Agenda item

To consider the range of services delivered to assist unemployed residents to access local job opportunities or become self-employed.

Councillor Smith, Cabinet Member for Business and Economic Development introduced a report to the Committee on the range of services delivered by the Council to assist unemployed residents to access local job opportunities or become self-employed.

Mr Legg, Head of Economic Development reported to the Committee the activities of Positive Steps into Work, which was a team of employment specialists operating a series of contracts and projects around employment support. He explained that Positive Steps had been established in 2007 to pilot ways of assisting inactive incapacity benefit claimants into work and with external funding, had now expanded its remit and to become an outreach team operating in the most deprived neighbourhoods. Loss of grants and external funding had forced the team to seek commercial sub-contract opportunities under the government’s Work Programme from 2011, which focused on assisting longer term unemployed into local jobs. It was noted that funding for the programme was earned in arrears based on attachment payments, job outcomes and in-work sustainability. Other project opportunities had arisen in the last few years including closer collaboration with the Council’s Public Health department. 

Members were advised that the Service was not delivered with Council core funding and that instead, it relied upon commercial contracts and external funding awarded to the Council.

The Committee was also advised of future projects and opportunities that the service aimed to provide, including the ‘Mental Health and Employment Trailblazer.’ Mr Legg explained the project, which was one of four national pilots, aimed to test an integrated model of employment and clinical health support for up to 1,000 jobseekers in the borough. He advised that the primary aim of the model was to improve job outcomes for one of the hardest to help cohorts in the labour market. Members were advised that the £2.1m project would be part funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government’s Transformation Challenge Award fund and the European Social Fund, for which a bidding process for funding was currently being finalised. It was hoped the pilot could commence from April 2016 and would run for two years.

Mr Slater, Business Growth Manager, informed the Committee of the Get Started programme offering accredited business advice, training and events for new start businesses, which formed part of the wider Business Support Team. The focus of the programme was on assisting pre and post business startups and businesses in the first three years of trading. The Committee was advised that the programme had helped almost 1,000 new businesses to start trading since 2007.

The Committee was provided with details of the planned future direction of the service, which aimed to do more to improve the confidence and creativity of young businesses to encourage growth. It was also noted that the service was entirely dependent on Council core funding at present. However, it was reported that external funding opportunities were being explored.

In response to Committee questions, it was stated that many startups were created by local people who had a desire to become self-employed, but that there were also several examples of businesses that Get Started had helped that had experienced growth and were now employing a number of local people. Councillor Smith also explained that those startup businesses had been in a diverse range of industries.

Background papers: None.