Does Rishi’s £2bn jobs scheme Kickstart need a little kickstart itself?
WHEN the £2 billion Kickstart Scheme was launched by Chancellor Rishi Sunak last autumn, it was seen as a lifeline by many small businesses. Companies could recruit 16 to 24year-olds with the Government paying their salary for the first six months and the employer receiving a £1,500 grant to cover costs. But the scheme has not been without its problems. SARAH BRIDGE reports.
FANTASTIC.’ That was Renee Wilson’s enthusiastic response last year to the Government’s Kickstart Scheme. ‘It seemed like a great opportunity for us to bring new people into our company and try out roles we wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise,’ she recalls. ‘It felt like a win-win.’
Frustratingly, the scheme has not delivered. Despite registering in November, Renee has so far been unable to recruit anyone for The Curiosity Box, an Oxfordshirebased business she founded five years ago that provides hands-on science activities for children. Last year, business boomed as a result of home-schooling.
Renee is not alone. A number of small businesses have told The Mail on Sunday they have been left frustrated by the scheme. The Department for Work and Pensions, overseer of the initiative, has also admitted to The Mail on Sunday that only a fraction of the job applications approved have so far resulted in people being recruited.
The Curiosity Box wanted to recruit five people for roles creating videos and graphics as well as market research and social media. Its application was made via a Kickstart ‘gateway’ – Oxford City Council. This was because the scheme’s original rules required businesses hiring less than 30 people to join forces with other employers. The scheme has since been changed to allow businesses to apply directly. Renee’s job adverts finally went live at the end of last week, six months after applying.
‘I don’t know what has been the cause of the hold-up,’ says Renee. ‘It’s been like pulling teeth.’
She adds: ‘It’s been infuriating. Not recruiting anyone has stopped us growing. We’ve missed out on a lot of business opportunities.’
Joe Darwen, founder of Veo.world – an online marketplace where people can buy sustainable fashion, beauty, food and home products – is also disappointed. He signed up in November to recruit a content producer and graphic designer to improve the company’s website. But he has only just seen his recruitment adverts go live at the local job centre in Rusholme, Manchester.
‘ I’ve no idea what caused the delay but it took more than five months just to get the job adverts up,’ says Joe. ‘It feels like a bit of a lottery how quickly the process takes. It is also frustrating as the c o mpany’s needs c o ul d have changed since we started the application process. The job centre actually contacted us and asked if we still needed people for these roles as it had taken such a long time.’
Imogen Tinkler founded seasonal food company Bangers and Balls with her husband Duncan in 2017 when the family moved from London to Whitstable in Kent. The company runs food ‘pop-ups’ in outdoor locations, turning up with a mobile kitchen and supplying meals to people on the spot.
She says: ‘I’d read about Kickstart and I was slightly irked that I couldn’t take part because of the 30-job rule. But I heard that food businesses were grouping together to apply through gateways so we thought we would give it a go and look for a marketing assistant.’
It took four months for the advertisement to go live. ‘It was quite a long time,’ she says with some understatement. ‘As the months passed I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen. It was frustrating and it had a financial impact as there were things we were planning on launching which we had to put back.’
They eventually struck gold, bringing on board recruit Alicia. Even though Imogen had imagined hiring someone local, the fact that Alicia lives in Falmouth, Cornwall, wasn’t a problem. While they have never met in real life, they all have lunch together on Zoom once a week.
‘We’re hoping to employ her fulltime after the six months,’ says Imogen. ‘ Without Kickstart we would never have dared to do this.
It’s given us a real momentum and she’s helped grow the business by blogging about our vision and commitment to food and sustainability.’
Not all small businesses have found the process arduous. Owen Geddes is co-founder of Londonbased digital marketing company Screen Moguls, a business originally set up to provide bespoke advertising technology to film distributors including Disney, Paramount and Universal. But when the pandemic hit, the company switched to focusing instead on
‘The problem is the amount of paperwork’
digital marketing for small businesses. Screen Moguls was one of the first companies to apply through a Kickstart gateway. By November last year, it had received around 200 applications for each of the five jobs on offer. Owen says: ‘Of those we recruited, three have left and that is a risk as some people use it as a stepping stone. But the two still with us are amazing.
‘We’re moving them both on to full- time, permanent contracts, giving them a pay rise and we’re now looking to recruit more through Kickstart.’
Earlier this year, Therese Coffey, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, admitted there was a ‘backlog’ in the scheme. Last week, the DWP told The Mail on Sunday that as of March 16 it was taking on average 21 days to process applications. It said that more than 195,000 job applications had been approved since the scheme launched but to date just 16,600 people had actually started work through Kickstart.
Emma Jones, founder of business support network Enterprise Nation, says: ‘There is a lot of appetite for Kickstart. The problem is the amount of paperwork involved.’