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Local Practice
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LOCAL PRACTICE: Sunderland Vocational Partnerships: An Example of Local Practice Sunderland Vocational Partnerships programme is a six-month pilot funded through £20,000 of Neighbourhood Funding. As an expansion to an existing service the additional funding was used to set up a prevocational training course and a series of work placements for individuals who are currently accessing mental health services in the City of Sunderland. Work placements are provided with added value through college courses combining personal and professional development within one programme and through a number of partners. The programme includes health and safety in the workplace, specific pre-vocational qualifications and work placements. Learners complete qualifications, placements, training and further education and are likely to go on to access mainstream education or employment. 2. Introduction A 2 hour focussed group discussion was facilitated with representation from all the key partners involved including the funding body, the local college, service users and the training team. Discussion was prompted around a number of themes which broadly fell into the following categories: Accessing Funding Course Design and Content Engaging Partners Recruiting Learners Service User Experiences Barriers to Success and Lessons Learned Evaluation and Outcomes Mainstreaming 3. Discussion 3.1 Accessing Funding The programme identified a funding opportunity which would enable them to test, and if successful integrate, an additional level of service into an existing programme. What the relatively small amount of additional funding allowed, was the time and flexibility to introduce and test out prevocational training to be mainstreamed as part of the existing service but which, without the injection of funding for initiation, would have been difficult to achieve. Aware of the limits of short term small funding awards the team were able to use it to their advantage within an existing service. The commitment and attitudes of staff and learners on the course appeared to contribute significantly to the success of the programme. Specific attributes included the ability to provide encouragement and resilience throughout, which required belief in the programme itself and each of the individual learners participating. The task of recruiting the right people to run and participate in the project provided an extremely positive and supportive environment which was essential as the team embarked on the new and unknown. Additionally learners also helped each other out, working the pace of the slowest in the group who met as “strangers” and have developed into “a family”. The experiences of the learners are explored in more detail in 3.5. Planning The initial planning and design of the programme was carried out in great detail. The project was developed in response to an identified need within the community and the means of meeting that need was carefully planned at stage one with a variety of contingency plans carefully and systematically developed. This process ensured that from the outset the roles, responsibilities, aims and boundaries of the project were clear to all involved. Trouble shooting Once placements and employment have been secured support continues to be available from within the team to address any issues which arise which may compromise the success of the placement/job. These have included issues around colleague relationships, tax credits and addressing personal issues which could have impacted on the individuals' ability to continue with the placement/job. There is currently limited capacity to deal with these issues but this has not been a problem to date. As the programme continues and more learners are in permanent jobs capacity for this level of support may need to be revised. 3.3 Engaging Partners Partnership Development The partnerships developed within this programme have ensured that individuals receive joined up support at every point as they move through the services. for example from a hospital based service into college. At no point were individuals “between” services with no organisation taking responsibility for the provision of support at that point in time. Partnership working with JobCentre Plus and improved staff knowledge of the benefits system allayed fears of learners about receipt of benefits during the programme and any subsequent transition from benefits to work. Benefit claims and financial worries were a significant concern for learners entering the programme. Staff knowledge of the benefits system meant that it could be used to the advantage of the learners, keeping their benefit payments for the duration of the programme and that ability to access linking rules for learners who went on the further employment and education safe in the knowledge that, if necessary, they could return to receiving benefits. High level of commitment from all partners with key people on hand for learners at set times meant that individuals always knew where to go to get advice and support. Procedures are in place to offer out of hours support for learners, however this is on an informal basis at present and will require revision as the number of learners increases. The Vocational service developed a clear referral procedure from within the specialist mental health trust, in which education and employment are a core part of CPA. This enabled the vocational services and prevocational training programmes to be embedded as part of CPA. Learners were able to access work placements through partnerships with local employers. Employer engagement was a key part of the programme to ensure that learners were able to access relevant placements. The use of a selling and marketing approach was adopted in engaging this specific group and was carried out by an individual with experience in the field. Use of sickness absence figures as a tool to talk to employers proved particularly successful. Examples of employers engaged include the motor trade and sales and Sunderland Council. Cold calling, personal contact and persistence was also used to engage employers. Employer benefits include that the learners (with the full knowledge of Job Centre Plus) stay on their benefits for the duration of the course and therefore no payment from employers is required for work placements. Taking on a prevocational qualification directly related to the work placement means that learners have something tangible to offer the employer from the outset. Placements gave learners a reason to “get out of bed and put a suit on”. Employer relations have also led to mainstreaming elements of the project described in 3.8. 3.4 Recruiting Learners Learners are recruited from within the specialist mental health trust. An essential criteria for the identification of learners is that they are individuals who are at the point where they are ready to move on to training and employment; only those who are deemed ready to move into potential mainstream education and employment will be offered a place on the programme. Others will be signposted to more appropriate support. The “job ready” nature of the learners contributed to an extremely successful completion and attendance rate as outlined below in 3.7. 