Tackling Poverty
Learning Where You Live
Trechu Tlodi
Dysgu Lle'r Ydych yn Byw
#morethanhousing
Welcome Croeso
Duncan Forbes
Bron Afon Community Housing
Tai Cymunedol Bron Afon
Ymunwch â’r drafodaeth ar
Twitter
#morethanhousing
Join in the conversation on
Twitter #morethanhousing
Bridging the gap – the role of
adult learning
Pontio'r bwlch - rôl addysg
oedolion
David Hughes, NIACE
Maggi Dawson, WEA Cymru
#morethanhousing
Learning where you live
The role of Adult Learning
as a tool for the development of the individual and the community
Maggi Dawson
Vice Chair of NIACE Cymru and CEO of WEA Cymru
The scope of adult community learning
• For adults of all ages, delivered in a variety of settings
• A second chance to learn. (Tenants or staff)
• At times and venues to suit, at a pace and level that is
appropriate to their needs
• It empowers, fulfils untapped potential and brings
enjoyment and enrichment
• Can be for creative and leisure reasons - academic or
vocational - increased active citizenship and increased
control over one’s life
• Brings about change in the lives of the family, the group,
the community and wider society
One approach : the WEA offer
• WEA formed 1903 and is a democratic voluntary adult
education movement
• Learning is Contextualised, Negotiated, In partnership
• Accredited and non accredited, using tutors and e-learning
• Learning programme developed in consultation with HAs
• Housing, Tenancy and Independent Living Skills
• Community participation skills
• Work related skills
• Preparation for work
• Welsh history and culture
Addressing Essential Skills Needs
• Course content which assists with literacy and numeracy
• Everyday money management and coping with cuts in
benefit and rising cost of living eg :
• Simple budgeting techniques – having money left over for
things that really matter
• Supermarket shopping – what is best value for money?
• Save or borrow? What is the actual cost of credit?
• Get better with numbers – basic techniques for making
calculations easier to understand
• Using the internet to find a bargain
Is this what Housing Associations want?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Here to listen and learn and develop a fresh approach
Build on existing case studies and what works
Use a variety of funding streams/co-investment
Need to be flexible and responsive
Chance to access ESF through partnership working
Chance to measure impact and show value
Chance to influence political parties and their manifestos
WEA Cymru
David.Ashman@weacymru.org.uk : Regional Manager
Amanda.Bennett@weacymru.org.uk : Accreditation Team
Lynda.Jones@weacymru.org.uk : Director of Curriculum and
Welsh Language
Maggi.Dawson@weacymru.org.uk : CEO
www.weacymru.org.uk
Skills for communities
Sgiliau ar gyfer cymunedau
Lesley Griffiths AM
Minister for Communities & Tackling
Poverty
Gweinidog Cymunedau a Threchu Tlodi
#morethanhousing
Roundtable discussions
Trafodaethau bwrdd crwn
#morethanhousing
Discussion Themes
1.What are the barriers to learning that
tenants and their families face?
2.How can we overcome them?
3.How do we identify the learning and skills
needs of tenants?
Feedback & Questions
Adborth a Chwestiynau
#morethanhousing
Lunch & Networking
Cinio a Rhwydweithio
#morethanhousing
Issues & Interventions
Materion ac Ymyriadau
Farida Aslam, Monmouthshire
Housing Association
#morethanhousing
Tackling Poverty
Learning Where You Live
Tackling Poverty Learning Where
You Live
Exploring the learning & skills needs of
individuals within social or supported
housing and how they can be met.
The MHA approach
Farida Aslam
Inclusion Coordinator MHA
What I hope to cover!
• MHA context
• Interventions, addressing poverty and the learning
and skills agenda holistically
• Issues
• Partnerships
• Outcomes
• Keeping an eye on Business Benefits
What I hope to cover cont......
• What's emerging..... In work poverty
• Exploiting supply chains - using social clauses
to fund our work
• Action research going forward
• Points to consider....
MHA Context
MHA context
• MHA has 3600 properties
• Based on our profiling data (80% complete in
2012)
• 59% of tenants we house are working age
• 21% of these tenants are working full time
• Average income of our working tenants are
£15,060.00
MHA context
• The average income of our working age
tenants across the board is £13,597.00
• According Child Poverty Action group 2/3 of
children experiencing poverty belong to
working families.
This is a key theme we are coming across.
