Written evidence submitted
by Liverpool City Region
LIVERPOOL CITY
REGION FUTURE
JOBS FUND:
SUMMARY OF
KEY POINTS
Our experience in running FJF has been largely positive
from the point of view of the intended beneficiaries i.e. the
young unemployed and longer term unemployed residents of our most
deprived areas - but also for the employing organisations and
the wider economy and community. Our evidence submission suggests
that FJF creates benefits at a number of levels.
For Individual Unemployed People
- It works through the natural processes of the
labour market by providing real job opportunities across the local
labour market and not constrained by local authority boundaries.
- It is attractive to unemployed people because
we have maximised the weekly earnings available by persuading
employers to either offer more than 25 hours work per week or
pay above the Minimum Wage.
- It addresses significantly the problem of the
collapse of confidence which goes with unemployment amongst the
young and long term unemployed by offering an extended period
of real working experience.
- It becomes a stepping stone to the acquisition
of skills and qualifications and in the case of FJF apprenticeships,
provides real employment opportunities and skills support
as part of a coherent integrated package.
- It has good potential to create sustainable job
gains as we focus on social and private enterprises as well as
the public sector for FJF employment opportunities.
- It changes significantly the attitudes of employers
towards recruiting the young and longer term unemployed, leaving
a substantial positive legacy.
For FJF Employers
- It gives employers an opportunity to test out
a potential employee - both in terms of their competencies and
whether they are effective employees more generally- and reduces
the risk for both parties.
- It helps employers develop a more diverse workforce
in terms of age and other characteristics.
- It helps build the capacity of social enterprises
to become more effective organisations.
- Employers are supported and engaged in embracing
more strongly the benefits of investment in skills and workforce
development in a way that they may otherwise not have.
- It introduces employers to a range of workforce
development and employee support functions.
- It provides extra resource to facilitate accelerated
business growth.
For Liverpool City Region's Economy and Communities
- It raises the employability of the workless population,
benefiting existing employers and raising the attractiveness of
Liverpool City Region to prospective employers.
- It helps create a vibrant set of social enterprises
more able to deliver good quality services to more disadvantaged
groups and localities in particular.
LESSONS GOING
FORWARD
- From our Future Jobs Fund experience there are
key lessons for us in five areas.
- There must be an effective transition from FJF
to the Work Programme through the design and implementation of
a sound transition plan. For the longer term, DWP must make every
effort also to ensure that there is room for an FJF-type of approach
in the Work Programme.
- Any impediments raised at the national level
to the more effective integration of all relevant services at
the local level to facilitate sustainable job entry need to be
removed, including barriers to effective integration of employment
and skills interventions.
- The delivery of FJF on a City Region basis has
demonstrated convincingly the added value of this way of working.
The new Local Enterprise Partnerships must be able to reproduce
this type of working in the employability arena.
- The importance of the provision of Information,
Advice and Guidance as part of a comprehensive package of wrap-around
support throughout the course of the programme.
- The process of securing jobs through application,
interview and assessments needs ot be reviewed for both employees
and employers.
FUTURE JOBS
FUND IN
LIVERPOOL CITY
REGION
- When Future Jobs Fund (FJF) was announced in
the 2009 Budget the partner organisations driving the DWP City
Employment Strategy (CES) pathfinder in Liverpool City Region
(LCR) decided that this was a major opportunity to make a significant
contribution to reducing worklessness among young people and residents
of more deprived communities. In the light of this:
- The bid was a collective effort by the six local
authorities (Liverpool City Council and the Metropolitan Borough
Councils of Halton, Knowsley, Sefton, Wirral and St Helens), Jobcentre
Plus, Skills Funding Agency and other City Region partners to
create an intervention with genuine scale.
- It was also felt that a city regional approach
would fit better with the realities of the local functional economic
area and travel to work patterns crossing local authority boundaries.
- The LCR bid submitted to DWP at the outset of
Future Jobs Fund:
- Asked for £40 million funding to create
6,170 places across timescale of the funding.
- Identified the detailed jobs that would be created,
of which 2/3 were in the community and voluntary sector.
- Described the additional wraparound services
that would be delivered to support jobholders, in particular emphasising
the importance of Information, Advice and Guidance as part of
the package of support.
