Government provides £80m funding boost for inactivity trailblazers

An £80m funding boost to expand a scheme to support people back into the workplace has been announced.

Pat McFadden (c) UK Parliament

Pat McFadden (c) UK Parliament

The cash support will go nine inactivity trailblazers in England and Wales as part of the Government's programme which launched in April 2025.

Secretary of state for work and pensions, Pat McFadden, said: ‘By further investing in our trailblazers we're helping people who were previously underserved or overlooked to build the confidence and skills they need to thrive.'

Unlike traditional employment support, inactivity trailblazers empower local areas to design tailored solutions that tackle the root causes of economic inactivity - such as poor mental health, low skills, and barriers like social isolation.

The funding builds on recently announced investment in youth employment support, including a £25m boost for Youth Hubs and a £45m extension to the Youth Guarantee trailblazer scheme and comes after this week's ONS figures which showed 9.1m people remain economically inactive across the UK.

The funding to extend the inactivity trailblazers for a second year will provide, a further £10m each to: York and North Yorkshire; South Yorkshire; West Yorkshire; the North East; Greater Manchester; and Wales; with a further £20m to the Greater London Authority to deliver three trailblazers in London. 

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