Coventry
City Council is considering creating a £34,000-a-year post to handle the
government’s New Deal employment initiative.
The idea comes in the wake of figures which showed that Coventry came 113th
out of 142 local authorities in finding work for people on the scheme.
Only one in four enlisted on New Deal found work – a total of 57 from 222
registered people.
Only 23 people in Warwickshire were successful in finding jobs as a result of New Deal
putting the county 93rd in the list.
The council is now considering several ideas to boost its success. A plan due to go
before the Training Policy Team and the Human Resources Team, recommends that each council
department sets targets for New Deal employment and "ring fences" certain posts
for New Deal applicants only.
The £34,000 post is not a recommendation but councillors are asked to note that its
creation is a possibility.
Every council vacancy is already offered for consideration by New Deal clients through
the Employment Service, and they have 10 days to apply before a post is advertised in the
media.
But the policy has clearly not yielded results. In the 18-25 year old bracket 32 out of
315 vacancies were thought suitable for New Deal applicants, there were 22 applications,
with eight still in the pipeline. Two people had interviews and 12 were unsuccessful.
The 25 and over bracket makes even bleaker reading – only nine out of 315
vacancies were suitable for New Deal people and there were no interested candidates.