- A second bid for an additional 3,000 jobs was
submitted in January 2010, building on the initial successful
delivery, with 500 jobs being approved from this.
HOW WE
DELIVER FJF
- Our broad approach to delivering FJF across LCR
is as follows:
- Rather than seek to impose a standard format
in each local authority area with their different employment structures
and worklessness problems, we decided on a strategy of augmenting
existing provision. Here we were able to build on a long tradition
of employability service delivery by a number of the local authority
partners and organisations with whom they have worked over time,
in a decentralised manner which met local needs.
- The City Region and delivery partners were committed
to deliver a strategic intervention that would support long term
unemployed people get skills and experience in work that would
be required in the longer term by businesses.
- To maximise the synergies, including the exchange
of good practice across local authority boundaries, we set up
an FJF implementation team bringing together the various lead
officers on a regular basis.
- Although FJF was set up with certain minimum
criteria in terms of wage rates and hours of work we went into
this with the aspiration to create the best possible package of
hours and rates of pay on an employer by employer basis: there
was an intentional approach to create jobs with different hours
of work to meet individuals' choice.
- Wherever possible we have tried to maximise the
percentage of the budget available which flows through either
to pay the FJF employee or to raise their employability through
training and other interventions. Additionally, where Working
Neighbourhoods Funds and other local resources have been available
these have added to the resource pot to support the effective
implementation of FJF in the City Region.
- As a city region we developed a "wraparound
model to provide vital support for both FJF employers and employees
throughout the process. This model incorporated agreed minimum
standards of service across the LCR, but reflected local area
needs.
- The City Region viewed opportunities under FJF
as real jobs and therefore required applicants to submit to standard
application processes.
- Collaborative marketing of an LCR branded FJF
in partnership with Jobcentre Plus. This included web and media
coverage and also successful Jobs Fairs. The Jobs Fairs provided
the opportunity for young people to meet with prospective FJF
employers. Employer stereotypes of young unemployed people were
challenged in the excellent way they prepared and presented themselves
on the day.
Below we set out in more detail our approach.
Attracting Clients: Wages and Hours of Work
- As noted above, we sought to maximise the earnings
associated with FJF jobs by increasing hours beyond 25 and/or
enhancing the wage rate above the Minimum Wage. This was for two
main reasons.
- We wanted to make the FJF opportunities as attractive
as possible to jobless people to create a significant incentive
for coming off benefits. Additionally, it is only at higher weekly
hours of employment that Working Families Tax Credit kicks in.
In Wirral for example, all employers were offered the opportunity
to provide "the going rate for the job". This enhancement
was funded in part by Working Neighbourhoods Fund but also importantly
by a cost effective delivery model with minimal delivery costs
and no intermediary management fees; providing a real job, with
a real wage.
- By generating a good level of weekly earnings
we are hoping to embed the idea that work pays not just for the
individual involved in FJF but also for other family members and/or
peers in groups or neighbourhoods characterised by persistently
high unemployment. For us, FJF is an intervention that changes
cultures within households and communities.
Because the management of our delivery of FJF was
devolved to different delivery partners, we have been able to
build upon existing relationships with employers (whether sector
based or geographically focused) to secure a better package of
hours and pay rates.
TARGETING DIFFERENT
TYPES OF
EMPLOYERS
- Although practice varies across the City Region
we have typically focussed on creating FJF jobs which as well
as being additional are also potentially more sustainable.
- Although we have secured FJF opportunities within
local government which have provided much needed diversity to
the spectrum of occupations available, we have pursued a heavy
emphasis on jobs in social enterprises and the third sector more
generally given the impending major cuts in public sector funding
(which will impact significantly on local authorities) and the
opportunity provided to contribute to the creation of the Big
Society.
- We have begun to develop opportunities with private
sector employers as this is where growth in jobs is likely to
be greater as the economy recovers from recession. We have developed
innovative ways of building a genuine community benefit aspect
into these private sector jobs as required by the FJF regulations.
Knowsley Council has recently begun to deliver on a major agreement
with Jaguar Land Rover to take on young people through FJF where
there is a period of working in the community built into the job.
