Written evidence submitted
by Warwickshire County Council
1. INTRODUCTION
This report presents an information from the Warwickshire
Future Jobs Fund (FJF) programme.
2. ESTABLISHED
NETWORK ENABLED
QUICK START
FOR FJF
The Future Jobs Fund programme in Warwickshire was
able to get off the ground relatively quickly due to the history
of partnership working. As soon as guidance came out from the
Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), Warwickshire County Council's
Manager for the Economic Development Group invited potential partners
to a preliminary meeting to consider how FJF might operate in
Warwickshire, where FJF jobs might come from and to offer for
Warwickshire County Council to act as the Lead Accountable Body.
Key organisations such as the Chamber of Commerce
and Warwickshire Community And Voluntary Action, Warwickshire
Children & Voluntary Youth Service and all of the local and
districts Councils were among the early partners with a plan of
creating opportunities within the public, voluntary and private
sectors.
Key Strength: In calling upon local authorities to
bid for FJF DWP were able to access existing and established partnerships
and get FJF operational quickly.
3. TARGETS
The Warwickshire Future Jobs Fund application was
originally approved by the DWP for a six month period to March
2010. The "employees into jobs" target for the Warwickshire
was initially 73 within that period.
Subsequently, the programme was extended to 18 months,
to March 2011 Phase Two, April 2010 to March 2011, with a Warwickshire
target of 107, making 180 employees across the programme.
Warwickshire, like many LAB's was late to get started
and in our area this was largely due to the FJF Manager not starting
in post until December 2009. As a result of this DWP offered a
Time Only Variation to the first contract to allow Phase One to
continue until June 2010. This Time Only Variation was only offered
to LAB's that had shown that they would, if given longer achieve
their original profile.
4. ENGAGEMENT
OF COMMUNITY
AND VOLUNTARY
SECTOR EMPLOYERS
The community and voluntary sector has responded
both positively and proactively to FJF, this was led primarily
but not exclusively by Warwickshire Community and Voluntary Action
(WCAVA). WCC used WCAVA as a managing agent meaning that a greater
number of small organisations could engage with FJF but that WCC
as LAB had one point of contact.
Overall, third sector employers are supportive of
FJF and found that FJF employees bring a range of benefits including:
- Fulfilling roles that organisations had found
it difficult to attract funding for, or enabling organisations
to achieve things they have wanted to do but were unable to afford.
- Building organisational capacity.
- Extending organisational reach.
- Freeing up other staff to take on more strategic
level work.
Key Strength: Being involved in FJF enables organisations
in the community and voluntary sector to deliver against charitable
objectives and organisational mission statements by enabling them
to support people into employment.
5. ENGAGEMENT
OF PRIVATE
SECTOR
Warwickshire has encountered the same issues widely
reported by other LAB's in finding employers willing to offer
FJF opportunities that can then meet both the additional and community
benefit rules. However one private sector employer was identified
and with advice from DWP they were able to meet the rules and
create some opportunities.
At an early partnership meeting the local Chamber
of Commerce had pledged to create 15 opportunities from it's members,
but nervousness by WCC as lead accountable body over uncertainty
and lack of clear advice over what was eligible as "jobs"
from the private sector, meant that the partnership did not actively
pursue private sector employment as a core priority.
KEY WEAKNESS:
DIFFICULTY WITH
PRIVATE SECTOR
ENGAGEMENT
6. ENGAGEMENT
OF PUBLIC
SECTOR
Despite enthusiasm for the FJF initiative, it came
at a difficult time for public sector employers due to general
recruitment freezes, organisational restructuring and cutbacks.
Most public sector employers have invested time in negotiating
with senior management teams, Trade Unions and members exploring
why and how FJF jobs could be incorporated into the workforce
without contravening policies relating to staff redeployment while
at the same time ensuring they are offering "new" but
temporary jobs and the result of this was that each of the borough
and district councils within Warwickshire went on to create some
FJF opportunities.
7. FJF RECRUITMENT
PROCESS
The Warwickshire partnership decided that they wanted
a robust recruitment process. The main reasoning behind this was
to protect employers from possible difficulties with the FJF employees
once they were in post but also this meant that FJF employees
would feel an increase in confidence from being selected and have
some experience of such processes which they would need to apply
for other jobs either during their period of FJF employment or
when they came to the end of it.
When creating the FJF opportunity limitations where
set on how many people could apply (submissions) to try to ensure
that recruitment process happened quickly and without too many
applications for the recruiting manager to look through.
