Team North Somerset Review and 18 Month Business Plan

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North Somerset Partnership Board

July 2015

Team North Somerset – Review and 18 month Business Plan

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1. Overview

Team North Somerset (TNS) is a partnership of public, private and voluntary agencies working together to offer tailored employment support to young people and adults who are furthest from the job market.

Many of the people we are helping are socially excluded and this can profoundly affect their physical and mental health. This lack of wellbeing can have a significant impact on an individual’s confidence and motivation, preventing them from gaining employment.

The target disadvantaged groups that (TNS) has been supporting include:

 care leavers,

 people experiencing poor mental health or with learning disabilities,

 young people not in employment, education or training (NEET),

 Vulnerable families (High Impact Families programme).

Many of these groups have multiple barriers to employment including offending, drug and alcohol dependency, caring responsibilities, health problems (including mental health), low educational attainment and family, parenting and relationship issues.

During a period of austerity it is even more critical that we reduce the level of dependency on public and voluntary sector resources and enable individuals to improve their confidence, skills and employment prospects.

The TNS pilot which was set up by the North Somerset Partnership Board, commenced in April 2014 (development phase), went live from October 2014 and ends in December 2015.

2. Challenge

As the recovery strengthens, it is likely that those already closest to the labour market will find work more easily, but there is a risk that the most disadvantaged will find it difficult to secure work.

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It is proposed that Team North Somerset model is sustained until June 2017 to ensure that disadvantaged groups are provided with the right level of support, tailored to the needs of individuals and local businesses.

There is also a risk that, as the economy recovers, unemployed people will lack the skills which employers need and skills shortages will emerge.

Team North Somerset will therefore be required to help unemployed people acquire the skills they need to compete for new jobs created by economic growth within North Somerset.

3. Recommendations

This paper makes a recommendation that the programme continues beyond December 2015 and that option (a) is supported by the Board:

a. North Somerset Partnership Board is requested to invest £125,000 to help extend the duration of Team North Somerset employment initiative for 1 ½ years. It is proposed that is achieved by:

a.i. Allocating £75,000 from the projected under spend from the pilot phase

a.ii. Allocating the additional £50,000 ring-fenced contingency budget

a.iii. Continuing the commitment of staff being seconded into this partnership delivery model

a.iv. Applying for funding from the European Social Fund (ESF- Building Better Opportunities) via Civil Society Partnership and lead partner (Weston College) to extend the scope and life of the project from 1.5 years to three years +. (Please see appendix 1 for more information on ESF funding bid).

a.v. Review the business plan once the outcome of the ESF is known (between – March and August 2016)

(Please see section 7 for more detailed analysis of costs/partner contribution)

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b. The alternative option is for the Board to make plans to decommission the model from December 2015.

Risks associated with decommissioning the Team North Somerset model:

• No one organisation has all the answers to tackling social exclusion and addressing the barriers to an individual seeking work • We do not build long term relationships with the 50+ employers that want to fulfil business as well as social value objectives via TNS • Reduction in numbers of disadvantaged people supported into employment • Lost opportunity to scale up model when new funding steams become available ( such as EU Social Fund) • Partnership development suffers /reduction in the added value driven via this partnership model (see section 4)

4. Team North Somerset – Summary of Model

 Job Coaches and the Routeone job club provide a personalised 1-2-1 and peer group support and brokerage service that goes far beyond simply providing advice. They help disadvantaged people address significant barriers into employment by: o Developing rapport and trust providing a flexible service. Meeting with customers as often as required in a location convenient for the customer. o Providing a structured, yet tailored package of support o Creating robust action plans at every meeting, using coaching and adult learning methodologies to assess work readiness o Helping customers set positive goals and take ownership for change o Tracking progression and providing challenge and positive feedback o Utilising a range of diagnostic tools to help identify individual career development needs and then referring to appropriate training o Working with a dedicated Employer Engagement Coordinator to help create pathways for people to progress in to work. Providing tailored work experience and job opportunities o Accessing a transition fund to help overcome financial barriers to moving into employment o Offering on-going support in the workplace to encourage sustainable employment and helping to manage and develop long term relationships with employers

