This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Mentoring service for lone parents
02/09/2003
A mentoring service that will encourage lone parents to access education, training and employment was announced today.
The Lone Parent Mentoring Service will provide face-to-face advice and guidance for parents living in Glasgow and a telephone support service for others throughout Scotland.
The Executive is allocating £97,000 to the new service, which will be run by One Parent Families Scotland and One Plus.
Pollok and Glasgow North have been chosen as target areas for the face to face mentoring service and Scottish Borders and Aberdeenshire have been chosen as target areas for the telephone mentoring service. While telephone mentors will mainly be recruited in these areas, the telephone support service will be open to lone parents across Scotland.
Communities Minister Margaret Curran said:
"Helping lone parents to work and to access affordable childcare are key parts of the Executive's commitment to tackling child poverty. The aim of this new service is to support lone parents making the transition into training, education and employment.
"While the proportion of lone parents in employment has risen by around 14 per cent since 1997, there are still far too many families with children experiencing poverty because parents can't find suitable childcare or can't get relevant training.
"Parents also tell us that dealing with 'officials' is very confusing due to the myriad of agencies offering different services and support.
"We are setting up the Lone Parent Mentoring Service so that parents can have easy access to someone who can offer advice and help them move into training and eventually employment. This is a practical new measure to help us tackle child poverty and support lone parents whose families are among the poorest in Scotland."
Speaking about the prospect of using the new service, lone parent Kim Leonard, 21, from South Glasgow, said:
"I'm a bit scared, terrified, in fact but somewhere inside me I'm looking forward to a fresh start. This will give me the chance to look at my life and give me the boost I need to look at who I am, what I want and what's possible. I'm glad I have the opportunity of this support and having a mentor is just great."
One Parent Families Scotland (OPFS) and One Plus will launch a campaign in the autumn to recruit mentoring workers and to promote the new service to lone parents.
OPFS Deputy Director Ian Maxwell welcomed the chance to try out telephone mentoring, commenting:
"This will provide a valuable new source of support for lone parents in smaller communities throughout Scotland who do not have support groups within easy reach."
John Findlay, Director of One Plus, said:
"This is an exciting project which complements other One Plus activity through our new in-work mentoring programme. It is an area which needs additional support to encourage lone parents to consider a fresh start to enable them to move into employment."
Scottish Borders and Aberdeenshire were chosen for this service in a bid to reach lone parents in rural communities who otherwise would not have access to this type of support.
Glasgow North and Pollok were chosen because of the high concentration of lone parents experiencing exclusion.
It is expected that the face to face service in Glasgow will work with up to 50 parents. In addition mentors themselves are expected to gain from the experience and will receive support through a training programme. The majority of mentors will themselves be lone parents.
The proportion of lone parents in employment has risen from 42 per cent in 1997 to 56 per cent in 2002. There are approximately 150,000 lone parent families in Scotland.
Other Executive initiatives specifically targeted at lone parents include support for childcare for lone parents attending further and higher education and £20 million from 2004-06 to ensure that childcare is not a barrier for parents in the most disadvantaged areas returning to education, training or employment.
OPFS has been working on behalf of lone parents and their children since 1944. The national charity provides a wide range of services including a national freephone helpline supported by The Royal Bank of Scotland (tel. 0800 018 5026), free publications and training.
One Plus was set up in 1986 and works throughout west and central Scotland. It is managed by an elected committee, the majority of whom are lone parents. One Plus works with various partners, within the social economy, creating services, training and employment within local communities to benefit one parent families.