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Blog 20 June 2025

From Inactivity to Opportunity to Good Work: Employability Day 2025 – Partners Roundtable

By Asi Panditharatna MBE
To mark Employability Day 2025, we brought together a powerful coalition of partners for a Policy and Practice Roundtable on 19th June. The theme, “From Inactivity to Opportunity to Good Work”, set the tone for a day of reflection, insight, and action.

We were joined by colleagues from Medway Council, Social Enterprise Kent, Education People, The Forward Trust and Kent Teach, as well as Lauren Edwards MP for Rochester and Strood, and Ivor McKay, Trustee from The Forward Trust, and Elizabeth Taylor, Chief Executive Officer, ERSA. Their contributions helped shape a rich and meaningful discussion.

Spotlight on IPS: impact in action

The event opened with a presentation from our IPS (Individual Placement and Support) Service, funded by Medway Council and the Department for Health and Social Care. The presentation highlighted the programme’s impact, achievements, and the importance of motivating and supporting individuals while engaging employers.

A particularly moving moment came from Rebecca, who shared her lived experience of recovery. A former IPS participant, she is now in full-time employment with The Forward Trust. Her story was a powerful reminder of the life-changing potential of personalised employment support.

Key questions we explored

1. How do we motivate and support individuals who do not engage with services and need outreach?

This is a critical question for the future of Connect to Work and other voluntary programmes. Participants agreed that outreach must be embedded from day one. Funding models should reflect this need, enabling providers to invest in early and sustained engagement.

Key insights included:

  • The importance of local integration with other services.
  • The value of peer role models to inspire and connect.
  • The need for consistent, trusted relationships with key workers.

2. What can employers do to retain and support individuals from these cohorts?

Employers are committed partners, but they face real challenges, with rising costs and economic uncertainty among them. While many understand the importance of occupational health, not all provide access to it.

Suggestions included:

  • Building transformational partnerships between providers and employers.
  • Offering guidance on recruitment and retention strategies.
  • Supporting candidates to better articulate transferable skills, especially through the lens of skills adjacency.

3. What should future programmes look like?

There was strong support for devolution and localism, but also a recognition of the need for national programmes with local flexibility, such as a refreshed Local Get Britain Working initiative.

Participants called for:

  • A replacement for the Commercial Agreement for Employment and Health Related Services (CAEHRS).
  • Smarter Payment by Results models that reduce risk for smaller providers and charities—e.g., through advance or start payments.
  • A clearer distinction between compliance and quality, with frameworks like IPS Fidelity and Ofsted seen as benchmarks for the latter.

Get involved

A big thank you to all our partners who joined us to celebrate Employability Day 2025. Your insights, energy, and commitment are what make progress possible.

If you’re an employer, policymaker, service provider, or someone with lived experience who wants to shape the future of employability support, we want to hear from you.

Reach out to us to learn more, collaborate, or share your story. Together, we can turn inactivity into opportunity, and opportunity into good work.