I suspect its probably aimed at keeping your Council Tax bill low, Brian, by moving to an area with lower running costs, lower salary expectations etc.! Best value in all Council services is also something that all Councils are required to obtain. I believe that most Councils outsource these things to a more centralised cost effective organisation for this purpose. We can't have it both ways.

Lewishams approach to assisting the jobless is good and certainly seems to compensate for the abysmal service offered by the Job Centres. Having been unemployed for over 6 months I can honestly say that the Job Centres offer little real help, just threats and punishment if you turn up 3 minutes late to sign on. Then the paperwork and attention really did flow! I had about three letters warning me that my JSA would be taken away. I suppose the extreme fuss over my ' crime' kept someone else in a job.

I did ask about training opportunities , cv writing, etc but nothing was on offer. I also asked about setting up job clubs so that people looking for work could meet in an unused part of the building and discuss strategies but this was refused. The staff although generally nice and helpful seemed ill equipped to assist the increased numbers who were signing on because of the recession many of whom had never been faced with this before hence did not have the skills or resources to market themselves effectively for the very few opportunities on offer. I had some help from my ex employer as part of my redundancy package which enabled me to seek some services privately but not everyone is so lucky, and its tough out there. If you don't get the attention of employers initially then you will never get through the barrier. They have record numbers of people after each job, many of whom havent the right skills, but its getting through the various filter systems that counts.

I have now got another job after a lot of graft but won't be getting complacent about it as the threat of cuts and future redundancies in certain sectors has not gone away by any means.