People struggling to access work are not unwilling, they need support that understands local realities and treats them as individuals

Employment policy is often discussed in abstract terms: participation rates, targets, and programme design. But for the people affected by it, work is not an abstraction. It shapes confidence, dignity, routine and identity. Whether someone can find and keep a job has consequences that ripple through families and communities for years.

I know this from personal experience. Growing up in Knowsley in the 1980s and 1990s, in one of the poorest boroughs in the country, the pressure to find work was immense but the opportunities scarce. Local industry had collapsed. Low-paid, temporary jobs were often miles away, inaccessible without money for transport. In addition, the experience of being young, poorly qualified, and unable to see a route into work took a toll on my mental health. It is a story that will be familiar to many people of my generation.

That experience is one reason I remain convinced that employment policy cannot succeed if it ignores place. People are shaped by the local economies they grow up in, the transport links available to them, the networks they have access to, and whether support feels reachable or remote. For those furthest from the labour market, national systems alone are rarely enough.

In my constituency of Southport, I see this regularly. The people struggling most to access work are not unwilling. They are dealing with caring responsibilities, health conditions, disrupted work histories, or long periods of knockback. What they need is not another standardised process, but support that understands local realities and treats them as individuals.

That is why place-based employment support deserves far more attention in national policy debates. Across the North of England in particular, community-rooted organisations are quietly delivering outcomes that many centralised systems struggle to achieve.

In Southport, The Big Onion has built an approach grounded in trust. Its work focuses on rebuilding confidence, developing skills, and supporting routes into self-employment and community enterprise as well as paid work. Crucially, it does not rush people. It recognises that for many residents, believing they have something to offer is the first and hardest step. That progress may not immediately register in headline employment figures, but it is fundamental to sustainable outcomes.

Elsewhere, organisations are applying similarly tailored thinking to specific barriers. Zink, a Buxton-based charity that grew out of a food bank, developed its “micro-jobs” programme after research with Sheffield University into the drivers of food bank use. These short, paid roles are designed for people affected by homelessness or substance misuse. Three quarters of participants move into part-time or full-time work within six months, a striking result for a group often written off by conventional employment programmes.

In the North East, The Recruitment Junction focuses on people with convictions, working with employers to identify skills shortages and then supporting candidates to rebuild qualifications, prepare CVs and get interview-ready. Its results are impressive: hundreds placed into paid work, strong retention rates, and reoffending levels far below the national average.

I have also been struck by the work of The Transform Lives Company and their People’s Job Centre initiative, as part of JobsPlus. Designed to feel welcoming rather than intimidating, it supports people with confidence, wellbeing and life skills alongside job search. Participants are listened to, not lectured. For many, that change in tone is what makes engagement possible in the first place.

These approaches reflect a broader shift in thinking about employment support that gathered momentum in recent years, including work led by Alison McGovern between 2020 and 2025. The argument was simple but powerful: employment services work best when they are human, flexible and integrated, linking jobs with skills, health, housing and local labour markets. Trusted community organisations were not an optional add-on, but a core part of an effective system.

Place-based programmes put that philosophy into practice. They show that when support is delivered in familiar settings, whether that’s in housing estates, community hubs, or neighbourhood centres, engagement improves dramatically. People who would never walk into a formal office will seek help in spaces they trust.

This is evident in initiatives such as JobsPlus, which embeds employment support directly within social housing communities. Early evidence shows not just people moving into work, but improvements in confidence, wellbeing and readiness, the conditions that make work stick.

And yet, too many of these programmes exist in a state of perpetual uncertainty, with short-term funding and delayed decisions forcing providers to plan for wind-down even as outcomes improve. That uncertainty has real costs: experienced staff leave, relationships are lost, and momentum drains away.

If we are serious about tackling economic inactivity, we need to be serious about how support is delivered. Central systems matter, but they cannot do this alone. Long-term backing for place-based approaches, genuine partnership with community organisations, and the confidence to move beyond one-size-fits-all models are essential.

Across Southport and beyond, organisations are already doing the work we say we want to see. The challenge now is whether national policy is willing to learn from them and support them properly.