Brown backs care careers

Date of article: 26-Jan-10

Prime Minister Gordon Brown invited Anchor’s Acting Chief Executive Jane Ashcroft and Care Assistant Verity Taulbut to 10 Downing Street this week (25 January).

Jane and Verity helped the government to launch their campaign to get young people into work. The breakfast event, also attended by a host of other senior delegates and young employees from organisations and businesses across the country, celebrated the launch of the Future Jobs Fund.

This £1 billion scheme pledges to provide work-focused training and help with self-employment and internships for any young person unemployed for six months or more. Ministers Yvette Cooper, Jim Knight, Peter Mandelson and the Prime Minister all mentioned the importance of encouraging young people into careers in social care while speaking to Jane and Verity about the value of choices and person-centred care within services for older people.

Verity, who was celebrating her 19th birthday at the Downing Street breakfast, works for Anchor Care for 12 hours a week, as well as studying for an International Baccalaureate at Henley College. She said: "I want to do biomedical engineering at university, looking at prosthetics and things like that, so I thought it would be a good idea to start here. I think the scheme is a good idea. When you are young if you are out of work for quite a while it's quite a knock to people's confidence." Anchor Care Business Manager Sue Weller said: "We encourage young people to join us because Anchor offers flexible working hours and it does fit in quite nicely with college."

Acting Chief Executive Jane Ashcroft, said: "The growing number of older people, facing increasingly complex care needs, is one of the biggest challenges faced by our society. Government efforts to help young people start a career in social care are a real step forward and a double-win. Supporting young people to develop a career will have an extremely positive effect on some of the most vulnerable people in this country."

 
Article Source: Anchor Homes

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