Download as PDF: Engaging young people in regeneration and community development

Since 2005, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council and its partners have been successfully tackling some entrenched social and economic problems on the Tibbington Estate. With support from the Safer, Stronger Communities Fund, they have created a new programme of activity designed to combat deep-rooted attitudes to work and worklessness. As part of this programme, the Council were keen to find innovative ways to engage with young people. This case study explores how the Council worked with partners to develop a new technology-based approach to involving young people in the redesign of an open space in the middle of the estate. This approach is now being adapted to enable young people to get involved in the master planning process and, at the same time, to develop new skills which it is hoped will help them access employment in the future.

The issue

Over many years, quality of life on the Tibbington Estate in Sandwell has been severely hampered by an ‘inward-looking’ culture characterised by low aspirations, worklessness and benefit dependency, which was being perpetuated across the generations. Since 2005, supported by money from the Safer, Stronger Communities Fund, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council and its partners have been successfully tackling these problems through a new programme aimed at both young people and their families. The programme comprises a range of activities designed to challenge entrenched attitudes and support skills development and educational attainment, including:

• Educational support for young people in years 10 and 11, through school-based mentoring
• Youth work aimed at broadening young people’s experiences and raising their aspirations
• Intensive support for parents and families
• A range of activities to help local people into employment
• A ‘Local Base’ (community room and offices) and,
• Community development activities designed to increase the capacity of local communities to participate in decision-making.

As part of this programme, the Council were keen to find new, innovative, and successful ways to engage with young people and involve them in the regeneration of their Estate. This case study explores how the Council developed a new technology-based approach to involving young people in the redesign of an open space in the middle of the Tibbington. The Council are now building on this experience to design an engagement process for involving young people in the Master Planning process.

What they did

Gaming the Tibby

Through Midlands Architecture and the Designed Environment (MADE), Sandwell’s Safer and Stronger Communities Programme Manager established contact with Digital Native Academy (DNA), an interactive media company interested in serious gaming. The three partners decided to work together to pilot an innovative approach to engaging young people in regeneration activities on the Tibbington.

Supported by a small amount of Arts Council funding, accessed via MADE’s Creative Communities Programme, DNA developed an accurate and interactive, virtual 3D map of the heart of the Tibbington Estate using existing computer games technology and Ordnance Survey data. Tools embedded in the programme allowed users to illustrate their own ideas for developing the open space in the middle of the estate. The programme was kept deliberately simple, so that it could run easily on lap top computers.

Partners involved in the Safer, Stronger Communities programme asked for volunteer facilitators to help take the programme, Gaming the Tibby, out to residents on the Estate. Several residents expressed interest in acting as facilitators for the game and one resident, with strong technology skills, volunteered to act as the lead facilitator, coordinating the implementation of the project on the ground. Facilitators also included mentors from the local secondary school, Alexandra High, who were already working with young people from the Tibbington Estate, and Connexions staff.

DNA provided training to the volunteer facilitators to help them to play the game and teach other residents to use it. Training was offered from two sites: Alexandra High School and the Local Base on the Tibbington Estate. The training was delivered in small bite-size chunks; volunteer facilitators learnt about a particular aspect of the programme and then went out to teach other young people about this.

The Council provided four lap top computers which could be used to play the game in any location: at school, in local community facilities, or in people’s homes. Young people were encouraged to work together in groups to play the game and come up with their own ideas about how the estate’s open space might be re-designed.

Between January and February 08, the seven volunteer facilitators engaged with over 40 young people. Though the initiative was specifically aimed at young people, over time, it also attracted interest from residents of other age groups.

Prizes were awarded for the best ideas developed through Gaming the Tibby and these were presented at a local community event. The best ideas were also featured on a DVD called Tibbington: A Safer and Stronger Community.

The process of putting together Gaming the Tibby was captured in a comic strip designed by the resident coordinator (see excerpts, below). Partners involved in the Safer, Stronger Communities Programme are now considering making a short video of the comic with sound effects and audio supplied by the young people on the Tibbington. The idea is that this is not only attractive on YouTube, but is also fully accessible to the visually impaired.

Game Plan

Those involved in Gaming the Tibby feel the project has been extremely successful. The young people who played the game had a lot of fun and are now fully conversant with the technology. However, Gaming the Tibby wasn’t explicitly designed to up-skill young people and the ideas they came up with for developing the Tibby were not always entirely suitable for the local area – for example they were not necessarily in tune with the design of the rest of the Estate. With a new Master Planning process about to begin (the draft Plan is due in September 2009), the Safer, Stronger Communities Programme Manager saw an opportunity to build on the success of Gaming the Tibby and create a new technology-based tool, which could take engagement with young people to the next level.

Working alongside DNA, Sandwell are devising a new programme called Game Plan, which aims to involve young people in the master planning process and, at the same time, to help them develop a host of new skills. Game Plan comprises a series of specially selected computer programmes, which are designed to help young people to reflect on the types of issues that typically come up in urban design (for example, what infrastructure is needed when planning a new urban centre and where to locate services for the local community).

