News from the West Midlands Employer Coalition

Driving change, changing lives.

Welcome
Welcome to the April edition of the e-Newsletter of the West Midlands Employer Coalition, part of Working Ventures UK. WVUK is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee which has evolved from the National Employment Panel and which represents a new centre of excellence in employer engagement.

Care to recruit Ex Offenders?
On 24th March the Coalition, in partnership with Sector Skills Council - Skills For Care and Jobcentre Plus, funded a "seeing is believing event" for around 40 West Midlands Probation Officers, at the Centennial Centre in Birmingham.

The event coincided with the launch of the sector’s nationwide promotion and recruitment campaign designed to dispel some of the myths and negativity around the care sector, and to demonstrate the range of quality careers open to women and men of all ages and life experience – including offenders.

Olivia Redgrave of Skills For Care set out the training and skills pathway available to job seekers while Pauline Jones of JCP highlighted the growth in the sector and the availability of a wide variety of roles - thousands of which are currently unfilled across the UK.

There was practical advice regarding the legal implications of employing people with a criminal record along with common sense "real world" experiences and tips shared by a number of employers.

The event was very well-received by colleagues from the Probation Service and there was plenty of lively, constructive debate and sharing of good practice and ideas. Hopefully this event will strengthen links between Probation staff and their clients and Jobcentre Plus’ services for job seekers.

For more information visit: www.skillsforcare.org.uk

Project Pothole
The Employer Coalition has been working in partnership with Rhino Asset Maintenance Ltd (RAM) and the West Midlands Probation Service to create a highways repair and maintenance employment routeway for Offenders.

RAM have developed and proven a unique asphalt repair and maintenance process that will reduce carbon footprints - on and off highway - by over 80%, uses over 90% of recycled material, and offers a guarantee of quality which reduces re-working and saves money for those responsible for maintaining our roads.

We have recently funded a number of demonstration programmes delivered by offenders as part of their rehabilitation and reparation to the community in a variety of locations across the West Midlands.

As part of the programme, repairs were made to roads and car parks at community and charity premises, including Guide Dogs for the Blind, by groups of ex-offenders determined to turn their lives around.

In addition to the practical work experience they have gained, they have also each achieved a NRSWA Street Works Card and a HAPAS certificate for the safe application of hot and cold lay bitumen.

Early signs are very positive and job offers have been made to a number of "graduates" of the scheme….For further information contact Nichola Balmer: nichola.balmer@bcoalition.org

Fit 4 Work
17 employers of all sizes from the public and private sectors gathered for breakfast at Birmingham Chamber of Commerce recently to give their thoughts and views on the preliminary plans for a new GP "Fit Notes" pilot which may come to Birmingham in the near future.
Following recommendations from Dame Carol Black, the government intends that sick notes will be replaced in England by electronic "Fit Notes", allowing doctors to say what work their patients CAN do as well as what they cannot.

Sick leave costs the economy £100 billion a year, including the loss of about 172 million working days and the government wants to encourage "a fundamental culture change" to help people stay in work.

The new fit note, which will be introduced in 2010, would encourage GPs and employers to work together to help people with a disability or long-term medical condition keep their jobs or return to work.

Dr Richard Mendelsohn and Roger Matthews of the Improving Health, Improving Employment Partnership along with Elaine Russell of bWell Birmingham, described ways in which the new "Fit Notes" might work in our area and encouraged (not that they needed to!) debate and ideas from employers who will be significantly affected by the changes – hopefully positively...

This is the first in a series of breakfast events which will be part of the development of any proposal for pilot status put forward by our area, and if any employer is keen to take part in the next event they should contact Nichola Balmer at: nichola.balmer@bcoalition.org

Diversity Event: The Importance of Corporate Memory
Irwin Mitchell Solicitors of Birmingham kindly hosted an event co-promoted by the Employer Coalition and Birmingham Professional Divercity on 26th March which focussed on the benefits of employing a diverse workforce, and especially on the critical importance of retaining older workers who are often the source of "corporate memory".

Peter Tomlinson and Andy Finnie of the Coming of Age Partnership described the "demographic tsunami" which will shortly engulf us and how in the current economic climate, older workers are being disproportionately selected for redundancy by some short sighted employers – allowing a wealth of corporate knowledge and wisdom to be lost from those businesses.

While this loss may not become immediately apparent in "quiet times" once business picks up it will be sorely felt…as evidenced by case studies from BT and British Nuclear Fuels.
A copy of their presentation is available by calling Kay Stubbs on 0121 480 3788 and you can learn more by visiting: www.coapartnership.org.uk

Call Centre Age Management Project
West Midlands Employer Coalition is working with a number of growing local call centres including that of a leading Local Authority, to help them develop balanced age-positive recruitment policies and practices which better reflect the demography of their client or service user base.

Call Centre work is often thought of as a "young person’s game" but as the population ages, customers will expect service from "people like themselves". Older workers have been proven to bring a range of critical skills to call centre work including empathy, life experience, patience and active listening skills which more than make up for (their lack - in some cases, though not all) of ICT skills.

As ICT skills are a lot easier to learn than life skills, it makes sense for call centre operators to think about how they can enhance their customer service by employing a more balanced and representative age profile, and this project is in the early stages of helping them do just that!

For more information contact Nichola Balmer: nichola.balmer@bcoalition.org