Friday 26 September 2014

Raising aspirations, building experience and promoting education...

Raising Aspirations, Building Experience and Promoting Education... these terms seem like something taken from a policy document or political manifesto which sound good in principle, but realising the ambitions behind them may take years.

In Monmouthshire Housing (MHA), it was these very terms that set the thematic direction in 2011 of the MHA 'Work and Skills Wise Service'. So 3 years on, what is being offered on a daily or weekly basis in delivering this aspirational service?

I guess it's a range of tools, a belief in everyone we see, a needs-led approach, staff with bags of passion and an unwavering belief that we will get there, taking one step at a time!


Our tools include:

· Individual action plans used to define real goals and small steps to achieve them,
· Access to a range of formal and informal courses at reduced or no cost via our partners,
· Access to all areas in MHA to volunteer, the allocation of a mentor and volunteering skills log,
· Access to a bursary scheme to cover costs which reduce barriers to moving towards employment.
· Self employment support offered in partnership with Centre for Business,
· A tailored six week programme for interview skills, searching the job market, CV writing and
· A partnership approach to the work, working with JCP, colleges and private sector organisations.


Although the service is an employment and skills service, it is delivered holistically and caters for Financial Inclusion issues. We offer better off work calculations and tips to manage money better once in work. I feel that this is imperative when we consider what a huge transition it is for people who have not held down employment previously.

Digital Inclusion is also a cross-cutting theme embedded in our service where we offer free laptops to service users on a loan basis and training on how to use social media effectively. Demand for digital inclusion support is high amongst the elderly but our experience shows that working age tenants present challenges to engagement that requires a carrot approach. This incentive/carrot provides, in my view, access to a previously closed door.







While all of this is core funded, I'm always on the look out for external funding. The recent youth unemployment focus concentrated our energies on this agenda. Working in partnership with the Youth Service, we were successful with gaining external funding to target young NEETs. This gave us one of our biggest successes this year when the project went on to win the Youth Excellence Award in Employment and Training. Our employment and skills service in now being delivered via a former participant of this project.







It is important to gather research and intelligence from service users about what we deliver and how it impacts on tenants' lives. This aspect is the 'value added' element that we have captured in our work. From this intelligence we have devised the Basic Skills Continuum which can basically demonstrate how, as the basic skills of individuals grow, so does their confidence. See the continuum below for a better understanding... it works for us!




In my view, I think it is important for the housing sector to develop action research projects that measure impact and learning. Are we not best placed to pioneer some potentially exciting Employment and Anti Poverty action research?

During Employment and Skills Week our team has been out delivering our services in clients' homes using the tools mentioned. Service users are almost always anxious to see the end goal. In many cases, it is employment opportunities or skill courses. To this end, each year MHA hosts the Monmouthshire Employment and Skills Fayre in partnership with the Monmouthshire BEST partnership, which has over 30 exhibitors in attendance from employers to training providers. Our last fayre drew in 440 local residents and offered real time opportunities. The importance of providing one to one support must also be met with access to opportunities. This shows service users that the end goal is now in sight and can be reached!

Our aspirational journey over the last 3 years has been frightfully busy and we've developed the service and tweaked it as we go along, learning lessons. 

Having supported 302 tenants with employment and training over the last 3 years, our outcomes include:

· 24 tenants into employment
· 22 young NEETs into employment
· 90 volunteering placements
· 92 tenants completed courses
· 36 currently enrolled on courses

I think we are beginning to feel that Building Experience, Promoting Education and Raising Aspirations were/are the right thematic principles for us to adopt.

The tailored joined-up approach, linking Financial and Digital Inclusion along with having the right people, with the right support, empowerment, encouraging ethos and delivering services from a needs perspective, are the ingredients in my view for a recipe for developing success...


Farida Aslam
Inclusion Coordinator, MHA













 



 

 

Monday 22 September 2014

Employment and Skills Week - housing is a rare case of economic growth

Five years ago, i2i launched the first Can Do Toolkit in response to demand from the housing sector for practical help to capture the power of housing investment for local people and communities. It wasn’t a new idea. In my TPAS Cymru days, I had the privilege to be shown the work of the Young Builders Trust who, in partnership with Cardiff Community HA, had set up a training and employment project for young people who were then able to move into the homes they had helped build and refurbish. Many other associations and local authorities have been involved in similar schemes over the years.

The difference now is that this approach is standard for most housing associations and local authority landlords across Wales. Our annual survey published in March showed that the housing sector, by adopting the i2i approach, had created 5,135 jobs and training opportunities - 1,365 every year. And this happened at a time when the Welsh economy has struggled with recession. Compare housing with the steel industry, a sector close to my heart as the proud son of a steelworker. Tata Steel employs just under 4,000 at its Port Talbot works and is the largest single site employer in Wales. In July, a further 400 redundancies were announced. The contrast with housing is evident both in terms of the numbers and the direction of travel – housing is a rare case of economic growth.

The other good news is that where housing has led the way, others are following. The recently launched Community Benefits Guide from Value Wales (you can obtain a copy from communitybenefits@wales.gov.uk) has adopted the Can Do Toolkit ‘double default’ approach, making targeted recruitment and training the first ‘ask’. Our motivation remains to make real and lasting differences to people's lives. In the words of my i2i colleague Gareth Jones, community benefits are:

‘a long term solution to bring employment, economic and social gain to disadvantaged populations to help break the cycle of poverty and promote equality and inclusion.’

