A national scheme to help youngsters back into work may be cynically being used by employers for cheap labour.
At a meeting on Wednesday, Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s regeneration scrutiny committee looked at how the UK Government’s Kickstart scheme is being rolled out in the county.
The Kickstart Scheme is a £2 billion scheme aiming to create hundreds of thousands of new, fully subsidised jobs for young people aged 16 to 24 years old, across the UK.
The scheme provides funding to employers to create six-month job placements for young people who are currently on Universal Credit or Jobseeker’s Allowance, and at risk of long-term unemployment.
The council’s employability officer Laura Bull told councillors at the end of October the first youngster to complete the scheme in the county had been offered a job by the employer.
Ms Bull said 109 placements had been created across 25 businesses, and that 63 had been filled so far.
Cllr Greg Paulsen said: “What questions are being asked of employers so that we’re not propping up a business model which is taking advantage of the process?”
“What checks are done that it’s not used in the wrong way?
Cllr John Morgan was also concerned and said: “I feel this is an extremely good programme. It’s what our youngsters need, but we need full time jobs for them rather than free labour for an employer.
Ms Bull said: “It’s been marketed as a six-month work experience, and employers take them on if suitable.
“We’ve had good feedback from employers that they are going to take on those young people.”
She added the DWP do spot-checks on companies.
Ms Bull said: “There are check in place that employers don’t take more people on than they can sustain.”
But she conceded there was little that could be done if an employer let a youngster go after six months and then took another one on as part of the scheme.
Ms Bull said: “It is key for us to monitor what happens to those people if the company don’t take them on and make sure they are supported.”
Blaenau Gwent’s connected communities team manager Bethan McPherson added: “Ultimately this is a DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) programme so our influence is limited, perhaps the conditions can be tightened up as we go forward.”
Cllr Morgan asked for more feedback to see how many of the youngsters had been taken on by the companies after they had completed their six-month placement,
Cllr Wayne Hodgins stressed that the council as administrator of the scheme is “grateful” to the employers who are taking part in Blaenau Gwent.
As part of the Kickstart scheme the council is known as a “Gateway Organisation.”
Their role is to help find placements, support applications for businesses to take part in the scheme and manage grant funding to companies.
The committee noted the progress being made and the report will also be discussed by the executive committee councillors at a meeting next week.
