Access to European Social Funding for those facing redundancy

Over the last few months, we have been inundated with calls from employees being made redundant with little or no notice, minimum redundancy payments and no support or career guidance (other than being told to sign on at the Job Centre).  A pivitol moment for me was attending a local Chamber of Commerce meeting in Stamford earlier this month.

For those of you who haven't ever visited Stamford, it is an historic market town and to all intents "well heeled".  The shocking news announced at the meeting was that Stamford's unemployment is double that of the local towns that are traditionally less affluent.  The reason?  Stamford has no manufacturing and is predominantly a leisure and retail centre – both of which have been hard hit in the downturn.

I was spurred on to see what we could do with our collective HR skills in interviewing, training and coaching.  After a lot of digging, I came across some ESF funding being delivered through an initiative called R2R … have you ever heard of it?

Well… that is the biggest problem the fund administrators at the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) are facing. You see, for businesses making more than 20 people redundant, there is an automatic notification process through the Job Centres. But if you are one of the businesses making less than 20 people redundant, there is no mechanism to let you know about the help and funding available.

Somewhat worryingly, the Job Centres are so overloaded they are not able to meaningfully help unless there are over 80 redundancies!

What would it be like to take the emotional burden off your shoulders and arrange an hour-long meeting for each employee at risk of redundancy to discuss their career and prospects? Discussion with an independent career adviser appointed by R2R who has the experience and expertise to give practical, helpful advice on how to go about finding their next job?  The R2R fund has been set up specifically to reduce the financial burden of this kind of service, and your employees could be eligible.

As with all funding, only some employees will qualify. To see if your employees qualify for arguably the best advice they can get (at no cost to you), go to www.recrion.co.uk/FREE

If you have any questions we would be happy to help – call an independent career adviser at Recrion on 01780 484910.