Services for employers

East Lothian Works supports and inspires people to fulfil their career goals, develop new and existing skills and help grow their businesses in East Lothian. Our area boasts a wealth of fantastic opportunities across different sectors and is a great place to live and work. We're here to support and develop talent and businesses to be proud of.

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Funding for employers

East Lothian Council’s Parental Employer Recruitment Incentive (PERI) supports the creation of sustainable job opportunities within the private or 3rd sector for parents with barrier(s) to employment.

Employers can apply for up to £6,000 for newly created jobs to employ someone who meets the eligibility criteria. Funding is based on the rate of pay of the employee and is paid in monthly instalments across 26 weeks.

  • aged 16-20 £4,000
  • aged 21+ or paying Real Living Wage £6,000 

Criteria

  • Roles must not replace a post from which someone was made redundant, cause someone to lose their position or lose hours of employment.
  • The position must be new to the business
  • All flexible working hours are eligible, ranging from a minimum of 8 hours to a maximum of 40 – no zero hour contracts will be considered
  • Jobs should be sustainable following funded period
  • Limited to 2 grant per business (any increase to this will be considered on a case by case basis)
  • All roles must be paid The Real Living Wage
  • Should be committed to Fair Work Principles, tool available here Home | Fair Work Tool

Eligibility

In order to be eligible for the Parental Employer Recruitment Incentive certain criteria need to be met:

  • The participant must live in East Lothian

  • The participant must be currently unemployed or underemployed and not in full-time training or education

    And 1 of the following criteria:

  • Lone parent 
  • Parent or child with a disability 
  • Parent with 3 or more children 
  • Parent from a minority ethnic background 
  • Parent with a youngest child under 1 year 
  • Parent under 25 years of age 
  • Other low-income parents, e.g. Kinship Carers

If you would like to find out further information or to request an application form please email elworks@eastlothian.gov.uk with PERI in the subject line.

Please note – Due to high demand, we can only hold the opportunity of funding for a three-week period. Within this three-week period, we require to meet in person and fill out the relevant paperwork so the application can be reviewed and processed. If the application is not submitted within the three-week timeframe you will have to start the process again. Due to funding restrictions, the PERI cannot be funded beyond March 2027. Therefore, if the contract starts after September 2026, employers will receive a reduced amount of funding. The amount will reduce by a proportionate amount for each month started after September.