APPENDIX 31
Memorandum from the Community Enterprise
in Strathclyde (JG 9)
GLASGOW WORKS—TACKLING A LOCAL JOBS
GAP
Sumamry—This paper describes Glasgow Works—one
of Glasgow's outstandingly successful intermediate labour market
projects. We think Glasgow Works is relevant to the Committee's
inquiry for three reasons:
— it bridges a local jobs gap by proving
short term employment which is reserved for excluded individuals,
effectively creating a standing addition of 450 jobs to the Glasgow
labour market;
— it achieves exceptional results for
the participating Glasgow Workers in terms of personal development
and sustainable employment; and
— many of the Glasgow Works projects
also contribute by providing services which themselves tackle
exclusion, for instance by removing barriers to employment for
others—we call this "double hitting".
INTERMEDIATE LABOUR
MARKET—BACKGROUND
The concept of the Intermediate Labour Market
originated with the Wise Group, also based in Glasgow. Over the
years it has been developed by Glasgow Works and others to give
those who are furthest from the labour market a bridge back to
work by improving their employability and ensuring they have the
skills to stay in work when they do find employment. The heart
of the ILM is paid work at the rate for the job on a temporary
contract together with high quality training, personal development
and active job seeking.
THE TARGET
SECTOR OF
THE GLASGOW
LABOUR MARKET
7,000 plus people registered unemployed over
12 months (80 per cent male).
This is 28 per cent of total unemployment, highest
in the West of Scotland.
Least chance of leaving unemployment.
Stagnant bottom end of labour market (SLIMS).
Decreasing proportion of local jobs taken by
Glasgow people.
THE GLASGOW
WORKS PACKAGE
Glasgow Works differs from previous initiative
in many fundamental respects. As its core is the idea of quality
work; all Glasgow workers are employed by their projects and paid
pro-rata the going rate for the job. Key elements of the package
are:
— a normal job, advertised and recruited
competitively, with a contract for up to a year;
— assessment and guidance before, during
and after the Glasgow Works period;
— core skills training as well as formal
study towards VQ qualifications;
— help with job searching to ensure
a smooth transition to the mainstream labour market;
— personal development—time and
funds allocated to each individual for non-vocational learning
in an area of their choosing;
— a weekly wage and childcare support;
and
— quality work that is worth doing.
NUMBERS
2,000 people have participated as Glasgow Workers.
23 current projects.
450 job-places.
630 people per year.
62 per cent leave directly to a job.
69 per cent of all leavers progress to employment
within six months.
85 per cent of those who got a job on leaving
are still employed after six months.
Wages in these subsequent jobs average £210
gross weekly, which gets most people out of the "benefit
trap".
THE GLASGOW
WORKS PROJECT
Glasgow Works is a framework—the projects
are based with, and managed by, partner organisations (mostly
social enterprises) throughout Glasgow. These partner organisations
employ and train the Glasgow Workers. Projects are selected to
ensure that they do something useful, something of benefit to
Glasgow, while also providing rewarding work experience for participants.
Examples of projects are:
Job Coaching—20 Glasgow Workers
supporting disabled people at work.
Childcare—65 Glasgow Workers in
10 after school schemes and day care centres in Glasgow North
and Easterhouse.
Recycling—40 Glasgow Workers refurbishing
and recycling in Easterhouse.
Health Action—15 Glasgow Workers
helping ethnic minority communities access healthcare.
City Station—20 Glasgow Workers
provide advice and services to homeless people.
Sports Coaching—36 Glasgow Workers
working with young people in Castlemilk and Easterhouse.
City Centre Representatives—40
Glasgow Workers as guides, tourism information, and disabled assistance,
plus a clean-up squad in the city centre.
Teleworks—20 Glasgow Workers operating
a call centre in Govan for community groups and businesses.
Theatre Works—14 Glasgow Workers
producing educational drama.
Electronic Village—16 Glasgow Workers
providing data and internet services in Castlemilk.
City Hosts—16 Glasgow Workers as
guides for visitors.
