December 2006
Supporting the work of Oxfam at Christmas
Last year we donated money to Oxfam to sponsor an HIV/AIDs carer and two months' teaching of children in one of the world's poorest communities instead of sending out Christmas cards. We received great feedback from our clients and this year we have purchased medicine for an entire village and donated to provide safe drinking water and buckets for up to 100 people.
You can find out more about sponsorship opportunities like these at www.oxfamunwrapped.com
The Leitch Review of Skills: A Rocket Science Briefing
What is the review about?
In 2004, the government commissioned Sandy Leitch to lead an independent review of skills in the UK. The Leitch Review was asked to identify what skills the UK's workforce would need by 2020 to maximise productivity, economic growth and social justice, and then to consider how these skills could be obtained. Additionally, the Review was asked to identify how skills and employment services could better complement each other to support labour market flexibility, better employment outcomes and more sustainable jobs for those with skills needs.
Why is it important?
Although the UK currently has low unemployment, our skills base is fairly average compared to other developed countries, such as Canada or France. As better technology makes the world's labour markets more flexible, industries can increasingly chose their workforces according to whoever is the most effective and competitive, no matter where they are located. This means that the UK needs to raise its game.
The government has already set ambitious targets for raising skills levels by 2020, but the Review argues that these won't go far enough and that we will improve at about the same rate as our competitors - we will effectively be "running to stand still".
In addition, Leitch identifies skills gaps as being hugely detrimental to those who are at the bottom of the pile: those with few or no qualifications or skills. The Review argues that raising skills amongst those with the fewest would bring about improvements in social inequality - as well as a plethora of improvements in health, social justice, social mobility and child poverty.
The current system is fragmented and confusing for everyone, and people in the UK don't seem to value learning as much as our counterparts in other OECD countries, who contribute financially to their own learning. People who already have skills are also much more likely to receive more training, whereas those with very few skills are "written off" by the system, and bounced between benefits and entry-level jobs; lacking the skills-development help they need for work to be sustainable and progressive.
UK employers are also a bit confused about what's going on. There are 22,000-odd vocational qualifications in the UK, which vary hugely in terms of their quality and relevance to work. The current system is supply-led, and unresponsive to the needs of the labour market, and employers don't feel they have a voice in helping to make it more relevant.
What are the recommendations?
Basically, to give the UK's skills base an overhaul, by getting 95% of adults literate, with 90% holding a level 2 qualification (equivalent to 5 GCSE's A*-C), and shifting the balance of people with "intermediate" skills from level 2 to level 3 (equivalent to 2 or more A-levels). Finally, 40% of the adult population educated to level 4 - which is a degree-level qualification.
This represents 22.6 million people obtaining new qualifications over the course of about 13 years. Which is ambitious, to say the least. Leitch proposes to do this through a combination of increased investment, by the government, employers and individual learners themselves; collaboration; and restructuring of existing agencies.
First, investment: the report identifies that the government needs to put some £2bn into this ambition, but is confident that once employers feel they're happy with the qualification system and the need for a more skilled workforce, they'll be happy to put some cash into it too. Everyone below level 2 should receive funding to help them get up to this level. And since people with higher level qualifications often benefit financially, learners themselves, and their employers, need to contribute to higher level qualifications.
The way the money is given will change too, with a greater emphasis on adult learner accounts, which give the individual a bit of autonomy about which provider they want to train with, and England's new Train to Gain (LSC) scheme, which allows the employers to have more of a say about what training is given, and unpopular training providers not being paid if they're not used. This is much more of a demand-led system.
In terms of collaboration, employers will have more of a say through reformed Sector Skills Councils, which will decide whether new qualifications should be approved - vocational qualifications which are not will not receive public funding. In addition, the NEP employer coalitions will be replaced by Employment and Skills boards, which will form part of the new Employment and Skills Commission (more on this later). It is hoped that employers will feel all warm and positive about training their staff up to level 2, and will take a voluntary pledge to allow their employee time off work if the government provides the tuition fees. If this doesn't work, after 2010, the government will look at introducing it as a statutory requirement.
