Jobs, skills and unemployment in Scotland Dave Simmonds Chief Executive Centre for Economic & Social Inclusion

Increasing and meeting demand A more concerted and consistent Scottish effort to improve job-seeking and job-matching services for when people first become unemployed? Should funding for skills and employment be better aligned in Scotland, especially for those who are low qualified and out of work? What more could be done for young people, especially in preventing long-term unemployment, by building on Scotland’s youth employment strategy and the UK Government’s Youth Contract?

Supporting those furthest from work Should Scotland have direct control over programmes for the long-term unemployed? Does Scotland need a greater emphasis on what more can be done to tackle ill-health and worklessness? What should Scotland do about the widening employment gaps between local authorities? Should there be further steps to target regeneration and enterprise growth? What can be learned from current initiatives and how can local partnerships work better?

Welfare Reform Need to continually assess impact on Scotland of UK benefits reform and the Universal Credit, but should this be accompanied by a study of the advantages and disadvantages of devolving responsibility for the benefits system to the Scottish Government? This would need to consider rights and responsibilities on claimants in a Scottish system. With the implementation of Universal Credit in 2013 what further can Scotland do to ‘make work pay’ and at the same time help claimants understand the new benefit and the implications for their family income?

Delivery Does Scotland’s infrastructure for the delivery of skills, employment support, and benefits need to be simplified? Does there need to be more debate about how institutions work together and whether fundamental reform is required in Scotland?