North Moseley re-employment project - update 8th July 2007

Below is the latest update from the North Moseley Re-employment project. As you will see we are still having problems having communication with Hamza Mosque on the corner of St.Albans Road and Church Road. It is crucial that we have this mosque on board to help with getting the Chachi Patan community on Kingswood Road out of economic poverty. If anyone can assist, it would be gratifully appreciated.

Street Advisors Employment Project Update Report

Enterprising Communities: Kings Heath and Moseley Ward

Background
April and May and June 2007
The end of project year at the end of March allowed the project a period of time to carry out some important review and evaluation. For the period 2nd April to 16th April, the team were mainly office based to allow for evidence files to be verified by management and to develop better ways of working for the next 10 months.

Resources
The Advisor team comprises of four full- time Advisors (36.5 hours) and 4 part time Advisors (16-21 hours). For the period of reporting and until the end of July one full-time team member has reduced his work commitment to 10 hours per week and another to 21 hours. Along with the Easter break and the two bank holidays in May – the capacity of the team has been significantly lower than the period December 06 – March 07 and this has impacted on the levels of activity across the project area.

Our ability to utilise the information we collect to the best possible benefit has however been increased by the addition in March of a bespoke Skills and Employment Database from Hanlon Skills Software, which has been fully operational since the middle of May. This software allows us to capture a detailed picture of clients’ aspirations, experiences and skills as well as our interventions with them. It also allows us to run searches on the vacancies our Employment Link Officers have been capturing from local businesses (over 190 to date).

Activity

Client support
Each Advisor now has a case load of over 100 active clients across the Enterprising Communities area. All of our team members have at least three Moseley and Kings Heath clients although the majority of the 101 clients engaged with are managed by Marianne Salmons, Sahra Mahamud, Roshan Singh and Liaqat Iqbal who have between 17 and 23 clients from this ward. As part of our management systems we have coded clients as Red, Amber or Green as a way to ensure we are signposting and supporting them appropriately.

Green: a client who is ready for employment: They have an up- to-date CV, have discussed job aspirations and are equipped with support to be notified of suitable vacancies to which they can apply themselves or be supported to do so.

Amber: a client who needs some support in up-skilling or who needs their confidence building and support building up a better awareness of the job market they wish to follow.

Red: a client who is some way from being job ready who are in need of basic skills support, most likely ESOL and communication needs are high. A client who is unlikely to have worked in the UK at all or who has been out of the labour market for a considerable time due to ill health or caring responsibilities.

Of the 101 clients for Kings Heath and Moseley the following are currently classified as:

Green:- 23
Amber:-34
Red:- 44

This caseload reflects the general profile across the wider Enterprising Communities SA area. The majority of clients engaged with have been registered over the last four months and due to the length of time it takes to see an individual through their action plan, the outputs un the following tables are only just the beginning of the benefits that we can achieve over the next few months


Outreach work
Since 16th April five members of our team have been carrying leading on outreach work in the Kings Heath and Moseley Ward. By outreach we mean distributing leaflets, door knocking or street walking in busy places. The team have been Roshan Singh, Liaqat Iqbal, Marianne Salmons, Sahra Mahamud and Ragee Mohamoud. They have been out for a total of 82 Advisor hours over the following days:

- 19th and 20th April – Leafleting and door knocking in Mount Close, Sutherland Drive and Sovereign Way
- 27th April and 30th April – Leafleting and door knocking in Louise
Lorne Rd, Grevis Close
- 19th, 20th and 21st May - Out in Moseley Village, St Marys Row, Woodbridge Rd and Wake Green Rd advertising the Armed Services Jobs Fair for the 23rd May.
- 6th June and 7th June - Following up existing clients from April and May outreach also approaching people on the Alcester Rd near the Moseley CDT.


Raising Awareness and Community Links
New marketing materials have been printed and are bow being distributed across the ward. Since their production at the end of May they have been personally distributed by Advisors to:

Moseley Post Office

The Cross Pub

Moseley Road Swimming Baths

Muslim Students House (Moseley Rd)

Bulls Head (St Marys Row)

Options Art Gallery

Chinese Supermarket

Mojams

Select and Save Shop


Community and Inter Agency Links
Moseley Community Development Trust
We have good links with the CDT team and have sent information to the webmaster to post on the information page of the website. We also have leaflets in their Information library on the ground floor community room. We were planning to hold two half day open surgeries in the Community room in mid June but due to team leave and other commitments these will now happen at the beginning of July. We have booked an all day advice surgery at the Development Trust on the 18th July where our M and KH Advisors will see a range of their Green and Amber coded clients.

Also just arranged is a Health and Social Care Careers and Jobs Fair to happen on the 3rd August where we hope to have Building Heath, Adult Education, South Birmingham College and three domilicary and community care agencies in attendance. This will be advertised in and around the Moseley and King Heath ward as soon as the exhibitors are confirmed.



West Midlands Somalian Association – The Green House, Gibb St Digbeth
Marianne and Sahra made links with this organisation on an official basis as part of the Street Advisors team in March when Sahra met one of their volunteer team at an event. Their outreach worker asked Sahra to support some of their female beneficiaries living in a hostel on Wake Green Road in Moseley. Sahra has done this and has helped one lady from there into part time employment as a cleaning operative as well as two referring two ladies in ESOL and vocational training.

Although based in Digbeth we are continuing to work with this organisation as their clients are located in North Moseley, Sparkbrook, Springfield, Nechells and Washwood Heath. We ensure that we make them aware of any activity happening in those wards.

Hamza Mosque and Islamic Centre 88-90 Church Road Moseley
We have been unsuccessful so far in hearing back from the committee at the Hamza Mosque in relation to holding surgeries within the family centre and activities there. Initial contact in early March was hopeful when Raage Mohamed and Liaqat Ali attended and spoke to a senior Iman there. They were given a positive response but were told that confirmation was needed from the Mosque Committee. A call was made a week later after not hearing anything and Liaqat Iqbal and Tabriz Hussain – our Employer Link Officer have been twice over April and May in the day time to try and find a committee member to speak to. They were not successful either time. We still haven’t heard anything from the Mosque or Community. Have you any contact names and numbers we can use please.

Kings Heath Job Centre
As many clients in the ward will be under Kings Heath (Institute Road) Job Centre we have given staff there our details and made links with the Lone Parents Advisor there. We are supporting three existing female clients from the streets at the bottom of Trafalgar Rd who are experiencing a certain level of stress in terms of the new obligations around claiming benefits and looking for work. Marianne and Sahra have made contact with staff at the Job Centre who deal with these clients and have discussed ways in which the Integrated Gateway project can add some additional softer flexible support to the clients to help them deal with the barriers they are experiencing. We have booked time on the 27th July at the SBC College Womens Academy in Balsall Heath to provide some time with these ladies to build their confidence and job search skills.