Back to work

‘Sometimes you have people who listen to you and believe in what you’re doing, other times you don’t,’ says Jamie Don, a former self-employed graphic designer who lost his livelihood following the credit crunch.

“I’ve enjoyed every minute, working with the same team, and I get on well with the blokes.”

Martin Heal, 51

‘I’m a bit niche and don’t fall easily into the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) boxes. The extra assistance I needed to build on my strengths wasn’t something that was allowed to happen until I came here.’

‘Here’ is Bath-based housing association Curo’s headquarters. It’s a well-appointed period conversion just off the Lower Bristol Road that’s an apt symbol of the slick operations social housing providers have become.

Inside Housing is here to find out about a new initiative from Curo that’s good for both its business and philanthropic interests. Mr Don, a 37-year-old Curo tenant who’s been unemployed for several years, is on a work placement with a difference. He’s spent eight of the past 12 weeks rotating around some of the landlord’s departments, predominantly the PR and marketing team.

Placements and apprenticeships have become commonplace for landlords looking to emphasise the ‘social’ part of their corporate job descriptions. But Curo’s initiative is unusual in that it has involved forming a partnership with the local Jobcentre Plus, as well as Bath College and the National Careers Service. For around a quarter of the 30 participants, the scheme, which launched in November last year, has led directly to paid work.

For Curo, the project is already bearing fruit; both for its unemployed residents – and for the landlord’s relationship with the DWP.

Curo’s placement package includes three main elements. After an initial interview to assess participants’ skills and aspirations, they undertake about two to three months’ work experience with the 12,000-home association or another local employer. Careers advice and support is slotted in along the way, and there’s also the opportunity to complete up to three complementary NVQ modules.

“The market is dominated by temporary and zero-hours contracts, and [because universal credit claimants must wait five weeks after signing on for their first payment] fluctuation in income is hard to manage.”

Sarah Seeger, head of customer accounts, Curo

Participants can be referred directly by the local Jobcentre Plus, from within Curo or by the college. Placements and related activities take up to four days a week.

Crucially, taking part counts towards the DWP-mandated claimant commitment, which stipulates that recipients of Jobseekers’ Allowance and universal credit must spend up to 35 hours weekly undertaking ‘positive job-seeking activity’. With a day set aside for job searching and any extras agreed with the Jobcentre Plus, there’s minimal chance of anyone getting sanctioned.

Part of strategy

Helping tenants into work has, according to Sarah Seeger, Curo’s head of customer accounts, always been part of the organisation’s ‘social and economic regeneration strategy’. But with Bath being a universal credit pilot area, she says, the time was right for Curo to ‘up our game’ in terms of ‘customer offer’.

With the Conservatives’ welfare reform agenda set to continue its expansion in the wake of the general election, housing associations must ensure their tenants can pay the rent. It barely needs pointing out that people in irregular employment – or facing benefit sanctions – are far less likely to be able to do so.

Around a third of the 90 Curo tenants on universal credit have fallen into rent arrears. With numbers of new claimants rising, the priority must be enabling people to get a ‘stable and secure’ income, says Ms Seeger.

‘The majority are single job seekers – they tend to be in and out of work,’ she adds. ‘The market is dominated by temporary and zero-hours contracts, and [because universal credit claimants must wait five weeks after signing on for their first payment] fluctuation in income is hard to manage.’

Personal programmes

“If people get sanctioned, the last thing on their minds will be looking for work – they’ll be worrying about feeding themselves.”

Lisa Wroe, employment, training and engagement co-ordinator, Curo

Curo’s first step was to create a post – employment, training and engagement co-ordinator – focused on improving opportunities for tenants and their families.

Lisa Wroe landed the role in July 2014. Her CV includes working on life skills with young people in care, facilitating apprenticeships, and delivering another work placement project for Chippenham-based, 10,000-home housing association Green Square Group.

Ms Wroe, who says job seekers need time and a ‘flexible, individual programme tailored to their needs’, is reluctant to play the blame game. She says she’s mostly encountered ‘good-hearted’ people working on the DWP frontline and for its Work Programme providers. But she’s critical of excessively target-driven approaches to getting people back into work.

‘We’ve got people in hard life situations and everyone copes differently,’ Ms Wroe continues. ‘Some can crack on and deal with it; others suffer from depression and find things very difficult.

