UK Councils Direct DWP and Shared Prosperity Funds to Ethnicity-Restricted Employment Schemes

Sheffield’s scheme, funded jointly by the Department for Work and Pensions Economic Inactivity Trailblazer and the £2.6 billion UK Shared Prosperity Fund, channels support through charities to “economically inactive” ethnic-minority residents only. Greater Manchester and North Lanarkshire have mirrored the approach with ring-fenced CV workshops and business grants reserved for BAME participants, while maintaining that parallel universal programmes exist. Primary grant letters and council procurement notices confirm ethnicity as an eligibility filter rather than a secondary consideration.

These allocations occur inside the levelling-up framework established after 2022, where central government passes multi-year funding to combined authorities with minimal line-item oversight on beneficiary criteria. Official DWP and MHCLG guidance permits “positive action” under the Equality Act 2010 but does not require race-exclusive delivery; local authorities have interpreted the latitude to create closed programmes. White working-age economic inactivity rates in former industrial wards remain statistically comparable to several minority cohorts once age and qualification controls are applied, yet postcode or skills-based targeting was not adopted.

The pattern aligns with documented shifts in public-sector resource allocation since 2020, where identity criteria have displaced class or need metrics in training, procurement and now benefits-linked services. Taxpayer-funded bodies face no statutory duty to publish ethnicity breakdowns of grant recipients, limiting external verification. Further replication is likely absent explicit ministerial direction to local authorities by the next spending review.

DWP ministerial correspondence and combined-authority board minutes indicate no immediate reversal; funding streams run through 2026.