 Vehicle for driving social value across the partnership (such as creating apprenticeship and work experience placements created via the supply chain e.g. Glendale ( plans currently being worked up with Belfour Beatty and Liberata & Agilisys)  A flexible and innovative programme that responds to local business priorities:

o We have built effective working relationships with 50 local businesses (employer engagement role);

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o The partnership model provides a comprehensive and compelling offer that supports both business and corporate social responsibility objectives;

o Employers benefit from a coordinated approach rather than standalone contact from multiple agencies, competing against one another;

o Offers employers with end to end service, (pre-employment soft skills development, technical skills, recruitment and selection apprenticeship and in work support);

o Team North Somerset has a good track record of securing jobs with progression and learning such as apprenticeships (providing stepping stones rather than dead end jobs);

Team North Somerset brand has helped to raise the profile of the community and employment agenda to key stakeholders/decision makers (Business Leaders article, North Somerset Life, Local Government network report on transformative partnership models, Weston Mercury article. Numerous presentations such as: Weston College Business Breakfast, North Somerset Council Housing Strategy and Bristol City Council enquiry event.

5. Delivering strong outcomes and social value

A key outcome for Team North Somerset is to support 50 disadvantaged people into sustained employment by December 2015.

The job outcomes for the four priority groups at the end of June 2015 (Quarter 3) are outlined in the table below. These outcomes are 65% higher than projected for this period.

Cohort Job Outcomes (Quarter 3, end Targets of June 2015) Care Leavers 12 50 jobs across the 4 Mental Health or Learning 27 (via Routeone job club or job different cohorts by Disability coaches) December 2015 **High Impact Families 1 Young People (Not in 31 30 jobs by end of quarter 3 employment, education or training) Total job outcomes achieved 50*

(*difference between breakdown and total job outcomes is attributed to some customers meeting the criteria for more than one cohort ) ** High Impact Families Job Coach commenced employment May 2015

Additional outcomes achieved:

a. 131 people have received careers advice/coaching , 1-2-1 action planning

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b. 31 people have been on a high quality work experience placement

c. 96% have sustained employment at 13 week (with the ongoing support by their job coaches and employers)

d. 40% of Team North Somerset Customers have moved into employment. This is 31% more than the 9 % of people moving into employment under the Governments flagship programme – The Work Programme (source DWP September 2014).

Partner benefits of supporting disadvantaged people into employment

- Increased health and wellbeing leading to a reduction in the use of health and local authority services;

- Reduced crime and anti-social behaviour;

- Improved relationship with businesses as we providing access to recruitment solutions for hard to fill vacancies and also helping to deliver Corporate Social Responsibility objectives;

- Greater opportunity for participants to make a contribution to the local economy, and ability to pay rent, mitigate impact of welfare reform;

- Increased number of disadvantaged people accessing apprenticeships and further education and learning at Weston College.

5. Outstanding Partnership

We have built an outstanding partnership. We are much stronger working together as one. No one organisation has all the answers to help tackle poverty and social exclusion faced by the most disadvantaged people in North Somerset.

We have joined together pathways of support, cut duplication from the system and through effective and targeted intervention and prevention support. TNS provides added value to existing core services and improved coordination (umbrella with strong identity/brand).

Although not an exhaustive list please see a few examples of how the partnership has worked together and acted as a catalyst for change in North Somerset:

o North Somerset Boards Leadership role has been instrumental in developing the vision and securing the resources to enable the delivery of this programme.

