Inverclyde IRISE project to be closed down at end of 2024

Inverclyde Routes into Supported Employment, known as IRISE, started in 2021 to help individuals aged 20 to 40 in some of the local authority’s most deprived areas.

Clients with a range of backgrounds, including recovery, offending or homelessness, would receive support from an occupational therapist and support workers to improve their skills and reduce barriers to employment, education or training.

The move comes just months after the council agreed in May to allocate £600,000 from its anti-poverty fund to support IRISE's work.

That decision followed approval last year of a planned spend of £260,000 on the initiative.

However, the council’s policy and resources committee agreed the “early termination” of the initiative in its current format as of December 31, with remaining funds returning to anti-poverty earmarked reserves.

The decision was made at a meeting of the committee on Tuesday.

The authority's SNP opposition group leader, Councillor Elizabeth Robertson, said: “It is disappointing that we’ll not be able to continue with this in a way but in another way I think that there were other organisations outwith our structure who have might have been better placed to do this from the get go.

Councillor Elizabeth Robertson said there were other organisations in Inverclyde better placed to provide the support given by IRISE, which is to be closed down in December. (Image: Archive)

“I’m just wondering if that’s a ship that has sailed – if there’s an opportunity for us to retain the intended outcomes here and actually try and still support more of the people who would have fallen under the eligibility of IRISE but through other organisations that are maybe more specialist in dealing with the clients?”

Tony McEwan, head of culture, communities and educational resources, responded: “We have detailed in the report that there was some impacts already for the client group but these were seen to be the same kind of impacts that our existing services would be able to provide.

“Obviously IRISE is quite heavily resourced through the anti-poverty funding, but the main part of it was getting people into sustained employment.

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“But a lot of the clients need that longer, more intensive work over a longer period of time in order to get them to that position, so it was felt that the project wasn’t really meeting its original aims, although there was some impacts there.”

Mr McEwan also said there would be “learning” from the experience that would reflect on what could be done differently in the future.

He then added: “It’s really over to, I suppose, the committee to decide whether it feels someone else could do this but the purposes of this report is to end the project as it stands at the end of December and bring the funding back into the reserve.”

A report by Ruth Binks, corporate director for education, communities and organisational development, was the subject of discussion at the committee meeting.

It explained: “Progress in relation to this project is regularly reported to this committee and while the work which takes place with the client group has had some positive impact, the project has been unable to achieve the aims first set out.

“Due to the very complex nature of the needs of the client group, this pilot has established that until the very basic needs of clients have been met for a sustained period of time, meaningful employment may be some years off, if indeed possible at all.

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“While there have been some successes with offering advice and accessing housing and other benefits, the anti-poverty steering group feel that these services are already offered elsewhere.

“Given the significant resourcing of this project and its inability to achieve its original outcomes, it is recommended that due to limited impact the project comes to an end on December 31, 2024.”