The project is being funded through the Working Neighbourhoods Fund. Although the games technology used for Gaming the Tibby was proprietary, it was used by DNA on a not-for-profit basis. In order to ensure that Game Plan is cost effective, DNA is doing much of the development work for this new project in-house. Many of the young people who have been involved in Gaming the Tibby have volunteered to act as facilitators for Game Plan, encouraging other residents to take part and helping them to do so.

Game Plan will be delivered in three main stages: the first stage comprises a gentle introduction to gaming technology – providing young people with opportunities to experiment and have fun; the next stage involves a more structured programme of embedded learning; and the final stage introduces young people to the gaming packages that will support the master planning process.

Playing Game Plan will enable young people to learn about the underlying principles behind good urban design and construction. The Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council Programme Manager is exploring how skills developed through Game Plan can be formally accredited, for example through the Open College Network. Her hope is that young people who get involved in Game Plan will be inspired to continue to learn about urban design and construction and will be well placed to take up any future job opportunities that may arise when the Master Plan is eventually translated into action.

Together with DNA, the programme manager is also investigating ways in which the ideas that young people come up with when playing Game Plan can be fed into the master planning process. She is also engaged in conversations with the Council’s Housing department to explore the possibility of using Game Plan to engage young people in other areas of Sandwell covered by the Master Planning process, beyond the Tibbington Estate.

Impact

The impact of and lessons from the Gaming the Tibby project have been documented in a report by ECOTEC Research and Consulting, exploring eGovernment developments affecting disadvantaged groups in a community setting.

All partners involved in the initiative feel that it has been successful in engaging a pool of young people on the Estate who have been previously hard to engage with. Partners involved in Gaming the Tibby also point out that it has helped to change the hearts and minds of professionals – such as architects and planners – who now understand the benefits that can be achieved through the use of serious gaming. In addition, as a result of his participation in Gaming the Tibby, the resident coordinator has been offered work with Skills Link, tutoring IT and music.

The Gaming the Tibby project has been shortlisted for a local award (Shining Stars) and the national Guardian Public Services Awards for Partnership Working.

Next steps/sustainability

Partners involved in the Safer, Stronger Communities Programme hope that Game Plan will be an important next step in developing a cohort of young people on the Tibbington who are engaged with services and interested in helping to regenerate their Estate. Building on the good work that has already been done with young people through the SSCF Programme, they hope that these young people may eventually have the interest and capacity to play a bigger role in deciding what youth provision is needed on the Estate and perhaps even managing some of this for themselves.

Approximately £1 million of Section 106 money has already been found from the Parks Department to help redevelop the ‘Cracker’ – a piece of waste land behind the Estate. It is hoped that this and other money can be used to redevelop the Estate and support community activities and facilities for the whole community, including young people, and that initiatives like Gaming the Tibby and Game Plan can help young people to influence how this money is spent.

Lessons

Partners involved in Gaming the Tibby and Game Plan have identified some important learning points emerging from this work:

• Gaming technology can be an effective mechanism for engaging young people: In the past, it has been difficult for service providers to engage with young people on the Tibbington. All those involved in Gaming the Tibby agree that the use of gaming technology is an effective ‘hook’ to encourage young people to engage. Though some partners expressed initial concerns about the imagery used in the game (the tool used to pick up and place items resembled a futuristic gun), Gaming the Tibby has enabled young people to engage on their own terms, using a medium that is familiar and attractive to them.
• Involving residents as facilitators helps to widen reach: The use of residents as facilitators for Gaming the Tibby has helped to widen participation in the initiative and ensure that those young people who were ‘hardest to reach’ were more likely to get involved. Using facilitators who were close in age to the young people on the Estate was also important in building trust and confidence in the process. Some partners have suggested that with additional time and money, they could have taken steps to involve more school staff at Alexandra High, including ICT coordinators, and integrate Gaming the Tibby into classroom and after school activities to further extend its reach.
• It’s important to move at the right pace: MADE were originally keen for urban designers to work alongside young people on Gaming the Tibby to help shape their ideas and teach them about the principles of good design. However, given the history of young people’s disengagement from service providers, it soon become clear that the main focus needed to be on engaging young people and encouraging them to participate in the first instance. Partners hope that Game Plan will enable them to build on the good links they have established with young people and find opportunities to increase young people’s understanding of design principles through the involvement of other professionals.
• Good partnership working is key to success: One of the reasons that the Gaming the Tibby has been successful is that it has drawn together and harnessed the energy and enthusiasm of a range of partners who each have an interest in the initiative from a particular perspective. MADE were keen to collaborate on a project which involved young people in the regeneration and redesign of their local areas, DNA were keen to further refine and test an interactive, virtual 3D map of a local area they had been developing as an engagement tool, the Council wanted to strengthen engagement with young people on the Tibbington, and Skills Link and Connexions staff were keen to find a way to establish stronger relationships with those young people who were not in education, employment or training. Partners involved in the initiative emphasise that, as with any other multi-agency initiative, it takes time to establish a sound foundation for partnership working, to understand different organisation’s ways of working and cultures and to build trust. Some partners felt that more opportunities to meet regularly and reflect on aims and objectives and share learning would have helped to ensure that maximum value was extracted from the scheme at a local level, and that opportunities to share learning regionally and nationally were fully capitalised upon. Turning ideas into reality: Partners identify that the active involvement of the housing department in the Council will be essential in ensuring that the ideas that young people have come up through Gaming the Tibby and may develop through Game Plan are taken forward and implemented in practice.

