Last
week, I visited Redruth Job Centre. Unemployment is at its lowest level for
many years and I was told that on one local job website alone, there were some
500 job vacancies within a five mile radius of Redruth.
I
have always been impressed by the local management team at Redruth Job Centre.
They have an enthusiasm and a passion for the area. They try new
ideas and pilot new approaches nationally. They currently operate a call
centre helpline from Redruth offering advice to benefit claimants nationally
using the expertise that the team have developed over many years.
While
no system we put in place will ever be perfect and different people need
different support, we have to constantly try to improve the support we offer
local people to help them back into work. Getting a job and being a valued part
of a team in a working environment gives people purpose in life and can help on
so many other fronts too. That is why we owe it to the long term
unemployed to help them gain the confidence to take work.
About
seven years ago under Gordon Brown's premiership, there was a severe problem
with youth unemployment. When David Cameron became Prime Minister he
introduced a new work experience programme so that young people who had left
school or college could do work experience for a few weeks. It was contentious
at the time and some dubbed it "slave labour" but they were proved
completely wrong. The policy was an extraordinary success and many young
people found work as a result. Youth unemployment has now fallen dramatically.
The
next challenge is to help those with impairments or suffering from depression and
anxiety back to work. A lot of progress has been made through schemes like
Access to Work which provides grants to help people with a disability get any
additional equipment they might need to help them get a job. There is
also more work being done to redesign the "Work Programme" so that it
provides additional help to those who are on Employment Support Allowance and
other disability benefits and to help knock down the barriers to them joining
the workplace where possible.
As
the economy turns a corner, we need to make sure we continue to create better
paid jobs for this part of Cornwall. As new companies arrive I want to see them
become successful and profitable enough to offer higher wages so that we
encourage people to take work and stay in work.
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