Learning and Skills Council outline support for businesses and individuals during downturn

The Learning and Skills Council Greater Merseyside held a breakfast event at the Radisson to outline the support and advice available to employers and individuals during the current economic downturn.

Speaking at the event, Helen France, director of area at the Learning and Skills Council Greater Merseyside, said that economic downturn would be met with '...concerted and rapid action to mitigate the negative effects of the current crisis.'

The key public sector agencies, which provide support to businesses and individuals, have set out their collective response to the current economic downturn in a report entitled 'Framework for Action'.

The 34-page document describes the mechanism of rapid and integrated public sector response available to businesses and individuals facing differing degrees and types of challenges.

With the global downturn continuing to damage the region's economic strength, the framework underpins the collective ability of the partners to monitor the situation and intervene in the most timely and effective manner.

Helen France said: "Collectively, our ultimate objective is to provide the support that will help keep numbers of redundancies to an absolute minimum.

"Where redundancies are unavoidable, we will step in to provide support to those individuals to proactively assist with up-skilling and training in order to make the period between redundancy and finding new employment as short as possible."

At the heart of the report is the establishment of a common understanding of how the recession is affecting the business community. This knowledge-base will enable partners to deliver appropriate support as quickly as possible direct to the affected parties.

This knowledge is collated from a range of sources, including the statutory requirement to inform the Government if companies are making 20 or more redundancies within a 90 day period, and through existing networks led by public sector partners such as the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), local authorities, Jobcentre Plus, Business Link Northwest and the Learning and Skills Council.

Once identified as a company requiring support, a comprehensive 'Business Diagnostic' is carried out in order for the relevant lead partner to determine what support is required and a delivery timeframe. This lead partner will then broker specific support from other partners which is tailored to the circumstances of the individual case.

Jon Merrick, Head of People and Jobs at the NWDA, said: "We have established this protocol in order to help deliver the right support as quickly as possible when businesses and individuals need it most.

"We want to remove the possibility of there being any delays to the delivery of help and advice. There is a huge amount of support available but we don't want to have people being passed from one agency to the next in order to find the support that is right for them.

"This is a coordinated effort on behalf of all partners and we are determined to make it as straightforward as possible for businesses and individuals to access the real help that we can offer."

The Framework for Action report can be found by following the link here or by directing your browser to the following web address:

http://www.allmerseyside.net/mediacentre/mediacentre.asp

If your business is being affected by the recession and you need help or advice, please visit the website: www.allmerseyside.net or contact the Train to Gain Brokerage Service direct on 0845 00 66 888.