Schemes run by housing charities, associations and social enterprises are more effective than government programmes at helping long term unemployed people and disadvantaged areas, analysis has found.

For their study academics at the University of East Anglia (UEA) looked at the impact of enterprise and employment support schemes from across government and the third sector.

They found that government schemes “have delivered poor outcomes for disadvantaged individuals and deprived areas”.

“In contrast, alternative third sector socially orientated” schemes “show promising results”.

These benefited by support workers distancing themselves with their role as social landlords, such as by working in different teams from housing focused officers. They also capitalised on a track record for “high-quality client-centred employment support for tenants”.

“Importantly, these key-informants emphasise that ‘when we speak to [clients] it’s different to how a Job Centre might speak to them’ such that ‘we’re asking, not telling’,” said researchers.

Charity and housing association support schemes are voluntary for people to take part in, which also makes them more effective than statutory government support schemes. This results in government and third sector support being "absolute poles apart”.

The study’s lead author Professor Zografia Bika from UEA’s Norwich Business School, said: “Our research shows that tackling long-term unemployment in deprived areas is not about delivering ‘a’ job that acts as turning point for the long-term unemployed.

“Instead, it is about forging a long-term relationship that builds on where people are now, their realities and their aspirations.

“This means re-orientating services towards optimising the ‘distance travelled’ by vulnerable people on their pathways from unemployment towards work, rather than maximising the number of job-offers or start-ups they deliver.”

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