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Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 19:51:41 +0100 GMT
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Subject: UK Employment zones: will they work?
UK Employment zones: will they work?
Zones d'Emploi britanniques: marcheront-ils?
The Blairite solution to poor prospects for employment is to identify parts
of Britain where these problems cluster and then concentrate resources.
Smart. Will the policy work?
Employment zones are areas where the usual national programmes for
the unemployed will be ditched in favour of running trials of local
initiatives. The five areas chosen to pilot the scheme all have high
concentrations of the long-term jobless.
"Employment Zones will give communities the flexibility to devise local
solutions which best meet local needs," said the Employment Minister,
Andrew Smith, when he invited bids for zone status last September.
Plymouth, Liverpool, north-west Wales, south Teeside and Glasgow
began running their own programmes in February. The schemes must all
include training plans to improve employment prospects, business
enterprise to help the jobless move into self-employment, and
neighbourhood regeneration - work which improves the wider community.
Ideas from the five areas include individual learning accounts, mentors for
the jobless, free child-care vouchers, and specialised training for seasonal
workers. In some cases benefit rules will be relaxed, like the ban on
studying more than 16 hours a week while on Job Seekers Allowance.
The Government is hoping that the zones will replicate the success of
initiatives like the Wise Group in Glasgow which has a better record than
the Employment Service at getting the long-term jobless back into real
careers.
The schemes will be aimed at people aged 25 and over, who have been
out of work for more than a year; a group whom the Government's critics
say have been neglected because policies have focused on the young
unemployed. Participants on the schemes will be volunteers who will
receive their benefit plus a GBP 15 a week top-up. Some 5,000 people
will be covered in the five zones.
Like the New Deal, programmes will be run by a combination of
Government, local businesses and voluntary organisations. The GBP
58m budget is fairly small by New Deal standards, but if the programmes
are successful the Government will expand the best features nationally.
The inspiration for pouring in resources to specified parts of the country
came from Chris Smith when he was opposition spokesman for social
security. He suggested consolidating all the resources spent on
unemployment through benefits, training programmes, regional
assistance budgets and European funds into one budget, and allocating
grants directly to individually tailored schemes.
Experts are cautiously enthusiastic about the potential of the zones to
generate new approaches for tackling unemployment. The biggest
danger, according to John Philpott from the Employment Policy Institute,
is that the Government could get cold feet when it comes to implementing
the ideas across the country. "The previous government would launch
pilots and them let them drop regardless of how successful they were. It
shouldn't just be about talking up sexy ideas but about seeing them
through." Local support is the key, says Paul Convery from the
Unemployment Unit. "It demands high levels of local political leadership.'"
Source: Charlotte Denny (c) Guardian 21/04/98
