Childcare/education
Sure Start settings
Grants & funding
Inclusion
New deal for lone parents
New Deal is a government strategy for getting people back into work. A lone parent, whose youngest child is under 16, and is either not working or is working under 16 hours a week, can get help under the New Deal for Lone Parents scheme. There is access to a Personal Adviser, who will advise what funding is available towards course fees, travel, and childcare. He or she will be there as a contact throughout the whole New Deal programme.
It's their job to:
- Get to know a little about the parent so you end up with a job you can enjoy
- Calculate how much better off you could be in a job
- Discuss with the parent what kind of job you would like to get
- Draw up an action plan to help you get that job
- Help you look and apply for suitable jobs
- Help you find training opportunities
- Help you find and organise registered childcare
- Help you with expenses that may occur during your job search
- Explain which benefits you will be entitled to once you start work
- Continue to offer the parent help and advice even after you have found work.
The scheme can helps with childcare costs by:
- Offering a subsidy, in some cases, to childcare providers who employ someone on the New Deal scheme (up to £60 a week for six months for a person aged between 18 and 24 and up to £75 for a long-term unemployed person aged 25 or over)
- Offering young people the chance to work in the voluntary sector for six months
- Providing free full-time education and training for up to a year (up to £750 towards training a young person aged between 18 and 24)
- Helping with childcare costs for single parents who want to return to work or take up training courses.
Contact and resources:
Local Jobcentre Plus, call 0800 868 868 or check out the New Deal website for more information and the booklet Bringing up children on your own LP15 revised March 03. This booklet is also available in large print, audio and Braille.
