Welcome to June’s edition of the West London Working Provider Confederation Bulletin.

You will be aware of the various announcements from the Coalition Government about the Work Programme. This has implications for all providers of employment and training services as emerging policy and information is released. In the meantime, we have highlighted the key notices you should read on the national links section including the link to DWP’s newly published Framework Agreement for the Provision of Employment Related Support Services.

Thank you to all those who presented at and attended our ‘Getting parents into work’ event on the 10th June at St Andrew’s Centre in Ealing.

The purpose of the event was to look at the key policy areas and information for supporting parents and to share practice from providers in West London and nationally. Our discussion session at the end of the presentations showed how challenging it is to keep on top of all the information that is available to support parents. A key challenge for all providers is making sure that they keep up to date with all the services that are on offer and in particular to develop links with their local Family Information Services and national organisations. Links and contact information have been provided in this bulletin.

The following is a quick summary of the day, along with presentation slides and links to further information. After a quick overview from West London Working (click here for the presentation), we showcased the experiences of four organisations.

Experiences from providers

• Sabrina Palmer from Ingeus gave an insightful presentation on how they have engaged, supported and placed parents into work, based on their experiences working in Brent. Click here to view the presentation


• Seetal Sejpal from Ealing explained how the Work Focused Services Child Poverty Pilot was progressing and in particular how they have been working with Sure Start centres across Ealing to engage and support new parents.

• Gingerbread is the national charity for lone parents and has launched a national campaign to help dispel the myths often associated with lone parents. Take a look at their video. Chris Hills gave an overview of their national programmes and of particular interest is their work with Marks and Spencer and Barclaycard, you can view his presentation here.


• Uxbridge College has been participating in a WLW programme on improving pathways to employment. Giles Strachan gave an overview of how they have developed their IAG services for adult learners to help them access employability services. Click here to view the presentation.

Helping parents access information

Getting the right information to parents both before and when they are in work is really important, particularly around childcare and welfare advice. We heard from two organisations:

• Citizen’s Advice who provide support across a range of welfare issues and in particular debt advice – click here for Lucy Poloniecka’s presentation, and


• The Daycare Trust who provide advice and support for parents seeking childcare. Roz Hampson gave an overview of services – click here to view her presentation.

Both organisations can provide information and guidance material to advisors. Other organisations that can help include:

• National Family Information Service which can direct parents and advisors to their nearest family information service. These are provided by each local authority across England, as a statutory duty under the Childcare Act 2006 and provide information and advice on a range of services for families including local childcare, facilities and services.


• Working Families is a national advice organisation to help parents, as well as working with employers to help them develop working practices to make it easier for parents to manage work and home life.