The East Midlands Regional Economic Cabinet has announced a major new approach to simplify and improve support for employers in the region.  It will provide practical support for employers facing job losses, but will also help businesses avoid the need for redundancies.

Phil Hope, Minister for the East Midlands, said:

“I am delighted that that the Regional Economic Cabinet has put together a truly integrated offer for all employers, making it as simple as possible to get the help and support they need during these difficult times.  This is real help, now, for businesses in the East Midlands that are worrying about job losses.

Our businesses are the lifeblood of the East Midlands economy and it’s so important that they know support is there, it’s available and the Cabinet is taking steps to make sure people are taking advantage of it.  We have to make better use of what’s there for the benefit of the region.”

The new approach to support employers will provide a joint offer from members of the Regional Economic Cabinet.  Led by Jobcentre Plus, the Learning and Skills Council, Business Link and ACAS, the offer will bring together a range of support for training and skills, legal advice, reducing costs, managing finance and retaining staff through changing working arrangements.  Where job losses are unavoidable, support will be provided to ensure employees receive the best possible opportunities for finding new employment.

This comes on top of the range of support already available for businesses.  The Cabinet heard from emda of the extremely positive feedback received from its recent ‘Survive and Thrive’ events.  Almost 2,000 business people attended, and of those who completed feedback forms, at least 98 per cent found the event useful.  It was clear that the businesses attending welcomed the efforts being made in the East Midlands to help and support them.

“The response to our Survive and Thrive events was tremendous,” said Dr Bryan Jackson, emda’s Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the REC.  “The aim of the events was for firms to gain a clear picture about what they needed to do with cash flow, cash forecasting and negotiating with banks.  They also highlighted the need to look at legal issues surrounding retention of goods, leases, chasing debts and employment law and the importance of finding new customers and new markets.

We are now working closely with the regional Chambers of Commerce to support further events on how to ‘Showcase, Market and Sell.’ These will provide small to medium sized businesses with the opportunity to find out how they can do business with some of the region’s largest companies, helping them to prepare for economic recovery.”

The Cabinet also received an update from BERR on the latest schemes announced to improve access to finance.  These schemes will help the banks to return to normal lending patterns and the Cabinet will now promote these measures to make sure that businesses in the region see the benefits.

Phil Hope added: “We know things are tough and the latest business surveys confirm this.  But we also know that sometimes the doom and gloom messages only make things worse.  My Cabinet will continue to promote the opportunities that exist and the successes that we are seeing, for example through Local Employment Partnerships that are bringing people back into work across the region.”