Agenda item

Elevate Berkshire - Employment is Everyone's Business Project Update

To receive an update on the Employment is Everyone’s Business project.

Minutes:

Kathy Melling and Nerise Oldfield-Thompson from the British Association of Supported Employment (BASE) attended the meeting to give an update on the Employment is Everyone’s Business Project.

 

The Employment is Everyone’s Business Project had been originally funded by a grant from the Department for Education, and in Berkshire the project had partnered with Elevate.

 

In establishing baseline data, the Project had witnessed an insight into Local Authority practice nationally and had recognised that some Local Authorities were unsure of their provision for supported employment, whilst some were not collecting the data. Questionnaires had been distributed to young people with SEND across Berkshire, and these had revealed the high aspirations of young people including 87% of the surveyed group who wanted to get a job after leaving education. The surveying process had also exposed the gaps in provision in Berkshire, and had identified best practice.

 

BASE expressed a concern that the focus of Elevate was on young people who were NEET rather than having an equal focus on young people with SEND . It was noted that a lack of focus on young people with SEND could cause a long term cost to the Local Authorities if a young person was reliant on social care through their adult life.

 

It was reported that there had been a lack of ambition for the achievements of young people with SEND, and that any positive stories of achievements should be promoted as role models for other young people.

 

BASE recommended that:

·         the action plan for each Local Authority should be kept updated and implemented.

·         employment profiling be embedded into the Educational Health and Care plans for young people, with a view to standardise Educational Health and Care plans across Berkshire

·         supported employment across the Berkshire Local Authorities should be delivered by qualified and trained staff.

·         Each Local Authority should commit to ringfencing resources for young people with SEND, including provision for apprenticeships, internships and work experience

·         Elevate should continue to work with BASE to further develop provision.

 

Members of the Committee thanked BASE for their update and for their partnership. As the meeting was inquorate, the recommendations could not be resolved but were deferred to a future discussion.

 

Arising from discussion, the following points were noted:

·         Ways Into Work had been commissioned to work alongside existing supporting employment providers in the Local Authorities to provide s holistic approach.

·         Examples were required of young people transitioning from NEET to EET to supply to the DWP in order to prove that the funding supplied was not proportional to the outputs.

·         Capital funding was available for children of statutory school age, but not for Further Education provision. It was suggested that a Local Authority might approach the EFA if funding for Further Education was required.

·         It was suggested that particular case studies may be costed in order to recognise the financial implications of different supported employment processes. BASE requested that case studies from the special schools be included in this work, as it was recognised that not all young people with SEND would want to enter into Further Education before employment.

·         Committee members raised a question regarding college use of FSA funding, and how colleges could be encouraged to use this funding for supported employment. It was suggested that this may be the next stage for Elevate’s involvement.

·         Manchester Futures had conducted a piece of work to recognise the economic return on investment in supported employment.

·         Michael Beaven, Our Community Enterprise (for Ways into Work) suggested that the Children’s Services Life Chances Fund may be a useful resource for future funding.

 

 

 

Supporting documents:

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk