By Heather Stewart

“We’ve had quite a few people on the estate get jobs,” says Bryan Stokell, who found work as a full-time security guard thanks to Stockton-on-Tees’s JobsPlus project. The 47-year-old father has since become a “community champion”, encouraging his neighbours to enrol.

“It got to the point where even my little boy was coming home and saying, ‘my friend’s mam and dad are looking for work’,” he grins. “They [the project] have a lot of contacts, they can open doors into places.”

Stokell has had health problems, and was struggling to find a suitable role before his caseworker, Khialah Wilson, helped him with his CV and job applications.

This is one of 10 JobsPlus schemes. It covers the adjoining Primrose Hill and Newtown estates in Stockton, on Teesside, an area with a proud railway history but bearing the scars of deindustrialisation.

The pilots — running against the backdrop of UK unemployment at a four-year high — are in areas of predominantly social housing across England, from Penge in south London to Wirral in Merseyside, with backing from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

They are modelled on a US scheme, which was first tried in 1998 and initially ran for five years. Long-term analysis [by MDRC] showed it was possible to trace a positive impact on the earnings and employment of residents across generations. The research suggested children living in three JobsPlus areas, in Dayton, Ohio; Los Angeles, California; and St Paul, Minnesota, where the scheme was fully implemented went on to earn $2,706 more than their counterparts in similar areas….

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