Helping people back into work is welcome news

Housing Minister Caroline Flint’s comments about housing helping people back into work were both welcomed as recognising the real engagement that housing professionals have with their residents and condemned for suggesting that tenancy agreements should be used as a stick to encourage the less willing. Now the government has announced a new review on how real and lasting improvements on the ground can be brought about, chaired by the Leader of Barnsley Council. The results will complement the changes brought about amongst Welfare to Work providers announced recently as a result of David Freud’s review.

For too long, we’ve concentrated on ‘post-box’ models of public service delivery that provide neatly packaged public services to non-engaged and largely-indifferent recipients. This current flurry of activity is encouraging for the sector as it signals a renewed interest in tapping into existing relationships between housing and community managers and the long-term unemployed: relationships that have largely been ignored for more than three decades. We need more of this thinking as we rediscover the real linkages between the feelings and participation of individuals in their locality and the delivery of more sustainable community outcomes that benefit everyone’s lives.

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