Agenda item

Presentation by Karen Douglas, Employment and Skills Manager, Nottingham City Council.

Karen Douglas, Employment and Skills Manager at Nottingham City Council presented the report on the Area 6 Jobs Plan, highlighting the following points:

(a)  21 people from Area 6 (East Area) have commenced employment through the Jobs Fund.  From the Step Into Work programme, 66 people have gone into employment;

(b)  unemployment is falling in Nottingham – 13 wards out of 20 saw falls, with the largest fall occurring in Mapperley ward;

(c)  Step Into Work programme in Nottingham has been funded by economic development.  The City Council has a budget of £50,000 that Step Into Work can tap into for individuals.  People can be referred by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Futures, or self-referrals;

(d)  the number of young people going into employment are slightly different than the number in the report.  37 young people engage through City College Nottingham, 15 through Futures, and 12 through Community Partners;

(e)  in terms of the number of young people getting jobs; there are 20 that have achieved this in Dales ward, 19 in Mapperley, and 27 in St Anns.  There are other avenues into employment, with Talent Match being one such example;

(f)  as well as the organisations listed, Edale Children’s Centre in Dales ward, the advice centre in St Ann’s, Isaac’s Café in Mapperley and Nottingham City Homes (NCH) are being worked with so that they can link together;

(g)  there are other activities planned, such as employer’s breakfasts, and a jobs fair at Greenway Community Centre.  There is also a joint Area 6 newsletter planned;

(h)  funding finishes for the Area based grant in March 2016;

(i)  for Quarter 2 (July and August 2015), there have been 38 clients that have progressed into employment through the Area Based Grant;

Following questions from attendees, the following information was discussed:

(j)  the Employment and Skills have targets for Area 6.  The target for City College Nottingham is to get 71 people into work during the first year of the contract (starting 1December 2014).  So far, 35 are into work;

(k)  to date, 66 young people have now started work under the Step Into Work programme.

  Currently, under the Step Into Work programme, Area 6 is performing joint worst out of the 8 area committees in Nottingham.  However, when this work was started, there were twice as many unemployed in the 18-24 age category;

(l)  no data has been collected on whether young people are being offered the living wage; the minimum wage must be offered at the very least;

(m)  £3 million from the DWP covers the whole of Nottingham.  Over three years, the target is to get 40% of unemployed young people into work, with 70% to receive some form of training.  At the moment, the figure getting into work is around 36%;

(n)  individuals that have been unemployed for 13 weeks are the target of all this work.  There is a window between 13-36 weeks where help can be provided;

(o)  across the City this programme is underperforming, but this is being managed by the Renewal Trust and City College Nottingham.  The focus is very much on Step Into Work for young people aged 18-24;

(p)  performance is being reviewed – if performance of a partner is bad, there will be a notice to improve served.  There is a commitment to help partners;

(q)  City College Nottingham look for employers who will offer a full time wage, and don’t tend to use agencies.  The work has to be over 20 hours a week, although apprenticeships have to be over 30 hours a week;

(r)  organisations will work with the individual after they have gone into work.  After 26 weeks links with employment are kept on a monthly basis, or in some cases, weekly;

RESOLVED to:

(1)  note the report;

(2)  draw up a list of questions for Nottingham City Council’s employment and skills programme;

(3)  ask Employment and Skills to return to the February meeting with new information, along with City College Nottingham, and DWP;