The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) employment support system should be devolved, with charities given core funding to provide services instead, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham told an event yesterday.
Burnham, who was re-elected for a third time as mayor in May, previously announced in his election manifesto that he was committed to the devolution of the employment support system.
However, he made no reference to the charity sector specifically at that time.
Speaking at the Locality annual conference in Manchester yesterday, Burnham said that national and local government “needs to start backing” the sector with core funding so that it can carry out its work without worrying about financial insecurity.
Government needs to empower civil society
Noting that 2024 is a significantly different era from when he was last in government, Burnham said: “It’s time to reimagine the British state and the way it works and its relationship with communities and the sectors that support those communities.
“Whether we like it or not, the voluntary welfare state is going to be here for the long haul.”
Burnham also called on the government to do more to empower charities and avoid the attitudes of previous governments to hold the sector “at arm’s length”, which he said permeated from the national government down to local authorities.
“Whitehall silos”, he said, are only able to see “part of a person” and therefore are unable to truly empathise with the causes of many civil society organisations and fail to empower the sector.
Addressing the audience of some 500 charity staff and trustees directly, Burnham added: “You spend your time bidding – imagine if you didn’t have to do that because you were just trusted to deliver? Imagine the difference that that would make.”
He added: “What does government – national and local – need to do? Let me make it really plain it simple: it needs to start backing you all with core funding. Not project funding, core funding.
“Give people the money that you need to build in your communities and so you can do what you do, day in day out, without constantly looking over your shoulder, worrying about sustaining your organisation and the people you employ.”
His statement was met with applause and shouts of agreement from the audience.
Employment support devolution
Burnham criticised the DWP and its employment support system as one that “is working against us. It damages peoples’ wellbeing, their mental health [...] and then you have to pick up the pieces”.
Citing the present DWP welfare model as one that “sees the worst in people, it doesn’t see the best in people,” the charity sector offers a contrast, as it sees the best in people “by instinct.”
Burnham argued that voluntary and community organisations, rather than national and local government, should be given more responsibility and autonomy when it comes to helping people into employment.
He said: “We are calling for devolution of employment support.
“The money – around £6bn currently spent through large corporates providing quite a dehumanised system – imagine if that money was the new money that came flooding into the community and voluntary sector to give you that core funding, and with it, came that responsibility to get more people into work.
“I am certain that we would all rise to that challenge.”
