London's recovery starts with you

"Good work" must first be defined. Psychological research has identified work to be good for people when workers have autonomy and control of their work tasks / decision-making. Financial reward is not an influencing factor in whether work is 'good' or not but of course people must have sufficient means to be able to live comfortably. In the ideal scenario, people should be able to choose their vocation / work of choice without sacrificing financial reward and/or their health and wellbeing. I recall, pre-pandemic, stories of experienced registered nurses choosing supermarket check-out jobs instead of working for the NHS. To feel that you cannot continue in your chosen vocation for reasons beyond your control is a travesty. Not that I believe a supermarket check-out job is inferior; on the contrary, it became starkly clear during lockdown how much we take for granted roles like supermarket workers, delivery drivers, farmers, warehouse workers, carers, and all our health / frontline workers. Yet, they are typically the least well paid. If we do not value these jobs monetarily then we send a message that it is fundamentally 'bad work' that no one would want to do if they had a choice. This is a cultural and societal shift that needs to happen (in Denmark, hospitality and catering roles are not considered 'low-skilled' and underpaid jobs).

If private businesses are unwilling to pay the London Living Wage (and above) then you must legislate or there will be no choice but for the State to shoulder some of the responsibility e.g. through UC. However, the latter absolves private enterprise of its responsibilities. Good work should also mean investment in training and development for workers. Good work should also be a 4-day week to increase health and wellbeing benefits. We are more productive than we've ever been and yet we work more hours than 100 years ago; but simultaneously a lot more likely to experience mental health problems.

I'm going to echo something I mentioned on the 15 minute City discussion.

Do yourselves a favour. Read the book "Economic Facts and Fallacies" and take some of the lessons from there. The ease of transit (cost and time) expands the geographic net of workers, living locations, and schooling options. Simply put, if one lives in North London, or SW London, or even the boundary of Kent - if they can swiftly and cheaply travel in, you expand the geographic net and improve working options and careers. Everyone wins.

Yet London has perversely taken the view (partly detailed by yourselves) of increasing cycling, and prohibiting cars on the road, and parking etc. The busses are slow, and crammed, and the tube is crammed too (not adviseable in a pandemic). Not everyone can run or cycle into work; that's a fact of life. Not all train and tube lines reach everywhere - so the infrastructure limitations are a fact of the current options available.

What does work however is personal motorised transport. I still ride a motorcycle to work despite most boroughs making it virtually impossible to find a decent spot to park; and then charging me as well. I'm also not going to spend 1hr 50min on the bus to cross the inner City because it's the same speed as walking. In fact I'm borderline taking a job heading out of the City just to make the commute better.

Look I know the zeitgeist of the liberal/left London set is very anti-car; but cars provide personal independence and freedom for millions. They shop with cars, see friends, they go out, they get to sports grounds, drop their kids off, crucially they go to work. And so on. Maybe instead of being anti-car (which is by extension anti-people), you can think about facilitating car use as a preferred option, and reduce the pollution buses/taxis. Unsurprisingly people will take the route that is least onerous to their life - so just think critically about that and accept differing viewpoints.

This copy is a result of Positive Ageing in London's conference feedback:

Our aims

Older workers are not neglected in the job market and suffer unfairly.

Challenges

Older workers are at risk of being laid off and face a tougher job market. Many older people have decided to take early retirement or an enforced drop out of the job market. Apprehension of older workers who face a return to work in terms of safety

How to get there

Assessment of local rates of furloughing older workers and redundancies

Introduce tailor made job seeker support for older workers

Develop schemes for skills development for older workers

Ensure employers do not discriminate against older workers through better monitoring

Ensure safety protocols in place for older workers returning to work

Support for an educational programme to be promoted to and with London’s employers around the benefits of an age diverse workforce and retaining and hiring older and younger workers in a fair and equitable way

older working  people are facing long term unemployment. LRB plans & priorities have little reference to the plight of older working people or  any commitment to provide support & training .Older workers are in the forefront of the rising wave of unemployment. There are nationally over 150,000 additional people now unemployed to add to the over 330,000 older people already on the unemployment register + the 3 million over 50s who are without work or formal government help.  This figure is going to rise further as the furlough scheme is ending -, coupled with the ending of the self employed financial support  means more poverty among the over 50s workforce. 

With the forced return to employment of those previously shielded with a high proportion of those with disabilities and underlying health conditions are 50+ then hard times are ahead. We need to see more support for elders as well as continued support for younger working age people. Skills training, unemployment advice and guidance, apprenticeship and in house work training for both unemployed and those in work is needed at both ends of the age spectrum. Wise Age -the older workers charity has received feedback from many older people who are now on unemployment benefits. This is leading them to become depressed and isolated and some are entering poverty. This has negative implications for their whole family. If the head of household is unemployed the rest  are likely to be also. We need to promote the benefits of older working people & age diversity to employers & remember that when companies retained older workers after 2008 those companies then employed more younger ones as they were supported & mentored by elders. Older people are not job blocking younger ones

Older workers in London are at risk of being laid off and face a tougher job market. Many older people have decided to take early retirement or an enforced drop out of the job market - BAME seniors are particularly affected. Many older workers who face a return to work in terms of safety are apprehensive particularly those who have been shielding - and there are concerns about the safety of public transport.

