To ask the Minister for the Economy what specific assistance her Department has provided to people resident in Northern Ireland who have been made redundant as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but have been unable to avail of training and assistance programmes equivalent to the JobCentre Plus Rapid Response Service in England.

My Department is committed to supporting people who have been made redundant and has already delivered a very successful virtual redundancy clinic for Thompson Aero Seating Ltd as well as an on-site redundancy clinic for Collins Aerospace. On-line resources have also been shared with both Easyjet Airline Company Ltd and Jet2.com for their impacted employees.

In addition to Redundancy Services my Department continues to provide Recruitment Services, including JobCentre Online and recruitment events which people facing redundancy can avail of as well as a range of other supports and services including a scheme called the Adviser Discretion Fund. The objective of the Adviser Discretion Fund is to provide resources of up to £300 to eligible persons for the purchase of goods or services in order to remove a barrier to employment. The scheme may also be used as a measure to support those who are required to complete a short training course in order to progress into work. I can confirm that the scheme has recently provided assistance to people who have unfortunately been made redundant to retrain for work in other sectors as well as assisting with costs associated with courses and medicals required to allow people to compete for future employment opportunities in their respective profession.

In addition, the Department for Communities and Department for Economy have launched a new Jobs & Skills campaign page on NI Direct as part of the response to COVID-19. The Departments have been working collaboratively on developing employability, skills and training responses to address the economic and labour market impact on people caused by the pandemic and this new page brings together all relevant information and services in a single, easy to navigate location. The new Jobs & Skills campaign page can be found at www.nidirect.gov.uk/campaigns/jobs-and-skills.

As part of my Department’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent recession, a review of the Adviser Discretion Fund is underway and will include giving consideration to the current funding limits and flexibilities in terms of support which can be provided.