WMCA Connect To Work - Black Country

West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), in partnership with City of Wolverhampton Council, Dudley MBC, Sandwell, MBC and Walsall MBC are pleased to announce their intention to procure Supported Employment provision for disabled residents, residents with long-term health conditions, and other agreed disadvantaged groups with complex barriers to sustain work.

Set out in the Adults Skills and Employment Functional Strategy https://governance.wmca.org.uk/documents/s23891/Appendix%203%20Functional%20Strategies%20Merged.pdf, our ambition is to develop an integrated employment and skills system that stimulates economic growth and delivers better outcomes for residents and businesses. Central to realising this is the flexibility we have secured as part of our deeper devolution deal, which gives the WMCA further policy influence with our system partners DWP and DfE, and control over adult skills and employment spending through the Integrated Settlement.

The opportunity created by the Get Britain Working White Paper paves the way for further devolved responsibility for employment support working in partnership with DWP. Demonstrated through a devolved role in supported employment through the new Connect to Work programme and stronger role in partnership with DWP to deliver better outcomes for residents, it will further enable us to deliver our ambition for an integrated system that meets residents’ needs, especially those disadvantaged in the labour market through ill health or disability, in alignment with the region’s three Integrated Care Board’s WorkWell pilots.

Through Integrated Settlement, WMCA has secured £5.72million to support up to 1400 participants to sustain work through the delivery of Individual Placement & Support (IPS) and Supported Employment Quality Framework (SEQF) models in 2025-26, with the potential to extend and scale up delivery in subsequent years. WMCA’s Adult Skills & Employment Functional Strategy is available online through the following link: https://www.wmca.org.uk/documents/integrated-settlement/adult-skills-employment-functional-strategy/ with WMCA’s approach to Connect to Work outlined in the Connect to Work Business Justification Case found here: https://governance.wmca.org.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=135&MId=1228&Ver=4