Written evidence submitted by Cute Dog
Consulting Ltd
We submit our evidence regarding the success of FJF
in terms of our own experience as both employers and potential
providers of FJF service, as well as partners of 3SC.
Our evidence follows your guideline headings:
- The extent to which the FJF has succeeded in
matching new work experience opportunities to young unemployed
people.
We consider that the FJF has been instrumental in
matching new work experience opportunities to young unemployed
people to an unprecendented level. We have 23 social enterprises
which we can name, in London and the South East, who have provided
a brand new job for under 25 year old benefit claimaints who now
have experience of working in a profit making community based
organisation and an understanding of what constitutes a social
enterprise. In the case of three young people, they have expressed
the wish to start their own social enterprise, and at the end
of their FJF placement we at Cute Dog will be supporting them
(via SEEDA funding) to write a business plan and start their own
business. This would never have been possible without FJF funding
and without the increased confidence and knowledge levels of these
young people. One young person is starting a community theatre
group, another an event organising company and the third an internet
marketing company. All are aiming to employ other marginalised
young people, but fear that without FJF funding continuing, they
will not be able to fund or resource these staff posts as a start
up.
- Strengths and weaknesses of the FJF programme
from the perspective of providers (including in the third sector),
employers and young unemployed people, and particularly in relation
to the long-term sustainability of employment opportunities.
Strengths were certainly the employer engagement
possibilities. We had "something to tell" employers
and were able to engage with them in a way that Job Centre Plus
was not doing. Smaller community based organisations were able
to create jobs and give young people the chance to prove themselves,
in a way that would not have worked without our coaching and mentoring
service, and the wage subsidy for six months. One of the other
strengths of FJF was the clear and uncomplicated offer; employers
"got it" very quickly and were happy with the prompt
service, filtered application process (so they got really high
levels of candidates applying for their jobs) and the 26 weeks
of wage assistance. In terms of sustainability we can site 3 employers
in the South East of England with whom we have worked who have
kept their FJF placement on and in fact one employer has told
us that this single job has contributed to a 20% increase in business
for his furniture restoration project. He is delighted.
Weaknesses - few - the DWP made this an easy to adminster
and realistic programme with good payment points and realistic
paperwork. The only weakness was the marketing of the programme.
Not one employer we spoke to had heard of the programme until
we mentioned it. Having said that though, it would be a shame
to waste any of the valuable funding on marketing and I think
we could rely on existing providers to market the programme based
on current success and satisfied employers and beneficiaries.
STRENGTHS OF
THE FJF FROM
THE PERSPECTIVE
OF PROVIDERS.
The likely impact of the decision to end the FJF
in March 2011 rather than March 2012
We can only comment as potential deliverers of FJF
via the 3SC contract, as we had an allocation to deliver (and
50 jobs created) when the FJF extention to 3SC was suspended in
May 2010. We still have these jobs ready and waiting and the job
descriptions written. We cannot match the jobs and employers to
young people without an extension to the contract. Furthermore
we were partners in a successful bid from Faith in the Future
in Stoke Newington, London, where we had 30 jobs to fill. We engaged
with employers in the hope that our bid would be approved, and
have still the interest from employers and the young people targetted,
as well as engagement made with the local Job Centre. The impact
of the decision to end FJF in March 2011 rather than March 2012
will mean the loss of at least 80 jobs Cute Dog has already
created that remain unfilled due to lack of capacity within
the 3SC and other supplier's contracts.
Furthermore we believe that there will be an impact
on the growth of the economy. The employers to whom we spoke when
marketing FJF and when helping them to create jobs all said that
without the input of FJF support and wage subsidy, they were reluctant
to "run the risk" of engaging with marginalised young
people and raising their hopes in case they could not meet their
wages. These employers will not create jobs, in our opinion, without
the support of specialist FJF contract holders, and financial
incentive. This was beginning to have a significant impact on
our growth out of recession, even in the smallest terms.
- How the transition from FJF to the Work Programme
will be managed, including the part to be played by the Government's
proposal to fund new apprenticeships.
We cannot comment on the transition from FJF to Work
programme as we do not fully understand the Work offer. However
we know that employers are not as keen on apprenticeships as they
were on FJF due to the wage aspect of only £95 and the lack
of support from benefit to wage for young people. They were also
concerned about the need to be absent from the workplace to attend
college, and much preferred the "short sharp" intervention
of FJF in terms of them being able to "test out" young
people in the workplace for six months, and fast track them with
their own, specific, learning programme. Apprenticeships seem
to be the focus of this new Government, and they really don't
meet the need of the average sole trader, SME or community organisation.
These are the opinions of Cute Dog Consulting as
a social enterprise, employer focussed training provider, partner
in an FJF contract and employer ourselves of marginalised young
people in the SE. We would be happy to expand upon them or take
part in a wider consultation.
6 August 2010
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