Young people completing their six months then are guaranteed an
interview for a permanent job with Jaguar Land Rover at which
point they receive a significant earnings enhancement.
BUILDING IN
SKILLS AND
QUALIFICATIONS
- In order to increase the employability of FJF
participants we have built in opportunities for enhancing skills
and qualifications where appropriate. Sometimes this has been
built around the skill demands of the FJF job itself but we have
also where necessary put resource into improved basic and core
skills. We have done this in a number of ways.
- Where possible we have used mainstream skills
interventions to resource the upskilling element and a good example
here is work done through the Skills for Health Academy.
- We have used some of the £6,500 available
to buy bespoke training services to meet the needs of specific
individuals although we have organised this in different ways
across the City Region. Wirral, for example, has a modest allowance
for employers and for FJF employees which can be deployed in specific
circumstances.
- Training in some areas was focused on the basic
requirements of that sector e.g. St Helens Chamber and Fusion
21 supported employees in construct Ion to gain their CSCS card.
- In some instances, young people are being employed
as apprentices or graduate trainees within local authorities where
the first six months is spent as an FJF employee. This is an excellent
example of the integration of employment and skills interventions.
We continue to search for ways of building more skills
and qualifications into the package as we feel this gives the
individual FJF participant a valuable legacy in terms of enhancing
their employability and their earnings once in employment. In
all cases, the support from the Skills Funding Agency in securing
funding has been invaluable.
PROVIDING ONGOING
SUPPORT FOR
FJF EMPLOYEES AND
EMPLOYERS
7. We know that unemployment very quickly exacts
a toll on the confidence and sense of well being of individuals.
We also know that the longer they remain unemployed the more fragile
people tend to become, with vulnerability to physical and mental
illness developing alongside the collapse of self belief. As FJF
is a demanding intervention because it involves a real job with
the pressures that this brings, we have instituted systematic
processes for supporting FJF employees but also their employers
who may be confronted with issues. We also recognise that voluntary
and community sector organisations often do not have the capacity
to offer wider support mechanisms in a way that larger workforces
may potentially be able to access from their employer.
8. This support sits inside of an overarching
framework developed as part of the City Employment Strategy. The
central feature is a continuum of employability services that
can take the most disadvantaged clients along a pathway from long
term unemployment to sustainable employment. In addition to the
core employability services illustrated below health, housing
and other cognate services can wrap around these to provide a
more holistic and integrated service journey customised to the
needs of individual clients.
PROGRESSING CLIENTS
TO JOBS
BEYOND FJF
9. We have 4 broad approaches here.
- At the outset we are trying to create or facilitate
the creation of FJF jobs which themselves have sustainability.
We noted this above with a strong focus on jobs in the third sector
and particularly social enterprises with revenue generating capability.
We also see our private sector FJF jobs having great potential
here.
- FJF employees all have access to internal vacancies
within their organisations and there have been a number who have
gained sustainable work in this way, with a number of the graduate
internships at Halton BC being an example of this.
- Some of our arrangements with specific employers
maximise the probability of job retention and we have already
given examples of this in relation to apprentices employed by
local authorities and Jaguar Land Rover's FJF employees.
- We provide support for active job search in the
later stages of an FJF job.
STATISTICAL EVIDENCE
OF EFFECTIVENESS
TO DATE
10. Delivery to the end of August has shown that:
- 3,755 jobstarts were delivered to the end of
August 2010, against an original profile of 4,726. Of these starts
2,108 were aged 18-24 and 1,647 over 25, whilst 2,499 were male
and 1,256 female. The City Region was determined to maximise the
impact of the funding available, leading to a slightly later start
on second phase delivery.
- 689 jobs (19%) have been created in the four
sectors identified by partners as being most likely to deliver
economic growth in the medium term (Culture and Visitor Economy,
Knowledge Economy, Low Carbon Economy, Superport and Logistics).
- We have achieved a wide spread of occupations
available under FJF, with a significant number in higher level
jobs. Out of the 5,407 notified to Jobcentre Plus to the end of
August, 1,360 were in administrative and secretarial occupations
and 1,016 in associate, professional and technical occupations.
