£2m employment scheme to be launched in Barnsley – where almost 40,000 are out of work

The funding will largely come from the government’s shared prosperity fund – which will replace the European structural and investment funds which previously financed Barnsley’s employment services.

In December 2023, the European funding came to an end, and Barnsley Council will be able to use funds from the government’s shared prosperity fund – but only for the next 15 months.

A report to BMBC’s cabinet said that around 39,800 residents are out of work in the borough, and 71 per cent of working-age people are in employment compared to a national average of 75 per cent.

Currently, there are 1,800 to 2,000 average weekly vacancies, but residents who want to work face barriers such as the ‘complexity and centralisation of the current support system’.

In the borough, 42 per cent of working-age adults are economically inactive due to long-term sickness or disability, compared to 26 per cent nationally.

The funding will be used to provide information, advice and guidance to ‘raise aspirations and awareness of local labour market opportunities’.

Residents will receive support for training, as well as connections to workplaces in the borough.

The report adds that the shared prosperity funding has a ‘wider remit’ than the previous funding, and focuses on economically inactive residents who are ‘not engaged with Jobcentre Plus’.

BMBC’s cabinet is set to approve the funding at their next meeting on February 21.