March 2007
Welfare to Work Convention Scotland
We are working with the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion (CESI) to host the new annual Scottish Welfare to Work Convention in Glasgow on 1st and 2nd March.
This Convention is for everyone involved in helping people make the transition from benefits to employment, and for those working to alleviate poverty in their local communities. With key themes on increasing employment rates, eradicating child poverty, 'localising' welfare reform and improving skills and job quality, Welfare to Work Scotland will bring together policy developers and experts from across Scotland to discuss and debate the latest UK and Scottish developments in welfare reform and employability.
Excellent examples of good practice will be showcased at various study visits in and around Glasgow on Thursday 1 March, with more details posted on the CESI website. And an update draft agenda is now available, highlighting key note speakers for the Convention: Jim Murphy MP, UK Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform and Allan Wilson MSP, Scottish Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning. Our very own Chairman, Willy Roe, will be helping chair this event.
For more information on this event and to register your place, visit the CESI website
HIE Moray tries new recruitment method: speed networking
The RAF Task Force Team at HIE Moray thought it would be worth trying speed networking as a way of helping employers understand what local RAF leavers could offer - and of helping the leavers find fulfilling local jobs. The evening event (which we facilitated) was a great success: lively, fast moving and fun.
Mhairi Begg, of HIE Moray said: "It follows on from a very successful careers fair we held for RAF leavers last year. The numbers leaving the bases this year are considerably lower than last year. We felt we needed a new format to put the leavers in touch with local employers and came up with this idea.
"It was a new experience both for the RAF personnel and for the company representatives and I think both sides were a little nervous beforehand. But once the event got underway that was all forgotten. Everyone got involved in the spirit of the evening and there was a great atmosphere. Most importantly there were jobs offered on the night and a lot of very good contacts established."
It attracted 12 employers and over 40 RAF leavers, all of whom left with positive leads and new confidence in pitching themselves in the market. And we all learnt how to make it work! HIE Moray will be following up to assess the scale of practical outcomes and we will report on this in due course.
For more information about how Rocket Science could facilitate your event, please contact Richard Scothorne
For more information about this event, please contact Mhairi Begg or Deborah De Jonge at HIE Moray
Upper Lea Valley Worklessness and Enterprise Framework
The LDA has appointed us to help shape a strategic investment framework for driving up skills, tackling worklessness and encouraging entrepreneurship within the Upper Lea Valley Area which traverses the London Boroughs of Enfield, Haringey and Waltham Forest. This will provide the basis for worklessness actions, in which the LDA will invest through its Area Programme between April 2007 and March 2009. The programme will add value to, not duplicate, other initiatives within the area and build on what works.
We are currently getting to grips with the range of initiatives already in place across the area and learning about what has worked and what needs to improve. We are currently talking to policy makers, funders and delivery agencies from across the Upper Lea Valley to capture their perspectives on what a really effective Upper Lea Valley Area programme would look like.
Our conclusions will be informed by our experience in developing effective, customer-focused worklessness strategies. This will include our work with the National Employment Panel and the Scottish EQUAL programme to investigate ways in which services can be effectively joined up to support people with complex needs; and in developing employability frameworks for Scotland, the North East of England, and currently, Ealing.
For more information contact Janice Renowden
The Wise Group Strategy
We beat off strong competition to work with the Wise Group and its new Chief Executive, Laurie Russell, on a new strategy for the organisation. The Wise Group was started in 1983 and has led the way in Britain as well as Scotland on a whole range of programmes to help long-term unemployed people back into the labour market. It has been much copied and much praised by politicians from all parties. Last year the Group had a turnover of £20 million and helped more than 2,500 people back to work.
The Group faces a new series of challenges as the nature of unemployment changes and those who are economically inactive rather than unemployed become the focus of government policy. The Group also faces increasing competition from private and not for profit organisations such as Working Links and Reed in Partnership that have expanded hugely since 1997. Our Rocket Science team involves Chairman Willy Roe, Director Alistair Grimes and consultants Susan Byrne and Sefton Laing who will be working with the Wise Group Board, senior staff and stakeholders over the next four months.
For more information contact Alistair Grimes
Employability Action North East
The REF takes a bold look at the provision of services to employers and economically inactive individuals in the region. Whilst it recognises much good and effective work, the REF sets out a way in which funders can invest more effectively in getting people back to work through the joint management of programmes and the partners can transform the way they work together and thus drive up performance.
The REF was supported by Minister of State at the DWP, Jim Murphy at a conference in December and has now been signed off by Government Office North East, One North East, the Learning and Skills Council, JobCentre Plus, local authorities, colleges and unions. An implementation team is being put in place to start changes in funding and programmes from April.
For more information contact Alistair Grimes
Blyth Valley develops clear ideas for the future
Our Social Inclusion Strategy for Blyth Valley is now complete. "In charge of our Future" focuses on a major joint staff development programme, developing risk assessment procedures to nip problems in the bud and extending successful neighbourhood management processes to other priority wards.
The strategy developed a strong emphasis on helping individuals develop clear ideas about a better future and gain a sense of control over this and the help they needed. It is planned to use this emphasis as the basis for redesigning the way that services are developed and delivered.
For more information about this and its practical implications for social inclusion and service delivery please contact Richard Scothorne
Using information to drive change in low income communities
Our newest recruit, Jamie Alderslade, joined us in January from Social Compact, a national not-for-profit organisation based in Washington, DC. He has brought with him some powerful insights into how the way in which data is collected can have an enormous impact on the business orientation of a neighbourhood and its potential for investment.
