Aim
The LSC Birmingham and Solihull led a Partnership of 36 organisations engaged in 43 projects in accessing the labour market. The projects focused on three main strands:
- basic skills
- employment of disabled people
- issues faces by older workers.
Main Outcomes
Basic skills. Research areas included piloting new and different mechanisms for Basic Skills delivery. A key message from this research is that the delivery must be contextualised appropriate to the individual client needs. A Professional Development Centre has been established for the voluntary sector. The Centre has now become an investing partner and contributed to the match funding. LSC continues to fund the Centre out of SfL core skills funding. The Centre fulfils the following key functions: a curriculum development centre, knowledge management centre, repository of materials and good practice. The centre has become a gravity well for professional interest.
Disability. Impact in three key areas:
1. The issue in Birmingham for employment for people with disabilities is not employer resistance. A key early finding was that all job ready people were in employment – (eg people with mental health issues, those with hearing disabilities). The focus of the projects has become to track and test the key stress points in an individuals route into prosperity to enable a more swift transition into employment. The transition pathways project methodology is now embedded in how the health services work with people with disabilities to support their transition into employment and / or a more inclusive lifestyle. A key outcome is the redesigned funding for disability voluntary sector such that there is more flexible access to mainstream funding. For example accessing Additional Learner Support Funds in LSC mainstream funding is being developed. This will then be rolled out across the whole sector nationally.
2. The Disability Voluntary Sector has been assigned a leadership role to help the FE and Sixth Form sector become DDA ready.
3. Integration of disability support services into employability strategies – eg establishing learning hubs at the heart of all new development work within the LSC region with disability officers in post.
Older workers R&D into what works when providing learning and employment services for older workers. Well researched and rehearsed input into policy development around older workers.