Finally, restructuring: the Employment and Skills Commission will form the keystone of the new employment and skills structure. Replacing the Sector Skills Development Agency and the NEP, as well as taking away the LSC's Skills Alliance and employer engagement roles, the new Commission will report to senior ministers in central government and the devolved administrations. The Commission aims to give employers a stronger voice, through greater leadership and influence. It is also a way of reigning in all the different agencies which currently try to engage employers, but then don't really let them provide intelligence.
LSC and Jobcentre Plus will both sit below the Employment and Skills Commission, and will be required to work together to remove some of their more perverse incentives. At the moment, the LSC is geared towards getting people qualifications fairly indiscriminately, and Jobcentre Plus is involved with getting people jobs - again in a fairly scattergun way.
The emphasis is going to shift, to getting people who have low basic skills to obtain the skills they need to sustain employment, and then progress down a career path. There will also be a few housekeeping issues for both organisations: the LSC is going to be significantly streamlined, with its main role being the management of individual learning accounts and the Train to Gain programme, and Jobcentre Plus will be operating on less centralised contracts, as adult learner accounts force a demand-led supply of training.
Finally, there is going to be an attempt to change the UK to a "learning culture". This is going to happen through various awareness-raising initiatives, but there will also be the establishment of a new adult careers service in England, which will provide something of a one-stop-shop for training and skills needs. Going under the learndirect brand, the careers services will offer adults a "skills health check" to identify their training needs. It is proposed that these new careers services in England should be co-located with Jobcentre Plus. In Scotland an announcement is expected soon about the future of Careers Scotland.
What are the implications for employment and skills in the UK?
The Leitch report is certainly wide-eyed and ambitious, but whether the government can tackle the current inertia around skills is an important question. Whilst it is true that the world's economy has shifted, and that people can no longer rely upon a job for life, furnishing the UK's workforce with the transferable skills they need to negotiate the new labour market is a massive undertaking. As 70% of the people who will make up the workforce in 2020 have already left school, the effective targeting and incentivisation of learning and skills is an issue that may not have been tackled in enough depth by the review. The Review deals with the social benefits and possible reasons for employers to want a more skilled workforce, but practical implementation will depend on us being able to overcome all the familiar issues about implementing large-scale social change though government programmes. Success will depend on developing a genuinely demand driven provision, with the closer alignment (in England) of LSC and JCP spend around the common objective of helping people find and make progress in work.
In effect it also depends on the capacity of those organisations delivering these objectives to be more effective. Can colleges also respond to this new agenda? And will the government invest in and improve the infrastructure in the long term.
To discuss how Rocket Science can help you with your skills and employability agenda contact Richard Scothorne .
Third Sector playing a key role in London Thames Gateway
"Constructed at the expense of public-spirited individuals under the sanction of a provident legislature" - this statement marking the opening in 1800 of the River Thames' West India Dock by Prime Minister William Pitt seems a fitting comment on the ambition two hundred years later to create the London Thames Gateway. The Museum of Docklands on West India Quay was the venue for the November 20th Ministerial launch of Building a World-class Third Sector in the London Thames Gateway, Rocket Science's ten-year strategy for the Third Sector in an area made up of twelve local authorities, from the City of London all the way to Dartford.
The Third Sector is one of the top five employers in the London Thames Gateway, ahead of both manufacturing and construction, and yet the sector has still to reach its full potential. Whilst on average the public and private sectors invest 3% of annual turnover on training and development, the Third Sector commits just 1.3%.
Commissioned by the Thames Gateway London Partnership, the report highlights the vital role the Third Sector is already playing across East London: as a strategic-level adviser to public sector partners; as a deliverer of major public services; and in contributing to social and community cohesion. It also outlines what is needed for the sector to increase its contribution to the social and economic regeneration of the largest regeneration project in Europe.