Warwickshire integrated Nextstep Coventry and Warwickshire
into it's delivery of FJF. All applicants submitted were booked
to see a Nextstep adviser for support with their application form
so that they can identify their personal strengths and ensure
that these are highlighted to the potential employer. If there
are other FJF opportunities that suit the applicant better then
Nextstep will point this out. In cases where the applicant really
does not match the opportunity then Nextstep offer advice on training
provision. Utilising Nextstep's provision in this way maximised
the young persons' chances of reaching interview and meant that
the employers did not have to short list. Employers reported that
this process made the recruitment much easier to manage and kept
the burden on the recruiting manager's time to a minimum. With
the one opportunity where Nextstep was not involved, due to the
geography of the applicants it was reported that only two of the
seven people submitted applied for the post, feedback on those
two applications were that one was very poor and the other was
incomplete.
We strongly believe that the intervention of Nexsteps
in the county (funded via their already contracted ESF programme
- so no additional drain on the FJF budget) has helped reduce
the admin and bureaucracy on employers interviewing people who
were simply unsuitable, or who didn't turn up for the interview
in the first place. It has also helped ensure our retention rates
are well above the norm - the "right" sort of person
being better matched to the "right" job for them via
an additional experienced adviser (over and above JCP).
KEY STRENGTHS:
YOUNG PEOPLE
ARE SUPPORTED
AND GAIN
EXPERIENCE OF
RECRUITMENT PROCESSES.
Retention rates are high due to selection process
8. ISSUES WITH
RECRUITMENT
There have been two main difficulties with recruitment.
The first was some employers expectations were too high has been
relatively easy to manage. The FJF Manager has experience of working
with long term unemployed people and a clear understanding of
the client group and was able to negotiate with employers to make
their job descriptions more accessible to young people.
The second issue is with the Jobcentreplus offices
and therefore much more difficult to overcome. DWP insists that
young people must be referred to FJF via the jobcentre to ensure
eligibility and where this didn't happen then opportunities remained
unfilled. Jobcentreplus District Office do what they can to keep
the profile of FJF high with JCP advisers but with varying success.
9. TABLES
9.1: Delivery against targets to June
2010
| Month | Profiled starts into FJF jobs
| Actual Achieved |
| October 2009 | 15 | 0
|
| November 2009 | 19 | 0
|
| December 2009 | 12 | 0
|
| January 2010 | 10 | 14
|
| February 2010 | 5 | 14
|
| March 2010 | 12 | 19
|
| April 2010 | 0 | 19
|
| May 2010 | 0 | 7
|
| June1010 | 0 | 0
|
| Total | 73 | 73
|
9.2: Employee profile
| Employee data | No. Phase One
June 2010
|
| Gender | No |
% |
| Male | 51 | 70
|
| Female | 22 | 30
|
| Total | 73 | 100
|
| Age | |
|
| 18-24 years | 72 | 98
|
| 25+ years | 1 | 2
|
| Total | 73 | 100
|
| Home Locality | |
|
| Nuneaton & Bedworth | 13
| 18 |
| North Warwickshire | 10 |
14 |
| Leamington & Warwick | 20
| 27 |
| Stratford District | 8 | 11
|
| Rugby | 7 | 10
|
| Out of Area | 15 | 20
|
Key strength: opportunities created across the county
Key weakness: More opportunities created in Leamington & Warwick
area due to this being where most organisations headquarters are
based.
9.3: Number of opportunities filled by employer
| Employer | Filled
|
| Warwickshire County Council | 25
| 34% |
| North Warwickshire Borough Council | 5
| 7% |
| Stratford District Council | 2
| 3% |
| Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council |
1 | 1% |
| Warwick District Council | 1
| 1% |
| Warwickshire Community and Voluntary Action
| 8 | 11% |
| Hybrid Arts | 7 | 10%
|
| Coventry, Solihull & Warwickshire Partnership
| 5 | 7% |
| Warwickshire Association of Youth Clubs |
4 | 6% |
| Bath Place Community Venture | 3
| 4% |
| Nuneaton & Bedworth Volunteer Centre |
2 | 3% |
| Car-Go Bus Community Transport | 2
| 3% |
| Doorway | 1 | 1%
|
| Nuneaton & Bedworth Leisure Trust | 3
| 4% |
| The Rowan Organisation | 1 |
1% |
| Warwickshire NHS | 1 | 1%
|
| Glendale Managed Services | 2
| 3% |
| 73 |
9.4: Types of opportunities created
| Occupational area | Phase 1
|
| Construction/Maintenance/Gardener | 13
|
| Clerical | 26 |
| Arts | 6 |
| Youth Worker | 5 |
| Sports Coach | 5 |
| Teaching Assistant | 2 |
| Driver | 2 |
| Community Support Worker | 7
|
| Other | 7 |
Key strength: Diverse range of opportunities created
10. DESTINATIONS
10.1: Completers i.e. People that left their FJF employment
after 26 weeks
| Destinations recorded | Nos.
