Youth Unemployment and the Future Jobs Fund

Written evidence submitted by Scout Enterprises (Western) Ltd

Summary

1. Our partnership consists of 15 small to medium sized voluntary sector organisations who were not in a position to bid individually for a contract. Scout Enterprises designed a model for delivery whereby we employ all young people, but they work in our partners’ organisations. We are responsible for all their employment needs, such as Induction, Personal Development and training, plus personal support and jobsearch. We also manage the majority of the administration and payroll.

2. This method of delivery frees up the partner organisation to get the most from the FJF so that they can offer more support and job training to the young people in their workplace. It has proved an efficient design with a central referral office, allowing a prompt service to both partners and JCP.

3. Our experience of the FJF so far has been very positive. Scout Enterprises has been delivering work focused programmes for over 20 years and to date this is one of the most effective and satisfying to run. It is providing young people with a real job, for most their first. It is motivating young people to seriously seek further employment rather than go back to a benefit existence. It is not work experience or a ‘benefit plus’. It makes a huge difference.

4. The partners involved are also benefiting. In times when funding is scarce, the extra staff and skills the young people are bringing to the workplace are helping to build the capacity of the organisations.

5. The following is feedback from a selection of our partners who wished to contribute.

6. Name: Maria Damsell, Upper Horfield Community Trust (UHCT) Eden Grove Methodist Church, Eden Grove, Horfield, Bristol, BS7 0PQ.

7. The Future Jobs Fund programme has had a really positive and beneficial effect on our charity here in Upper Horfield. We are a small charity that provides a wealth of activities and projects for a disadvantaged community within the Upper Horfield area of Bristol. The programme has helped us:

· Increase capacity to develop our programmes and activities

· Supported the ability for us to become a little bit more sustainable by adding to our staff capacity

· Allowed the local community to feel they have supported young people to nurture skills and develop young people within their community

8. It has helped the young people who have received jobs to:

· Increase their skills for work and access relevant training

· One young person went on to secure an apprenticeship

· 2 of the young people have been employed by our organisation once their FJF job was complete

· Given young people the opportunity to show what they are good at and to begin to understand what it is like to work within a busy and supportive environment(especially prevalent for those who have never had a job)

· Allowed the young people to gain an insight into "Big Society" work within a local community centre where the message is to give something back to your community and how important that is

9. Overall the project in our opinion has been very successful and supported our organisation to develop and sustain at a time when local community centres are imperative to give vulnerable communities support to improve quality of life and well-being in an increasingly unsettled economic climate.

10. Lee Mills, General Manager, The Helicopter Museum

Registered Charity Number 281053

11. "Since starting in our cafe a month ago our Future Jobs Employee, Tracey has made a really positive impact in the running of the department. Her confidence has come on leaps and bounds and she is well liked by both volunteers and customers alike. Thanks to her help our cafe has had the busiest season on record and therefore generated much needed extra income for our museum / charity. This is in no small part to Tracey’s contribution and her hard work and commitment is to be praised and applauded. By building her confidence and through gaining valued experience working through extremely busy shifts with a conscientious work ethic, I am certain that she would have no difficulty in finding employment in a similar role. She has proven to be a great asset and a worthy ambassador for the future jobs programme"

12. Pieter Van Der Watt, Castle Quarry Activity Centre.

13. Good news was the employment of Kyle Worgan. FJF gave him the opportunity to be employed as an activity instructor for six months, during this time he proved to be an exemplary employee. We are pleased that he has helped so much that we were able to raise funds and employ him after the FJF job had finished. All other instructors that joined us during the contract term wanted to continue working for us and did not want to go back on benefits. They all benefited from the working environment they were put in and ended their contracts as a more mature and responsible people looking forward to joining the work force as soon as possible with the experience they have gained.

14. Julie Hathaway, Director, National Development Department & South West Region

KIDS

15. Whilst we have not been part of the programme for long and therefore cannot provide a case study, what I would say is that Future Jobs Fund could be part of a wider initiative that enabled young disabled people to try out work opportunities without affecting their benefits – many young disabled people face discriminatory barriers to employment on 2 fronts:

· Employers feel it is too expensive to employ them

· They will lose their benefits and go into low paid work

16. Future jobs fund could provide an opportunity for both the employee and employer to test out the opportunity using access to work funding for any specific equipment/support required to ensure the young person could access their job on similar terms to their non-disabled colleagues – we believe this is a genuine opportunity to try out employment in an area of interest and could ‘mainstream’ the supported employment opportunities available through organisations such as Remploy

17. Geoff Alsopp, Adult Education Manager , Amana Education Trust.

18. With regard to the Future Jobs Fund initiative

19. Amana engaged with the Future Jobs Fund through our agents, Scouts Enterprise, some 6 months ago, and since then we have had every reason to celebrate the success of this scheme and hope that the new government will share our view that there are no losers in this initiative.

20. The winners can be counted as follows:

· The individuals who gain valuable work experience. As a result of their employment with us, they may well be motivated to seek other (similar?) employment when their 6-month term comes to an end or seek training to further career prospects.

· We, the employer who have benefited from workers who otherwise we would not have been able to afford. They have provided a much-needed service for Amana – a small charity which normally depends on volunteers.

· The community. As a result of these extra staff we have been able to provide services to other community groups and individuals.

6 September 2010