Schools 'will include job centres for parents'

Teaching staff in schools in the north-east are to share their premises with job centre workers.

Schools in Newcastle and Middlesbrough are among those that will share a £10 million fund to help parents who have lost their jobs, reports the Northern Echo.

The scheme will involve 25 local councils and will see job centre staff stationed at school gates to offer parents advice.

Advice on training, finding work or setting up businesses will be available following concerns that mothers who wish to return to work after raising children might be missing out on support.

The Department for Work and Pensions says that ensuring that both parents are in work is essential to families moving out from below the breadline.

The move follows an announcement earlier this year that the government's pledge to eradicate child poverty by 2020 is to be enshrined in law.

According to government figures, over 600,000 children have been taken out poverty over the last ten years.





Published On 20/07/2009