Minister for Employment Alison McGovern visits Blackpool

Minister for Employment, Alison McGovern, visits Blackpool Job Centre to outine how the Government can help boost the town's employment prospects

Transcript

00:00Hello, it's Richard Hunt here with the Blackpool Gazette. I'm with the Minister for Employment,

00:05Alison McGovern, here in Blackpool to see what the situation is regarding the employment

00:10scene in Blackpool. Statistics say that one in four people in Blackpool are unemployed.

00:15That's quite a grim statistic. Minister, what can be done to help turn things around in

00:19Blackpool?

00:20Well, yeah, I think Blackpool is in a difficult situation with regards to employment. We've

00:25got a lot of people out of work, and particularly a lot of people out of work because they're

00:29not well. However, Blackpool is a fantastic place. There's so much opportunity here, whether

00:35it is, you know, the fun that people have here or exciting things like the arts and

00:40culture scene. I think there's so many opportunities here. What we've got to do is bring those

00:45opportunities to make sure that people can get them, and that's where the Jobcentre comes

00:49in. At the moment, I think Jobcentres are an unloved public service. Nobody really wants

00:54to come here, and that's because there's too much of a tick-box culture. We have pointless

00:5910-minute appointments. What we want to do is change that, reform it, to make sure that

01:04people can get real help here, you know, and whether that is if somebody's got a health

01:08condition, knowing that they can come here and get support for their health, as well

01:12as support for a new job that might make them feel even more well, you know, a good job

01:17that will help support their health, or whether that's our young people. There's too many

01:21people in Blackpool who are young, who haven't had a good start in life, and we want to make

01:26sure that they get a good job, because if you get a good job, that can set you up for

01:29a long time to come. What can the government do to actually change things? Obviously, there

01:34are things in Blackpool. The Skills Hub opened recently in May. That was a positive thing

01:38to help keep people trained in Blackpool. In terms of government policy, what can the

01:43government do? Well, as I mentioned, we really need to overhaul our Jobcentres, because for

01:48the past 14 years, people here, work coaches who've got a lot of skills and talents, have

01:53been really constrained by government policy. The Jobcentres have become a place where you

01:58come in and tick the box. That has got to end. We want to get people real help, and

02:03that means giving people longer time, more support, and making sure that the Jobcentre

02:08is at the heart of the community, and working with all of the great organisations like the

02:12Skills Hub. Also, we've got the platform that's there to support young people. But I want

02:17to really change the Jobcentres to make sure people can get that real help. There are going

02:21to be a lot of new jobs as well coming, and we want to make sure that the Jobcentre is

02:25the place to go to get a really good job.