Key actions are 

1. Assessment of local rates of furloughing older workers and redundancies to give a picture of how older Londoners are being affected 

2. Introduce tailor made job seeker support for older workers

3. Develop schemes for skills development for older workers

4. Ensure employers do not discriminate against older workers through better monitoring

5. Ensure safety protocols in place for older workers returning to work

Begging is now out of hand and is a blight on a city like London. People who are genuinely homeless or who have conditions that make them unable to work should not be on the streets in any case. Now there are ever increasing numbers of lifestyle beggars. They are on every train and are on many buses. It has been said that the three most important things for success in retailing are location, location and location. Lifestyle beggars seem to agree. Our city would be much better off if the mayor made begging illegal and if Transport for London encouraged people not to give to beggars.

I think entry requirements to some training courses are too high in some circumstances. For example, many courses require a minimum number of GCSEs including maths and English. This will exclude some people who may struggle academically for a variety of reasons but may have other extremely valuable practical skills. I doubt that, for many jobs, competence in simultaneous equations etc. Is never necessary so maybe demonstrating ability in basic arithmetic could suffice.

Agree that mission needs to be clear, time bound and with a measure by which success can be measured.  

I still feel that the government and local authority completely ignoring the pressure of being a parent at this time is completely overlooked and ignored.  People have lost jobs but they cannot retrain or seek new employment in the current climate where being a parent (with no school and no affordable childcare and no holiday clubs open plus pressure to home school) means that employers are going stay away from employing parents as they represent too high a risk.  This crosses all communities and all levels of employment from fulltine, part-time, casual, well paid jobs, minimum paid jobs etc.  All parents are similarly discriminated and will be bottom of the pile for employers.  How do you plan to address this key issue?

At a minimum, London should provide the basics for its people - shelter and food. There are too many homeless people around. I suggest offering them jobs that come with accomodation and if those jobs can contribute to the greening of London then all the better. Jobs such as 1) Planting Trees 2) Delivering items as part of a reuse/recycle model of consumption 3) Facilitating recycling 4) Marshall for when roads get closed 5) Jobs in industries that promote the transition to the low carbon economy.

People born in the UK instinctively walk on the left whereas people born abroad tend to walk on the right. As a result, all over London people are constantly walking into one another. One good thing that has come from the pandemic is that there are many more signs telling people to keep left although there are still some places (Green Park and Monument tubes) where, confusingly, the instruction is to keep right. A low cost solution would be for TFL to have many more keep left signs and ditch the ones that say keep right. On Hammersmith Bridge (now closed to any living thing) it took Hammersmith & Fulham council six months to install keep left signs and then only after fights had occurred on the bridge.

Good Careers Advice Needed

As a careers adviser and careers teacher, I note in the debacle over the ‘A’ level, GCSE and BTEC results, various ‘experts’ consistently refer learners to their schools, colleges and universities for advice. One problem is that these institutions compete to recruit and retain pupils and students in an increasingly market led education system and such advice may be partial. No one refers to the need to access independent, impartial, well informed careers advice. That’s because most careers advice has disappeared since responsibility for the former was removed from local authorities in the 1990s.

This year and next, thousands of young people will be leaving schools, colleges and universities, seeking work. Many young people will now not be heading off to further study, as higher education places are oversubscribed, and additionally we don’t know what will be the effects of a possible second Covid wave. Many working young people have been furloughed, and when this ends they will suffer the most as unemployment kicks in. A modified Youth Training Scheme should be introduced. To help overcome the worst effects of these problems we should re- establish a careers service in every local authority area starting in London.

The careers service should;

Provide a face to face impartial careers guidance interview to school pupils in years 11 and 12 and at a suitable point to further education students.

Provide careers information on the range of education or training options, including apprenticeships, technical education routes and volunteering opportunities.

Deliver a careers education programme in years 11 and 12 for schools and at a suitable point to further education students.

Provide a job vacancy service, including jobs, apprenticeship and traineeships and a university vacancy clearing service for pupils and students leaving schools and colleges.

I think that offering decent careers advice, backed up with support is the way forward.
 

Many will be forced to look for new industries as their old industries have fewer opportunities.

It feels like many my age (late 20's) have found themselves out of work from a job they weren't that happy with in the first place and now are a bit of crossroads. 

I've been lucky enough to receive such support, it has really helped me and am now applying for jobs I actually want. 

People in the service industry who have been made redundant: free advise to get out of the industry and get new skills. There wont be as many jobs in the industry after this anyway. Free Courses to change career. Higher unemployment benefits according to how many years they have been working in a row. Buildings in the centre (offices) that will become empty because they will apply full WFH, buy them and host families who need it as council houses. That way supermarkets, coffee shops at will survive. Forbid Service charge to be part of the Service industry pay slips and compell restaurant owners to pay a decent living wage - less hours. For people who can work from home, have the possibility to do it indefinitely.

I think people should be able to access employment advice and guidance easily and free of charge. There should also be more training and skill-building opportunities, or the ones that exist should be better advertised. I think this issue particularly affects young people, as the future of education and employment is unclear, especially for those who have no prior experience.