ReachOut employment support service extended for 12 months
Residents seeking work will benefit from a further year of dedicated support as Wirral Council approves a 12 month extension to the ReachOut Worklessness Support Service, delivered by Involve Northwest.
The service will now run until 31 March 2027, supported by £485,000 from Wirral Council’s Public Health Grant for the 12 month period starting 1 April 2026. It was previously funded through Wirral Council’s allocation of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, administered by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority – which comes to an end this year.
The extension will ensure workless residents across the borough continue to receive free, personalised, community based support to help them move into work and improve health and wellbeing.
This includes personalised one to one coaching via specialist Job Coaches who provide employability support and wraparound help to overcome barriers such as low confidence, skills gaps or health issues, along with six months of in work support to help people stay in long term, stable employment. The service also provides Help Out wellbeing advisors who provide additional dedicated health and wellbeing support for participants.
ReachOut has been delivered by Involve Northwest for 20 years and forms a key part of the council’s commitment to reducing worklessness and improving health and wellbeing, as set out within the Council Plan, Wirral’s Economic Strategy 2021–2026, and the Wirral Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2022–2027.
Between April 2025 and January 2026, the service engaged with 900 residents (132% of target), helped 596 residents into employment (223% of target) and assisted 57 people onto training courses (204% of target) – demonstrating both the ongoing need for the service and its success in helping local people overcome barriers to employment.
Being in meaningful employment improves people’s health outcomes. Over the past 20 years, the ReachOut service has played a key role in this, by ensuring more people find work, and it was vital to ensure that this service could continue without interruption. Our Public Health funding will enable this. Without that commitment, residents and communities would have faced a real gap in support, risking negative impacts on their health and putting additional strain on our local health services.
Extending ReachOut means we can maintain momentum, protect the progress already made and continue tackling the higher than average levels of worklessness that affect too many people in Wirral.
We know that too many people in Wirral still face real challenges in finding secure and meaningful work. The ReachOut service has been invaluable in helping residents build confidence, develop new skills, and move back into employment.
Extending this contract means that we can continue to support people over the next year, ensuring they get the right help in the heart of their communities. This is an important investment in our residents, our neighbourhoods, and our local economy.
As we enter the 20th year of our ReachOut project, we are delighted to have secured funding to continue delivering our employability service across Wirral for another year.
We have built a strong reputation and trust within our local communities which has been developed over many years by the dedicated team we have, many who have been with the project since it began in 2006. It is important that the recognition of the fantastic work and positive impacts of employment and health outcomes goes to the ReachOut team. The relationships they have built and maintained within local communities and the great partnerships that they work alongside drive their passion to continue to make a difference.
At Involve, we all truly care about Wirral people and go above and beyond across all our services to make a lasting impact on people’s lives, especially when times are tough – we are here.
Under the new contract, ReachOut will offer 10 community engagement sessions across Wirral each week including work clubs, community events, and outreach via the service’s mobile camper van.
For more information on ReachOut and the support available, visit Involve Northwest’s website.
