This is a new initiative to try to improve the opportunities for Seahouses’ unemployed and underemployed working age population and to better support employers’ needs through greater understanding and engagement.

The project has been developed through discussions with the development trust and an initial meeting with a variety of public, private and third sector organisations involved in employability issues. It builds on similar work that has already taken place in Wooler, Rothbury and Haltwhistle under a project called Removing Barriers to Work.

We will be working in North Sunderland and Seahouses, Bamburgh and Beadnell parishes. Generally we see an agricultural hinterland and fishing/tourism coastal area but tourism is now the economic base in our area, including the agricultural hinterland, where the foot and mouth outbreak accelerated diversification to other sources of income.

The net effect of these changes on the job market was to increase the number of part-time and seasonal jobs at the expense of full-time, permanent work. There are few large employers in the area, which is characterised by a high number of micro businesses.

But official statistics do not represent the whole picture. Under-employment and part-time, seasonal employment are the norm, rather than the exception, which has led to a low wage, low aspiration culture. There is a lack of up to date, detailed, locally based information on the issues in Seahouses and the surrounding area.

At the initial meeting the following barriers to work were identified:
Lack of premises for expansion of local businesses.
Seasonality of employment caused by rise of tourism.
Low aspirations amongst young people.
Decline of fishing and agriculture.

The project, therefore, plans to focus on addressing the identified issues by researching detail and providing a holistic approach to solutions.