Ambitious About Employment

I’m delighted to announce that 4front Partners has commenced an exciting and groundbreaking Employer Engagement project with City Of York Council. The Ambitious About Employment Inclusive Recruitment pilot project will benefit York residents who are unemployed as well as around 100 businesses in their City.

So this announcement is a call to action if you are in York! 

We are now actively looking for collaborators in York who wish to join us in the mission of the programme. We want to engage with two distinct groups of organisations. 

Firstly, if you are a business operating in York and want to know more about how Inclusive Recruitment can benefit your business – get in touch today! 

Secondly, if you are an organisation supporting unemployed people in York and would like to join a movement for change you need to get in touch. Together we will aim to increase the opportunities for York residents, enhance business engagement with your service, and develop a supportive York ecosystem of employment and skills providers.

Participating businesses will receive;

·      expert inclusive recruitment advice,

·      training, and

·      support in finding and onboarding talent into their organisations

Funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, Ambitious About Employment’s aim is to create inclusive opportunities for York residents whilst providing the businesses with tools and templates to enable them to recruit from a wider, more diverse talent pool.

We are ambitious about this project and will measure success by:

·      Increased employment opportunities for young people in York

·      Enhanced relationships between York businesses and employment and skills providers

·      Providing information, guidance and resources for York based businesses to help them attract hidden talent through inclusive recruitment practices

·      Creation of an evidenced based pilot of how inclusive recruitment is good for business, good for communities and good for York’s economy.

This programme complements the activity and approach of City of York Council and the Combined Authority Growth Hub perfectly. In my view, this truly is the future of how business support services can be developed alongside employability and skills programmes seeking to create opportunities for those who may be overlooked in the job market.

Ambitious About Employment has huge potential to be replicated by both local and devolved authorities as we seek to evolve how employability services are designed and delivered across the UK. Policy makers, commissioners and businesses can consider how a project like this will support more of their community who are seeking employment, whilst simultaneously helping employers who are searching for more diverse talent.

So, in conclusion, my calls to action are:

✔️ If you are a service provider in York helping people find employment, we want to hear from you.

✔️    Are you a business operating in York who wants to learn more about inclusive recruitment practices? If so, then get in touch for more information. info@4frontpartners.co.uk

✔️    And if you are a local or devolved authority that would like to develop your own similar programme, then please do reach out to me!

ERSA Conference and Awards 2024

It is just one week until the annual Employment Related Services Association (ERSA) Conference and Awards 2024.  In the context of today's Get Britain Working white paper, it promises to be an intriguing conference! The new, devolved, Connect to Work programmes are also taking shape across the UK, further highlighting the flux in the sector. 

I am an optimist. I see change as an opportunity for improvement, but I admit I am still weighing up the implications of the emerging, new marketplace. I'm particularly interested in the employer stakeholders in employability. Historically vital but rarely utilised as an active agent in employability programme design, I'm working on what employer engagement will look like in the Connect to Work programme. It certainly requires a different resource and approach! I'd really like to hear from my network on how they see hiring businesses being involved in Connect to Work, let's discuss!

But back to the conference! Held on Wednesday 4th December the ERSA conference and awards will bring together sector professionals, commissioners and policy leads, and will focus on a number of themes:

·      the case for national and local provision

·      engaging the economically inactive 

·      health solutions for work

·      providing a guarantee to young people, and, 

·      partnering with employers for good work

I am delighted that my organisation, 4front Partners, is sponsoring the Employer Partnership Award. The award recognises businesses who have made specific efforts to create opportunities for people participating in employment programmes. Hiring businesses are often the forgotten stakeholder in our sector, yet a strong partnership between provider and an employer can be a game changer in more people securing employment. My work with many providers and businesses has shown me amazing examples of this – and I know we can do more of this across the employment and skills sectors.

The award finalists have recently been released and in the 4front Partners sponsored category there are some worthy projects; 

✅ One Parent Families Scotland, nominated by Public Health Scotland

✅ OCS, nominated by Reed in Partnership

✅ AAA Caring Caretaker, nominated by Waythrough

✅ The Unlocking Refugee Talent initiative (Breaking Barriers, Barclays, LinkedIn and Microsoft)

✅ Tesco, nominated by Maximus

✅ Sefton@Work, ‘Employer Partner Agreement’, nominated by G4S

Everyone at 4front Partners wishes all finalists the very best of luck. Regardless of the result on the night, the work you are doing to foster relationships to create job opportunities is an example of what is possible.

Whilst at the conference I am looking forward to meeting up with old friends and new contacts. If you’re new to this event come and find me and I’ll show you around! And if you’re interested in how we can improve employer engagement, train your team, or develop a new programme get in touch so we can book in a coffee and chat.

Birmingham City Council’s S.114 declaration

I’ve been passionately supporting Birmingham’s Voluntary and Community Sector for several years now. This week we heard that Birmingham City Council is in a dire financial situation. This has implications in very many areas. One of these is the essential community services delivered by hundreds of Third Sector organisations across the city. Many will be directly funded by BCC, many more indirectly.

At a time that is already challenging for the third sector, many will now be poised for extra pressure if budgets (that they rely on to operate) are cut or reduced. It’s a concern.

However, I was buoyed by the wise and measured words of Brian Carr, Chief Executive of BVSC (see link in this post). I echo his thoughts on how organisations who receive funding from BCC should seek conversations with their commissioners. More importantly, now is a time to review your current contracts and pipeline to plan the sustainability and growth of your organisation. And it’s always good to explore new income streams, partners and diversification. But don’t be alone; reach out to your partners, the experts in the City, and Charitable Foundations to ensure you have all bases covered.

I appreciate all too well how important a strategic business development strategy is and help many organisations think differently to achieve sustainability and longevity. A key part of that is knowing and appreciating your market and support network. There are many amazing stakeholders in the City, striving to support the important work that voluntary sector organisations deliver.

I am sure that the likes of BVSC, WMCA, Andy Street, BCC, West Midlands Funders Network, Birmingham Community Matters and I-SE (and others!) will be collaborating heavily now and into the coming months on the implications for services in Birmingham. By the way, if you are not in contact with the likes of BVSC, i-se and Birmingham Community Matters, I’d urge you to explore how you can work with them for the benefit of your organisation and beneficiaries.

Tony Carr

4FrontPartners