Contact

Jackie Bell, Programme Manager, Safer and Stronger Communities
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
Adult and Community Services

Telephone: 0121 569 3968

Download as PDF: bridge2work: tackling long-term unemployment

The bridge2work project is an example of two local authorities working together to tackle worklessness. The project’s objective is to engage with long-term unemployed, people on benefits or those dependent on drugs or alcohol and help them towards sustainable employment. What makes this project unique is that it is funded through Poole and Bournemouth’s local area agreements (LAAs) with a shared target to get local people into jobs.

The issue

bridge2work was set up to help people who are long-term unemployed and on benefits into sustainable employment. The project area covers the boroughs of Bournemouth and Poole.

There are pockets of deprivation across the sub-region of Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole and 31 of its 445 Super Output Areas (very small geographic areas) are within the most deprived twenty per cent nationally. More than half of these Super Output Areas are in Bournemouth and four are in Poole. Bournemouth also has the highest unemployment rate in the area and its12-month average claimant count rate is higher than the South West’s.

The project works with some of the hardest to place groups in the two boroughs including:

• Lone parents claiming income support
• Incapacity benefit recipients
• Parents in receipt of job seekers allowance for at least six months
• People who are drug or alcohol dependent

bridge2work is a three-year pilot project funded through each of the boroughs’ local area agreements (LAAs) with a shared target to get local unemployed people into sustainable employment.

What they did

Who is involved?

bridge2work represents a partnership between The Borough of Poole, Bournemouth Borough Council and Jobcentre Plus. The adult learning departments of the two boroughs are the project providers. Day-to-day management is provided by Poole adult learning with Poole’s economic development team providing strategic management. Jobcentre Plus is the main point of contact for the target groups and makes referrals to the project.

The project is delivered by a full-time project coordinator, supported by a part-time administration worker

How it works

bridge2work is a free service designed to meet the individual needs of clients to help them prepare for work. It also aims to identify and support clients in overcoming any barriers to employment.

The project is divided between Bournemouth and Poole adult learning departments. Some of the work, such as interviewing potential recruits, is done on an outreach basis.

In addition to Jobcentre Plus, clients are referred by a number of other agencies including:

• doctors’ surgeries
• health visitors
• children’s centres
• the probation service
• drug and alcohol teams
• community mental health teams
• adult social services

The project coordinator delivers a range of services aimed at supporting clients into employment. These include:

• providing advice, guidance and one-to-one job coaching
• helping with CVs, job applications, job search, letter writing and interview techniques
• running courses to support people returning to work
• providing on-going help for 13 weeks to clients who have secured a job
• signposting and referring clients to other agencies and programmes

Client centred approach

There is a strong emphasis on consulting with local groups and communities to design courses that are tailored to individual needs. For example, a customised programme was developed for women from black and minority ethnic (BME) groups using tutors with specialist language skills. The women have since applied for jobs in childminding, care, translation, administration and driving. Special courses have also been designed for people with mental health problems.

Developing links

The project has developed good working relationships with local employers in both the public and private sectors to secure jobs and placements for client groups. These include supermarket chains, the NHS and Citizens Advice.

Through the bridge2work project, links have been made into a number of other initiatives including local employment partnership and the Skills4Jobs programme, which helps unemployed people gain free qualifications and arranges work trials for them.

The impact

Joint working through LAAs

Bournemouth Borough Council and The Borough of Poole have a history of working together, through their local strategic partnerships (LSPs), to tackle common concerns.

The introduction of LAAs provided a practical opportunity for the two councils to collaborate on helping and supporting unemployed people into work. bridge2work is believed to be one of the first joint local authority initiatives to tackle worklessness through their LAAs.

LAA to MAA

By working together and sharing joint targets on skills and worklessness, Bournemouth and Poole have raised the profile of cross-borough working. According to Jonathan Burke of Poole Partnership, this in turn helped to create the climate for the introduction of a sub-regional multi area agreement (MAA).

As one of seven pilot MAAs in the country, the MAA represents a formal agreement between the local authorities, public sector partners and government to improve the economic performance of the sub-region.

Funding

bridge2work is one of a number of pump priming projects funded through the first Poole and Bournemouth LAAs. The project received the highest level of grant with approximately £166,000 being allocated over a three year period ending in March 2010. Of this, £86,000 is being funded through the Poole LAA and £80,000 through the Bournemouth LAA.

If the project reaches its target, the total ‘reward’ is estimated at £682,000 which will be split across the two boroughs. Both boroughs have pledged to reinvest 25 percent of any reward back into the project.

Meeting the target

The target for the project is that it should increase the number of people into sustainable employment. The outcome set out in the LAAs is that 120 people from the target groups should be in employment for 16 hours a week for 13 consecutive weeks or more.

To-date, the project has engaged with and supported over 220 people across Bournemouth and Poole of whom 27 have secured jobs. Others are on voluntary placements or attending courses which should enhance their employment projects in the future.

The project is funded until March 2010 and, in the present economic climate, it seems unlikely that the LAA target can be met. In particular, the recession has meant that bridge2work clients, who are already disadvantaged in the labour market, are now competing for jobs with graduates and more highly skilled applicants.