Many of our recommendations have been reflected in two key pre-budget reports which aim to strengthen the partnership between government and the Third Sector (Partnership in Public Services: an Action Plan for Third Sector Involvement and The Future Role of the Third Sector in Social and Economic Regeneration). Building a World-class Third Sector in the London Thames Gateway recommends:
- Recognising and better resourcing the sector's advisory role locally and with government
- Developing a more structured approach for the sector's involvement in the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and other planned developments in the Gateway
- Involving the Third Sector in the design of services at the earliest possible stage
- Improving collaboration and communication between Third Sector organisations and networks
- Co-ordinating and securing greater security of (i.e. three-year) funding
- Improving commissioning and procurement procedures
- Building capacity of social enterprises
- Investing in the skills and processes required to build, transfer and manage community-owned assets, including hubs or "anchor" organisations around which to develop community-based services.
Speaking at the launch Ed Miliband, MP, Minister for the Third Sector said: "This report represents an invaluable insight into the potential of the Third Sector. It highlights the massive opportunities for sectors working together but also the real challenges on the ground in ensuring the people of East London can receive the very best public services. I look forward to seeing the results of the joint working between the public, private and third sectors over the coming years as, together, we build and regenerate the Gateway." Free copies of the report can be obtained by emailing sue@thames-gateway.org.uk
For further information about this report or our work with the Thames Gateway London Partnership, please contact: John Griffiths
Historic signing of Scotland's Volunteering Partnership Agreement
Volunteer Development Scotland and the 32 Volunteer Centres across Scotland have signed up to Scotland's first Partnership Agreement to provide a framework for future joint working.
In our evaluation of Volunteer Development Scotland activity, we recommended the establishment of this Partnership Agreement to enable both Volunteer Development Scotland and the Volunteer Centres to provide clarity about their relationships, add value to individual and collective activities and deliver effective working practices. The underpinning aim of this Partnership Agreement is to work collaboratively to improve the quality of volunteering in Scotland.
The partnership of 33 organisations, Scotland's Volunteering Partnership, have worked hard to create a framework to review partnership performance, developed a decision-making framework outlining the parameters of future working, and establishing the roles and responsibilities of elected Volunteer Centres and Volunteer Development Scotland members on the newly established Partnership Management Group.
George Thomson, Chief Executive of Volunteer Development Scotland said: "We are thrilled that after a great deal of hard work from all our partners involved, we now have all 32 Volunteer Centres and ourselves signed up to this 'partnership of 33'. This Partnership Agreement really is a starting place, with the true measure of our performance to come from how effectively we can work together to realise our vision of becoming recognised as the volunteering infrastructure for all of Scotland. I feel very positive about our commitment and approach to this partnership."
Harriet Eadie, from Volunteer Centre Edinburgh, who was involved in the development of this Agreement, adds: "This Partnership Agreement will enable us to ensure that the public and other stakeholders have an increased awareness of Scotland's Volunteering Partnership and its activities. This requires us to use our strengths to maximise our national presence to increase local recognition, covering the whole of Scotland, and our willingness to use these links and our brand for mutual and individual benefit and for the development of volunteering in Scotland."
This process was facilitated by Rocket Science Principal Consultant, Debbie Adams, who was impressed by the commitment to really make a difference: "The development of this Partnership Agreement took a lot of time and investment from individuals from Volunteer Centres and Volunteer Development Scotland and it highlights the maturity of this network that they have created this framework to guide their joint working."
For further detail about this Partnership Agreement or for information on how we can help your organisation carry out evaluations, facilitations and events, please contact Debbie Adams
Regional employability framework in the North East passes a significant milestone
Over 200 participants attended a high profile conference in Newcastle this month, attended by the Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform, Jim Murphy. At the conference a wide range of participants were brought up to date by ONE North East and their partners (LSC NE, Jobcentre Plus, The North East Employer Coalition and Government Office NE) on their progress and the partners described the way that they were going to change their spending patterns and working practices to ensure that individuals and employers got a clearer, simpler and more effective service.
