Following the Chancellor’s statement, changing the minimum placement criteria for small business from 03 February, Norfolk Chambers have confirmed their commitment to continue providing exceptional support to local employers to help and guide them with their Kickstart Placements.
For each placement, the Gateway Providers, like Norfolk Chambers, receive £300 to support administrative costs, whilst employers should receive £1,500 per placement for help with setup costs and employability skills training. Your Gateway choice will determine what these arrangements actually look like. Some Gateways will agree with the employer to offer a level of training and thereby a slice of the £1,500.
Norfolk Chambers Gateway can confirm that the full funding is being passed across to employers for each placement and that we will continue to work with them to get their placements approved and started.
Commenting on the Norfolk Chambers Gateway, Nova Fairbank, Head of Policy said: “Norfolk Chamber developed a Kickstart Gateway due to the overwhelming and continuing demand from local businesses. Our aim was to not only support local businesses to access the Kickstart Scheme, but to ensure the quality of the placements for our young people.
“Our Gateway will help employers to complete a detailed application form, designed to ensure that the employers have the highest chance of meeting the DWP Kickstart criteria. We have also chosen to offer total flexibility to the employer by passing on the full funding, however we do ask all employers to confirm how they intend to spend these funds to ensure that all placements receive a high level of quality support and upskilling.
“Kickstart is a brilliant way to ensure young people get a boost into the world of work, whilst employers have the opportunity to grow their businesses and hopefully create more new jobs, all to the benefit of the local economy.
“We are very aware of the challenges that have faced the DWP since the Kickstart initiative commenced in September 2020, and we commend the patience of local employers, who have been understanding of these considerable delays in getting the system to operate smoothly. The local DWP team have been amazing and we work in close collaboration with them to drive the Norfolk placements through the system. We are confident we will start to see live placements in Norfolk happening very soon.”
For more information on accessing the Kickstart Scheme and to download your application form, click here.
If you would like to talk to someone about cresting a Kickstart place, please contact:
Charlotte Upcraft 01603 729702 [email protected]
Nova Fairbank 01602 729713 [email protected]