Soft outcomes

While the original LAA target may not be achievable within the project’s life, bridge2work has had other positive impacts and, according to the project coordinator it has provided clients with ‘life changing experiences’ and ‘raised their aspirations’.

In one case, a lone parent on the Bridge2Work course lacked confidence because he could not read or write very well. With support from the project, he attended literacy classes and was offered one-to-one guidance to help him look for jobs and complete applications. He now has a job as a full time driver and will continue with literacy and numeracy courses to support himself and his family in the future.

Another client, who was long term unemployed, bi-polar and claiming incapacity benefit, was referred by a housing association. He attended the bridge2work course and received a certificate for his achievement. This gave him the confidence to enrol on various maths courses. He has since been signed off by a Jobcentre Plus doctor and can work 16 hours a week provided he earns less than £88 per week. He is now working as a volunteer and hoping to find a permanent job in the future.

Lessons

One of the greatest initial challenges has been engaging and working with the project’s target groups. These are people who, for various reasons lack the confidence, skills and experience to secure the type of jobs that would enable them to come off benefits and enter sustainable employment.

This has been addressed by making the project client-centred and giving support, often on a one-to-one basis, to people as they prepare for work and after they have secured a job.

One of the more intractable and unanticipated obstacles has been the recession and the effect this has had on the job market. The difficulties of getting people into sustainable employment, as noted earlier, has meant that it is unlikely that the LAA target will be met and, in particular, that the project can secure any of the reward grant, thereby ensuring its continuation after April 2010.

In response to this, attempts are being made to re-negotiate the original LAA target. At the same time, campaigns are being launched to persuade the top 40 employers in the local area to recruit from the project. bridge2work, in the meantime, is putting more emphasis on voluntary placements and Skills for Life qualifications designed to help people develop the skills they use in everyday life, such as reading, writing or maths.

The success of a project like bridge2work will depend on a number of factors. For example:

• Ideally, your coordinator and others involved in delivering the project should have prior experience of working with the target groups and an understanding of their needs, particularly clients who are drug or alcohol dependent.
• Because of the difficulties of finding suitable jobs and placements for clients, particularly during a recession, you should have an employment broker with existing links to local employers in both the public and private sectors.
• Many of your clients may need other forms of support or skills to enhance their prospects of securing sustainable employment, such as literacy, numeracy and work experience. For this reason you need to have good local knowledge of what is available and where to refer clients.
• You may need to take a pragmatic approach when setting targets for your project. Focusing on too much on job targets obscures other significant outcomes such as new skills and work experience which, in the longer term, will help clients into employment.
• If using job targets, you should try to make these as flexible as possible. Bridge2work’s targets are quite restrictive and require that clients achieve more than 13 weeks in sustainable employment for 18.5 hours per week.
• Any risk assessments for a project like Bridge2Work should take account of the impact of an economic downturn on the employment prospects of your target groups and help in planning longer term strategies to support them into work.

Data / evidence

Unemployment data

The latest working age employment rates in Dorset, Poole and Bournemouth are above the England rate. The latter is the only rate of the three below the regional rate and is fourth lowest among SW county and unitary authorities.

The highest unemployment rate in the area is in Bournemouth (4.7per cent of the economically active 16+ population in July 07 – June 08). Poole (3.3 per cent) and Dorset (3.0 per cent) have rates below that of the region as a whole (south west: 3.8 per cent, England: 5.3 per cent).

Bournemouth’s 12-month average claimant count rate is higher than the South West’s, while rates for Dorset and Poole are below. All are less than the England rate.

ONS Annual Population Survey / Model-based unemployment rates Jun 08 / ONS Claimant count 12-month average March 09

Monitoring outputs

Bridge2Work Programme Activity to June 2009

Further information

Bournemouth Borough Council’s website – PDF on the project available to download

Contact

Karen Reid, Bridge2Work Coordinator

Telephone: 01202 451994 (Bournemouth) 01202 262317 (Poole)

email: Karen.reid@bournemouth.gov.uk

email: k.reid@poole.gov.uk

The Hampshire Regional Recruitment Portal is a shared electronic recruitment service. Designed jointly by the 12 participating local authorities across the county, it provides one dedicated site that holds all local government jobs across those local authorities, as well as a common platform for managing the end-to-end recruitment process.

The benefits for jobseekers include only having to fill in application details once, regardless of the job or local authority they are applying to; being able to set up automatic job alerts; booking interviews online; and tracking the progress of their applications online. Candidates can also choose to join the Hampshire Talent Bank, which stores their application details centrally and allows individual authorities to match skills against future roles.

The portal offers more efficient ways of using technology to deliver better public services. In its first year of operation, it achieved savings of £819,000 – far in excess of the original business case.

The issue

In 2005/06, the 15 Hampshire and Isle of Wight (HIOW) councils spent more than £3 million on recruitment advertising, recruiting a total of over 4,500 staff. Councils in Hampshire and across the country are under increasing pressure to find efficiencies and seek opportunities for shared services. They also face common issues when recruiting.

