Pillar 2: The places and communities we live in

We know that work is good for health and unemployment is bad for it. Good quality work is beneficial for our health and wellbeing and protects against social exclusion through the provision of income, social interaction, identity, and purpose. Good quality work also needs to be sustainable and offer a minimum level of quality, including a decent living wage, opportunities for in-work development, flexibility to enable a balanced work and family life, and protection from adverse working conditions that can damage health.

On the other hand, unemployment is associated with increased sickness and early death including:

• limiting long-term illness
• heart disease and associated conditions
• health-harming behaviours
• poor mental health
• suicide

Just as unemployment can be a risk factor for various health conditions, disability and/or long-term health conditions (such as poor mental health and musculoskeletal conditions), can also be the cause of unemployment.

Work and health are central to people’s lives. In Cheshire West, the top conditions for which people claim benefits due to inability to work are mental health and behavioural disorders and musculoskeletal problems. Additionally, there are many more people struggling to work or hold down jobs due to ill-health.

Helping people obtain or retain work and be happy and productive in the workplace are crucial to the success and wellbeing of every community and employer. Our ambition is to enable all residents to take advantage of local opportunities for prosperity.

We will support residents in Cheshire West to meet their full potential by collectively addressing and removing health-related barriers to work. This will require collaboration between partners from across the private, public and Community Sector at national, sub-regional and local levels. Efforts are currently underway to develop a Cheshire and Merseyside integrated work and health strategy[1] which builds on existing local and Integrated Care System programmes.

We will:

• strengthen engagement with the business sector to support economic development to address poverty and health through delivery of the Inclusive Economy Strategy
• strengthen the use of social value within local procurement, capital investments and planning to maximise local training, employment, and contracting opportunities
• grow employability through the leadership of the Council Skills and Employment Team who will engage local stakeholders such as the Princes Trust, Citizen’s Advice, Cheshire West Voluntary Action and others to ensure there is coordination between the employment support offer and partner engagement work.
• remove significant barriers to employment and financial independence through our local support programmes, including for those living with severe mental illness, long term conditions or substance use, delivered by the Council Skills and Employment Team
• collaborate with partners from across the private, public and Community Sectors to create pathways to good jobs and jobs that are more flexible to accommodate individuals’ needs
• work with the Community Sector to promote volunteering as a first step towards supporting people into employment
• promote a local living wage and support progress to higher paid work to address in-work poverty
• support people to become more financially resilient
• enable people to be well in work by working with employers to support employees’ mental and physical wellbeing
• support employers to be age-, carer- and disability-friendly, including gaining the Department for Work and Pensions Disability Confident accreditation
• maximise opportunities to better use the skills and knowledge of our older residents
• use our cultural and natural assets for the benefit of our workforce
• make the case to businesses that they have underdeveloped impacts on health and health inequalities and should strengthen their social impacts
• include health in businesses’ environmental, social and governance strategies
• businesses, public sector, and Community Sector to actively communicate and publish how meeting equality duties in recruitment and employment including pay, progression, and terms
• assess local workplaces and their capacity to produce and implement policies to recruit and retain people with a disability or long-term condition
• establish criteria for healthy workplace standards for public and private sectors, as part of a Cheshire and Merseyside Fair Employment Charter, to include:
  • Wages to meet the minimum income for healthy living
  • Provision of in work benefits including sick pay, holiday and maternity/paternity pay
  • Provision of advice and support e.g., debt and financial management, housing support at work
  • Provision of education and training on the job
  • Strengthen equitable recruitment practices including provision of apprenticeships and in work training, recruitment from local communities and those underrepresented in the workforce
• embed widescale social value requirements in the local economic partnerships.

The Borough Plan’s mission of ‘Opportunity in a fair local economy’ encompasses many of the above commitments but also identifies the need to review how Council services can support and promote social enterprises and cooperatives and continue to support local businesses through the way we target funding. To help ensure that local young people have the right skills to secure good employment, a Commission has been established to help increase youth social mobility. A targeted support offer for groups that are more likely to face challenges in employment such as the over 50s will also be provided. A skills escalator approach will support residents to enhance their skills, opportunities and earnings with a particular emphasis being placed on skills to support ‘green jobs’.[2]

Connecting to opportunity is also identified as a priority within the Borough Plan. Devolution will support planning to improve bus, rail and road networks[3] and progress transport programmes such as Northern Powerhouse Rail to better connect the borough to the North West and the rest of the UK. This will provide a local transport system that is sustainable, affordable and facilitates access to employment opportunities. Improving digital connectivity through the extension of access to gigabit broadband will also improve access to services and resources for residents and businesses in many parts of the borough.

Sources:

[1] WorkWell is a national scheme offering holistic support to help individuals overcome health-related barriers to employment and provides a gateway for individuals to access other support services.

[2] Green jobs defined as employment that contributes to preserving or restoring the environment, addressing climate change, or promoting sustainability.

[3] Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (2024) English Devolution White Paper. Power and Partnership: Foundations for Growth. December 2024. Available at: English Devolution White Paper - GOV.UK