18.10.06
Cornwall Works launch

A new initiative to be launched at the Falmouth Maritime Museum on Thursday 19th October aims to make a significant contribution to reducing worklessness in Cornwall. 'Cornwall Works' has been set up as part of the Local Area Agreement and will be run by the Inclusion Cornwall Partnership, which includes the public, private and voluntary sector.

The keynote speaker at the event will be Tony Elvin, Training and Development Manager for Fifteen London. He will speak about the huge difference that innovative projects can make in terms of changing people's lives. Fifteen Cornwall, launched in May this year, has been a source of inspiration to everyone who has been involved, whether as a trainee chef or a partner in the team that brought Fifteen to Cornwall. With the second recruitment exercise for Fifteen Cornwall now underway, it is timely that Tony should visit Cornwall to speak at this event.

Delegates at the event will range from local authority representatives, healthcare professionals, employers, volunteer coordinators and training providers – in fact all the people who will be key to the success of the initiative.

Carolyn Webster, who is leading the Cornwall Works initiative said: "There are many misunderstandings about the reasons for inactivity. Most people assume that people on health related benefits cannot or do not want to work. This is not the case but, once distanced from the labour market, it is harder for people on health related benefits to re-enter the world of work.

Cornwall Works will focus on people's abilities rather than inability and will significantly enhance the employment prospects of people who are, for a variety of reasons, disadvantaged in the labour market."

For further information please contact Sue Kessell on 01872 355117 or email: SUE.KESSELL@jobcentreplus.gsi.gov.uk.

The Objective One Programme for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly has invested £27,187,136 in projects that help people into work and training. These projects all help economically inactive people of working age without job opportunities into work and/or training, and target people who traditionally find it more difficult to access work opportunities and who need very specific support.

The Objective One Programme for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly has invested in Fifteen Cornwall through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and through the Jobcentre Plus co-financing programme with the European Social Fund (ESF).

Editor's notes:

In Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly there are 39,500 people claiming working age benefits. Less than 6000 are unemployed and claiming Jobseekers Allowance. By far the biggest group, 27,100 are sick or disabled.

Cornwall Works aims to reduce worklessness and unemployment in Cornwall, addressing spatial and thematic inequalities in employment rates and employment prospects, and increasing the number of people moving from incapacity related benefits into work.

The whole ethos is about partnership work and linkages across organisations to ensure better outcomes for mutual customers.

Objectives:

By December 2006, develop and launch a welfare to workforce people strategy for Cornwall that sets out the key interventions required to reduce worklessness and specifies the commitment from key stakeholders to delivering those interventions

For more information please contact Sue Kessell on 01872 355117.

Clare Morgan
Media Relations Manager
Objective One Partnership Office
Castle House
Pydar Street
Truro TR1 2UD
Mobile: 07973 813647
Telephone: 01872 223439

cmorgan@cornwall.gov.uk

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