|
| Employed by FJF employer | 4
|
| Claimed Job Seekers Allowance/Unknown | 10
|
| Self Employed | 2 |
| Total completers | 16 |
10.2: The following table presents the information
destinations of early leavers
| Destinations recorded | Nos.
|
| Found another (non FJF) job | 5
|
| Employed by FJF employer | 1
|
| Claimed Job Seekers Allowance/Unknown | 6
|
| Gone on to approved training | 1
|
| Total early leavers | 13 |
10.3: Destinations of all leavers to 13.7.10
| Destinations recorded | Nos.
| % |
| Found another (non FJF) job | 5
| 17 |
| Employed by FJF employer | 5
| 17 |
| Self Employed | 2 | 8
|
| Claimed Job Seekers Allowance/Unknown | 16
| 55 |
| Gone on to approved training | 1
| 3 |
| Total into positive outcomes |
| 45 |
| Total leavers | 29 |
|
It is our intention to contact all leavers again 3 months after
their last day to identify those that moved into employment soon
after their period of FJF employment.
11. INITIAL FEEDBACK
FROM EMPLOYEES
The initial feedback in this section is based on informal meetings
with individual FJF employees. While most participants had found
out about Future Jobs Fund opportunities from Jobcentre Plus,
others had heard about it from jobs fairs, Remploy and in some
cases they were volunteering at the FJF employer.
One unsolicited comment from an early lever who had successful
moved into employment
"Thanks for making the past three months so enjoyable it
has helped me lots in getting back to work and I have learned
new skills that I never had before"
Other FJF employees have made the following comments:
"working with young people is new to me and I'm really
enjoying it. I like to pass on my skills on a friendly atmosphere".
"It feels great passing on my wisdom and I get a kick
out of seeing young people engage and develop an interest in music"
"Everyone is so friendly and helpful, you don't feel
scared in saying I don't know how to do that".
"I have enjoyed all of my experience here"
"I enjoyed meeting and working with all the staff and
children. I have loved the satisfaction this job has gave me [sic],
helping the children and would not change anything about my time
spent at St Michael's"
12. SUMMARY
Getting young people into jobs has been effective. Warwickshire's
recruitment model was at first discouraged by JCP and DWP as it
does make the process a little longer than the four week target
that DWP prescribed, however as time progressed and it was found
that Warwickshire's retention was very high it was accepted that
our model worked well. The FJF Manager developed a dynamic relationship
with JCP. For example, where organisations were struggling to
get referrals, JCP has helped to revise job adverts to make the
posts more attractive and in many cases JCP District Office staff
matched clients themselves.
FJF is building capacity in voluntary and community organisations,
enabling some of them to do things they hadn't been able to fund
before.
Some employers are seeing FJF as a Win:Win
- They help someone into work.
- They get a job done.
- The community is getting something out of it too.
Employers are impressed by the high quality of employees - their
commitment & motivation and frequently report amazement that
such people have remained unemployed long enough to be eligible.
FJF is offering a diverse basket of jobs, providing people with
a choice. These include jobs in admin, arts technicians, ICT,
administration, community project development, environmental improvement,
youth worker, children's centre assistants, teaching assistants,
gardeners, maintenance workers, sports centre worker and sports
coaches.
The success of the Warwickshire FJF partnership has been largely
due to employers understanding of the effect of the economic downturn
on youth unemployment and a genuine desire to do their bit to
help tackle that. Some employers felt a moral duty to create opportunities.
Warwickshire County Council has not been involved in many programmes
such as FJF before and has now forged strong relationships in
creating it's delivery partnership and learned many lessons along
the way. The partnership strove collectively to develop and adapt
to achieve a programme that works well for both employer and employee.
We would urge the Committee to consider ways of building on this
experience and expertise in designing future welfare programmes.
19 August 2010
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