This is a long haul, made worse by welfare reform, austerity and more looming public service cuts. What can’t be denied is that housing continues to lead the way in the most challenging of times. CHC and its members, local authorities, contractors, small businesses and communities themselves have contributed to this success and learnt huge amounts in the process. We deserve a collective pat on the back. And then we need to refocus and move on, build on what we’ve achieved and keep our eye on the prize of long term, economically vibrant communities across Wales.


Keith Edwards, Director
CIH Cymru


This week is Employment and Skills Week, run by the Community Housing Cymru Group in partnership with CIH Cymru and NIACE Cymru. 

Monday 15 September 2014

Employment and Skills Week - Leading the Learning

The impact of welfare reform to date and impending Universal Credit means the impetus for landlords to move workless households closer to the job market has never been greater.  Yes, we need the unemployed to take up work-related activities to prevent benefit sanctions (figures from the DWP show the highest number of sanctions against claimants since jobseeker's allowance was introduced in 1996).  But the breadth of the work the sector is currently undertaking is nothing new. In fact, a recent straw poll I undertook with our members on Yammer found that all of the housing associations who responded were core funding their employment programmes and had been doing so for many years.

Employment activities provided by the sector do not extend to just providing work placements but cover the whole spectrum of work-related activity, including tackling basic literacy issues and encouraging tenant involvement, to funding qualifications, providing work placements and providing practical support to tenants who might otherwise have slipped through the net.

It’s therefore really important that the sector links in with adult learning organisations, both at a local and strategic level, to make sure we are able to feed into and influence developments. 

In partnership with CIH Cymru and NIACE Cymru, 22nd – 28th September will be “Leading the Learning” week.  During this week we will be holding a seminar with NIACE, the national voice for life-long learning, the details of which are yet to be announced.

Further opportunities to raise the profile of what the sector is doing in this area are available via Welsh Government’s Lift programme. The programme aims to provide 5,000 training and employment opportunities for people living in households where no-one is in work.  At the moment, the programme is being delivered in nine of the Welsh Government's Communities First clusters until the end of 2017.  The sector will shortly be asked to make a commitment in terms of what it can deliver.
In the meantime, do get on board with our Leading the Learning Week. It’s an opportunity to showcase what we’re already doing and, equally, if your organisation is seeking to increase activity in this area it’s an opportunity for you to participate in some of our suggested activities, which range from tenant shadowing to holding your own work and skills showcase event. 

For more information on Leading the Learning, the Work and Skills Information Sharing Group (which meets in September) or how to get involved on Yammer, please contact clare-james@chcymru.org.uk.

Clare James
Housing Services Policy Officer 

Monday 1 September 2014

'But what does a Policy Officer actually do?'

Imagine doing a job where your Mum thinks you work for the government, your younger brother thinks you go the pub with the First Minister, and your Gran asks whether you're able to get her a new house on the cheap. It doesn't get any easier when it comes to meeting new people either. Nobody knows what a policy officer does. They know we have meetings, and we like coffee, and it's verging on something political so they're not really interested anyway.

It's hardly the greatest stigma of our age, but policy types get a bad rap. Our colleagues in comms are always waiting on us, our friends in political parties think we're a bit boring, and our parents don’t have a clue what we do!

I'd worked in the Assembly, and on campaigns, and I'd flirted with a career in comms, so all these assumptions about the mysterious policy folk weren't new to me. Starting out at CHC, I was anxious not to become one of those 'bods'. Ten weeks on a Go Wales placement couldn't hurt though, could it? And how much could there really be to know about housing?

I very quickly learned that many of my assumptions were wrong. I found myself at CHC with lots of great people who were passionate and impatient for change. And, whisper it, the people in policy weren't boring either! Oh, and there really was quite a lot to learn about housing...

Three years in policy at CHC was an education. It was the trip to the House of Lords in my first week to campaign against the welfare reforms; it was the constant reminders about why we do this job as I heard the money advice team ask some of the toughest questions anyone will ever ask another person. It was successfully protecting the Supporting People budget last year, and wondering why my 'normal' friends weren't as excited as I was in the pub that night. It was becoming an overnight expert in devolution as we prepared to make radical calls to the Silk Commission. And it was the occasional campaign defeat too. And trying to understand the Lobbying Bill. And the Conservative MP who still replies to complain every time I use 'bedroom tax' in an email. And it was digesting the ever changing Welsh Government budget sheet – ‘what have they called social housing grant this year?!”

Policy was far from the boring drag I’d been told about; partly because working with the people at CHC meant even the longest strategy document or the driest task and finish group would turn out OK, and partly because I was representing a sector that really was about ‘more than bricks and mortar’. Over the course of three years, you can see that policy really can make a difference to people’s lives if we’re given the opportunity to channel it – it’s the basis of great projects and successful campaigns. It’ll change your political views and your outlook on life. But as I head off to my new policy role at NIACE, I’m still not sure my Mum knows exactly what I do…


Aaron Hill 

Aaron is leaving CHC after three years to work for NIACE Cymru as Policy and Public Affairs Officer. Good luck in your new role, you'll be missed!