CIH Good Practice Guide on Worklessness - can you help?
06/07/08
The Chartered Institute of Housing is currently developing a Good Practice Guide on Worklessness. As part of its development, CIH is currently looking for examples of housing providers carrying out effective projects to tackle worklessness in the South East. Can you help?
CIH would really like to hear from your organisation if you feel you are doing good work in this particular field. It's an excellent way to promote the work that your organisation is doing in the South East.
Aims of the guide
This guide and toolkit, looking at how housing providers can tackle worklessness, aims to:
- raise awareness among housing organisations, local authorities and their partners and potential partners about the increasing range of ways housing can play a part in tackling worklessness.
- encourage and inspire housing organisations to begin or develop an approach to tackling worklessness, making a strong case for the potential benefits to their organisation, residents and the wider communities they serve. Many will understand the business case but face real challenges.
- provide guidance and checklists on how to plan, implement and evaluate effective initiatives and how to adopt a strategic approach to this work.
- draw on good practice demonstrated by organisations already succeeding in this field and help to replicate this.
- signpost readers to further resources and information.
Areas with practical examples
There are a number of areas where the Chartered Institute of Housing is looking for practical examples.
CIH would be very interested to hear from you if your organisation is involved in any of the following:
- Taking an active enabling role in tackling worklessness particularly amongst social housing residents. In particular, we need information on strategic and housing partnerships established to tackle worklessness or which have tackling worklessness as one of the key objectives of the partnership. This may relate to the housing providers role within a local strategic partnership, local area agreement, multi-area agreement or maybe a specific partnership set up between housing providers to tackle worklessness.
- Local authorities that are offering recognised Enhanced Housing Options services.
- Local housing authorities and ALMOs or RSLs that can offer examples of joined-up or integrated housing and employment advice services for existing residents. Skilling up housing officers, joint offices with Job Centre Plus, and tackling housing mobility together with employment issues would be helpful examples.
- Local authorities that have received allocations under the Working Neighbourhoods Fund setting out proposed partnerships and initiatives with other housing providers and/or other partners such as Job Centre Plus and private sector bodies. In addition, the DWP Commissioning Strategy 2008 offers opportunities for providers in all sectors (private, third and public) to be a part of the market to deliver the New Deal/ Flexible New Deal in partnership and we seek examples of local housing authorities ALMOs, RSLs and others that are working with or plan to work with Job Centre Plus and others to deliver such contracts.
- Local housing authorities and ALMOs or RSLs that have established social enterprises as a means of tackling worklessness. For example, the South East might deliver specific skills or training services in its own right or be a social enterprise that offers employment opportunities for residents as a result of its general trading activities.
- Local housing providers working with local employers to tackle worklessness. This might involve a more strategic business enterprise partnership or job brokering schemes as well as working with local businesses to develop skills, obtain work placements or provide mentors to workless people in relation to work or starting their own business.
- Integrating tackling worklessness with schemes for physical regeneration including opportunities for unemployed people to gain skills and work experience in the construction industry through:
- New affordable homes development
- Routine maintenance
- Decent Homes Programme
- Housing market renewal
- Non-construction procurement
- Illustrations of how housing providers can work in partnership with others specifically to address the needs of diverse groups. In particular, we are looking for projects aimed specifically at BME communities given that people from these communities may be over-represented in workless households.
If you would like to discuss it further please contact Debbie Larner, Head of Professional Practice at the Chartered Institute of Housing, on 024 7685 1787.
Tell us about your work
If you can help, can you please send the information in the following format by email to worklessness@cih.org.
- Please provide a short summary of your example or project including aims and objectives noting how diversity is addressed if possible. (200 words)
- What are the partnership arrangements and how do they work? (150 words)
- What are the staffing and management arrangements? ie how is the project delivered? Who by? (300 words)
- What are the funding arrangements? (200 words)
- How is the project monitored and evaluated? (200 words)
- Please provide details of outcomes and achievements. If the project is relatively new, what are the proposed outcomes and outputs? (200 words)
- What were the key challenges you faced? What lessons did you learn that you would like to pass on to others? (200 words)