Ready when you are

News.., Politics — By TFNadmin on 13/05/2011 9:00 am

Sector bodies tell SNP government they are geared up to deliver Community Jobs Scotland

A NEW scheme to provide thousands of jobs for young people in the third sector could start within weeks, following the election of the first SNP majority government.

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) and Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition this week told Scotland’s First Minister they are ready to start Community Jobs Scotland (CJS) immediately.

The Scottish Government funded programme is set to begin in August and provide 2,000 fully funded six-month jobs for young people in the third sector over the next 12 months.

However, the two bodies tasked with running the scheme that will replace the Future Jobs Fund (FJF), which closed in March after its funding was cut by the Westminster government, say they are ready to start immediately.

SCVO’s chief executive Martin Sime, wrote to Alex Salmond this week to congratulate the Scottish National Party on winning the election and calling for the new Scottish Government to introduce measures to boost the role of the third sector in society as soon as possible.

He also backed the first minister’s call for more powers in the upcoming Scotland Bill, arguing that the third sector could play a bigger role in employment services if they were devolved to Scotland.

“Welfare and benefits, employability and ensuring community benefit from the Crown Estate are all areas where we feel the current Bill needs to be strengthened,” said Sime.

“A single UK benefits system is no longer able to articulate with free personal care, and other devolved policy around education, health and transport.

“In addition, UK government employability programmes sit uncomfortably alongside other services provided by the Scottish Government. Devolving responsibility for JobCentre Plus operations and for the operations of the Work Programme should be included in an amended Bill.”

The call comes after criticism of Westminster over the awarding of lucrative contracts to provide the Work Programme to private sector businesses over third sector bidders.

Over the last two years, the third sector FJF consortium has provided more than 2200 jobs to young unemployed people. It was also a much needed boost to voluntary organisations struggling to stay afloat in a climate of reduced funding.

Learning disability charity Enable Scotland took on 59 people through FJF, 40 of whom went onto permanent employment.

Doreen Walkinshaw, employment manager at Enable Scotland, said the body was ready and keen to start CJS.

“The voluntary sector plays a critically important role helping unemployed Scots back into employment,” she said.

“We already support the people who are furthest removed from the job market and are particularly skilled and experienced in supporting people with specialist needs.

“We understand where people are coming from and are passionate about offering support that is firmly focussed on the needs of the individual.”

Scotland’s third sector is also urging the government to ensure that it begins a major reform of public services.

It is arguing that greater investment in preventative voluntary and community sector services is necessary to ensure that the health and social care needs of Scotland’s aging population are met.

Helen Tyrrell, director of Voluntary Health Scotland, which supports Scotland’s health charities, said: “The pace of change is still too slow and too fragmented. The demographic time bomb continues to tick and we are deep in recession.

“The NHS simply cannot meet need.The new government will urgently need to improve on its record of working effectively with the third sector.

“All our research shows that there is third sector frustration with engagement at the middle levels of the NHS and local government, and experience of a residual institutional unwillingness to understand and partner the third sector in mature ways. “