Care leavers and ex offenders in the West Midlands helped into jobs through new partnership between government and leading businesses

• Businesses, charities and government to work together to help care leavers, ex-offenders and young people with mental health challenges  to find jobs
• Partnership aims to help thousands of people each year find meaningful employment
• Builds on launch of Office for the Impact Economy which helps the government to partner with and grow the impact economy – including purpose-driven businesses, impact investors and philanthropists

Greene King, Severn Trent and other leading UK businesses have joined forces with central and local Government to help more care leavers, ex-offenders and young people with mental health challenges in the West Midlands into quality jobs.

Through the partnership, the businesses aim to provide work opportunities for another 500 people from these backgrounds – an increase of 20% – with successful initiatives rolled out nationally to support thousands of people each year.

The Economic Inactivity Partnership brings together 12 businesses that have a strong presence in the region, with five government departments and the West Midlands Combined Authority.

It is supported by purpose-driven business charity ReGenerate and harnesses the power of business to support people who might otherwise struggle to find employment. This includes care leavers, prison leavers or young people with mental health issues, known as “hidden talent”, who businesses frequently find make highly capable and loyal employees. 

Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, Darren Jones, announced the partnership at the Severn Trent Academy today in Coventry, where he met care-leavers who work at the business, which offers work experience placements to support individuals with the transition from the care system into the workplace. He also met a number of young apprentices at the start of their careers, who also use the Academy to learn skills and develop their training. The event was attended by representatives from some of the biggest employers in the UK – collectively responsible for employing 1% of the UK workforce – including Amazon, John Lewis, Severn Trent, Keir Construction and Greggs. 

Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, said

It’s great to be focussing on skilling people up because there’s so much untapped potential across the country. 

Giving people the right opportunity at the right time can transform their life. It’s good for them – both for their financial position and their mental health. But it’s also good for our country if we can help people fulfil their potential – whatever their background and whatever challenges they’ve been through. 

So I’m thrilled to launch the Economic Inactivity Partnership in the West Midlands to make sure that’s the Britain we’re building.

The pilots will help identify what works in the West Midlands and solutions that can be scaled up across the UK. They include’ 

• An AI tool, trained on the insights and best practice partner businesses, including Timpson and Cook Foods, to help employers better understand how and why to employ hidden talent, providing personalised answers to their questions and directing them to the most relevant sources of information and support.

• West Midlands Jobcentre Plus, Severn Trent and Amazon are building a shared talent pool between partnership businesses, enabling hidden talent to be fast-tracked from a placement at one employer into a suitable job at another.

• Following the success of Sector-based Work Academy Programme (SWAPs) in Job Centres, the government will work with the partnership to develop options to test SWAPs in a closed prison, including in the West Midlands. And because we want these ideas to have national impact, we will also trial SWAPs in an open prison outside the West Midlands.

The Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister also met several current employees who have joined under Severn Trent’s employment pathway for care leavers. The company is one of the key regional businesses who make up the partnership, alongside Birmingham Airport.

The partnership builds on the launch of the Office for Impact Economy last year, which helps the government to partner with and grow the impact economy – including purpose-driven businesses, impact investors and philanthropists – tackle some of the UK’s biggest social, environmental and economic challenges. 

Based in the Cabinet Office, the Office for the Impact Economy acts an interface with the impact economy to help government partner and deliver with philanthropy, impact investors and purpose driven businesses.

Last week, Severn Trent became the latest backer of the Government’s Youth Guarantee, the Government’s scheme to give every young person the chance to earn or learn, with supporters including the Premier League, Channel 4 and Pinewood Studios.  The company is creating 400 employment opportunities for young people across the Midlands.

Ed Boyd, CEO of ReGenerate said

For too long, care leavers, ex-offenders, and young people with mental health conditions have been kept on the margins of the labour market – this is despite the fact that businesses benefit when they recruit them; often gaining talented, hard working and valuable members of their team. 

Everyone in this partnership, from the 5 government departments to the 12 major businesses, recognise this reality. It is so exciting to work together to build everything from an AI tool supporting recruiters to a way of sharing opportunities between companies, to reduce the number times a potential employee is sent back to the Jobcentre as they are building their career. 

This partnership plans to create 500 more job opportunities for hidden talent in the West Midlands this year alone, and we cannot wait to expand it throughout the UK together in 2027.

Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands, said

Here in the West Midlands, we have nearly 600,000 people who are out of work, and too many of them feel completely shut out of opportunity. Care leavers, prison leavers, young people who’ve struggled – these are all people who want to work, who want to build a future, but who keep hitting walls that others don’t. That’s both a moral failure and an economic one, because every person locked out of work is talent our economy is missing out on.

This challenge is too big for government or business to solve alone. But when local agencies, central government and purpose-driven businesses work as genuine partners from the start, not as an afterthought, real change becomes possible.

That’s exactly what this Economic Inactivity Partnership does, and our region is the right place to prove it. I’m determined that what we build here can shape how Britain tackles this challenge across the country.

James Jesic, Severn Trent Chief Executive said

At Severn Trent, we’ve seen first-hand the difference removing barriers to work can make, and creating opportunities can be truly life changing to those who need it. We’re proud to be building something bigger through the Economic Inactivity Partnership and working alongside good business charity ReGenerate, to bring together government and business to drive real, meaningful change. Today’s launch is just the beginning, we’re determined that what starts here in the West Midlands really helps shape the future of hidden talent employment across the UK.