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o The Board has raised the profile of Team North Somerset and has helped gain additional discretionary resources such as staff, premises, sharing of data/intelligence and access to funded training

o Routeone job club commissioned by NSC and run by a local social enterprise (Onetruestep) has demonstrated how voluntary sector organisations are very effective in engaging and supporting people with multiple barriers into employment. The job club has since it started in October 2014 had over 109 referrals from people with mental health issues, learning disability or drug and alcohol misuse

o Knightstone Housing, Weston College and the Council have aligned resources from the Hype West contract and this has significantly reduced the overhead cost of Team North Somerset (projected underspend £75,000)

o Over 50 business have offered work experience and provided jobs opportunities

o North Somerset Council have secured a £10,000 donation from a private benefactor to help reduce the financial barriers that Care leavers face when moving into employment

o Weston College funded bus passes for all Care Leavers doing apprenticeships

o Alliance Homes has joined up its supporting people contract via its supply chain so that Team North Somerset customers with mental health issues can obtain 1-2-1 job coaching support

o VANs and TNS held an event to raise the profile of TNS and to establish relationships with the wider voluntary sector

o North Somerset Council provided a senior lead to act as project sponsor (David Turner). Senior Manager at Alliance Homes (Darren Hartley) also takes part in project review meetings with David Turner on monthly basis

o North Somerset Council developed recruitment processes to enable far more care leavers to access its apprenticeship scheme

o Alliance Homes has created work experience opportunities and a job in its IT team for individual with learning disability

o Bristol Airport ran a half day event to provide Care Leavers with a comprehensive overview of their business and career prospects

o Goblin Coombe/Groundworks provided a free team build day

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o Weston College has partially funded the Operations management role

o Two social enterprises have provided work experience and apprenticeship opportunities ( Somerset Wood Recycling and Boomsatsuma)

o North Somerset Council seconded 4 staff from Youth Employment service & High Impact Families (3 FTE)

o North Somerset Council reviewed its social value approach and opened up its supply chain to create work experience and apprenticeship opportunities.

o Weston College developed intensive and bespoke Ngage programme (8 week course) which helped 6 care leavers develop their soft skills, all 6 went on work experience and 3 have gained employment. (none of the candidates had ever completed a course before)

o Knightstone Housing has provided expertise to help partners develop approach to social value

o Weston College has provided office facilities for the project delivery team

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6. Lesson Learnt/considerations for Phase 2

 Lesso Action ns Learnt  There - Work with Weston College is an opportunity for partner organisations to to promote traineeship and review recruitment practices that recognise apprenticeship models potential as well as experience and skills within partner organisations and supply chain

 Recog - Develop range of outcome nise that the criteria for success may not be measurements for specific the same for every group – some people groups further from the job market may need to - Measure distance travelled take part in social activities before moving onto volunteering or part time/ full time employment.  Look - Identify potential to extend opportunities to other partners/funding streams disadvantaged groups such as ESF – Building better opportunities funding Relatively small numbers for some cohorts - Carry out cost/benefit but intensive support required. analysis to help inform resourcing decisions - Extend partnership to further pool existing resources (e.g. community learning)  Some - Build stronger relationship customers have experienced significant with CCG and health trauma or have significant psychological services barriers or dependency. Far more work is - Pilot and assess impact of required to develop wider relationships with mentoring/coaching models health and mental health services to address these issues and move people - Continue to use work forward into employment experience as a way to build confidence

 There - Gain approval to sustain has been a high turnover of staff within TNS for minimum of 1 ½ Team North Somerset due to ongoing years organisational changes within partnership. - Gain commitment to a We would be even more productive if standard set of terms and partnership could make longer term conditions for secondment commitment to the initiative and therefore into TNS

8 Item 4 maximise outcomes by reducing ongoing recruitment, induction and partnership development costs

 It is - A client centred approach critical to take a person centred approach to has now been adopted. employer engagement. As in the early Outcomes have improved stages of this initiative we had developed as a result of the employment opportunities that were not appointment of an matched to individual aspirations and these experienced member of were not fully utilised staff (employer engagement role) - Continue to target SME market as they generally they have more flexible recruitment practices and are faster to make recruitment decisions - Engage employers in running sessions for the Route 1 job club

