WW4RI Project Updates-EELGA SMP

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The project team produced a final report which encompasses the whole duration of the project and conveys lessons learned and good practices.WW4RI Final Report

Businesses across the east of England have been working alongside the region’s Strategic Migration Partnership (SMP) and their locally based refugee employment advisers to help refugees fleeing their home countries get back in work.

Among those is the East of England Coop, which has been hosting work experience sessions in their stores to give refugees a taste of working life in the UK.

A group of six Afghan refugees were identified by Essex Integration and recently joined the Stanway store in Colchester for work experience, while Ukrainian refugees sourced by the Norfolk employment adviser are joining staff at the company’s Norwich station store.

Ashley Symonds, Resourcing Advisor at East of England Coop said: “It’s about breaking down some of these barriers and to give them confidence to apply for work.

“Our team show them how retail works here in the UK and the dynamics of the store.

“The group of refugees have all had jobs in their home countries and are really capable of doing this work - it’s about giving them that sense of belonging and confidence.

“A few of them have already applied for roles at the company.”

Ukrainian refugee Kateryna, who is now looking for work as an assistant accountant, was among those with a work experience place at the East of England Co-op’s Norwich station store.

She said the experience had improved her communication and team working skills.

She said: “Employees with pleasure shared their background and they always came to help me, they did not get tired of answering my questions and to explain operations with the cash register.

“I felt easy, confident and comfortable during my work,” she added.

Louise Gooch, from the SMP’s Wellbeing & Work for Refugee Integration Project, said: “It is about giving people the chance to visualise working in that environment.

“Refugees come with their own work experiences but often don’t know how to enter the job market in the UK.

“They may have lots of skills and experience, but it can be similar to someone coming out of school and looking for their first job – they may not know how to go about it.

“Our partnerships with businesses like the East of England Co-op are valuable for giving refugees the confidence to see that they have talent that local businesses need.”

For more on the SMP and its work helping refugees into work, visit smp.eelga.gov.uk/ww4ri-employing-refugees

Strategic Migration Partnership shines a light on project’s successes

The region’s Strategic Migration Partnership (SMP) has supported more than 170 refugees this year - including many who have set up their own businesses in the region.

The SMP, alongside organisations such as MENTA, provide a range of support, including English language courses, training, business coaching and help accessing counselling.

Among those that have been helped is Ukrainian refugee Yuriy Manzhos, who was living in Bila Tserva, south of Kyiv, when Russia invaded in February last year.

Yuriy and his family moved to Poland for a short time before coming to the UK as part of the ‘Homes for Ukraine’ Programme.

He said: “We were downright lucky when we moved to the UK especially with a powerful Ukrainian community that has formed in Felixstowe, where we moved.

“In addition, many British people immediately began to help us.

“I believe that the adaptation process was quite successful. And we really like it here.”

While working as a business coach in Ukraine, Yuriy began developing educational board games for children, designed to improve their maths, language and geography skills.

Thanks to support from the SMP and MENTA, Yuriy is planning to launch his first board game in the next two months.

Since it was launched in 2020, the SMP’s Wellbeing and Work for Refugee Integration project (WW4RI) has supported more than 1,500 refugees.

Working closely with the statutory, volunteer, private and community sectors, the project provides a range of support for refugees wanting to enter the world of work, as well assisting businesses to be ‘refugee ready’.

Mother-of-three Boshra Hasan was studying in the UK when war broke out in her home country of Syria.

“I came here in 2010 to study and to do a masters and a PhD,” she said.

“Then the war happened and I couldn’t go back.”

As she spoke good English, Boshra started working for an organisation supporting refugees resettle.

Looking to further her career as an interpreter, Boshra, who now lives in Colchester, contacted MENTA and the SMP for advice and assistance.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do them without the support and funding from MENTA,” she said.

“I would recommend to any other refugees to look for support – the help is there.

“The problem is many refugees don’t know about these services – it’s so important to spread the word as much as we can.

