A team of 24 advocates who will help 800 unemployed families into work across the Liverpool City Region have started a two-week induction programme at the Combined Authority.

The Households into Work programme is a pilot scheme funded with £3.5m from the Department for Work and Pensions, and £1m from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.

Under the scheme, the 24 advocates, based in each of the six Liverpool City Region local authority areas, will work with 800 households where two or more adults are not in work.

They will identify barriers to people getting into work, such as childcare issues, debt, or lack of skills, and put a bespoke intensive support package in place for each individual to help them get into the workplace.

Speaking about the scheme, the Metro Mayor for the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram said:

“It was a pleasure to welcome our new advocates as they start a two-week induction programme before getting to work across our city region.  These individuals will be at the front line of implementing this innovative scheme and I am confident that they will make a real difference.

“When I was elected, I said that I want to ensure that fairness and social justice is etched into every policy, every service and economic initiative delivered through the Combined Authority.  

“A major part of that has to be ensuring that everyone in the city region has the opportunity to reach their potential and that means making sure that people have second chances because enabling people to achieve meaningful employment does not just benefit those individuals; it benefits their families, their communities and our city region as a whole.”

The 24 employment advocates will be in place in their local areas and ready to start working with households from 5 March 2018.