 Many - North Somerset Council care leavers benefit from apprenticeship has waived Council tax for schemes as they can learn and earn, Care Leavers therefore increasing potential to develop higher level skills and move out of poverty (low skills/low wage trap). However many care leavers live independently and are unable to obtain the parental /financial support required to take on an apprenticeship. The starting salaries for apprenticeship positions start from £2.73 per hour. Most Care leavers require a minimum of £5.50 to £6 per hr to live.  Develo - Notification of planned p more strategic approach to gaining social developments via NSC value via development & procurement - Develop stronger links with opportunities Hinckley Point brokerage service to understand back fill opportunities  Develo - Develop system for sharing p partnership CRM system pooling of job employer intelligence opportunities for disadvantaged people, employer intelligence and engagement

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7. Proposal/development of model for Phase 2 (January 2016 – June 2017)

 Consider how Team North Somerset fits with any revisions to the North Somerset partnership governance structure

 Support a minimum of 90 disadvantaged people into employment over 1.5 years (60 per annum). The increase from 50 to 60 per annum reflects the productivity improvements expected as we move from a development phase into programme maturity

 Look to extend programme to other disadvantaged groups  Continue to focus on changing lives by providing job opportunities with progression and learning such as apprenticeship positions.  Further develop relationship with Job Centre and establish relationship with Health & PCT to integrate services and improve support  Develop pre-employment development & recruitment agency model for employers. Explore feasibility of creating an income stream via recruitment agency model

 Develop bid writing capability within partnership to secure additional investment (such as imminent ESF Building Better Opportunities bid)

 Provide bespoke development, work experience and apprenticeship programmes via Weston College (Ngage programme, Traineeships, sector skills development programmes (construction, Care, Catering) as well as numeracy and literacy.

 Continue to offer personalised support and matching /employer engagement service

 Further develop model as mechanism for delivering social value via partnerships supply chain

 Extend employer engagement to include support , signposting or toolkit for employers to address concerns with recruitment and to clearly communicate business and social benefits

 Develop a strategy to promote the partnership and its commitment to community investment

 Work with NSEA to encourage more enterprises /entrepreneurship and social enterprises in deprived wards

Please note that a review of North Somerset Council’s employment and skills provision is taking place and key findings will be incorporated into the design of TNS (phase 2)

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8. Financial Plan

It is proposed that North Somerset Partnership makes an investment of £125,000 to sustain Team North Somerset for 1.5 years (January 2016 – June 2017). Please see more detailed breakdown of costs in the table 1 on the follow page.

- It is suggested that this is funded via:

o £75,000 projected underspend

o £50,000 contingency budget

o Ongoing alignment /secondment of existing staff seconded into TNS

Our ambition is to also explore the longer term sustainability of the partnership model and to scale it up. It is likely that that ESF social funding for the West of England will be the main route to supporting the most disadvantaged into employment from September 2016 until December 2019. This funding will not replace statutory funding of core employment services.

9.1 Financial Assumptions

- Key partners such as Alliance Homes, North Somerset Council and Weston College continue to invest in Team North Somerset for the next 1.5 years or until additional funding streams such as the ESF are in place.

- The viability of the model is dependent on the secondment of job coaches and partial funding of other key roles into TNS partnership model (Operations Manager and Employer Engagement roles )

- Continuation of the funding, which would end December 2015, for two of the job coaches working for Weston College. Two of the three roles will be funded to ensure continuity of service until the outcome of the ESF building better opportunities bid is known ( March – August 2016);

- A distinction has been made between those staff that carry out the role or substantive element within their respective organisations ( no partnership contribution to costs) and those whereby role has been created specifically for the requirements of this initiative (100- 50% recovery of costs for partner agency) .

- Although a nominal value has been placed in column 4 (existing overhead for partner agencies), no payment is required this figure reflects the salary cost to the partner organisation of redirecting this member of staff to partnership activity.

