Lisa Nandy MP: our reforms will get Britain working again

Nearly half a million people are out of work in Greater Manchester and 137,000 are on long term sick leave.

Around 4,300 people aged 16 and over in Wigan were unemployed last year.

In addition, there were roughly 56,400 people, 28% of working age people, who were not in employment and not actively looking for a job in our borough, a higher proportion than across Greater Manchester and the UK.

Nationally, a record 2.8 million individuals are out of work due to long-term sickness, one in eight young people are not in education, employment or training, and 9 million adults lack the basic skills they need to get on.

I know that many people who are unemployed and able to work in Wigan are desperate to find good quality jobs but often face significant barriers in their way.

Our Get Britain Working plan, backed by £240m of new funding next year, aims to remove such barriers and help drive up employment and opportunity, drive down the benefits bill and assist our economy to grow.

Our proposals will transform the Jobcentre system into a new national jobs and careers service, shifting Jobcentres back to their core role of focusing on people’s skills and careers instead of monitoring and managing benefit claims.

The new service will become more digitalised, more joined up with other local services and more focused on serving local employers’ needs.

Our frontline staff are our greatest asset, so we will develop the work coach and careers adviser professions, including launching a new coaching academy.

A Youth Guarantee will be introduced to ensure that every young person is earning or learning.

It will bring together all the support for 18 to 21-year-olds under the leadership of mayors and local areas so all young people have access to education, apprenticeships, training and employment opportunities.

To help drive down joblessness caused by ill health, mental health support will be expanded and extra staff will be deployed to reduce waiting lists in the 20 NHS trusts across England with the highest levels of people who are out of work and not currently looking for a job.

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust will be one of those to benefit from this extra support.

Greater Manchester has also been selected as one of the new trailblazer areas to pioneer these proposals and join up local work, health and skills support – so everyone looking for employment in our area can get the help they need.

Extra Government funding will be made available to the Mayor of Greater Manchester to help deliver on-the-doorstep support to improve health, build self esteem and get people ready to move into work.

By breaking down the barriers to opportunity and helping people to get into work and get on at work, these plans will prove we finally have a government committed to getting Britain working again.