The joint recruitment portal was born from a real desire to work more in partnership, as well as the councils’ collective wish to reduce the cost of recruitment while still attracting quality applicants. It enabled partner councils to benefit from the expertise and best practice held within each authority, allowing this to be shared to provide a better overall service to candidates looking for a job in local government in Hampshire.

The councils had, to some extent, regarded recruitment as competing with each other for the same group of applicants. The recruitment portal initiative reflected a shift towards attracting ‘pools’ of skilled individuals to consider career paths in Hampshire, making it easier to retain talent within local government in the county.

What they did

The HIOW heads of human resources group originally conceived the idea of the Hampshire Regional Recruitment Portal in May 2006 and it was launched in March 2008.

The aim of the project was to have a single technology platform for all HIOW partners that provided:

• a single external web portal where candidates could search, apply, track and engage with the job opportunities in local government across Hampshire in a single location
• an integrated platform that all partners could use to manage the end-to-end recruitment process from candidate application to offer
• the framework for future joint working in order to solve common recruitment challenges.

Developing the model and tender

The system was delivered as a true partnership project from creation to launch – and this continues as important future systems develop. Under a formal partnership agreement, each council had equal voting power in decision making. Project management came from Hampshire County Council’s recruitment team working with people experienced in developing similar projects in the private sector.

All 15 of HIOW’s local authorities took part in the initial discussions. Three of them then decided, for various reasons, including existing contractual commitments, to withdraw. A steering group was formed with representatives from each of the remaining 12 participating authorities, as well as an IT and procurement representative to provide expert advice and liaise with the 12 individual IT and procurement departments within each local authority.

To ensure the project operated as efficiently as possible, the councils agreed an arrangement of four geographical hubs with one council representing the views of the councils in its area and feeding back details from the partnership discussions. This kept the overall numbers for discussions to a manageable level. However, when it came to the process of reviewing the bids and seeing the supplier presentations, all were welcome to take part.

It was agreed that the county council would formally contract on behalf of the partner councils, which required all 12 council legal teams to sign a partnership agreement. The specification asked bidders to describe what they could do to deliver and how they could help take the councils forward.

The portal design needed a ‘front-facing’ dimension that presented a common brand to candidates and then introduced the individual councils’ brands as appropriate. Councils’ corporate communication teams had to agree the brand, which became known as ‘Hampshire Jobs’. The ‘back end’ screens, those being used by the recruiting councils, needed to accommodate a variety of different procedures and formats, so it was important to capture these variations and build a system that could adapt and grow.

All these aspects needed to be thoroughly tested at both levels and at the partnership level to make sure they were properly interconnected.

Schedule

The overall schedule was as follows:

May 2006 – initial conceptual discussion
Sep 2006 – funding bid
Oct to Nov 2006 – discussions with managers of councils
Oct to Dec 2006 – agreement and specification with those proceeding
Jan to Jun 2007 – tender
Jun 2007 – contract awarded
Jun to Aug 2007 – contractor and partnership specification meetings
Sep to Dec 2007 – built system
Dec 2007 to Jan 2008 – three test phases
Feb 2008 – sign off
Mar 2008 – live

Fine tuning and development

At the launch stage, the Hampshire Jobs portal had a very simple front page – the lowest common denominator was simplest to agree. This was later redesigned and a new page relaunched in early 2009. Key improvements included a more interactive layout with changing pictures and graphics, rotating buttons with featured jobs and the option to advertise on a banner slot.

Specific career pages have now been developed outlining featured professions, including profiles of real people in the jobs. The careers pages have been very well received by both managers and candidates as an opportunity to provide greater information on key careers rather than purely job vacancies. They provide a range of information on specific careers – such as quantity surveying, social work, registrars – across individual councils with a plan to develop further profiles in the future.

Funding and income

Funding for the project came through the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Improvement Partnership – one of the sub-regional improvement and efficiency partnerships within the IESE structure. A sum of £200,000 from a Communities and Local Government fund was made available for the project via the regional improvement and efficiency partnerships (RIEPs). Participating councils pay an annual licence fee according to their size.

The portal has the flexibility to add new users and there is now agreement – since January 2009 – to charge for partners outside of the Hampshire Regional Recruitment Portal partnership to advertise individual vacancies on the site. At present, this arrangement is limited to partners connected to the local government framework, with third (voluntary) sector partners paying a reduced rate. These charges generate income to reinvest in enhancements to the system. There has recently been agreement to amend the current charging policy to increase the charge for the first advert placed by a partner, to reflect the cost of uploading their logo, but then they pay a lower charge for all subsequent adverts.

Future development

The future may include more joined up recruitment initiatives driving traffic to the single recruitment system; for example, joint initiatives on engagement with local universities and schools, or equality and diversity. There may be further scope to generate revenue from the recruitment portal from external customers in – or contracting with – the public sector.

The impact / evidence

Savings

The initial business case for the regional recruitment portal was built on delivering savings of £1.2 million over the five-year life of the contract. The partners reported £819,000 financial savings just in the project’s first year:

• £712,000 in recruitment advertising
• £81,000 in staffing
• £27,000 in other supplementary areas – such as postage and paper.

It has been hard to attribute savings directly to the system – as the councils have made other changes and redesigned the way in which they recruit – but these figures are regarded as fair reflections of the savings that the system has secured. Many of the savings are not directly cashable, but rather they have enabled the funding from the business to be redirected to other sources or allowed the delivery of greater volumes without the need for increased funding.