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- The costs in the table do not include on-costs i.e. NI/Pension. Therefore there is an assumption that partner organisations will cover these additional overhead costs

- Weston College is in a position to continue to provide room for operational team

- The financial model does not include costs of statutory or existing roles/services that support and or underpin Team North Somerset delivery and management:

o North Somerset Council – Youth Employment Service

o North Somerset Council – Policy and Partnership Development ( Lorraine Bush)

o North Somerset Council – commissioning of Routeone Job club

o North Somerset Council/ Alliance Homes – Westonworks

o Weston College – Pre employment and apprenticeship provision

o Alliance Homes /Supporting people contract ( Job coaching via Richmond Fellowship)

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Table 1 – Proposed financial plan January 2016 – June 2017

Staff Days per Project Funding Existing salary costs week requirement (pa) for partner agencies (excluding overhead costs) Project Lead 2 days £16,580 Operations Manager 4 days £13,800 £13,800

Weston College 50% funding 4 Job Coaches & Job 4-5 days £0 It is proposed that Club per role existing staff continue to be aligned/seconded into - Care leaver Team North Somerset

- High Impact (The cost of a Job coach Families role is in the region of £25,000pa, FTE) - Mental Health /LDD Partners commitment (Routeone Job required to align existing club) resources from : - NSC Yes service - NEET /General £25,000 (6 months - NSC HIF service disadvantaged until outcome of - NSC Route one (x2 job ESF BBO bid job club coaches) known) Weston College (NEET job coaches funding ends December 2015.

It is proposed that to ensure continuity of service that 2 of the 3 job coach roles continue to be funded until outcome of ESF bid is known (March - August 2016) Employer 3 days £8,775 £8,775 Engagement Weston College 50% funding Administration 5 Days £9,500 N/A Apprentice Outgoings (pa) Transition Funding £12,000 Training budget £5,000 Staff development £1,000

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Summary Total year 1 (January £91,655 £22,575 + alignment of – December 2016) existing staff

Total year 2 (January £33,327.5 £11,287.50 + alignment – June 2017) of existing staff

Total project costs £124,982.50

Summary – Proposed partner contribution for 1.5 years

Organisation Role Salary cost (50% contribution). Excluding overhead costs Weston College - Operations Manager £13,800pa - Employer Engagement £8,775pa

£33,862.50 (January 2016- June 2017)

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9. Appendices

Appendix 1 – ESF Funding

Subject to approval from the European Commission later this year, the Big Lottery Fund is planning to put up to £260 million of Lottery funds against a similar figure from the European Social Fund (ESF) 2014-2020 in to support communities and people most in need across England. Full details are available here.

Funding will be available for projects delivering against the ‘Promoting Social Inclusion and Combating Poverty’ ESF work stream. It is understood that the focus is primarily around assisting people into work, especially those people that are furthest away from the job market. The funding will be delivered in Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas according to local priorities, as set by the LEPs.

Applications will need to be made in response to one of the project outlines which will describe each specific funding opportunity that is available through the programme, set out what each project aims to achieve and the areas or groups of people that it needs to target. Funding will only be available for one project per project outline. Although each project outline will be different, there are five key principles that unite them. These are as follows: • Help the most disadvantaged - some groups of people are more disadvantaged than others when it comes to finding work and it is these individuals that Building Better Opportunities aspires to help.

• Tackle social exclusion - rather than just treating the symptoms, projects must help address the root causes of poverty and exclusion that are barriers to an individual seeking work.

• Be focused on the capabilities of each individual - projects are expected to build on people's strengths by developing their skills and talents to help them overcome the challenges they face.

• Lead to better coordinated services - in the main, services will need to be delivered in partnership between organisations that already have expertise in working with those most in need.

• Create new opportunities for work - it is therefore essential that there is engagement with employers to ensure there are pathways for people to progress into work.

Projects are expected to be delivered by partnerships and lead organisations should have: • A clear vision for responding to the priorities of the local area, backed up by appropriate expertise. • A proven track record of managing complex projects, relative to the size of any partnership and the amount of money involved. • Good connections for ensuring a wide cross section of organisations are able to get involved.

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• Strategies for managing and coordinating any partnership throughout the planning, set-up and delivery of the project.

Anticipated timescales Final details of the programme have not yet been published. However, anticipated timescales are as follows:

June (mid) 2015 - Details of bid process published August (mid) 2015 - Outline proposal to be submitted (8 weeks) November 2015 - Phase 2, with offer of development funding (£50k) Jan - May 2016 - Detailed application phase Mar - Aug 2016 - Funding set-up December 2019 - End of grant period