Overview
- The funding covers nine trailblazers for a second year, with £20 million to the Greater London Authority and £10 million each to York & North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, the North East, Greater Manchester and Wales.
- The schemes combine employment help with mental‑health services, peer networks, confidence building and skills training to move people closer to work.
- Ministers frame the expansion within the Government’s Plan for Change and an 80% employment rate ambition, citing ONS data showing 9.1 million people are economically inactive.
- Early pilots in places such as Denbighshire and Blaenau Gwent are cited as informing the scale‑up, alongside new community link worker projects and a digital self‑referral platform.
- Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden emphasizes local control and employer engagement, with a visit to launch the expanded programme in Neath Port Talbot, Wales.