- Of the 847 completers and 455 leavers to the
end of August 2010, partners have tracked 379 (29%) of them into
sustainable work: of these, 187 are permanent and 269 are fulltime.
- The delivery of FJF has enabled partners to capture
a dynamic picture of movement across the functional economic area,
with significant evidence of the distances that people are willing
to travel for attractive jobs.
- Over 200 organisations are involved as employers
or placement providers.
STRENGTHS OF
APPROACH
Feedback from FJF Employees
11. An ongoing independent evaluation sourced
the views of FJF employees in the City Region. The key features
attracting them to these opportunities included:
- Six months guaranteed work. It is viewed as a
"foot in the door" and a chance to prove themselves
with that employer.
- In most cases, FJF employees worked more than
the 25 hour minimum and earned more than the Minimum Wage hourly
rate - which was welcomed as this increased weekly earnings significantly
relative to benefit levels.
12. The strong features were identified as the
following:
- Many have enjoyed the type of jobs they have
been doing - e.g. working outside on a construction site; working
face-to-face with clients and employers; doing work with the community.
- There have been many opportunities to participate
in training and to study towards a qualification such as NVQs,
ECDL, driving lessons, CSCS card, etc.
- Being in work for six months is seen as being
really beneficial as it looks good on their CV, builds their confidence
and gives them a reference. The perception is that employers too
readily dismiss the unemployed and favour applicants who are currently
employed - and being on FJF helps here.
- Working with other people has helped employees
to find out about other job opportunities through word of mouth.
- Some FJF employees see the potential to be kept
on by their employer as they have provided new skillsets for that
employer and demonstrated their effectiveness and reliability.
In their eyes, they were "in the right place, at the right
time".
Feedback from FJF Employers
13. Our independent evaluation also captured
feedback from some employers, mostly social enterprises.
- Some employers flagged up that recruiting FJF
employees made more sense than under previous programmes as they
were able to recruit from across the City Region as a whole rather
than one particular Borough: this better reflected the functional
economic area.
- The vast majority of FJF employees were considered
to be well-presented, reliable and punctual, with disciplinary
issues extremely rare.
- Focused specialist support from Jobcentre Plus
was seen as a significant positive.
- Some employers felt having six months gave them
enough time to get FJF employees competitive in their sector -
whereas previous approaches were too short to get all the training,
qualifications and experiences needed.
- Peoples' perception of the long term unemployed
as being lazy and not wanting to work have changed; employers
are also reviewing recruitment processes for entry level jobs
to have less complex application forms and clearer job descriptions.
- FJF employees are helping to build the capacity
of social enterprises as organisations delivering key services
in their areas. They have the opportunity through FJF to try out
potential employees and help address some of their skills problems
as employers. This can only be beneficial to them as they look
to play their part in creating a Big Society.
14. A key aspect of employer feedback was the
positive impact of FJF on how they viewed the unemployed,
despite the fact that most employers consulted were social
enterprises more used to recruiting unemployed people. The case
study below illustrated the experience of one such employer.
- Initially the project manager dealing with FJF
within the employing organisation had had concerns about whether
they would be able to get the quality of applicants they needed
to fill their FJF posts.
- In reality, the problem they faced was deciding
between a large number of extremely suitable and skilled individuals.
- Supporting the FJF employees "has proved
a complete joy" because of their responsiveness and desire
to become more effective employees.
- Other staff within the organisation are now approaching
the FJF project manager to see if they can get an FJF employee.
- The project manager would like her organisation
to change the way it recruits to ensure:
- That they are giving the unemployed more of a
chance to compete.
- That as an employer they are accessing the skills
and viewpoints young people can bring. The vast majority of the
40 individuals they recruited had never previously considered
working for them (despite being a major local employer).
15. We view the impact on employer attitudes
and behaviours as a significant legacy from FJF. The more intense
involvement of employers through FJF has generated these changes
in a way which simple wage subsidies do not achieve. This means
that the benefits for the employability agenda in terms of reducing
worklessness are likely to extend many years beyond the end of
the FJF.
WEAKNESSES OF
APPROACH
Feedback from FJF Employees
16. Although generally positive about FJF, a
number of weaknesses were identified.
- That there is no guarantee of a job beyond the
end of their six months.
