The past two years have been unprecedentedly hard for many – including the thousands of people that found themselves out of work and who were not able to call into their local Jobcentre in person.  

Mid Norfolk is creating lots of new jobs in small businesses, but as ever, it’s often very hard for jobseekers to discover and access them. That’s why I have made Rural accessibility such a priority in my work as the local MP and as a Minister, particularly through my project The Norfolk Way (see more here)  

When I started as the Conservative Candidate for Mid Norfolk back in 2008, the local jobcentre was a very non-user friendly, often intimidating, place. Now based in the local Breckland District Council offices, it’s like a VIP departure lounge and is far better placed to cater for and HELP jobseekers with Universal Credit and job seeking. This is a huge step forward and a credit to the local DWP team and Breckland District Council. 

Having long been a big advocate of the brilliant local DWP team (supporting initiatives like their Kickstarts scheme to help 16-24 year olds get into, and then stay in, work) and complimented their work through the likes of the Norfolk Way Bursary Scheme and the Norfolk Enterprise Festival, I was delighted to have the opportunity to catch up in person with the wonderful Julia Nix (East Anglia District Manager for the DWP) this past Friday. Julia, and the local Dereham Jobcentre team, talked me through many of the great opportunities they can offer jobseekers right here in Mid Norfolk, as well as the other support and advice they are providing many jobseekers on a day to day basis.  

(One such example is the brilliant Breckland Mobile Food Store service run through the Kickstart programme and funded by Breckland Council and the Norfolk Community Foundation. The service provides a way to shop for healthy, nutritious food and store cupboard staples at a reduced price, helps residents tackle increasing living costs or difficulties getting to other shops due to isolation too. Friendly expert staff on the bus are trained to offer wider support such as advice on debt management, isolation & loneliness and mental health as well, and will signpost customers to a range of services that can offer further help, where needed). 

The key now to much of this is Vocational Skills and Access – to ensure that people in our region can make the most of the wonderful opportunities already on offer (with more to come!) in some of the fastest growing, most exciting sectors of tomorrow. Julia and her team recognise this and work closely with the likes of Poultec at Mattishall, Pearsons at Thetford and others to help local jobseekers upskill and/or retrain. 

We also need to do more to encourage local out of work individuals that careers in some of the “less fashionable” sectors (such as food processing, farming and social care) can in fact be highly rewarding, with very good wages – and, again, Julia and the DWP team are working hard to better connect local jobseekers to the many jobs currently available (often just down the road!). 

Rest assured, I am committed to continuing my work to support the local DWP, especially on the subject of skills and training – an issue I speak to ministers an officials about regularly. I am also now exploring the possibility of hosting a Jobs Fair with Julia and her team in rural Mid Norfolk in the next few months.