With record numbers of working-age people in the UK showing up in Office of National Statistics figures as economically inactive, NFA members see the tough reality of those numbers play out across the communities they work so hard to support. And, of course, by the very nature of the way the UK’s limited social housing supply is allocated, all landlords in the sector have customers who are more likely than those in other tenures to be unemployed or in low-paid work.

The consequences – real financial hardship, perhaps even poverty, and generally poor physical and mental health – are exacerbated by the fact that many of those who could benefit most from mainstream employability programmes are furthest away from them.  

The Government’s Get Britain Working White Paper, published in November 2024, tries to address this and the other big issues affecting employment rates in the UK with £240 million of investment and what it describes as the “biggest employment reforms in a generation”.

Among those reforms is the JobsPlus initiative, based on evidence from a US employment support programme that channelled targeted help to the economically inactive through housing providers, aiming to make quality, secure paid work the norm across whole communities.

NFA members, delivering the ALMO model and its ‘housing-plus’ approach on behalf of their parent councils to local communities, are in fact no strangers to the idea that housing providers are uniquely placed to get this kind of help to the doorsteps of those who need it most.

Only last month, Berneslai Homes’ Ambition team was nominated for the Northern Housing Consortium’s contribution to resident wellbeing award, having supported more than 250 participants with tailored guidance, skills development, and direct links to employers. It’s a service that directly addresses the complex challenges that can prevent people from getting into or re-entering the workforce.

Dave Fullen, Berneslai’s Executive Director of Customer and Estate Services, said: “We’re incredibly proud of the progress people have made in working with the Ambition coaches – it’s life changing for residents who have gained confidence, qualifications, and jobs.”

Barnet Homes’ BOOST, with similar aims, is one of the longest-standing in the country. Since 2015, it has helped Tina and 3,710 other local residents into work. That wealth of experience – and success – persuaded the government to make London Borough of Barnet last year the only ALMO among ten local authorities selected to pilot the centrally funded UK JobsPlus programme.

Adapted for the UK, the pilot has four key components:

• Wrap-around support – financial, health and wellbeing – is all on offer in one place
• Community support is built in as it is earned; community champions who have had positive experiences themselves are recruited to help build trust in the service among friends and neighbours
• Hyper-local and aiming for saturation, it offers employment support to everyone of working age in a particular neighbourhood; and this help is also on offer to people who already have jobs, but want to find better-paid or more secure work
• Financial incentives are offered to those who remain in work

Participants get the help they need to not only successfully apply for a job, but to keep it.

These are early days in the current two-year pilot, but interim evaluation shows that 1,000 people have taken part in the ten schemes so far, and close to one in five have found work. There are no quick fixes to breaking down complex barriers to employment, but these are already impressive outcomes in a relatively short space of time.

It is expected that, as in the US programmes, the results will confirm that social housing providers are ideal delivery partners. They know their residents, they know their communities, they know local businesses and their needs. They already have much experience of supporting residents with complex needs.

As excitement builds across the sector following the news that the JobsPlus pilot will be funded for another year, we caught up with colleagues at Barnet Homes to hear first-hand how person-centred support is helping their residents thrive.

Stationed in full view at Burnt Oak library, the BOOST team is visible, welcoming and proactive. Manager Lawrence Graham, when asked why he thinks schemes like BOOST deliver results, says: “We hear time and time again from clients how different BOOST is from Jobcentre Plus.

“At BOOST, you can walk in and talk to someone there and then. We try to remove barriers and meet support needs before we start talking about employment. It’s about getting people to a point where they’re work-ready, and that can take time.”

There is, of course, a dynamic partnership between the BOOST advisors and the Jobcentre Plus managers – partnership working with a range of agencies is key to their success – but first participants get the help they need to not only successfully apply for a job, but to keep it.

Barnet resident Khudija, for instance, who has no family close by and was struggling with isolation and low confidence, is now a community volunteer and in training, working towards a career in childcare.

“When I first went to BOOST, I was so anxious I found it hard to talk to people,” she says. “I didn’t know how to move forward with my life, I felt lost. I’ve made new connections in my community, and the staff are so friendly – it feels like a family. I never knew support like this was out there.”

And Tina’s final word is emphatic. “It’s obvious,” she says. “Everyone should have access to a service like BOOST.”