Call to break the 'pattern' of families being out of work for generations

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’s executive medical director, Alistair Blair, warned that the region is seeing the third generation of some families either unemployed or “economically inactive” – neither working nor looking for work due to medical reasons.

He was speaking at a meeting of Northumberland County Council’s health and well-being board during a discussion on reducing inequalities in employment, and Dr Blair said the issue needed to be targeted by healthcare services.

He said: “I’m seeing this clinically – we’re seeing the third generation of people who have no life experience of being economically active.

“If your lived experience up to 18 was your parents and grandparents never being economically active, your aspirations and understanding of the work environment is reinforced by that far more than anything else we can do.

“I wonder if there’s something specific we should start to do about the generational impact of economic inactivity. It is definitely a pattern out there.

“If you’re a child at school and you have got two generations above you that have never been economically active, it becomes a default, which is a real challenge. I think there is a cultural aspect within that family culture.

“It would be great if we could do something to look at that in a targeted way.”

Data presented to the committee showed that there were 46,700 working age people who were economically inactive in Northumberland.