12 Feb Get Britain Working: Practical Local Action for Economic Inclusion

The Get Britain Working (GBW) White Paper provides a clear national framework and a set of targeted metrics to tackle economic inactivity and uneven access to employment across the UK. Its focus is not only on driving up the employment rate but also on addressing persistent inequalities for groups who face entrenched barriers to work. The challenge for our work at Shared Intelligence has been to turn this national ambition into specific, evidence-based local plans that create practical outcomes for residents and employers.

In late February, we will be presenting our recent work on developing local Get Britain Working plans at the LGA/ADPH Public Health Conference 2026, exploring the links between good employment and health, and the importance of lived experience in shaping effective local approaches.

A framework for local leadership

The GBW White Paper asks local authorities, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to work jointly, with local government taking a leadership role. The metrics are unequivocal: raise the employment rate to 80% of working-age adults, boost real earnings for lower income households, close health and disability employment gaps, and reduce the proportion of young people, lone parents, and parents in couple households who are out of the labour market. These are backed by specific calls to close local employment rate gaps and improve access for seldom-heard groups.

Local government’s experience and its convening power makes it the natural lead on developing GBW Plans, working day-to-day with Jobcentre Plus, NHS partners, employer bodies, educators, and community organisations. Local analysis, real understanding of the population, and honest partnership working underpin success. The system is fragmented: the GBW model creates a route for more integrated responses, drawing on relevant national funding streams and adapting delivery to local priorities.

Turning strategy into action: what is working on the ground

Shared Intelligence has helped several local partnerships move from planning to practical action. In Kent and Medway, we worked with county and unitary authorities alongside DWP, NHS, employers, FE colleges, and the voluntary sector. Our approach grounded the plan in local data and lived experience. Insights highlighted health, care, and ESOL barriers, the challenge of engaging with fragmented support systems, and the reality of multiple overlapping disadvantages faced by residents. Work to understand the experience of residents with complex needs, drove forward a deeper understanding and targeted recommendations. The full plan can be found here: Get Kent and Medway Working Plan – Kent County Council

In Gloucestershire, we combined supply-side and demand-side analysis across the county’s districts, surfacing issues such as transport challenges, under-employment, and the need for better employer flexibility. Recommendations focused on mapping clear pathways into work, developing locality-specific support, and joined-up commissioning—bridging the gap between what is available and what is needed now.

Our Oxfordshire work, in a county already exceeding the national 80% employment rate, took a different angle: it focused on understanding the remaining inequalities that hold back participation for residents further from the labour market. By protecting existing strengths and addressing gaps, the plan provides a basis for more inclusive opportunity, beyond headline employment figures.

From plan to delivery: lessons for local partners

Several lessons recur from our experience in supporting GBW plans:

• Strong, multi-agency partnership is essential. Genuine collaboration across health, skills, economic development, and welfare underpins joined-up delivery.
• Use of local data and lived experience ensures interventions reflect real inequalities and unlock specific local barriers.
• Focus resources on those ready to engage. Not every inactive resident need or want to work—target support for those furthest from the labour market or with complex needs.
• Concrete action planning and iterative learning. These are living documents: continuous review, engagement with delivery partners, and real-time learning drive improvement.
• Place-based pathways, not one-size-fits-all programmes. Each area’s plan must reflect local population and labour market conditions and adapt to emerging evidence.

Support for evaluation and learning

Many GBW plans are now in delivery or nearing completion. The priority is shifting from design to active implementation, with robust monitoring and evaluation at the heart. Shared Intelligence can help local authorities, ICBs, and wider partners review existing plans, develop actionable recommendations, and evaluate delivery against national metrics and local priorities.

For further discussion or support—whether you are at the planning, delivery, or review stage—contact Lisa McCance at lisa.mccance@sharedintelligence.net.