Increasing Employment In Hackney:The Journey to Employment

Ian Ashman

Co-Chair Economic Development Partnership

Principal Hackney Community College

Increasing Employment :Links with Better Homes Partnership

• The work of the EDP & employment• The Cross cutting review of worklessness• Key issues for the session

The Work of the Economic Development Partnership

• Role: Increasing employment, skills and enterprise

• Promotes partnership working e.g. LBH, JCP, VCS

• Sponsored Ways into Work programme

• Developed Skills for Employment Strategy

• Will be developing Enterprise Strategy

• Supports Council Economic Development Strategy

• Oversight of cross-cutting review of worklessness

• Outcomes: • Gap closing on London average employment

• Significantly reduced numbers with low/no skills

The Importance of Partnerships:Employment is a ‘Secondary Condition’

Employability

Education

Key Issue is therefore:How do Partnerships & VCS help increase Hackney’s employment rate?

Employment

Crosscutting Review of Worklessness:

Aim: “ Reduce poverty by supporting residents into sustainable employment…”

Objectives:• To research key reasons for worklessness, including

patterns in the data about who is most affected• To recommend policy and action to target those most in

need of support• To reduce worklessness in the worst affected wards and

the hardest to reach communities & thereby overall in Hackney

• Outcomes linked to several key targets and National Indicators for the LSP

Crosscutting Review of Worklessness:Key findings

Men of all ages are the most common claimant population -

Male Unemployment Rate• 17% in Black African, Caribbean and Mixed Black & White• 35% Black Caribbean men aged 18-24• Over represented by x 2.5 their number in the population

Incapacity Benefit:• Men aged 45-64 made up the majority• 25% of men aged 55-59• 30% of men aged 60-64

Crosscutting Review of Worklessness:Key findings

Some women significantly effected

Job Seekers Allowance• 21% of Mixed White & Black Caribbean women 18-24• 24% of British Mixed ethnicity women

Lone Parent Benefit

• Women aged 35-44 are the majority population receiving Lone Parent Benefit

Cross-cutting Review of WorklessnessRecommendations

Priority Groups• Evidence based targeting to those who need us most: Long term unemployed, IB/mental health service users, Lone Parents

Embedding of Employability• Review recommendations embedded in all relevant strategies for the Council, LSP and partners

Family Centered Delivery•Holistic approach and suite of services aligned for parents and young people in the same household.

Cross-cutting Review of WorklessnessRecommendations

Service Integration• Requires sharing of priorities, strategies

and projects• And therefore ‘Goes with the Grain’ of sharing budgets,

data, staff, training and planning within and across the

partnerships

Total Place and Employment

Housing

Cross-cutting Review of Worklessness

Journey to Employment

1. How does the VCS support local people in their journey from worklessness to employment?

2. What is VCS expertise in developing bespoke approaches to worklessness?

3. Examples of good practice from the network

4. Discussion:• Three practical issues that need to be addressed

• Three ways in which the public sector and voluntary sector can address them