It aims to target every single parent on income support and show them there are ways of re-shaping their lives and getting back into the world of work.

The Lone Parents package offers them information, motivation, one-to-one advice and practical help to overcome barriers that can stop them getting a job... or setting up their own business.

"We can help them find childcare, sort out their benefits, to apply for jobs and training and generally give them the encouragement to take a step that could change their lives," said Phil Wilkinson, who is one of the Lone Parents advisers at the Jobcentre Plus in Lynn.

"Sometimes they just lack the confidence to do it for themselves. Others just need to be shown how they can overcome barriers and that they could be better off financially, and socially."

A change in the attitude of employers has been a big help to the Lone Parent scheme. They have become more family-friendly and more flexible about working hours and arrangements and a number are taking part in the newly-introduced work trials.

These allow applicants a 15-day try-out for a job without making a commitment and, because it is set up by Jobcentre Plus, their benefits are not affected.

It gives the applicant the chance to show the employer that they are the right person for the job and the employer gets the chance to see someone in a working environment rather than relying on an interview which does not always give the right picture.

Mr Wilkinson stressed that the whole scheme is purely voluntary and that no-one is going to be forced into a job.

New Deal for lone parents gave 46-year-old Louise Wilkinson the confidence to set up her own business.

The traumatic break-up of a relationship had knocked her confidence and self-esteem and she spent most of her time at home, reluctant to venture out.

The former marketing manager from Middleton, who is mum to a school-age son, admits she was hiding away.

"It was actually when I was persuaded to help with fundraising for a local basketball team that I started to get my confidence back and took the biggest step of all by contacting Phil at New Deal," she said.

After this interview Ms Wilkinson's life began to turn around.

"At one time I was really into beauty treatments and going to the gym and regularly used sunbeds for what I thought was a healthy tan. Then, after a health scare, I realised I was harming my skin and that was how I found out about spray tanning," she explained.

"My New Deal adviser believed in me and my ambitions. He arranged for New Deal to pay for the cost of training and equipment and I have designed my own promotional literature. Nothing is going to stop me now, I am determined to succeed."

Through her business, Ohana, she operates a mobile air brush tanning service in customers' homes.