‘If you just say, you’ve got to do X amount of hours [job searching], that’s likely to push them away. If people get sanctioned, the last thing on their minds will be looking for work – they’ll be worrying about feeding themselves.’

Ms Wroe’s first challenge was putting together a programme to offer to Curo residents, alongside the more informal employment and training advice she provides.

‘Lisa approached us with an outline plan,’ explains Barney Willis, head of department for services to business at Bath College. ‘We’d recently started a government initiative – “units for the unemployed” – around helping people gain skills and qualifications to make them more employable.

‘We’d got the National Careers Service contract. We were able to come up with [a model] where we could help Curo residents get work experience, some accreditation and, hopefully, help them move into sustained employment.’

While housing associations can deliver a fairly wide range of internal work experience, it was important to get other employers on board so as to offer useful placements to as many people as possible. Partners have been added from the landlord’s supply chain and ‘external’ ones are being sought, though so far only the local Holiday Inn has signed up.

We take a trip to Midsomer Norton, a town 10 miles outside Bath, and meet one of those partners, Steve Ayliss, a manager at Curo’s grounds maintenance contractor The Landscape Group.

Twelve weeks’ ‘try before you buy’ labour is an appealing option for employers, Mr Ayliss acknowledges. But, he counters, he’ll offer a job, as and when one becomes available, to anyone who does well on placement. So far he’s taken on two people on seasonal contracts.

Increasing employability

With a structure in place, Ms Wroe initially spent one day a week in the job centre – to be on hand for Curo residents, build relationships with staff and ensure there was awareness of her new scheme. Previously, admits Ms Seeger, the landlord and the DWP ‘didn’t really know each other’.

“Getting someone on a useful placement is the first step towards the workplace – a situation they may not have been in for quite a while.”

Barney Willis, head of department for services to business, Bath College

Inside Housing was originally scheduled to visit Bath Jobcentre Plus to find out how advisors feel the partnership is going – but DWP pulled the plug. A manager involved in the project, who we chat to on the phone, is unable to comment.

‘Our network of over 700 job centres works closely with local organisations on the ground such as Curo, tailoring support to help as many local people into work as possible,’ a DWP spokesperson subsequently says.

To that end, Bath Jobcentre Plus has designated one of its advisors a ‘Curo champion’, with responsibility for ensuring claimants living in the landlord’s homes are signposted in Ms Wroe’s direction.

Chris Auckland, a careers advisor who delivers training to Curo tenants on the work placement scheme, praises the job centre staff as being ‘noticeably more engaged than in some others I’ve worked in’.

Whether that’s the case or not, Ms Wroe says engaging with the centre has meant Curo residents are treated more flexibly than they might otherwise have been.

In some cases – where an interview is pending, for example – she’s been able to get placements extended, saving people from returning to morale-sapping job search activities in the meantime. Work-related expenses have also been fast-tracked, meaning claimants don’t end up out of pocket.

How easy would it be for other social landlords to replicate Curo’s project? Ms Wroe says she’s optimistic, from chatting to colleagues elsewhere, that DWP staff are being enabled to take ‘a more coaching approach, letting claimants lead rather than treating them like children’.

Resource wise, the only cost to Curo has been Ms Wroe’s salary. However, the high demand for her services – she’s supported 89 residents in some capacity in her 11 months at Curo – means the organisation is looking to take someone else on to assist her, in order to prevent the occasional backlogs in referrals that have occurred.

Other landlords, Bath College’s Mr Willis argues, should take note. ‘Wherever you go, this scheme would make you more employable,’ he says. ‘Getting someone on a useful placement is the first step towards the workplace – a situation they may not have been in for quite a while. It brings them onto a level where they can start competing against others.’

As this article is being finalised, Mr Don successfully interviews for a two-year ‘advanced apprentice’ position with Curo (meaning that he must be paid a proper salary; Ms Wroe won’t disclose what this is but states that it is ‘well above’ the minimum wage). ‘When you’re out of work for so long, you forget how to interact with people and feel external pressures when you’re asked to do tasks,’ Mr Don says. ‘These placements help dispel those fears and you’re willing to stand on your own two feet – that’s what I’ve gained from this.’