Picture the following two neighbourhood profiles for example:
Profile: Neighbourhood 1
- Twice the national rate of poverty
- Four times the national rate of overcrowding
- Aging housing stock
- Above national average unemployment
- Perception of high crime
Profile: Neighbourhood 2
- Aggregate income of $1.1 billion
- $440 million spent on retail
- Median home sales value of $315,000
- Average household income of $55,400
- Falling property crime
Above are profiles of two urban neighbourhoods of similar size. Neighbourhood 1 has some serious social, environmental and economic issues to confront requiring comprehensive support and funding from government programmes. Neighbourhood 2 in contrast is a market that is ripe for private sector investment, possessing all the qualities required (falling crime, robust housing market, spending power) to drive sustained economic development. It may therefore surprise the reader to learn that the profiles describe the very same neighbourhood of East Oakland, an underserved community of 35,000 people in the city of Oakland, northern California. Whilst the neighbourhood is the same, the policy and investment implications of the different profiles contrast starkly.
The profile of neighbourhood 1, highlighting East Oakland's deficiencies, was generated using the same census data cities use to leverage funding from central government. The second profile was developed by Social Compact. Social Compact generates business oriented data (known as 'DrillDowns') on low-income neighbourhoods to capture market assets that fall under the radar of mainstream market analysis models. Using data from 30 public and private information sources, Social Compact has built real time market profiles of over 100 low-income neighbourhoods, often finding that these markets are much larger, safer and with far greater buying power than previously thought. Social Compact uses this data to better inform investment and policy interventions and has an impressive track record of leveraging major private sector investment and driving 'joined-up' government in inner city areas.
Social Compact's approach has numerous applications in the UK including:
- broadening the current approach to economic development to include asset-based perspectives rather than focusing exclusively on communities' deficiencies
- generating new data on the genuine market opportunities in underserved communities in the UK
- using the data to forge new and effective partnerships with private sector actors in the design and delivery of local economic development projects
- encouraging greater collaboration between local, regional and national government agencies to share data and develop comprehensive localized solutions
For more information contact Jamie Alderslade. For more information on Social Compact visit www.socialcompact.org
What can we learn from ONE PLUS?
The closure of One Plus and the loss of 600 jobs has been a major news item in the Scottish press, especially since the organisation has been seen as a flagship for the social economy over many years. It was probably the biggest organisation of its kind, dealing with lone parents and providing childcare and training, in the UK, with a turnover of £11 million.
We believe that if the social economy is to grow we need to absorb and learn the lessons of One Plus, not indulge in finger pointing or trying to pass the blame onto others. Any move by the Scottish Executive to take a cool look at this should be welcomed, especially if it provides the means by which future large scale failures can be avoided. At the time of writing, the main reasons for closure seem to be about poor financial controls and information, over-expansion leading to a cash crisis and insufficient skills on the Board to identify and take drastic action earlier. All of these are familiar reasons for failure in the commercial sector, the moral being that in the current climate, the social economy is just as exposed as any other business to the workings of the market.
For more information contact Alistair Grimes
Advice UK Skills Self Assessment Tool (SSAT)
We have developed a Skills Self Assessment Tool (SSAT) for Advice UK, the largest network of independent welfare rights advice-providing organisations in the country. This tool enables Advice UK's member organisations to survey the level of competence and knowledge of staff against excellence in their field.
We constructed the competence frameworks contained within the SSAT from two key information sources: practical insights gained from advice service providers on what their day to day job entails and what it takes to perform as well as they can; and the knowledge, skills and behaviours set out relevant National Occupational Standards. The tool enables assessment of six distinctive roles within each organisation, from Manager/Co-ordinator through to front of house receptionist and administrative support.
We are currently analysing the initial survey results. These are revealing important development needs and trends, which will influence the scale and direction of Advice UK's workforce development plan and how it is delivered. In addition, the very positive reaction of survey participants to the relevance and perceived benefits of completing the self assessment has, in itself, resulted in re-engaging many of the network's least active members.
To date, we have designed the SSAT for use by those involved in providing Third Sector capacity building and welfare rights advice. However the SSAT is a simple but powerful tool that can be customised to any role in any profession.
For more information contact Janice Renowden
THIS Borough makes the CIC finals
The Community Indicators Consortium (CIC), an organisation based in the United States that promotes the development and, facilitates the effective use of community indicators across the globe. They are hosting an awards ceremony at their annual conference this year and we helped Tower Hamlets Information System (THIS Borough) submit an application for the CIC Innovation Award sponsored by the Urban Markets Initiative at the Brookings Institution.
THIS Borough is an innovative web-based application that disseminates local data to policy makers, investors and the wider community in order to promote better investment and policy decision-making. We have just found out that THIS Borough is one of the finalists. Their website can be found at: http://thisborough.towerhamlets.gov.uk/
For more information please contact For more information contact Jamie Alderslade
Quiz
So we are stepping up a gear for this month's e-newsletter, with a bit of a tough question.
Question: What is the name of the territory created on April 1st 1999 with its own parliament and legislature, a land area eight time that of the UK and a population of 27,000?
Please send your answers to Keira Farley
Quiz question and answer for December's e-newsletter
Question: In Sweden, a common Christmas decoration is the Julbukk, a small figurine of a goat. Of what material is it usually made?
Answer: Straw
Source: http://triviapark.com/quizzes/qzx2x/q1.html
Ann Brodie, Project Manager, Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley was picked at random from those who answered the Christmas quiz correctly. An Odd Bins voucher is on its way to you! Spend wisely!