Praise for efforts to help in jobs slump

Efforts to help recession-hit Black Country workers and firms have been praised in a new report.

Redundancy support roadshows, resource centres to help companies having to shed their workforce and a retail academy group to ensure local people found jobs at a new Asda store are among initiatives organised by Walsall Council.

Schemes set up by the authority along with other organisations, as well as projects put together by councils in the region to tackle unemployment feature in an Audit Commission report.

And while some aspects of Walsall Council's efforts were criticised, the report said it had "reacted positively" to the economic downturn and that there was "good leadership and support from senior management".

It praised the council's knowledge of local issues and its arrangements for forecasting levels of worklessness. The report also made special mention of a self-employment programme that got 18 people into work - against a target of 10.

Councillor Adrian Andrew, deputy council leader and cabinet member for regeneration, said: "We have concentrated our efforts on practical advice and support for residents and businesses that can actually change their futures.

"At our redundancy support roadshow in Brownhills, for example, one woman said she had found out more in the couple of hours she had been there than in the whole of the six months since she had lost her job.

Councillor Andrew said the Audit Commission's criticism that the council needed to better understand worklessness issues among ethnic minority communities would be taken on board.

"Our work is by no means done," he said.

"The effects of the national economic downturn are being felt in households across the borough every day."