MHA context
Snapshot of work profile:
• 15% of those working age are working in
health and social care positions
• 16% in sales and marketing
• 9% in cleaning jobs
• 8% in transport
• ¼ of tenants affected by the B Tax are also
those that are furthest away from the labour
market.
MHA context
Basic Skills Issues,
• Via profiling 735 tenants have self identified
as having learning, reading and writing issues.
• 20% of those that we are working with have
basic skills issues.
Interventions
How are we addressing poverty
and promoting the learning
agenda, Holistically?
Via a 3 pronged approach:
1. Addressing the immediate
financial issues via our Money
Wise services
2. Addressing the long term
issues via our Work and Skills
Wise service
3. Addressing Digital and some
aspect of social inclusion via Web
Wise
MHA’s Work & Skills
Wise service....
Aim:
•Promoting Education
•Building Confidence
•Raising Aspirations
Work & Skills Wise Service
Life long
learning &
training
Bursary
Scheme
Job
Seeking
Skills
Programme
Computers
in the
Community
Scheme
Volunteering
Job Seeking Skills Programme
•6 weeks innovative job seeking skills programme
Small groups of 6 no more than 8
• Considers how to approach the
job market, where to look, the hidden job market,
internet and other informal contact
• How to complete application forms, type of
applications, preparation, and confidence
• CV development tips, good and bad CV’s what to
include what not to
• Interview techniques, good and bad interviews
learning from the past
•Where next ... Participants leaves with the skills
needed to finding work...
Bursary Scheme
•
Helps service users improve skills and personal
development
•
Bursary can be for anything related to education,
training and self development that can demonstrate
progress of help towards employment
•
Paying course fees;
•
Buying course materials
•
Role involves finding suitable courses & putting
learners in touch with course providers or other
financial schemes
Computers in the Community
•A computer loan scheme that allows MHA tenants to
borrow laptop computers from MHA for a certain period
of time.
•The laptops are provided in order to help you complete
educational courses and learn computer related skills.
•Tenants sign a the user agreement
• Only one laptop can be issued per household
• Must have completed two courses already, adding up to
a total of 12 weeks.
• Must be willing to enroll on further courses.
Volunteering
• It aim is to help them gain valuable experience
in the workplace
• MHA have opened all department up to
volunteering
• Managers and staff members have received
training about their roles.
• Volunteering is offered on a needs led basis match
• Work placements are brokered not only
internally but externally too.
Volunteering
• Volunteering pack – introducing Volunteering at
MHA
• Induction pack for Manager (Roles/Responsibilities)
• Application form/verbal request to volunteer
• Induction pack for volunteers includes:
Volunteering log
Confidentially statement
Confidentially agreement
Personal development record
Exit questionnaire
Training course attended whilst vol..
• Reference provided
How the service works .....
Referrals from NO to Money Wise or directly to W&SW
Name:
Date:
Address
Contact number
Email address
Date of birth
Benefits received
Education/Training
Work Experience/ employment
Voluntary
Full-time
Part-time
Not worked
Recent area of work
Do you want
To return to that area?
Y
e
s
N
o
Long term goal
Do you have any criminal
convictions?
Personal Circumstances
Childcare, language - mobility needs,
other access to internet & transport
Referral by
Yes
No
Self referrals
Individual action plan
Consent form
NAME:
Address:
Contact details:
Start date:
Expected end date:
Actual end date:
WORK AND SKILLS WISE
Long Term Aims and Goals:
CASE STUDY, CLIENT CONSENT FORM
Steps Needed to Achieve This:
DATE
Objective
I, _________________________________________
Tasks to complete.
Review
date
Give my consent for Monmouthshire Housing Association, as
part of my involvement with Work and Skills Wise service, to
use me as a case study.
The information I provide to the Work and Skills Wise team may
be used for the purpose of promoting the Work and Skills Wise
Service to other potential users, be it online publicity or for
news articles.
Signed _______________________________________
Date ___________________
MHA: Promoting Education, Developing Experience, Raising Aspiration
Work in practice delivering to
need
•Lead officers receives referral
•Complete assessment & (Basic skills & digital)
•Develops individual needs led personal action
plan
• Provide one to one support
•Deliver JSSP, Brokers Vol Placements, administers
Bursary scheme & arrange course
•Responsible for recording outcomes and all
programme support.
Outcomes
Outcomes
• Work and Skills Wise service has supported
302 tenants
• Helped 128 tenants complete courses - 36 are
currently engaged in learning this year.