Environmental Works—40 Glasgow
Workers involved in landscaping, maintenance, education and awareness
throughout the city.
Access Works—over 50 Glasgow Workers
who have been unemployed for more than two years or from workless
households in a customised work placement programme.
THE GLASGOW
WORKERS:
All have been unemployed for at least a year,
with around half unemployed for two years or more.
One third are women.
15 per cent lone parents.
25 per cent under 25 years old.
Most stay with their project for around nine
months.
POLICY FIT
Glasgow works is a success. It is a superb fit
with current policies, with the social inclusion agenda—it
offers a jobs route out of poverty, together with learning, qualifications,
and personal development. It joins up the thinking—Glasgow
Works uses the allowances attached to adult Traning programmes
or those available through New Deal and Employment Zone to create
waged opportunities. The allowances are equivalent to the unemployment
benefits which participants would receive anyway if they were
simply unemployed or on a non-waged programme. Thus Glasgow Works
is effectively using the same money in a more creative way—combining
it with European and other funds to pay a wage which is usually
over £135 per week.
FUNDING AND
UNIT COSTS
Funding Sources—per annum, roughly
| UK programme funds |
£2.0 mn
|
| (New Deal £0.5 mn, Employment Zone £0.5 mn, TfW £1.0 mn)
| |
| GDA Core | £1.1 mn
|
| Glasgow City Council | £0.5 mn
|
| ESF | £2.0 mn
|
| (Obj 2 £0.8mn, Obj 3 £1.1 mn, Obj 3/4 £0.1 mn)
| |
| Project Revenues, Foundations, etc | £1.4 mn
|
| TOTAL | c£7.0m
|
On average it costs around £9,000 to put an individual
through the Glasgow Works package. This is roughly the same as
the cost in benefits, other allowances and lost tax revenue of
keeping someone unemployed for a year. Put simply, Glasgow Works
uses the money spent keeping people unemployed to prepare them
for work and help them find a job.
Compared to other programmes, Glasgow Works looks more expensive
at first glance. But Glasgow Works is three times better than
mainstream programmes such as Training for Work (or similar) at
helping long-term unemployed people back to work. Independent
and rigorous external evaluation has shown that Glasgow Works
is a cost-effective process and cheaper per outcome than TfW.
Generally, it's just a better fit with the problem we're trying
to solve.
CONCLUSIONS AND
CURRENT ISSUES
We think GW is important enough to merit special consideration
in current policy development. It is potentially a major tool
in Glasgow's toolbox. It's a prime example of integrated thinking
in action.
Trickle down isn't working—we need a proactive intervention
such as Glasgow Works. There is scope for a broader role for Glasgow
Works in the Glasgow labour market, for a bigger Glasgow Works
as a medium term standing addition to Glasgow's supply of available
jobs. This would make more of a contribution to tackling our local
jobs gap. Several conclusions and actions follow from this:
— This will call for continuation or enhancement
of existing funding streams from Scottish Enterprise/GDA and the
City Council. It is important that Glasgow Works and the wider
Glasgow ILM project find a special place in the proposed "fully
fledged" Employment Zone.
— The present model can be tuned up to make it more
sustainable in the longer term. Several actions can contribute
to this: securing benefit transfer mechanisms, including Housing
Benefit within the funding package; encouraging projects to earn
revenue and develop as social enterprises; and securing more funding
from public and private project sponsors.
— Most projects are based with the social economy
or "third" sector and most of the funding is from the
public sector. There is scope for involving the private sector
as project operators, funders and stake-holding partners. Can
we offer companies the opportunity to experiment, innovate, or
experiment with new markets, processes or activities through the
use of an intermediate labour market workforce? The hypothesis
here is that there will be services that the private sector can
develop as add-ons or innovations with ILM support, in much the
same way as the public and third sectors participate in the ILM
project. The Glasgow Works experience demonstrates that many of
these services could be developed by the third sector in association
or partnership with the private sector.
Community Enterprise in Strathclyde.
October 1999
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