“I know a lot of refugees who have lots of skills but just need a little help, a little push in the right direction.

“There is help out there like MENTA and the Strategic Migration Partnership they can use.

“With that help they can really flourish.”

Ferzana Kusair, High Skills Employment Advisor at the SMP said: “Refugees have a huge positive impact on the region’s economy.

“There is a wealth of talent and experience among refugees and we want to help match employers with the perfect employee.

“Many refugees, like Yuriy and Boshra, want to build businesses of their own but just need some advice and support to make it happen.”

For more on the SMP and its work helping refugees into work, visit https://smp.eelga.gov.uk

 

 

The region’s Strategic Migration Partnership (SMP) urges businesses to sign up for its free ‘Let’s Employ Refugees’ online event on Tuesday May 16.

The SMP, hosted by the East of England Local Government Association, is working with more than 1,000 refugees eager to find their first job in the UK. The SMP  helps match employers with their perfect candidates.

The organisation seeks to reduce barriers for refugees working in the east, giving them the best possible chance to  integrate and become part of their local communities.

Ferzana Kusair, High Skills Employment Advisor at the SMP, said “There are still a lot of barriers refugees face when trying to find employment.

“ Many businesses are unaware of the wealth of talent and experience many of our refugees have. They are eager to work and would love to be given a chance to shine.

“This event looks to match the East of England’s refugee talent with the region’s job vacancies, while helping more businesses become inclusive employers.”

To make it as accessible as possible, the event will be hosted on Microsoft Teams.

Joining Ferzana Kusair on the day will be Farsh Raoufi MBE, an award-winning diversity and inclusion champion, who will be telling his extraordinary story since fleeing Iran in 1979.

Following civil unrest and the installing of a new dictator, Farsh’s father smuggled him out of the country to the UK when he was just 13-years-old.

Mr Raoufi worked his way up through Cambridge Fire and Rescue Service, becoming Station Commander.

After 31 years in the fire service, he retired to help educate others on the challenges faced by refugees like him.

Ferzana Kusair said: “Mr Raoufi has such an inspiring story and shows not only the barriers many refugees face when looking for work, but also how much they can achieve if these barriers are set aside.

“We look forward to sharing his story and hope to inspire employers to give more refugees a chance at a new life in the UK”

For more information on the event and to book your free place, see https://smp.eelga.gov.uk/events/lets-employ-refugees/

We have had an outstanding Quarter 12 (January - March 2023). Read more: WW4RI extended and exceeding targets - EELGA SMP

 

You can also read more about Quarter 12 in the quarterly progress report here: WW4RI Project Updates-EELGA SMP - EELGA SMP

  • We are delighted that the WW4RI project has been extended into 2023 and look forward to helping more refugees with wellbeing and work.
  • The Bell Foundation has welcomed the WW4RI evaluation report published here: Employment, Language and Wellbeing Support Key To Refugee Integration - EELGA SMP and will continue to fund embedding the lessons learned from the evaluation into local refugees organisations in 2023. This work will be undertaken by a full-time training and compliance manager who will join the team as soon as possible. They will then ensure that all participating organisations are both informed about best practice and compliant with all funder requirements.
  •  WW4RI have employed a new full time administrator Katie Chiu, and we are excited for the value she will add to the team.

Read about The Bell Foundation's four new ESOL partnerships, including the WW4RI project, and the impact of ESOL on refugees' education and employment in their new blog post:

The Bell Foundation: News & Blog

A project for strengthening skills to improve mental wellbeing resilience for Syrian refugees has been given a regional award by the NHS Parliamentary group and put forward for the national Parliamentary Awards.  The project run by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CCG now forms part of the wellbeing strand of our region-wide WW4RI project, reaching into more refugee communities.