At the conference the Minister, partners and participants discussed the way in which the Department of Work and Pensions can support the objectives of the framework, how the framework will add value to the Tyne/Wear City Strategy and the practical implications for providers and the third sector.
We are now producing our final report which sets out in detail the framework and the next steps in terms of:
o Shifting the profile of spend (in particular to invest more in outreach and engagement at one end of the supply chain of employability services, and aftercare in work at the other end)
o Transforming procurement over time so that it is more strongly outcome driven, with much greater alignment of spend by the key partners
o Investing in the infrastructure of support so that individuals and employers get the quality and relevance of service that they need.
We are currently working on similar assignments in the London Borough of Ealing and in the Upper Lea Valley.
To learn more about how an employability framework could enhance the impact of your current resources - or to learn more about our work in this area - please contact Alistair Grimes or Richard Scothorne
Another Community Planning Partnership buys our e-Scorecard
Following recommendations by Partnership Board members working across Ayrshire who had been involved in East Ayrshire's CPP e-Scorecard process over the last year, the North Ayrshire CPP Board has approved the use of our CPP e-Scorecard. This will allow the partners to benchmark themselves against outstanding practice, develop an action plan and assess their progress over time.
For more information on our CPP e-Scorecard (it works just as well with Local Strategic Partnerships by the way!) or how we could work with you to develop a bespoke e-Scorecard for your organisation, please contact Richard Scothorne.
We have a range of e-Scorecards available or in development - these include a Labour Market Intermediary e-Scorecard, a Social Enterprise e-Scorecard and a Low Carbon e-Scorecard for local authorities.
The Role of Social Enterprise in London 2012 Games
We have been commissioned by Social Enterprise London to carry consultative research to develop a clear role for social enterprise in the delivery of and legacy resulting from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The recent release of the Social Enterprise action plan: Scaling New Heights, signals a significant signal of support from central government for the sector, recognising and celebrating the unique impact of this business model, both socially and economically. The action plan will drive change by improving the support available to start-up and growing social enterprises, and easing access to finance for growing social enterprises. These practical commitments raise the profile of the sector at a key point in the development of the strategic agencies' plans to deliver the 2012 Games, strengthening the case for involving London's local and community enterprises in the provision of goods and delivery of services, and in its ability to mobilise diverse local communities. The legacy of the Games, in particular, depends on the latter.
Our consultative research will map these unique attributes of the sector against the opportunities emerging from the recently developed Olympic Delivery Plans. We are also consulting businesses in London to get an understanding of how they are preparing themselves for the Games.
For more information about this project, or if you are interested in carrying out similar work with us, please contact Annabel House
Public engagement of specialist children's health services
We have been commissioned by the National Steering Group for Specialist Children's Services to carry out a public engagement process to gather the views of staff involved in the planning, commissioning and delivery of services, as well as the views of children, young people, parents and carers who have experience of specialist children's health services.
This work will inform the production of a delivery plan which will cover all specialist services for children and young people in Scotland; for example children's cancer services, metabolic diseases, general surgery and age appropriate care.
This public engagement process will inform people of the work of the Steering Group to-date and explore the key issues for staff, patients and parents/carers. Key issues to be discussed include:
- Patient and carer experiences;
- Staff experiences;
- Views on access to services;
- Concerns on service provision; and
- Access to services for rural communities.
The national delivery plan is scheduled for autumn 2007, and it will then be subject to a more formal consultation on specific proposals. This process will help ensure that future services are provided in the most appropriate way for patients, families, carers and health professionals.
The current engagement process will involve:
- Regional opportunities for staff planning, commissioning and delivering care;
- Regional opportunities for children, young people;
- Regional opportunities parents and carers; and
- An online survey (aimed particularly at parents/carers and staff).
There may also be a small number of additional events targeted at specific groups or geographies.
