The Get Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent Working Plan will serve as a dynamic regional strategic framework designed to align with and support key strategies, help inform devolution delivery locally and the move towards work and health integration.

Organisations that currently make up the local strategic partnership include local authorities, the Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Jobcentre Plus, alongside voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations, education and skills providers, employer and business representative groups, employment experts and key providers.

The health, employment and skills support system and offer delivered by this wide range of key partners and wider stakeholder organisations is vast, with over 30 programmes delivered by 100s of providers and funded by a diverse range of partners and agencies, providing complex support to local residents looking to either enter work or remain in work.

It is clear that in order to address our local labour market challenges and strengthen the current support system and offer we must develop stronger partnership working across Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent.

To this end we have established a partnership project group with full terms of reference to develop, deliver and provide the governance of our local plan.

The partnership project group will develop a stakeholder engagement plan to ensure that all relevant wider stakeholders are effectively engaged in the development and delivery of the local plan. This will include consultation with system users to understand lived experience and enable co-production.

Our vision is to give our residents the health, skills and employment support to access higher value, better-paid jobs, helping deliver a diverse, inclusive and sustainable economy with greater prosperity for all.

The mission for health, skills and employment stakeholders is to create strong, effective partnerships to help our residents raise the aspirations, achieve their ambitions and actively help to grow our economy.

Based on our initial analysis of key strategic data associated to GBW we have identified the following key local outcome ambitions:

·       Increased Employment - progressing to 80% employment rate and beyond by promoting a more inclusive labour market leading to better jobs and careers – currently estimated at 78.4% require an estimated further 11,000 residents moving into employment to reach 80%

·       Reduced Unemployment - further supporting those that are actively looking for work to find work and progress in work - claimant count has over 25,000 that are either unemployed or working and underemployed 

·       Reduced Economic Inactivity - targeting those workless in groups that could work if issues were addressed through further support such as health issues and access to childcare - 24,200 (or 3.5% of the working population) are economically inactive and want a job