• Assisted 24 tenants into employment
Outcomes
• Assisted 22 young NEETS into employment
Went on to win the Wales
youth excellence awards in
Employment and Training 2014
Outcomes
• Helped placed 90 volunteer into volunteering
placements – internally & externally.
• We have also provided tenants with over
£4,000 in bursaries to help towards
employment and skills development since its
launch in 2012.
Outcomes
Kate a beneficiary of Work &
Skills Wise service involved in
active learning, Bursary
scheme and volunteering now
a manager in a local public
house.
Passport to beauty with Charter Housing
Employment & Skills Fair
•337 attended
•78% found the fair useful
•50 job application from were
received by one company
alone..
•CV and application form desk
50 people supported with CV
advice
•Time consuming but!
•We will do it again next year
Funded by NIACE
Issues
Issues
• Duplication lots of it - lack of communication
with agencies or meaningful joined up working
• Being passed from pillar to post – lots of
agencies involved, lack of focus.
• No one agency taking the lead?
• Gap in Mental health employment provision
• Gap in post 45 – 55 employment provision
Issues
• Lack of childcare, free courses, but no transport,
• MHA covering Transport cost/very costly in rural
area
• Lack of confidence/aspiration
• Where there is confidence, its hard to navigate the
leaning landscape
• Need carrots to entice learning, (CTIC-Bursary)
Issues
• Continued ongoing support is key
• Needs led support is very time consuming, but
it works!
• Balancing cost of service with actual outcomes
and impact on arrears
• Training for staff, what route do they take?
• Outcomes, what outcomes should we be
capturing?
Partnerships
Our learning landscapes
Partnership working
strategically
•
•
•
•
•
Chair Employment and skills partnership (BESTP)
Get Monmouthshire online
Post 16 education partnership
Chair Monmouthshire NIACE Learning festival
Participants of Collage Gwent Community
learning partnership
• Financial Inclusion partnership
Partnerships
We can’t do it alone & need to work in
partnership
• Involved in a number of partnerships some
effective some not so effective.
• We have in place a number of individual
partnership arrangements that work for us
e.g.
Job Centre Plus
• JCP paying for courses - limiting pressure on MHA
bursary scheme
• We are being written into Claimant Commitment
• Using MHA addresses and operating a new
flagging system to advise tenants of our support
• Drop in at JCP for our tenants
MACE
• Promote our service to tenants
• Won’t charge our tenants for course, have
informal arrangement in invoice us
• Will hold info sessions for our tenants
• Will hold joint informal meetings to introduce
tenants to a learning environment
Business Benefits
Basic skills Continuum….
Our work shows evidence of cases where
where Promoting Basic Skills can change lives at
an
• Individual level
• lead to organisational change and
• community benefits
Outcomes
Albert
Its never to later to learn
Outcomes
Stuart
Give a young
person a
chance and
see how
much they
can achieve.
What's emerging in work poverty.
How do we deal with that - Creating a
culture of learning?
•Promoting life long learning
•Offering out of hours appointments
Exploiting supply chains
Using social clauses to
fund our work
Exploiting supply chains
• Getting voluntary work experience
placements within our chain
• Asking managers within the chain to be
inspirational speakers in our Job Seeking Skills
programmes
• Providing taster days
Using social clauses to fund work
Seeking contributions to help fund:
• Bursary scheme
• Computers in the community schemes
• Expense for travel for work experience
placements
Action research going forward
Action research going forward
• Action research is an opportunity for us to learn
if we are really having an impact
• Sector is really well placed to do this now
• Interested in independent academics conducting
longitudinal studies on the impact
• We will look at this next year, this is worth
collaborating on as a sector.
Thank you for listening
Just some final
Points to Consider....
Points to consider
How or why
Tenants needs
Tenants Profiling
Gaps in provision in local
area
Role we want to play
Developing your focus
What role we can
play/afford
Capacity & skills
Collaboration? Leader?
Housing consortium?
Exploiting chains/clauses
Training/Support
Business & Social Benefits
Impact /Results /Tools.
Project/Pilots v Services
Roundtable discussions
Trafodaethau bwrdd crwn
#morethanhousing
Discussion Themes
1. How might the skills and learning needs of
tenants and their families be addressed?
2. What are the gaps in provision?
3. What are the challenges in meeting these
needs? What are the solutions?
4. How can we work more closely together as
sectors to fill the gaps to meet needs?
Feedback & Questions
Adborth a Chwestiynau
#morethanhousing
Summary / Next Steps
Crynodeb / Camau Nesaf
#morethanhousing