West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin has called on the Government to consider a special scheme to help farmers find people to pick their crops this year, as the country starts to emerge from lockdown.

The MP quizzed the Employment Minister about schemes which can be used to help local employers create new jobs for young people through the successful Kickstart programme.

Harriett has been contacted by local employers who have needed assistance to take on staff and she met with a delegation of farmers last week who are also keen to identify routes to recruit staff to pick produce this year.

The Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme helps farmers to access staff from abroad but Harriett urged the Government to consider focusing on creating jobs for local young people through a specific kickstart scheme for farmers and local growers.

Harriett said: “Farmers face the annual challenge of recruiting people to come and pick their crops and with travel restrictions in place at home and abroad, it is essential that local businesses look nearer to home to fill their vacancies.

“The national kickstart scheme has been set up to help young people into full time employment and I suggested that the Department for Work and Pensions could focus on helping to get the farming community to access this opportunity.

“I’m also getting reports from smaller businesses that the scheme is difficult to access so I took the opportunity to feed back to Government that we could be doing better.

“As the schools fully re-open and we start to plan for the opening of the economy, I’m eager to see all options explored to help address the increased unemployment by creating new jobs, especially for young people.

“Last year, we created special schemes to encourage local people to go out and pick the crops. It is a job I enjoyed doing as a student in the 1970s, and that message will be as relevant again as the peak growing season approaches.”