In Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent there is evidence of an enterprising, resilient, and inclusive economy. But there are pockets facing considerable economic challenges and for the area to thrive these challenges need to be understood across the system of support to get people into employment. It’s vital to recognise the importance of health and skills for employment and the need to support people of all ages into work, to improve their skills and progress or change careers, so businesses can access the skills and talent they need to diversify and grow.

That’s why stakeholders from across the area have come together to create our Get Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent Working Plan, putting in place the ambitions and priorities to deliver our united vision for Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent. And it will make sure our workforce is equipped not only to weather economic shocks such as global pandemics, but also to thrive and grow.

Local Get Britain Working (GBW) plans are central to the Government’s ambition for a thriving labour market where everyone has the opportunity for good work and to get on in work and achieve the ambition of an 80% employment rate.

Based on our analysis of official Government data we estimate that to achieve the Government ambition of an overall 80% employment rate in Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent we would require a further 11,000 residents in employment. However, to address the disparities between different cohorts and localities this figure is likely to be up to 10-fold higher.

To deliver such a change in outcomes for such a large part of our population would requires significant system change beyond individual programmes which have previously been put in place. This ultimately requires long-term strategy and funding to address the intergenerational socio-economic root causes of economic inactivity and long-term unemployment.

Recognising the scale of the challenge that ill-health poses as a contributor to rising economic inactivity, support of health leadership is crucial to Plans. A key action to address economic inactivity will be the role out of the Connect to Work (CTW) programme in Staffordshire & Stoke on Trent. CTW is the government’s programme to address economic inactivity and will support over 5,300 people across the area in moving into employment with an investment of £19million over 5 years.

Given the tight timescales and limited resource for delivering our local plan, we have adopted a phased approach to its production. During the initial phase of developing our local plan we have conducted an extensive needs assessment, which builds on previous work produced for the Connect to Work programme.

This assessment of need across Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent has helped to identify a range of economic and labour market issues and challenges being faced by our residents and businesses. This has enabled us to produce a set of strategic outcome ambitions and key local priority cohorts that need support. The data used in the report will be updated to reflect the latest data source.