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- Oscar awards for boosting jobs
Oscar awards for boosting jobs
| Published | 15 January 2008 |
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Councils who lead the way in boosting jobs and opportunities in their areas will be up for an 'Oscars' style award.
The new award for 'raising prosperity' will go to top-performing areas at improving town centres, tackling unemployment, boosting skills and training and attracting investment. This could be through apprenticeships, mentoring for the long-term unemployed or improving transport links to bring jobs to an area.
The councils will share in £3m along with leading authorities in other key services at the Beacon Awards next year in recognition of their work.
This reward money along with the prestige of being a winning area at the high profile awards ceremony will encourage all councils to take up this challenge.
The move comes ahead of major reforms in the next few weeks to give every council a stronger role in delivering jobs and economic growth, as part of a Government drive to turn around deprived areas and ensure no-one is disadvantaged by where they live.
Local Government Minister John Healey said:
"We've taken huge strides in tackling deprivation and unemployment since 1997, but greater local action will boost prosperity and opportunities for people in every area of the country.
"I want councils who know their local area best to have a front line role in delivering new jobs, skills and opportunities to local people - particularly in our most deprived areas which have the most to gain.
"The new beacons will lead the way in raising prosperity, and show other areas how it's done."
This follows the announcement in December of £1.5bn funding for the new Working Neighbourhoods Fund, to help people in the most deprived areas of England back to work.
Notes to editor
The Beacon scheme was launched in 1999, and is used to highlight and share the best work by councils.
Award winners are granted Beacon status for a year, receive a share of £3m and are required to share their experiences and advice with other local authorities.
An independent study has found that over 60 per cent of councils say that the scheme has helped to improve services in their area.
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