Extra support and cash for parents moving off benefits and into jobs
February 12th, 2010
Thousands of lone parents will get extra help to get training and work experience while their children are at nursery school. They will also be able to keep £50 of their wages before losing any benefit if they get jobs for less than 16 hours a week, Yvette Cooper said yesterday.
Yvette Cooper announced that parents of three to six year old children in South London, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and Tees Valley will be the first to get this extra help through new Progression to Work Pathfinders.
The new plans will help lone parents to start preparing for work through things like training, work experience or getting CVs ready, or to find jobs that fit with nursery and school hours.
There will be an obligation on lone parents to take up help, but only during hours when their children are at school or nursery school. The aim is to ensure that those parents with young children remain close to the labour market and are ready to look for a job when the time is right, rather than losing all contact with the working world.
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Yvette Cooper said:
Helping parents into jobs so they can support their families is the best way to lift children out of poverty. We know that around 80 per cent of lone parents are already working or would like to work. We want to help them do that in a way that also supports their family life.
We are giving parents more support to get ready to go back to work while their children are at nursery school, but in return we do expect people to take up this extra help on offer.
Unemployed parents already get help to find a job as they drop their children off at school. The £10 million School Gates Employment Initiative is funding 25 Local Authorities in the most deprived areas of the country to help out of work parents into jobs.
Three in five lone parents already work by the time their youngest child reaches ten – a figure which has been rising over the past decade. According to the latest Household Labour Force Survey (2009 Q2), around 80 per cent of all lone parents and around 70 per cent of lone parents with a youngest child under the age of seven are either working or would like to work. Figures show that 635,000 lone parents have been helped into work through the New Deal for Lone Parents since 1998.
How rewarding is a career in social care?
February 9th, 2010
A new TV advertising campaign that shows how rewarding a career in social care can be and urges individuals to consider this as a career option, kicks off this week.
Over 1.5 million people are employed across the adult social care sector in England, and as many as 200,000 jobs in the sector are expected to be advertised in the coming year, based on existing trends. The campaign will encourage the next generation of social care workers.
The Department of Health campaign, which runs until March 20, focuses on the difference a career in social care can make through the voices of those who work in the sector.
The recruitment drive comes as a new survey reveals more than a third of people would consider switching into a career in social care, especially in younger age groups.
The TV and print advertising is supported by a series of face-to-face events across the country that encourage people to come along and find out more about the range of jobs available.
In the three broadcast adverts, real-life care workers talk about what makes their job special. Laura, a care worker who supports Joe, who has a learning disability, explains that when she goes home, she is happy to know that she has made a real difference.
Demand for social care is predicted to steadily increase as the population continues to age. In the next 20 years the number of people aged over 65 in England will increase by just under half, and those over 85 will double.
Care Services Minister Phil Hope said:
Social care has a huge variety of roles that are challenging and rewarding. Jobs range from home care assistants, to work within residential care homes and there is a wide range of positions working with older people, children, families and people with disabilities.
Careers offer flexible working hours and opportunities for further training and qualifications such as NVQs. With the number of people who may need help with day-to-day tasks set to grow, this is a sector that will offer an increasing number of opportunities for those looking for jobs or a new career.
Our campaign shows that workers in social care have a big positive impact on the people they work with.
David Taylor, 23, who works as a care assistant in Mansfield having decided to leave a career in fashion and move into social care, said:
Moving into social care is one of the best things I’ve done. Every day is different and I work with an amazing and inspiring team of people. Whilst you do get the odd hard day on the job, every time I go in to work and see the smiles on the faces of the people I help, and knowing they’re waiting for me to come in makes the job worthwhile. It’s given me more confidence in myself and I’ve just completed an NVQ3.
The Department of Health ran a similar campaign in 2009 which proved very successful. Over 32,000 people contacted the information line to ask about careers in social care, and over 385,000 unique users visited the website. The Department conducted follow-up surveys afterwards with a sample of the callers, and 58% of those asked had taken action to find work in social care since calling the advice line.
To find out more about the social care recruitment campaign, including the full list of events across the country visit www.socialcarecareers.co.uk
Source: Central Office of Information