For more information and to register to attend an event please visit our website: www.childrenshealthservices.co.uk. Alternatively, please email or call David McNeill 0131 226 4949 and he can take your registration over the phone.
Space Unlimited win funding bid from the BIG Lottery
Space Unlimited, a unique initiative bringing young people together with businesses to solve business problems, has just been awarded £670,000 over five years by the BIG Lottery Fund. This is the biggest single award in Scotland in the current round. Rocket Science worked with Space Unlimited to help them 'spin out' of Scottish Enterprise as an independent company and refine their business plan, submit their BIG Lottery application and identify future sources of contracts.
The Lottery's investment recognises Space Unlimited's early achievements and will help the Glasgow-based organisation to become a sustainable social enterprise. Space Unlimited brings teams of young people between the ages of 12 and 18 together with businesses looking for creative breakthroughs. The young people use Space Unlimited's open methodology to explore solutions, delivering fresh ideas to business clients while discovering talents they never knew they had. Space Unlimited's clients include BP, Stagecoach, BBC and Oracle.
Heather Sim, Chief Executive said "In the last six months, we have set up a brand new organisation, spun out successfully from Scottish Enterprise and now received this vote of confidence from Big Lottery. The assistance from Rocket Science and from Alistair Grimes in particular, has been instrumental in helping us to make all this happen."
For more information on this project please contact Alistair Grimes. For more information on Space Unlimited please visit: www.spaceunlimited.org
Growing up and moving forward
This year we celebrated our 5th anniversary, and we are delighted that after five years we keep on growing and expanding, continually looking for excellent people to join us and to work with. For all these reasons we've adopted a fresher approach to some of our printed materials - watch this space in the New Year for brighter fresher proposals, reports, presentations and campaign materials.
Talking of expanding our team we are delighted to announce that Jamie Alderslade will be joining our London team in January from Social Compact Inc in Washington DC, USA where he was Deputy Chief Executive. Jamie will be helping to build our presence in the U.S. and will also be strengthening our skills and experience in:
- Promoting greater private sector involvement in economic development
- Evaluating and measuring economic development projects and policies
- Neighbourhood market research and profiling
If you would like to get in touch with Jamie, please contact the London office on 020 7253 6289 to leave a message. He'll be up and running with email contact from mid January, please come back to our website (our people) then for further details.
We are sorry to have to say goodbye to Shelley Gray, Rocket Science consultant in our Edinburgh office, who will be leaving us in January. However we wish her all the best in her new role of Development Manager with new Long Term Conditions Alliance Scotland.
Christmas Quiz
Question: In Sweden, a common Christmas decoration is the Julbukk, a small figurine of a goat. Of what material is it usually made?
a. candy
b. straw
c. fir wood
Please send your answer, name and postal address by email to Keira Farley (keira.farley@rocketsciencelab.co.uk). One respondent, with the correct answer to our Christmas quiz, will be picked at random and sent an OddBins voucher!
Quiz question and answer for October's e-newsletter
I am the ruler of shovels. I have a double. I am thin as a knife. I have a wife. What am I?
Answer: King of Spades
Source: http://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz91721a82740.html
We had an astonishing 23 correct responses to our last quiz question. Congratulations to Jeff Jablow, Allan Wiltshire (Doncaster Council), Howard Dawber (Canary Wharf Group), Laurence Leader (LSC), Jane Clark (DFID), Dean Eatherton (DWP), Carol Pease, Ann Brodie (Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley), Therese Rein, Keith Hayton (GEN Consulting), Agnes O'Donnell (Careers Scotland), Kerry Knox (YMCA Scotland), Bernie Morgan (Community Development Finance Association), Priya Gossain (LSC), Angela Dinham (Cambridge University), Laura Holland (Growth), Lucinda Gray (HIE), Elizabeth Simon (London Churches Group for Social Action), Rory MacLeod (Learning Connections), Bob Brennan (Small Business Service), Nina Massarik (LDA), Meirion Thomas (CM International), Jenny Simons (Scottish Executive)
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