Some councils are failing to use a £1.5 billion fund to tackle unemployment effectively enough to reach the most disadvantaged people, the communities secretary has admitted.
Hazel Blears told delegates at the Labour Party conference in Manchester that the Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) was not being used as productively as it could be in some areas. “I am going to take a good look at that,” she said.
Blears said the WNF, which came into effect in April, had not been “designed simply to allow local authorities to commission more of the same, such as traditional Jobcentre work. It was about commissioning the third sector (including social enterprises)”, working with these agencies and “thinking outside the box” to reach severely disadvantaged groups.
Blears received the initial feedback from a team set up to look into how the WNF should be spent (Regen.net, 28 May). The team is examining ways of helping the long-term unemployed into jobs, as well as considering how agencies such as the Learning and Skills Council and Jobcentre Plus can better meet the needs of people in disadvantaged areas.
The team will present its first interim report to Blears next month and the final report will be published next year.