Employability ~ Partnership Solutions Chris Leigh (Employability Team Advisor)

Employability ~ Partnership Solutions Chris Leigh (Employability Team Advisor) Billie Omarshah (Employability Team Manager) PUTTING YOU FIRST

EMPLOYABILITY • Relates to a person’s ability to gain or maintain employment • It includes • Skills and qualifications; • Aspirations and confidence; • Practical factors such as childcare and transport • It is related to worklessness i.e. economically inactive people of working age who are not working, not in full-time education or training and are not actively seeking work because of family responsibilities, illness etc. PUTTING YOU FIRST

WHY IS EMPLOYABILITY AN ISSUE FOR CHILDREN’S SERVICES? • Economy • Local Economic Assessment • Communities • Sustainable Community Strategy • Work and Skills Plan • Families • Family Support “Think Family” • Childcare Sufficiency Assessment • Children • Child Poverty Needs Assessment • Child Poverty Strategy PUTTING YOU FIRST

CHILD POVERTY, EMPLOYABILITY and WORKLESSNESS Poverty risks are highest for children living in workless families London CP Commission Legacy Report, March 2010 PUTTING YOU FIRST

KEY CHALLENGES IN LONDON London children living in poverty 37% of children in Outer London 68% Pakistani and Bangladeshi children ~50% of black children, Chinese and ‘other’ ethnic group children 31% white children 56% children living with a disabled parent are in poverty PUTTING YOU FIRST

FACTORS INFLUENCING PARENTAL EMPLOYMENT IN LONDON • Cost of living is higher - transport, housing and childcare etc • Wages are lower relative to cost of living • Fewer part-time jobs (~25% compared to one third in in the UK) • More black, minority ethnic and migrant families • Skills and qualification gaps • Competition from migrant workers PUTTING YOU FIRST

WHAT ABOUT MERTON? • 3,000 lone parents not in work • 2,000 couple families not in work • Household income in the East is £122 per week less than average • Average wage in Mitcham is half the average wage in Wimbledon ! MERTON’S VITAL STATS ! 8,500 (20%) children & young people living in poverty, mainly in the east of the borough. 4,800 families are eligible for the childcare element of Working Tax Credit – 900 (19%) actually claim it. PUTTING YOU FIRST

What have we done to date? PUTTING YOU FIRST

RESOURCES DEVELOPED The Parent Training Programme The allocation of a Key Staff Mentors The development of a structure case review system Staff training programme Staff ‘learner’s diary’ (“MySpace”) The development of the Employability Toolkit and staff training programme PUTTING YOU FIRST Cont’d

EMPLOYABILITY PROGRAMME • To develop a comprehensive system of support for parents looking to enter and remainin the job market. • To provide a bespoke ‘end to end’ service of support for the most vulnerable and economically challenged families in the borough. • To empower parents who historically have been excluded from the job market, and help them move away from benefit dependency into long-term sustainable employment. Key Objective: “to support parents in pursuing their journey into employment, and facilitate involvement of other agencies and referrals to them via ‘baton-passing’” Priority groups Unemployment has severely affected: - lone parents - low income/low skilled two parent families - disabled parents - BME families PUTTING YOU FIRST

STAFF TRAINING • Training programme for staff • Generic modules • Understanding the context • Assessing needs • Employability training modules • Using the Personal Skills and Employment Action Plan • Developing employability skills • Developing job search skills • Specialist modules • Delivering training • Benefits awareness • The Learning Log PUTTING YOU FIRST

EMPLOYABILITY TOOLKIT • Resources for parents and professionals • Structured approach • 1 Assess needs • 2 Assess skills • 3 Developing skills and confidence • 4 Help into employment • 5 Help with childcare PUTTING YOU FIRST

EMPLOYABILITY STATISTICS Breakdown of reach in terms of gender: • The Employability team has provided support to 191 individuals since the commencement of the employability project • Of the 191 cases, 130 are still open and engaging with the Employability team, and 61 are closed and no longer receiving support Breakdown of reach in terms of BME status: Unknown • 56% of families who have accessed Merton’s employability services are classed as Black Minority Ethnic, with Non-BME making up 28% of the total BME Non-BME PUTTING YOU FIRST

The Parent Journey Key Barriers Multiple family support needs Lack of suitable childcare arrangements Requires help in finding & obtaining employment Don’t know where to start Lack of self-supporting personal skills Lack of transferrable employability skills Employability initiatives Referral to Supporting Families team via R4S Multi-agency working & baton passing eWorkshops ‘Skills4Jobs’ workshops & external courses Childcare brokerage Recruitment brokerage Referred to the Supporting Families team by benefits advisor Provided housing support in conjunction with Employability support Supported in completing Personal Develop Plan and attended eWorkshops Supported to enrol on IT & NVQ level 2 Health & Social Care course Supported in finding suitable & affordable childcare Supported in vacancy finding, application completion, & interview techniques In practice – a case study Obtained full-time employment PUTTING YOU FIRST

Over to you…………………. What are the key issues that need to be addressed in improving employability of parents in Merton? What role can you play? How can inter agency work contribute? Is there anything you need to know in order to increase your contribution to employability for parents? What are the priority actions and who are they for? PUTTING YOU FIRST

Employability ~ Partnership Solutions Chris Leigh (Employability Team Advisor)