New initiative to get people off benefits and into work
Last updated | 20/06/2008
A meeting of the Full Council on Wednesday 25 June will be asked to approve a new strategy to get more people back to work in Perth and Kinross.
Members will be asked to support an Employability Strategy and Action Plan, which has been drawn up following a review of the area’s socio-economic situation.
The plan and strategy aims to give people on benefits more opportunities to get back into work.
Although economic activity in Perth and Kinross is higher than the Scottish average and that claimant count employment is much lower than the average, a significant number of people are not in employment. There are approximately 13,000 people of working age not in employment in the area, 9,480 of these in receipt of benefits.
A Local Employability Partnership has been set up to take the new strategy forward. It consists of the Council, Job Centre Plus, Perth College, Scottish Enterprise, Careers and the voluntary sector, and its aims is to assist 2,000 people to move off benefits by 2011.
The Partnership will support the development of support services which will assist people with employability needs to progress into the labour market, and also encourage access to support for those people perceived to be harder to reach. It will also develop and support new links with employers and employer organisations. Youth and adult training support will be also be developed.
As a major local employer, the Council has pledged to assist in getting benefits clients back into work. Initiatives such as work trials, a review of recruitment procedures and work experience for disadvantaged jobless people will aim to help people get into the workforce.
Council Leader, Councillor Ian Miller, said: “The adoption of this new Strategy and Plan will be a key step in taking this area of activity forward in Perth and Kinross.
“It will support disadvantaged individuals into training and employment. One of the Council’s main objectives is to nurture a prosperous, sustainable and inclusive economy, and this new strategy will help us to do that. This will be a challenging initiative bringing together a wide range of services both within the Council, and within partner agencies and service providers.”