- While the opportunity for training is generally
flexible, in some cases specific training could not be offered
as it was too expensive and/or could not be sourced locally.
Feedback from FJF Employers
17. Most employers felt that the FJF design was
strong. Some suggested weaknesses or at least scope for improvement
lay in the following areas.
- A number of employers favoured extending the
period of FJF from six to 12 months to allow the development of
higher levels of skills and qualifications and to provide the
FJF employees with a stronger CV.
- Make it financially more beneficial for FJF employees
as there was a perception that some were not much better off than
on benefits.
- A number of employers have noted that the overall
standard of written applications is lower than they would have
expected but that the calibre of individuals is high when they
have an opportunity to meet them.
- Introduce a specialist job brokerage service
to help FJF employees find other work where the FJF employer is
unable to keep them on. This has already been implemented by Jobcentre
Plus in the Merseyside District Office.
BENEFITS OF
WORKING AT
THE CITY
REGION LEVEL
18. We are pleased to report that our decision
to work collectively as partners across the City Region proved
well founded. Many benefits have accrued as a result.
- The number of 18-24s on Jobseekers' allowance
for over six months in the City Region has fallen form 3,920 in
October 2009 to 2,750 in July 2010: the City Region's FJF delivery
has had a significant role in this reduction.
- The principal benefit accrues to the individuals
taken on as FJF employees. They are able to access a wider pool
of job opportunities than those within their local authority boundaries
and a greater diversity of opportunities. This is critical as
unemployed people are a very heterogeneous group with divergent
talents and aspirations. Additionally, by placing no barriers
in the way of cross-boundary travel for FJF jobs we support a
process of taking people out of their local comfort zone and so
improve their long term employability. This has provided significant
statistical evidence to tackle the assertion that people from
particular areas would not travel far for entry level jobs.
- It is easier to engage employers who, of course,
do not recognise local authority boundaries in relation to their
recruitment processes. Additionally, it is easier to find a larger
number of individuals who are attractive to employers for specific
FJF vacancies where we draw from the wider pool.
- Significant dedicated support from Jobcentre
Plus has made it possible for operational processes to be effectively
designed and implemented, events supported and issues addressed
quickly and consistently.
- By working as a City Region, we are able to maximise
our capacity to come in on target (or better) because we are able
to manage on a broader scale the natural over and under-performance
which occurs within smaller areas, given that the work is focused
on a natural economic area.
- The common wraparound services being delivered
by all partners has meant that common support is available to
all FJF employees on jobsearch and advice (over and above the
support available from Jobcentre Plus) wherever they live or work:
this was achieved through delivery partners investing a further
£3.5 million over and above the FJF funding.
- By refusing to go with a one size fits all approach
across the City Region we have benefitted from the diversity of
and innovation in local approaches to implementation through rapid
implementation and transfer of good practice.
- Operating at the scale of the functional economic
area has enabled us to target strategic demand side interventions
whilst working within (and in some cases adding to) existing local
supply side interventions: this is critical as FJF was seen as
an opportunity to equip long term unemployed people with the skills
required for jobs in the future.
- The scale of delivery has meant that close working
relationships with Jobcentre Plus were able to be formed and developed.
The response from Jobcentre Plus has been sustained and of a high
quality and has again identified a model for future working.
- The design of FJF has enabled a significant amount
of community benefit to be delivered in a range of different communities
across the City Region. However, the overall design also made
it difficult, but not impossible, to engage more effectively with
the private sector.
- The scale of our partnership and its FJF contract
allowed us to establish a good quality, high level working relationship
with DWP. We found them to be flexible and responsive making every
effort to facilitate the effective implementation of FJF in Liverpool
City Region.
- For us, the City Region approach is a singularly
good use of scarce employability resources.
IMPACT OF
CLOSURE OF
FJF RECRUITMENT FROM
APRIL 2011
19. In broad terms the closure of the programme
poses two dangers.
- In the short run, unless the transition to the
Work Programme is handled carefully, the latter stages of FJF
will lose momentum making it difficult to sustain the commitment
of those managing FJF in the City Region as well as participants
and their employers. We feel a detailed transition plan
needs to be developed by DWP in close consultation with some of
the major FJF areas and/or providers.
