Paper
Tools for the Job? Closing Britain's Skills Divide Through a More Agile System
Spotlight on Breaking Britain's Barriers
The Question
How are local communities working to break the cycles of unemployment?
Our Approach
Rather than studying complex social and economic challenges only through aggregate data or after-the-fact analysis, Spotlight follows them into communities to understand how they are experienced and how solutions unfold in real time. We connect what we learn directly to those shaping policy. This is our innovative Research in Real Time approach.
Which signals of future disengagement are visible, and at what age?
Where does the current system lose people, and why?
What are the barriers that keep working age adults out of the labour market, and how do they interact?
What distinguishes interventions that work from those that do not?
The Premise
Path to economic opportunity is shaped by complex mix of circumstances from school and skills, to health and disability and place
Barriers build across education, employment, health, and place. Understanding how they connect helps us identify the moments where the right intervention can change what happens next.
The Problem
Unemployment rarely begins with a lost job. More often, it is the endpoint of a cumulative road that begins in childhood.
People fall through the gaps between siloed services when what they need is a system built around the person, not the problem.
Current State Analysis
9.1M
1 in 5 working-age people are economically inactive, ages 16-64
Source: ONS, "Employment in the UK"
2.8M
working age people are economically inactive due to long-term sickness
Source: UK Government, “Keep Britain Working: Final Report”, 20
981K
young people ages 16-24 are NEET
Source: ONS, "Young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), UK"
583K
young people who are NEET + economically inactive
Source: ONS, "Young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), UK"
Early Indicators
School • Family • Community
Youth Disengagement
Education • Skills • Confidence • Mental health
Adult Inactivity
Health • Skills • Disability • Place
Sustained education or employment and progression
Entrenched inactivity
Track Live Updates
Research in Real Time
11
Communities
45
Interviews
32
Stories
13
Findings
Listen
Spotlight on Doncaster
Skelmersdale
Restart Scheme
Merthyr Tydfil
ELITE paper solutions
Llantrisant
ELITE Supported Employment
Ebbw Vale
ELITE Clothing Solutions
Hamilton
APEX
High Wycombe
Youth Mentoring
Reading
Nurturing Parenting Programme
Falkirk
Healthy Minds
Guildford
Restart Scheme
Chichester
The Ladder
Slough
Restart Scheme
Basingstoke
APEX
Staines
Clubhouse
Brighton
Clubhouse
Croydon
The New School
Doncaster
Big Picture Learning
skelmersdale
Skelmersdale
Restart Scheme
53.5499
-2.77048
merthyr-tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil
ELITE paper solutions
51.721
-3.3577169
llantrisant
Llantrisant
ELITE Supported Employment
51.54
3.38
ebbw-vale
Ebbw Vale
ELITE Clothing Solutions
51.75
-3.1989
hamilton
Hamilton
APEX
55.7772174
-4.10124
high-wycombe
High Wycombe
Youth Mentoring
51.62953725
-0.74733221
reading
Reading
Nurturing Parenting Programme
51.45477263
-0.97757392
falkirk
Falkirk
Healthy Minds
56.0067144
-3.82981671
guildford
Guildford
Restart Scheme
51.23807661
-0.57624372
chichester
Chichester
The Ladder
50.83369222
-0.77981412
slough
Slough
Restart Scheme
51.51083411
-0.59855197
basingstoke
Basingstoke
APEX
51.26880031
-1.07258333
staines
Staines
Clubhouse
51.43465556
-0.51498311
brighton
Brighton
Clubhouse
50.8227269
-0.14374317
croydon
Croydon
The New School
51.42140743
-0.09559416
doncaster
Doncaster
Big Picture Learning
53.48935963
-1.23855065
Research Findings
Updated in Real Time
Real people. Real Places. Real Change.
