Monday 19th May 2008
(ref:
151/2008 )
Plans for tackling worklessness in Wigan are to get a boost as a result of the “What Makes Wigan Work” conference on Wednesday May 23.
The high profile, one day event will bring together people from a variety of organisations to generate new ideas and approaches to getting people into work.
“Worklessness” is a term used to describe the number of people who are out of work, but would like a job.
Cllr David Molyneux, Deputy Leader of Wigan Council and Cabinet Champion for Regeneration says:
“There are approximately 35,000 people living in Wigan who are classed as ‘workless’. More than 18 per cent of the working age population are claiming benefits such as Incapacity Benefit, Job Seekers Allowance and Lone Parent Benefit.
“We have identified high levels of worklessness in the borough as a priority issue to be tackled in the new Local Area Agreement. A worklessness strategy is currently being developed to determine how services will be targeted in the future to help people who want a job to get a job.”
The strategy will identify the barriers that are stopping people accessing work. These could include issues such as poor basic skills, low self esteem and low confidence. It will outline the best ways to tackle these issues to enable the barriers to work to be broken down thus reducing the amount of worklessness in the borough.
The conference’s guest of honour will be Bishop Stephen Lowe who is the Bishop of Hulme and Chair of the Urban Bishops’ Panel. His genuine enthusiasm and passion for tackling worklessness, makes him an ideal key note speaker for the event.
Bishop Stephen Lowe said:
“You cannot get people back to work if they do not believe in themselves. Low self-esteem is a major issue in many of our poorer urban communities”.
The conference will have a strong focus upon sharing ideas and creating a sense of energy in developing the Worklessness Strategy and ultimately in using it to deliver services to help people into work.
Notes to editors
- For further information about the “What Makes Wigan Work” conference or the worklessness strategy, please contact Kevin Walsh, Senior Strategy Officer on 01942 828954 or Kevin.Walsh@wigan.gov.uk.
