness of multi-agencies do not match and this requires investigating in further detail. 13.32 Issues of childcare and transport difficulties reflect the national picture. In terms of low levels of qualifications and skills and health issues the local picture is worse than the national. 13.33 What local actions have worked? How was their effectiveness demonstrated? This could draw on the local expertise of partner agencies in a more sustained manner to investigate this in detail. 13.34 Holistic approaches to interventions are required that share information and expertise across organisational divides. Exploring ways of achieving this should be considered. 13.35 No ‘one size fits all’ model in itself is likely to work and initiatives need to be targeted and focussed. A degree of local autonomy is necessary for any such successful initiatives. 13.36 Exploring ways of identifying and training credible community intermediaries to help get people into work needs to be investigated further. There was a widespread distrust of ‘suits’ among some of the workless groups. 13.37 Information that works in successfully engaging employers and the worklesss, their progression and retention, is sparse and more research may be needed to identify successful initiatives. 13.38 Formal training schemes can be a disincentive to engaging hard to reach groups. What aspects of this perception seem to be most significant could then be explored in more depth. 13.39 On transport issues, funds could be provided, better transport information provided, concessions offered, and customised express services for target areas provided where transport was seen to be a major barrier.
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