Jobcentre Plus pilots to launch

Pilots are to be launched in 30 children's centres in England in October to explore how to improve the support Jobcentre Plus offers to parents through children's centres.

The three-year pilots will be set up in 10 local authority areas and are to be backed with £7.8m of government funding.

Ann Gross, deputy director of children's centres and extended schools at the Department for Children, Schools and Families, said: "The pilots will test intensive approaches to delivering Jobcentre Plus services through children's centres to help get families into employment."

The pilots will focus on improving the employability of parents by helping them to gain basic skills, improving their confidence and linking them with volunteering and work experience placements.

A spokesman for the Child Poverty Action Group said: "We hope that the pilots will take an approach of positive engagement as opposed to conditionality, which can threaten children's wellbeing by taking away family income."