Agenda item

The Cabinet considered a joint report of the Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services and Corporate Director of Regeneration, Economy and Growth which updated Cabinet of issues surrounding the approaching project end date for Council delivered employment services funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) (for copy of report see file of minutes).

Councillor T Henderson, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People’s Services was pleased to propose the report, which updated Cabinet of the difficult issues created by the end to the European Social Fund. The report also explained how we could move forward with the new funding mechanism, which would take us up to April 2025.

The new funding solutions from January 2024 presented very different challenges for our greatly valued Employment Support Services, and for many of our excellent delivery partners.

We recognised the need to increase the base budget of core funding, so that we could continue to support the service and its continued statutory commitments, to the highest level.

The recommendations in this report would ensure that we continue to successfully start these programmes at the earliest and most effective place possible, and that is within our secondary schools and academies throughout Durham.

Councillor E Scott, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Economy and Partnerships explained that the Council currently used funding from the European Social Fund (ESF) to directly deliver a range of employment programmes, supporting an average of 7,000 County Durham residents each year. These programmes made a significant contribution to the reduction of youth and adult unemployment in the county.

The move from ESF to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) meant there would be a reduction in the funding the Council received to deliver employment programmes, and an assessment was being made as to how it could continue to maximise the support provided in a sustainable way and one that left us with the best places to secure UKSPF allocations in the future.

Resolved:

That the recommendations in the report be approved.