Academics from De Montfort University are working with third-sector organisations (TSOs) providing employability support to vulnerable groups to co-create a practical job quality ‘toolkit’ that can help further their efforts to support users into decent and sustainable employment.
There is increasing evidence that job quality matters for health and wellbeing and that any job is not better than no job. With the Labour government promising to revamp employment support and emphasising the importance of ‘good work’, it seems timely to consider what role TSOs can play and how they can lead in taking this conversation forward with interested policymakers.
Professor Jonathan Payne, Dr Jonathan Rose and Dr Peter Butler discussed their initial ideas at a workshop with third-sector members from ERSA held in London on June 18, 2025.
The workshop provided valuable feedback which we hope can be part of a wider conversation with the sector about the further development and potential uses of the toolkit.
If you are interested in finding out more, a short busy persons’ guide to the toolkit, along with key points discussed at the workshop, can be accessed here.
Additional materials are also available explaining the thinking behind the toolkit and the supporting academic literature which informs it.
We are very keen to collect insights and feedback from TSOs. We have produced a very short questionnaire to gather your responses and comments. These will be invaluable to us in developing the toolkit and assessing its utility. The questionnaire can be accessed here.
Professor Jonathan Payne
Dr Peter Butler
Dr Jonathan Rose Contact: jpayne@dmu.ac.uk