In a DfEE press release this week, David Blunkett welcomed the Chancellor's announcement about extending New Deal programmes to those aged over 25, and clarified plans to modernise JobCentres.
A new allocation of £50 million from the Capital Modernisation Fund will help bring jobcentres into the twenty-first century, Education and Employment Secretary David Blunkett said today, as he welcomed the employment proposals in the Chancellor’s pre-budget statement.
The New Deal 25 plus, for long term unemployed adults, is to be intensified with £100 million of windfall levy money. A further £10 million from the windfall levy is being added to the Innovation Fund to improve the effectiveness of the New Deal.
More intensive jobsearch interviews will be introduced with a £20 million fund for the Employment Service.
Mr Blunkett said:
"Last week I announced plans to modernise the Employment Service: the Learning and Work Bank, an Internet jobs and skills service; and the extension of jobs kiosks and Internet-linked touch screens in supermarkets, libraries, doctors’ surgeries and cyber cafes. Today I am pleased to provide more details, including the funding, of these important plans to help the unemployed.
"The Employment Service must improve the ways in which employers can notify their vacancies and make it easier for job seekers to apply for jobs. The £50 million for call centres will link job seekers and vacancies through touch-screen kiosks. We will set up a national network of job-broking call centres. These centres will provide a single national telephone number for employers to register vacancies and for job seekers to call for information about jobs on offer."
"We will create a jobs and learning bank, which will put jobs, jobseekers’ CVs and information about careers and learning opportunities on the Internet. We will expand nationwide the network of touch-screen jobpoints in jobcentres and other locations so that jobseekers can search not only all job vacancies notified to the Employment Service but also those carried by private agencies and newspapers. We will also develop links with the BBC and other potential partners to harness the potential of interactive TV to link employers and jobseekers.
"The New Deal 25 plus will help unemployed people to find jobs and training faster. Around 24,000 people have already found jobs through New Deal 25 plus and we want to build on this initial success and increase our efforts to tackle the problem of long term unemployment.
"From April 2001, we intend to introduce an improved, more flexible package of help for long-term unemployed people tailored to their individual needs. It might include: help with motivation and jobsearch, job subsidies, job-focused training, and help with setting up in self-employment.
"The Chancellor’s announcement today means we can improve the help on offer to this group. Long-term unemployed people aged over 25 are already able to benefit from advisory interviews to help them find work. We are using the windfall levy to invest more in the advisory process to give it more structure, pace and purpose. We are making available more specialist support, to deal with specific barriers to work.
"We are also extending the existing New Deal 25 plus pilots so that they will run until April 2001. These pilots in 28 areas of Great Britain are testing new ways of helping long-term unemployed people into work. The pilots are crucial in developing the detail of the provision we want to put in place after April 2001."
"A further £20 million has been allocated to increase the intensity of fortnightly jobsearch reviews for people who have been unemployed for six months or more. This will allow job centre staff time to match job seekers with vacancies and to ensure that job seekers are applying for employment. These measures will help to modernise and intensify the Employment Service.
"£10 million has been added to the Innovation Fund so that we can test more locally-developed proposals to improve the effectiveness of the New Deal. £5 million of this funding will be used to set up pilot projects in 11 inner city areas. This money will support organisations helping people into work through welfare to work programmes. This will build on both the work underway in the UK and the lessons for best practice from the US."
