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A training scheme designed to get prostitutes off Doncaster's streets and into new jobs may be expanded and repeated elsewhere after a successful pilot programme.
Reed in Partnership (part of the Reed recruitment and training group) and Streetreach (the prostitute support organisation) have helped 30 prostitutes find work as beauticians, hairdressers, sales assistants and holiday camp reps.
The scheme is backed by the Department of Work and Pensions and run in conjunction with South Yorkshire Police's Doncaster vice unit.
Managing director of Reed in Partnership, Chris Melvin, said the organisation is talking with its partners, Streetreach and the police, about getting further funding to expand the scheme in Doncaster and elsewhere.
Under the scheme Streetreach makes the initial contact and helps those in need it to go through a drugs treatment programme.
Reed's advisers help the women to rebuild their confidence, discuss what kind of employment they would like, look at their training needs and provide what is required. Assistance is then given with CVs, approaching potential employers and helping the women secure jobs.
The project has a budget of around £200 per person to allow the women to buy clothes and, if they wish, go to a gym to get fit.
Doncaster police said there are around 240 prostitutes working the streets in the area. The problem is worsened by the growing availability of heroin and crack cocaine which enters the UK through the nearby port of Hull.
