The new Sefton@work unit in Southport is now open and helping people to develop their careers.
The venue is located inside Cambridge Walk, next to Southport Town Hall, and has been receiving its first clients.
A formal opening is being prepared for Spring 2025.
The Town Deal Building Better Customer Experience (BBCE) Project continues to deliver and is meeting its expected milestones.
The first phase of this was conducted by Southport College and the training materials developed by the College have been rolled out to more than 30 employers in the town, mostly involved in the visitor economy sector.
The later phases have been operated by Adult Community Learning, which has incorporated customer care training into a variety of offers to learners and through the Council’s workforce development unit.
The BBCE training modules are now hosted through the Council’s “Me Learning “portal. Sefton@work has continued to identify opportunities for our residents arising from regeneration projects, planning applications and other commercial developments.
One example of this is the work currently underway with Vinci to offer engagement sessions to Sefton@work clients seeking opportunities related to the Bootle Strand project.
Sessions will take place in March and vacancies will be handled by Sefton@work.
A Sefton Council report has revealed that Sefton@work will continue this year after learning that the second year of UKSPF funding will be made available to continue service for economically inactive residents.
While there has been a reduction in funding (circa 15% less) than in 2024/5 the salaries for all staff undertaking the project will be covered, thereby avoiding triggering any threat to jobs of trained advisers.
Unfortunately, the reduction in funding means that the beneficiary budgets for items such as counselling, debt advice, arts therapy and other health and wellbeing activities will no longer be provided and will be discontinued.
One scheme that will be offered is a new devolved scheme for economically inactive people called Connect to Work and a Youth Guarantee trailblazer scheme for 18-21 year olds.
The LCR Combined Authority has submitted an outline plan to the government for the Youth Guarantee Trailblazer, meeting its first milestone in the delivery of this scheme.
Sefton@work continue to work with employers and contractors to identify opportunities for recruitment and training for local residents arising from regeneration projects and inward investment.
Projects worked on in this period include The Strand transformation and various planning consents.
This work includes promotion of the Caring Business Charter. The LCR Growth Directors group will oversee a piece of work to be undertaken over the next few months about the rollout of the DWP Connect to Work scheme and the future shape of employment support across LCR. It is hoped this will place the role of the LAs at the centre of these plans, as delivery organisations and strategic partners and providers of complementary support services.
UKSPF solely targets economically inactive people, but in Sefton officers have chosen to continue with their “Open Door policy” for any workless Sefton resident seeking support regardless of benefit status.
They will attempt to continue this approach into 25/26 in the face of reduced funding. Sefton@work is working with the other LAs to prepare for the delivery of Connect to Work. The focus of this scheme is improving access to work for people who are inactive and in poor health, using experience from previous programmes commissioned by health services such as Individual Placement Support. This follows the “Place then Train” model established across health services and requires compliance with a Fidelity model. Staff development and training is currently being commissioned in order to meet these requirements.
A Childcare Specialist Skills routeway course is also being planned for March 2025, in partnership with Sefton Early Years to raise the profile of careers in the childcare sector and to engage participants who may perceive barriers into accessing careers in the industry. This will provide a route map into further training or employment, and real industry experience working within Sefton Family wellbeing centres.
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