There has been no shortage over the years of schemes to help, or push, the unemployed into work.
From New Labour's New Deal, which offered long-term unemployed young people a choice between a job, voluntary work, education or a place on an environmental task force, to the Conservatives' Work Programme, which has involved contracting out job-finding on a huge scale, successive governments have sought to find ways of encouraging employers to give opportunities to the long-term unemployed. The benefits bill goes down, the tax take increases and young lives are rescued from the quicksand of unemployment: everyone's a winner.
That is the theory, at any rate. In reality, these schemes have met with limited success. The New Deal was branded a waste of money since the economy was growing anyway, while the Work Programme has been lambasted for being ineffective.
By contrast, Community Jobs Scotland, the scheme under which unemployed people are offered six-month paid placements with third- sector organisations, has been a genuine success. It is to receive a further £4m of Scottish Government funding, and rightly so: it will be money well spent.
Where the Work Programme secured lasting employment for only 3.6% of participants in its first 14 months (well short of the government's 11.9% target) an evaluation of Community Jobs Scotland over 2011/12 found that 40% of those who had done their placement entered employment afterwards.
This appears to bear out what has long been suspected: that if young people are given a chance at a job, they soon impress employers with their enthusiasm and commitment. Equally importantly, acquiring subsidised staff is a boost for the third sector at a time when it is facing unprecedented demands.
Local authorities and the Scottish Government have signalled a desire greatly to expand the role of the voluntary sector in delivering public services, a strategy that has resulted in charities doubling their turnover and spending over the last 10 years.
Yet, while spending may have increased, charities are expected, against a backdrop of contracting public-sector finances, to do ever more with ever less. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations reports that 42% of voluntary organisations are spending more than they earn, with smaller charities the worst affected. That is clearly unsustainable; some charities have already had to cut jobs.
Voluntary sector bodies warn that this trend ultimately puts quality at risk. Many are dismayed by the Scottish Government's public procurement bill, being debated at Holyrood today, which they had hoped would at least tackle the issue of low pay in public sector contracts, but which does not challenge the prevailing culture of cost as the priority. Expanding Community Jobs Scotland is one way for the Scottish Government to support the third sector but it must also do more to encourage local authorities to consider quality and sustainability when contracts are on the line.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article