Read the thematic paper of the European Network of Public Employment Services (PES) on a new ‘PES initiative to support the activation of inactive groups’.

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This publication was produced in the context of a Thematic Review Workshop on ‘Activation of the Inactive’ (14-15 January 2020 – Riga, Latvia). It contains preparatory input provided by the 13 participating PES, as well as the key findings and conclusions from the event.

Who are the inactive?

On the basis of a pre-event survey, the paper overviews the main inactive sub-groups and their relevance to participating PES. It has a particular focus on:

• people with health problems and disabilities;
• women with care commitments;
• women with migration background; and
• socially excluded and particularly vulnerable groups.

How can PES support activation?

The publication goes on to reveal practical steps that PES can or have been implementing in relation to activation of these sub-groups, depending on the national system in which they operate and the scope of their mandate.

Challenges may include: adequate resourcing for specialised training, counsellors and new methodologies; adequate cooperation with a wide range of other institutions that are already dealing with the inactive; and a proper framing of the new tasks to be included in PES agendas.

Important complementarities should be sought between PES activation efforts and social protection schemes. This needs to happen while remaining mindful that countries with generous benefit systems might need to use non-economic levers to encourage work motivation.

Cooperation with other actors is also needed because most inactive sub-groups are not registered with the PES. The only way for PES to become aware of them and reach them would be through close partnerships with a wide array of public and private actors.

Approaches to developing effective partnerships can include the PES itself managing the cooperation by coordinating a network of organisations or providing easily accessible information systems and joint databases.

Finally, PES would need to come up with new and innovative ways of reaching out to employers as a means of activating inactive sub-groups. Changing pre-existing concepts and stereotypes is important and so is the idea of linking inclusion and innovation as a basis for sustainable PES integration efforts.