Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she plans to take to support parents who live in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency and (b) Staffordshire into work.

Our recently published Get Britain Working White Paper sets out our aspirations to overhaul the Jobcentre system and establish a new Job and Career Service, which will focus on people’s skills and careers instead of just monitoring and managing benefit claims. This will be kickstarted by £55million of investment, to help people – including parents - get into work, stay in work, build skills and progress in their career.

The Get Britain Working White Paper also committed DWP to supporting and providing all areas in England with resource to produce a local ‘Get Britain Working Plan’. Initially focussing on economic inactivity, local Get Britain Working plans will enable all areas to take the lead in shaping a coherent offer of support for their local citizens, including the offer of support for parents, across work, health, and skills.

We are also considering how we can improve our support to help parents into work as part of our Child Poverty Strategy which will be published later this year.

At present Work Coaches provide individual, tailored support to all customers across the country, this includes advice to parents on childcare support or help to address their skills gaps to aid career progression.

Both areas also have access to The UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which was extended for a further year until March 2026. Areas are free to select from three investment priorities, with People and Skills interventions are designed to help reduce the barriers some people – including parents - face to employment, support them closer towards employment and education, reduce economic inactivity and to fund skills support.