BY SUSAN LOCHRIE & STEPH BRAWN

THE council is poised to launch its own furlough scheme in a bid to save jobs at risk from the coronavirus outbreak as part of a major £1.5m anti-poverty push.

A key element of the plan - expected to be formally agreed by councillors today - is to protect under-threat posts by paying half of the wages of up to 20 people in the area under a £125,000 furlough fund.

It would start in October, when the UK Government's job retention scheme ends.

It is part of a package drawn up to support the most vulnerable in the community and address food insecurity.

The proposals include giving families entitled to free school meals a one-off payment at Christmas, food pantries in poverty-stricken communities and giving financial support to those in the private rented sector.

A report prepared for councillors says: “While the number of Covid cases has greatly reduced within the population, the impact of the four-month lockdown and the gradual withdrawal of government funding will result in a high level of need within in the Inverclyde community for some time to come."

As part of the 2020/21 revenue budget, councillors had agreed in March to allocate £1 million to initiatives which would reduce poverty, after research showed Inverclyde had the most deprived neighbourhoods in the country.

Officials have now provided a breakdown of how that money will be utilised, alongside an additional £430,000 from other sources such as existing council budgets and the Scottish Government.

It is proposed £532,000 will be used to boost the council’s modern apprenticeship programme, creating a bridge between school and work.

The council developed a pre-apprenticeship pilot last year for 12 pupils – mostly in S4 – who were not fully engaged in school.

Councillors are now set to agree to offer the programme to a second cohort of 12 pupils between now and next June and offer a level two apprenticeship to the first group over a period of 18 months.

It is also proposed to offer five people who are due to finish on the existing modern apprenticeship programme a two-year contract at an entry level post.

After providing fortnightly payments of £25 to every child entitled to free school meals through the pandemic, the council is now proposing to allocate a one-off payment of £40 to each of these families in mid-December – costing approximately £150,000.

The creation of three food pantries is expected to cost £60,000.

Council papers show a further £370,000 will be put towards welfare support.

A total of £150,000 – from existing council budgets and the Scottish Government – will go towards helping tenants in the private rented sector with living costs, while £220,000 will be used to expand the eligibility of community care grants and continue the enhanced payment of crisis grants until next June.

The council decided in March to increase crisis grant payments by 20 per cent.

Community groups supporting the vulnerable and isolated will benefit from a £200,000 local authority fund, which they will be able to apply for support from should plans get the go-ahead.

Senior councillor Chris McEleny says the measures - set to be passed at a Municipal Buildings meeting this afternoon - are vital but added that much more action is needed from central government.

He said: "Communities like Inverclyde were already in need of much more support to reduce the levels of deprivation we have.

"The coronavirus outbreak has created economic circumstances that compound that situation.

“We are showing locally that we can do good things to tackle deprivation.

"But ultimately, without the creation of a major national fund to tackle deprivation that aims to significantly reduce levels of poverty in deprived communities in Scotland, we will always be pushing a rock uphill."