Service improvements

Feedback suggests a number of improvements:

• In individual authorities, the time taken for specific tasks – such as shortlisting – has reduced by over 40 per cent.
• The percentage of applications received through the system as opposed to paper application forms has increased significantly. Since the regional portal was launched, 87 per cent of all applications have been received online.
• Feedback from users indicates that candidates are finding using the portal a positive experience.

Feedback from applicants

Candidates using the system are routinely asked to rate the system and, since its launch, 94 per cent have rated it as good or above, with more than three-quarters rating it as very good or excellent.

Individual user comments include:

• “I think this is a very good way of doing applications. I wish other companies would do the same.”
• “It is really good that you save the information previously entered for past applications – it saves a lot of time!”
• “Very easy to use and I like the fact that you can create your own account.”
• “A very easy and simple application form, I like the fact that it saves information from prior applications, so that you do not have to rewrite information.”
• “More efficient than a paper-based application form.”
• “Straightforward and easy to use. Not off-putting as so many online applications are.”

Barriers / Challenges

In steering the project, it was a challenge to work with councils so varied in size, structure and delegation arrangements – particularly for someone with a private sector background. In implementing the system, for example, some councils with small HR and IT departments and little experience of e-recruitment would need more support and training than others.

It was also difficult to get all 12 different legal departments to sign up to a partnership agreement, particularly as they had not been involved from the start and so had no concept of what the project was trying to achieve. Understandably, their main focus was on protecting their authorities. County legal experts needed to attend separate talks with each council’s legal department to get agreement whereas, if each council had put forward one legal representative from the start – much as had happened with HR and IT – the process could have been much simpler.

The steering group communicated through members and the executive board and agreed key messages for partners to cascade locally. But in retrospect, a more standard, direct approach would have ensured greater consistency, leaving less room for interpretation of messages.

Whenever there was confusion, however, it helped the partners to have such a clearly stated aim on which they were all agreed. It was important to maintain momentum and clear focus over the whole project period.

Lessons

Experience in Hampshire suggests the following lessons for others embarking on similar projects:

• You first need to have a convincing business case. This becomes more difficult as inefficiencies are squeezed out of the system; for Hampshire the upfront funding was crucial, but the business case was a strong one. The Hampshire case was not developed with explicit links to LAA outcomes or CAA audit areas but rather on business and service benefits. However, such links could help to strengthen your argument and build support for your case.
• Having an agreed clear and simple aim will help you to retain focus and momentum throughout the project.
• The most effective partnership needs to involve key representatives – HR, IT and legal – from the outset and acknowledge the differences in what partners need. You should underpin it with a formal partnership agreement, one which gives partners an equal say in decisions.
• Having a project manager with experience of managing a similar process in the private sector helped to show the partnership “the art of the possible�. Coming from outside local government brought a lively mix: as the project manager said, “All partners challenged each other’s approach�.
• To keep the number of people around the table to manageable levels, there may be times when partners need to agree to represent the interests of more than one council along geographical lines. But all partners will need to be actively involved at key stages.
• Don’t underestimate the need to maintain good communication of progress, to a standard format, across the partnership.

According to the partnership, key success criteria from the candidate’s viewpoint include the following:

• A common brand, Hampshire Jobs, applies to all common areas of the system whereas the local corporate identity – the logo and specific information on that authority and its application process – comes into play when candidates select specific jobs.
• There is commonality across core areas, easy access and navigation, and all jobs are visible from one location.
• Information only needs to be entered once and is then pre-populated in future applications – irrespective of authority.

The key success criteria for candidate management include the following:

• There is one common system across all partners, but configured against each council’s individual processes and templates.
• All information on a vacancy is available from two screens at either a vacancy or candidate level.
• It has a useable talent banking facility and all information is held in a central location.
• Key activities – such as issuing rejection emails – are automated.

Further information

Hampshire Jobs web portal

Richard White, Head of Resourcing
Hampshire County Council
telephone: 01962 813951
email: richard.1.white@hants.gov.uk

The London Borough of Waltham Forest has sought to secure an Olympic legacy through a Multi Area Agreement (MAA) with the five Olympic Boroughs and particularly through two innovative schemes. The first scheme develops the opportunities that arise from the projected increase in visitor numbers as a result of the Games to provide a long term visitor accommodation strategy that will also improve the Borough’s housing stock. The second is the development of a National Skills Academy for Construction on the Olympic site, the Eton Manor Plant Training facility and the Cathall Road Skills Shop. This is one of three case studies on economic development in the London Borough of Waltham Forest produced following an inquiry visit by the Warwick University Local Authorities Research Consortium in November 2008. The other case studies focus on the employment and skills strategy (the Worknet Partnership) and on Business Improvement Districts.

Background

The Olympic legacy means something different for different boroughs and different organisations. The London Development Agency (LDA) is looking for a financial return on the £650 million it spent on assembling land for the games. The Boroughs have now strengthened their advocacy role for the legacy they need by establishing a joint Five Borough Unit which is also developing a Multi Area Agreement. The legacy strategy is not seen as taking a different direction from Waltham Forest’s Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS) but assisting it to achieve the SCS and Local Development Framework (LDF) aims ‘better, faster and stronger’.