- In the longer term, the disappearance of such
a cost effective intervention will detract significantly from
the portfolio of employability services available in Liverpool
City Region to raise the employability of young unemployed people
and longer term unemployed people from our most deprived communities.
LESSONS FOR
GOING FORWARD
20. We have learnt a lot within Liverpool City
Region from designing and delivering substantial jobstarts from
Future Jobs Fund. It is essential to capture this learning and
to build as much of it as possible into how we move forward in
terms of creating interventions that generate sustainable employment
for young unemployed people and longer term unemployed residents
of our most deprived communities. We feel the following need to
be taken into account in moving to the new world of the Work Programme
and wider policy developments around skills and apprenticeships.
TRANSITION TO
WORK PROGRAMME
21. The Work Programme will become the dominant
employability intervention across the UK from April 2011.
- We have already indicated the need for a secure
and detailed transition plan from FJF to the Work Programme to
maximise the value of FJF for those unemployed individuals and
employers involved. We would wish to see DWP give priority to
this and consult appropriately with areas such as Liverpool City
Region which have significant delivery.
- We understand fully the "black box"
principle that will underpin the Work Programme. We feel there
is value in DWP commissioning a rigorous independent evaluation
of FJF so that its cost effectiveness more generally can be demonstrated
so raising its appeal to potential Work Programme prime contractors
as a key element in their employability service delivery.
- We see great potential in developing the relationship
with private sector employers for the final phase of our FJF.
We feel that it is critically important that the potential for
this type of relationship is maximised within the Work Programme.
- We expect fully that DWP will encourage its Work
Programme prime contractors to work closely with local employability
partnerships such as our own where there is the potential to broker
specific types of intervention in the style of FJF by combining
resources.
SUPPORT FOR
MORE INTEGRATED
SERVICE DELIVERY
22. We feel strongly that the high level of effectiveness
of FJF in our City Region is in no small part due to our capacity
to mobilise other services to be delivered alongside FJF. This
has involved the following.
- More generally, the effective integration of
all services impacting on employability.
- More specifically, the better integration of
employment and skills interventions. We would highlight our work
through the Skills for Health Academy and the deployment of FJF
as the first six months of the apprenticeship programme for some
of our local authorities.
23. We would value the support of the Coalition
Government to remove any barriers to and promote the opportunities
for greater service integration by making sure that government
departments as well as their agencies such as DWP and the Skills
Funding Agency do their utmost to improve their integration at
the national level to ensure that there are no top-down impediments
to more integrated working at the local level. DWP itself can
make a significant difference by expediting the development of
more open data sharing arrangements between JobCentre Plus and
local partners at the District level and below.
24. Delivery partners and employers have been
disappointed with the overall standard of application forms from
applicants. This was frustrating as all referrals originated from
a Jobcentre Plus Advisory intervention, with employers in the
main using the standard Jobcentre Plus application form. Employers
interviewed the majority of applicants, and at this point initial
impressions were overturned. We are concerned that without FJF
intervention young people will not pass first hurdle with employers.
Providing more informal opportunities for employers to meet applicants
through jobsfairs have proved to be more successful. The process
of submitting applications and support to progress to interview
must be addressed in the Work Programme
25. Given the need to rebalance the economy,
particularly in vulnerable areas such as the City Region, it will
be essential that the Work Programme draws on the lessons of FJF:
this is particularly important in looking more creatively at how
resource can be invested to join together supply-side support
interventions with genuine job creation measures. This goes much
further than the more traditional approach to generating (as opposed
to creating) vacancies and matching clients. This will be critical
in areas where overall increases in demand may be sluggish due
to the reduction in public sector opportunities.
STRENGTH OF
CITY REGION
APPROACH
26. We are living proof of the added value that
can be achieved by working across local authority boundaries in
a context where this makes sense. Local authority areas rarely
conform to functional economic areas. We would hope that the detailed
specification of what can be done by Local Enterprise Partnerships
reflects fully the experience of sub regions such as our own in
terms of maximising the value of national and local resources
to reduce worklessness. In a world where "more for less"
is the mantra, collective working at this level is a mechanism
for delivering this in a sustainable way over a long period of
time.
10 September 2010
|
