ABOUT £100,000 of extra money has been awarded to a North Yorkshire health trust to help attract more unemployed people into the NHS.

The York Hospitals NHS Trust was successful in a recent bid to join the Employability Scheme, funded by the regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward.

Moves are now under way to appoint an employability co-ordinator to head up the project.

The trust's director of human resources, Peta Hayward, said: "This is a very exciting opportunity, which will benefit the local community and the trust.

"It will involve our staff in mentoring people, providing them with the skills and support they need to gain employment.

"We will be looking at att-racting people from York, and potentially Selby, who are not necessarily attracted to jobs in the NHS by our normal recruitment processes."

The trust will be also be working with partner organisations in the region which run employability schemes.

The aim is to recruit about 90 people over a 30-month period and it is hoped that at the end of the project there will be a process to continue its work.