Yesterday afternoon, I attended the City Council's Local Economy Monitoring Group, at which senior council officers, councillors and business representatives such as the Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses discuss matters of economic importance to Dundee.
We had an extremely useful update from Working Links and Triage, two of the Work Programme providers, on Work Programme progress in Dundee.
At previous meetings of the Local Economy Monitoring Group, I – and other members of the group – have expressed concern at the poor level of positive outcomes for Dundee people in the early days of the life of the Work Programme.
What was clear from the presentation is that, now in its third year, the performance in terms of positive job outcomes for Dundee people has significantly improved and Dundee’s Work Programme performance in Year 3 is now currently slightly ahead of the Scottish average performance.
This is progress, although it is vital that all steps are taken to help Dundee job-seekers get every chance to access positive work opportunities.
We were also given an update on the arrangements for the Dundee Economic Summit, taking place on 19th June. You can read more about the Summit here.