Insight: Coming together to realise positive change

The Labour Party this week held its first party conference in government for 15 years. Over 20,000 delegates were in attendance for a busy schedule of speeches, fringes and renewed acquaintances. What were some of the critical issues coming out of the conference and why do they matter? Our Director of Public Affairs, Andrew Bell, reflects on an agenda-setting few days:

George Harrison once said of his home city, Liverpool, that it was ‘a good place to wash your hair’, owing to the plentiful supply of soft northern water. Water and specifically rain was the defining feature of the first couple of days of Labour Party Conference, which the city hosted this week. Without fear of contradiction, I am going to state that this was the wettest Labour conference in living memory! Thankfully, the myriad discussions that took place across the first conference of a Labour Party in government for 15 years were all housed away from the unforgiving elements.

Given the scope of our service delivery, there were plenty of topics of interest to engage with, and I’m going to focus on the three that made the biggest impact on me: how we build the economy needed to realise net zero; the future of employability provision; and the potential for a more philanthropic UK.

Realising the skills to deliver net zero

Our fringe event in partnership with IPPR had as its focus the jobs and skills challenge we as a country face to hit the looming net zero targets the Government is working towards. We are used to making light of the weather in this country but there can be no doubt that the increasingly unpredictable and often hostile climate we are living with is to a large degree the result of human activity. That’s why the rationale to reduce our carbon emissions and transition to a green economy is a sound one.

If the rationale is sound, the implementation is a work in progress. We are in many cases a long way behind where we need to be to make the transition a reality. Andrew Pakes, the new Labour MP for Peterborough, and Co-Chair of the APPG on Apprenticeships, spoke passionately about the role of skills in realising net zero. Sue Ferns, of the Prospect union, highlighted how demand for the same skills will double by 2050. Our own Tom Hoines discussed the role Reed Environment is playing in this regard by setting up Energy Academies across the country to deliver the training and apprenticeship opportunities we require. We can and must build the workforce that realises net zero but what is clear is that no one entity – government, education, business, trade unions – will be able to do so in isolation. All must unite behind a shared purpose.

Supporting more people into employment

We were pleased to co-sponsor the ERSA reception on the future of employability provision. This is a vital and defining moment for everyone involved in the business of supporting people into work. With economic inactivity at record levels and increasingly complex health issues acting as barriers to people’s personal and economic wellbeing, the need for the specialised, expert and compassionate provision such as that which we and fellow providers on programmes such as the Restart Scheme have decades-worth of experience delivering, has never been more urgent.

Our reception heard from two of the people central to making decisions about what the policy response from government will be, the DWP Minister, Sir Stephen Timms and the West Midlands Mayor, Richard Parker. We were delighted to catch up with both and present them with copies of our hot-off-the-press Impact Report! On the future of provision, whichever path is taken, we as a sector are ready to partner with both central and local government to deliver support where it is most needed. People are what our sector is all about.

Unlocking the power of philanthropy

I was grateful for the opportunity to take part in the Centre for Social Justice’s (CSJ’s) roundtable event on philanthropy. The CSJ are taking forward a project whose ultimate aim is how to boost charitable giving in the UK. Philanthropy is something that collectively, as a nation, we have the potential to get so much better at, as a recent report from the Onward think tank made clear. Business has a vital leadership role here. At Reed in Partnership, we are 18% owned by the Reed Foundation, which means that we work for charity one day per week. We’re also a stakeholder in Big Give, the UK’s largest match-funding charity, which has made over £280 million of donations since it was founded in 2007 by Sir Alec Reed.

It was impossible not to leave the roundtable feeling enthused about the scope of what’s possible if we unlock the true potential of philanthropy. So much goodwill exists across government, the charity sector, funders and donors that if we can get the right structures in place and shift the national conversation on the role of giving back then everyone will benefit.

If there was a common thread to all of these areas it would be collaboration. To realise the net zero economy, to tackle economic inactivity and to build a more philanthropic UK, there has to be joined-up thinking across public, private and voluntary sectors. No one sector can provide all the answers to these challenges alone, but together positive change is within our grasp. To coin a phrase popularised by Liverpool’s most famous sons: we can work it out.