With the furlough scheme coming to an end a Liverpool city region chamber of commerce is offering free support to people who are being made redundant. Tony McDonough reports

With furlough coming to an end St Helens Chamber is launching a free support programme for people who have been made redundant.

Its redundancy support service offers help in number of areas from help accessing funding for training to CV and interview preparation. It is delivered by qualified careers advisers at the chamber.

This support is free and impartial and offered as part of the National Careers Service for St Helens. Their advisers can help people write or update their CV, brush up on their interview skills, and apply for jobs, as well as providing free short training courses.

Mike Unsworth, career guidance manager at St Helens Chamber, said: “Unfortunately, as the furlough scheme comes to an end, we are expecting to see more redundancies being made by companies who can’t afford to keep staff on.

“We are already working with a few businesses who are in the unfortunate position of needing to make redundancies, and our team are ready to support anyone who finds themselves in the same position.

“We understand that this time can be traumatic and upsetting, but I would say to anyone facing redundancy to try not to panic – there is support available to help you back into work as soon as possible.”

Any businesses who are anticipating needing to make redundancies are encouraged to get in contact with the chamber to find out how it can support them and their staff.

Mike added: “We have worked with employers on a number of occasions and visited workplaces where redundancies were being made. No matter the size of the business or scale of redundancies, whether its one or 100, we can work with you.”

To find out more about redundancy support, as either an employer or an individual, contact Starting Point on 01744 698800 or email info@thestartingpoint.org