In Waltham Forest the key issues are:

1. To ensure access to the new employment opportunities at Stratford City and to the new leisure facilities in the urban park that will follow from the games.
2. To exploit the opportunities that arise from the Olympic games for the benefit of local residents
3. To provide physical integration of the neighbourhoods surrounding the Olympic site.

A Northern Olympic fringe Master plan group has been established. The partners are the London Boroughs of Waltham Forest and Newham, the Lea Valley Regional Park Authority, Design for London, The LDA (the Regional Development Agency) and the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation. A Waltham Forest Neighbourhood Legacy Team is working under this to ensure the Borough’s Olympic legacy.

The issue of transport is being addressed by trying to get progress on a new rail link from Chingford to Stratford. This would then open up transport links to new opportunities in Docklands and Tames Gateway as well as to Stratford City itself. The Hall Farm Curve line would go along a disused rail line which is in council ownership. The costs would therefore only be for the laying of rail track and the stations at around £20 to £25 million. In the last 18 months the council and its partners have managed to bring the project forward from 2025 to 2014 and attempts are still being made to look for earlier construction, including pursing with other authorities the opportunity to develop a worn out industrial site at Lea Bridge to provide housing, leisure and commercial opportunities and re-open Lea Bridge station which is on the same line. Improvements to bus routes are also being made along with other bus improvements. The Barking Gospel Oak line will increase service capacity by 200 per cent and improvements to the Victoria line, which will increase capacity, are imminent. Together these improvements in connectivity will have a significant impact.

One of the opportunities that arise from the Olympic Games is the increase in visitor numbers. Visitors in London will rise by between 10-30 per cent (an extra 650,000- 1.9 million) in the Olympic year. The council is setting up a visitor accommodation service that will provide 10,000 additional bed spaces. There will be a central booking agency, training for 10,000 residents in home stay services (hospitality, food hygiene, customer services and English for Speakers of Other Languages), inspection and regulation of private properties and support (of £4,000-£8,000 per property) to raise them to a minimum standard. The funding for this initiative will ultimately come from payments to the central booking agency. This initiative will generate jobs through improving some 4,000 homes, lead to a reduction in houses in poor condition in multiple occupation and provide a legacy of guaranteed quality accommodation for visitors in the future.

The improvements to the public realm and street scene and town centres (see Waltham Forest case study on BIDs, also in the Library) surrounding the Olympic site is taking place at the same time. There is a strong focus on design with Design for London on the Northern Olympic Fringe Masterplan group. An Urban Characterisation Study has been produced and the next step is to form a design advisory panel. There is concern that Stratford City development will impact negatively on the town centres in Waltham Forest and the Council is taking action now through the Masterplanning group to address this issue. The proposals are also being integrated into a proposed MAA for the five Olympic boroughs. This will build on the Worknet and City Strategy Partnership and look at a single commissioning structure. But it will also focus on housing and the public realm providing more low cost family housing and improving the permeability and connectivity of the Olympic site and designing gateways into the new facilities. This strategy is seen as crucial in developing stable communities around the Olympic Park and ensuring access to jobs and facilities for Waltham Forest residents.

Lessons / Challenges

The visitors scheme is innovative and meets a number of objectives around improving housing quality, providing sources of employment or supplementary income and providing a real Olympic legacy.

The focus on integrating surrounding areas into the Olympic Park and improving the public realm and raising design standards is very welcome. The next challenge is to embed this policy into the proposed MAA.

Transport and the Hall Farm Curve are obviously crucial in opening up access to the new jobs at Stratford, Docklands and Thames Gateway and University of East London. Waltham Forest are right to prioritise this and the challenge will be to bring the proposal forward through raising section 106 and other funding.

Construction Training: National Skills Academy for Construction (NSAfC)

The task of building the London 2012 Olympics will create approximately 33,500 additional jobs from 2005-2012, with civil engineering and a range of specialist skills in particularly high demand. The construction industry as a whole may be seeing a considerable decline in house building and some commercial work, but there are still significant skills shortages even before you bring the Olympic requirements into consideration. Therefore in partnership with ConstructionSkills, the Learning and Skills Council, the LDA and the five Olympic Boroughs, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has successfully made an application to form a National Skills Academy for Construction (NSAfC) for the London 2012 construction programme. This programme is supported by around £38 million from key partners: the Learning and Skills Council (£19.2 million); the LDA (£11 .5 million), and ConstructionSkills (£7.3 million). The programme is part of the Government’s National Skills Academy framework and aims to increase skills within the construction industry by providing training for both people looking for employment and those working on the London 2012 construction programme.

What is a National Skills Academy for Construction?

The National Skills Academies are a network of on-site training centres available on major construction projects around the country. They do not consist of a one-off capital investment on a site but are a sub-regional partnership providing a range of accredited construction learning and development opportunities for local residents. The Olympic skills academy will provide accredited site-based and other training resources for the lifetime of the project.

Objectives

These key targets of the Olympic programme are to:

1. aim for the Olympic Park construction workforce to be comprised of at least between 10 and 15 per cent of people from the five Olympic Boroughs;
2. get at least 2,000 people into trainee apprenticeships and work placements (up to 2012) at the Olympic Park and other venues that the ODA is working on or building;
3. aim for people who were previously unemployed before working on London 2012 construction to make up seven per cent of the workforce.

