London Bangla A Force for the community…
CONNECT TO WORK (C2W) is a Government-funded scheme which supports residents with disabilities or health conditions or face other barriers to finding employment. And it’s had some success in Tower Hamlets.
First, the good news. This seems to be a very closely targeted operation, finding individual needs and meeting them. Over the last year, C2W has engaged 313 people, which includes 157 people who have experienced long-term unemployment, 80 young adults 38 carers, 21 people serving community sentences and five residents in recovery from substance misuse.
Now, the other news. The C2W programme works with health services, community organisations, employers and unnamed local “partners”. That’s an awful lot of people spending an awful lot of time on the project. We don’t know the cost of running the project – or what may be a hidden cost of all these partners working on it too.
C2W “embeds support within services and community settings that that residents already know and trust” and there are “11 community deliver locations ,including GP practices, job centres, probation services, local authority services, community organisations and young people’s services”. That sounds great but too often words like this mean that the same few organisations that always get funding are now getting more funding. How these locations are chosen, and how they deliver an equitable service across the borough, is not transparent.
C2W recognises “the close connection between employment and health and wellbeing. It has “established strong partnerships across health, local authority employment and voluntary sector services” and has appointed a “clinical lead”. And over the next four years it aims to establish even stronger partnerships across the borough. This raises questions, again, about the cost of all these people in well-paid employment justifying their salaries because of their involvement in this project.
It’s true that poor health is a barrier to finding employment, but if we make too much of it could end up spending a large amount of public health funding on a single project – possibly even depleting resources that could fund the healthcare workers that this project is trying to create.
C2W has been running since July 2025. It celebrated its first birthday at a recent event in the Town Hall. Its work has definitely been the boost that 313 needed to get closer to finding employment. But at the rate of 300 a year, it may take half a millennium to reach the working population of Tower Hamlets.
Councillor Shenaly Miah (Cabinet Member for Jobs, Enterprise, Skills and Growth) enjoyed the anniversary celebration and said it showed “what can be achieved when local government, health services, community organisations and employers work together towards a shared goal.” She was also struck by hearing from residents, saying, “It was inspiring to hear firsthand from participants the impact it has had on their lives.” That’s an intriguing balance, and Cllr Miah’s job will be to steer a course between helping people who need a bit of support to turn their lives round and ensuring there is accountability and public scrutiny of the spending of public money.”
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