3.5 Service User Experiences “In Four months it has turned peoples life’s around” The course has provided the opportunity to initiate a change in the lives of the learners. Confidence levels have increased and provided the opportunity to address a range of personal issues. Placements “Placements take the pressure off when considering going into full time work.” Carrying out the placement provided a safe environment where practical issues could be dealt with and the learner could familiarise themselves with the workplace without the burden of being a full time employee at that point. Peer Support Peer support has been a large part of the programme, with learners experiencing different challenges and being able to support each other throughout, this has been of significant benefit both to those receiving and providing the support. Health and Safety The Health and Safety component of the course was seen by some learners “common sense” and “boring”. Whilst this is a mandatory part of the “Skills for Life” programme future provision of these elements will be planned in a more hands on way with relevance to particular vocational interests of the learners. A Flexible Approach The programme was learner led and adopted a flexible approach which adapted to meet the needs of the learners. For example, expanding the course, reducing the taught hours and adding flexibilities to allow work based learning to contribute to accreditation, not having fixed breaks and tight timescales to allow learners to work to the pace of the slowest in the group. This was seen as necessarily supportive by the learners but plans are in place to provide differing levels of courses so that learners are able to work to their own pace rather than to the slowest in a very mixed group. Learners found the structured but flexible format of the learning more helpful than drop in style learning and the mix of classroom and work-based learning was also seen as beneficial. Transition from Specialist Services There was fear amongst some learners regarding the removal of familiar specialist support and services. Learners found the transition from day hospital ‘illness services’ to something, from which they were expected to move on, a frightening prospect. Day centres were associated as places you went when you were unwell where as this programme was seen as part of moving on and was “more real”. It has also provided the opportunity to widen social circles and to build new relationships and friendships. The confidence, self advocacy skills and assertiveness techniques that have been learnt through the programme have been easier to put into practice and feel the benefit from, as the course itself was a means to an end and learners felt that they had made huge improvement in these areas. Learners explained that courses solely aimed at e.g. advocacy in a context isolated from “reality”, such as within hospital settings, were more difficult to gain long-term benefit from. The physical separation of the learning environment from the hospital alone enabled learners to see the programme in a totally different light and as part of a new stage in their life, independent from the support they require when they are ill. The move from “sheltered” specialist learning provision in to the mainstream college environment was also a significant and frightening step for a number of learners. The opportunity to visit the college site in advance and become familiar with it when the students were on holiday provided reassurance and built confidence. The transition to the college was restricted by the length of the course (10 weeks in total), which was dictated by project funding. As the project is mainstreamed there are plans to extend the length of the course to allow for a smoother transition into the mainstream-learning environment. 3.6 Barriers to success and Lessons Learned Employer Engagement One of the most significant remaining barriers is lack of employer interest at steering group level. Despite work placements being successfully obtained through employer engagement (as described in 3.3) the numbers of employers participating is still small and this group remains underrepresented at the steering group level. In order to improve proactive engagement in the project and the agenda in general terms, mental health awareness training is planned for local employers. This training will also be provided to college staff. Funding There are currently problems accessing funding for non-accredited learning due to a national focus on 16-19 skills based training. This shift has meant programmes aimed at pleasure and leisure, including broad personal development courses, are not a funding priority at present. Skills for work and life OCN course may be a way forward for accessing future funding for this kind of programme. 3.7 Evaluation and outcomes Of the 12 learners in the group there were no unauthorised absences for the duration of the course and only one learner left the course. There were no relapses of conditions for the duration of the course which was made up of individuals with severe and enduring mental health problems. If in future any problems did occur, direct referral to the local crisis team would be possible. The programme will be evaluated on completion and will address both individual and vocational outcomes. 3.8 Mainstreaming A number of work streams are active to ensure that the work achieved through the programme is mainstreamed and that the partnerships made are maintained and developed. One particularly successful element of the mainstreaming process has been a commitment from the college to integrate pre-vocational qualifications into the college prospectus so that such courses are both accessible in the mainstream and for the foreseeable future. Additionally, there are plans to accredit the learning thorough the open college network, which would be openly accessible to learners from any background. The process has been of great benefit to the college who now feel better equipped to meet the needs of a wider range of learners and who have integrated pre-vocational training as part of their core courses. The provision of professional support from the programme from professionals who have expertise in working within individuals with mental health problems meant that the college could get on with providing the learning (their core business) in the knowledge that the additional support required by some learners was on hand. This helped to reduce some of the concerns of the college, allowing them to develop as a more inclusive learning environment. An additional partnership that has been of specific value in assisting with the continuation of the programmes is Sunderland Council. Through close working with corporate HR department within the council the programme has secured 12 work placements across the council for future learners. In addition to this any individual taking up one of these placements will have access to the internal vacancy process for the duration of the placement, increasing the likelihood and ease of transition into paid employment. A further twelve learners are to begin the course in January 2007, which has now been integrated as part of the core service delivered by the partnership. The £20,000 cash injection provided by the funding allowed an existing service to expand and test this new element of their service which has now been integrated as part of their core service provision. 4. Conclusion Service user experiences rather than specific measurable outcomes are often the most valuable yet difficult to account for in statistical terms. There exist a number of components of this programme which are based on generalisable principles applicable to a range of programmes working in this area. Outlined above in the context of this specific programme, these elements can be summarised as follows: Careful planning, a clear aim and an identified need Identifying the right partners for successful streamlined support and delivery and securing real commitment and support Recruitment of the right staff Identifying the participants most likely to benefit Being flexible and user led Planning for post funding mainstreaming of programmes from day one Evaluation and measuring all the outcomes Encouraging true independence Influencing “mainstream” services Using and creating the right environment Understanding and exploiting funding opportunities Faith, confidence and enthusiasm The programme “made us think we are worth something, its been good to enjoy to go back to work and school”- Learner North Tyneside are currently considering mirroring the programme and the programme has been nominated for awards with HSJ and Community Care. Many thanks to George Spoors, Neil Kelly, Sunderland Vocational Partnerships Team, its learners |