How are these objectives being achieved?

Step 1:

• Suitable candidate identified
• The ODA works with construction contractors including developers Bovis Lend Lease and with Westfield on the Stratford City development to ensure their skill requirements are clear
• Job brokerage networks in the five Olympic Boroughs and Jobcentre Plus identify a suitable candidate. In Waltham Forest this is being handled through Worknet and a specific facility has been set up in an old betting shop
• There is a programme to secure an additional 50 placements for women each year in the manual trades on the Olympic Park site
• construction professionals and representatives from the industry are visiting schools, colleges and higher education institutions targeting those aged between 14 and 19 to try to encourage them to consider a career in construction.

Step 2:

• Candidate’s skills and experience are subjected to on Site Assessment and Training, providing fast track access to NVQ and a Construction Skills Certification Scheme card, proving that the candidate is qualified.

Step 3:

• The brokerage or job centre identifies available jobs from its database.

Step 4:

• Additional training offered which is geared towards jobs in demand and toward providing candidates with skills to help them gain sustainable employment both during and after the Games. Tailored short courses for businesses can be run on site and tested through mobile testing units.
• Courses include health and safety, plant operation, dry lining, highway and ground working, electricians manual handling, scaffolding, hand tools and working at heights. Courses will also teach general life skills that will support employment, such as literacy, numeracy and language.

Step 5:

• Candidate begins work and through the NSAfC, the employer continues to offer training to the now employed candidate.

Step 6:

• Regular meetings between the ODA, supply organisations and contractors will help ensure effectiveness of the employment process.

As part of its strategy, the ODA will build on existing successful employment initiatives, including those used by Trade Unions. Representatives from the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and from the four construction unions – UCATT, Amicus, GMB and TGWU – will contribute to the ODA’s initiatives.

Pre-employment Training- Eton Manor Plant Training

Formed under the NSAfC, a new Plant Training Centre at Eton Manor on the Olympic Park site was officially opened by Olympics Minister, Tessa Jowell, in February 2008. The National Construction College, part of ConstructionSkills, runs various courses for up to 24 trainees that last between two and 12 weeks. The 1.5 hectare centre allows for practical training on equipment, such as dumpers, telescopic handlers and excavators. The equipment has been provided by private industry. The centre will assist 180 trainees a year, who will then be referred back to job brokerage networks. They will have the necessary certificates to complete a qualification through practical experience. Of the 151 trainees who have been through courses at the centre by November 2008, 64 were Waltham Forest residents. Most have been placed on the Olympic site to gain work experience and full qualifications.

Pre-employment Training – Cathall Road Skills Shop

Waltham Forest Borough Council has been working with its partners to develop a training hub and single point of access initially for the Olympic site and then for the construction of Cross Rail offering flexible and responsive training programme for at least 520 trainees a year. It has started operating out of a disused betting shop which opened its doors to trainees in May 2008. Some 450 trainees had passed through the centre by August 2008, many just doing health and safety training or getting their Construction Skills Certificate Scheme certificate but courses in pipe laying, scaffolding and architectural metal work are also being offered. An outline planning application for a new building was accepted by the planning committee in March 2008, and a capital bid has been made to the LSC. £8 million of investment committed so far has been secured and work on the site has started. Some of the site will be used for outdoor wet trades. There is also a section of the site to be developed for use by ‘Traxsides’ a specialist company training construction workers to work on the railway which will provide a foundation for the Crossrail training after the Olympics. Personal Track Safety training, which is essential for this area of work, will be part of the offer. Meetings are being arranged between the College of North East London and other private sector training providers interested in locating at the Skills Shop and a consortium with a wide offer is likely to run the facility. The council is also involving a Registered Social Landlord.

Outcomes

Figures for September 2008 show that targets are being met and of the 2,701 strong workforce currently delivering the progress on the Olympic Park:

• Nearly a quarter are local residents (24 per cent)
• Over half are from London (58 per cent)
• Just under one in 10 (nine per cent) was previously unemployed before finding work helping deliver the Games and a fifth (20 per cent) of these workers live locally

Lessons

A training and skills strategy developed with the construction companies and a wide partnership is essential

A flexible and responsive offer that addresses niche skills that are required rather than just the standard education offer covering skills such as bricklaying and carpentry will be more successful. In this way site experience and skills training can be combined.

A construction skills programme should address the upskilling of those already working in the industry covering on Site Assessment and Training, providing fast track access to NVQ and a Construction Skills

Certification Scheme card and health and safety

• Involving the trades unions in construction skills training can be very beneficial.
• It is important to plan ahead. Waltham forest is already looking at the Cross Rail scheme.

Challenges that remain are:

• Linking other construction projects into the scheme. The Building Schools for the Future is a programme that is often very difficult to link into construction training schemes.
• The Council is starting to link housing refurbishment into the scheme. With the housing improvements sought round the visitors’ legacy project there will be more work to do here to ensure opportunities are maximized.

Contact

Ines Newman
Telephone: 020 8340 1926
Email: ines.newman@wbs.ac.uk