East of England

To provide the best level of customer service our External Relations Team works in partnership with a wide network of public, private and voluntary and community sector organisations at regional and sub-regional level.

In the East of England we serve 179,000 people claiming incapacity and disability benefits, 55,000 lone parents and 60,000 jobseekers.

Everyday working day in East of England Jobcentre Plus:

• Receives 1,313 vacancies from employers
• Conducts 3,186 customer work focused interviews
• Invests more that £105,000 in the delivery of services through partners
• Pays more than £5.5m in working age benefits

Find out more about working in partnership with Jobcentre Plus in the East of England.

Local Employment Partnerships (LEPs) are an exciting new collaboration between Jobcentre Plus and business to tackle the increasing recruitment and skills challenges of our labour market and economy. Employers have signed up to working in partnership with Jobcentre Plus to open up opportunities for people who, for whatever reason, have not yet been able to take advantage of the employment opportunities that are currently out there.  The LEP menu offers:

• Work Trials
• New Deal places
• Pre- employment training packages
• Mentoring
• Recruitment processes which do not exclude people traditionally disadvantaged in the labour market

More information about LEPs can be found at http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/JCP/Employers/lep/index.html.

To keep our partners informed of the work we do, Jobcentre Plus East of England produces a bi-monthly e-newsletter ‘Partnerships Matter’.  View the latest edition or subscribe.

Further information about our work and our partnerships you can contact the East of England External Relations Manager

Julia Nix

ESF Co-financing

EEDA's Co-financing Programme 2007-11 will fund projects that address the employment and skills challenges in the East of England, focusing on extending employment opportunities to those not in work and developing a skilled and adaptable workforce for the needs of the region's businesses

EEDA is now launching its Co-financing Prospectus for the period 2007-11 and invites applicants to submit tenders for a number of project specifications. Further funding opportunities will be available later in 2008.

For further information, including the prospectus and invitations to tender, please visit the ESF section on the EEDA website (www.eeda.org.uk/international).