New mobile Jobcentres are pulling up to football matches and
retail parks to deliver vital employment support directly to
local communities.
The vans have been visiting family hubs, retail car parks and
mosques in regions with particularly high levels of unemployment
and inactivity as the Department for Work and Pensions
(DWP) tests
new and inclusive ways to help people back into work. This
includes a van pitching up at Bolton Wanderers Football Club last
weekend to provide job support to fans on match day.
In Bolton alone, nearly 1-in-3 of people are currently inactive,
with unemployment significantly higher than the national average.
This van and others like it are performing a vital service to
areas like Bolton, breaking down barriers to opportunity and
bringing the expertise and support of the DWPstraight into the
heart of the communities that need it most.
The mobile Jobcentres are staffed by experienced Work Coaches who
offer expert support with job searching, training opportunities
and can provide information to those with health conditions or
disabilities and accessing childcare costs.
As well as existing customers, the service is open and accessible
to all members of the public and forms part of the government's
wider plans to tackle inactivity, support people into jobs and
make everyone better off under its Plan for Change.
With the vans in Bolton, Flintshire, Denbighshire and Wrexham
already proving a success, a van in Scotland will launch later
this month and cover Moray and the Highlands.
The Minister for Employment, , saw the Bolton mobile
Jobcentre in action today (Monday 10 February) as members of the
local community received advice outside the Great Lever Family
Hub, a Start Well Children's Centre.
Minister for Employment, , said:
For too long, people have been denied the opportunity of securing
a good job and getting on in their career. Under our major
employment reforms, we want to see everyone, in every corner of
the country, become better off.
This mobile Jobcentre is a perfect example of an inclusive and
accessible DWP solution that
ensures no one misses out on the job support they deserve.
Getting more people back into work is a key part of our Plan for
Change to deliver economic growth, create better opportunities
and put more money into the pockets of working people.
Sam Ashton, a Work Coach based on the Bolton mobile Jobcentre,
added:
The new Bolton mobile Jobcentre hit the road in January and has
already pulled up in various locations across the town including
at the Toughsheet Community Stadium. We have been supporting
customers with a whole host of needs, whether that is with their
job search, or accessing childcare costs.
We're really looking forward to helping even more people in
harder to reach areas and make it much easier for them to access
our services.
The government is delivering on the biggest reforms to employment
support in a generation as set out in the Get Britain Working
White Paper. Key measures include overhauling Jobcentres,
introducing a Youth Guarantee to ensure all people aged 18 to 21
are earning or learning and connecting local work, health and
skills plans.