For further details on the award in the local and national contexts, see:

Peterborough MPs nominate NHS teams for Parliamentary Awards - PeterboroughMatters.co.uk

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CCG’s Wellbeing Pilot for Syrian Refugees

Project Launch

On Wednesday 21 October we hosted an online project launch event attended by over 100 people region wide. The event gave an opportunity to find out about the services we are providing, how to access these services and make referrals into the scheme, and to learn more generally about the project’s scope and vision.  Speakers participated from the employment advice and therapeutic services, ESOL and employer liaison provision, and the specialist skills providers Concept Training and MENTA, with a keynote speaker Farsh Raoufi MBE providing an inspirational testament of a refugee’s journey to UK integration.

Presenters slides are available to view below:

Louise Gooch, Project Lead (EELGA SMP)

Abdul Atteh, Employment Adviser (Essex Integration)

Sasha Nemeckova, Therapeutic Services Operations Manager (Refugee Council)

Bahareh Saremi, Therapeutic Services Regional Project Manager (Refugee Council)

Gill Searl, ESOL Coordinator (EELGA SMP)

Chris Pound, Programme Director/Devt Manager (Concept Training)

Rachel Heathcock, Employer Liaison Officer (EELGA SMP)

The project team produced a final report which encompasses the whole duration of the project and conveys lessons learned and good practices.WW4RI Final Report

Businesses across the east of England have been working alongside the region’s Strategic Migration Partnership (SMP) and their locally based refugee employment advisers to help refugees fleeing their home countries get back in work.

Among those is the East of England Coop, which has been hosting work experience sessions in their stores to give refugees a taste of working life in the UK.

A group of six Afghan refugees were identified by Essex Integration and recently joined the Stanway store in Colchester for work experience, while Ukrainian refugees sourced by the Norfolk employment adviser are joining staff at the company’s Norwich station store.

Ashley Symonds, Resourcing Advisor at East of England Coop said: “It’s about breaking down some of these barriers and to give them confidence to apply for work.

“Our team show them how retail works here in the UK and the dynamics of the store.

“The group of refugees have all had jobs in their home countries and are really capable of doing this work - it’s about giving them that sense of belonging and confidence.

“A few of them have already applied for roles at the company.”

Ukrainian refugee Kateryna, who is now looking for work as an assistant accountant, was among those with a work experience place at the East of England Co-op’s Norwich station store.

She said the experience had improved her communication and team working skills.

She said: “Employees with pleasure shared their background and they always came to help me, they did not get tired of answering my questions and to explain operations with the cash register.

“I felt easy, confident and comfortable during my work,” she added.

Louise Gooch, from the SMP’s Wellbeing & Work for Refugee Integration Project, said: “It is about giving people the chance to visualise working in that environment.

“Refugees come with their own work experiences but often don’t know how to enter the job market in the UK.

“They may have lots of skills and experience, but it can be similar to someone coming out of school and looking for their first job – they may not know how to go about it.

“Our partnerships with businesses like the East of England Co-op are valuable for giving refugees the confidence to see that they have talent that local businesses need.”

For more on the SMP and its work helping refugees into work, visit smp.eelga.gov.uk/ww4ri-employing-refugees

Strategic Migration Partnership shines a light on project’s successes

The region’s Strategic Migration Partnership (SMP) has supported more than 170 refugees this year - including many who have set up their own businesses in the region.

The SMP, alongside organisations such as MENTA, provide a range of support, including English language courses, training, business coaching and help accessing counselling.

Among those that have been helped is Ukrainian refugee Yuriy Manzhos, who was living in Bila Tserva, south of Kyiv, when Russia invaded in February last year.

Yuriy and his family moved to Poland for a short time before coming to the UK as part of the ‘Homes for Ukraine’ Programme.

He said: “We were downright lucky when we moved to the UK especially with a powerful Ukrainian community that has formed in Felixstowe, where we moved.

“In addition, many British people immediately began to help us.

“I believe that the adaptation process was quite successful. And we really like it here.”

While working as a business coach in Ukraine, Yuriy began developing educational board games for children, designed to improve their maths, language and geography skills.

Thanks to support from the SMP and MENTA, Yuriy is planning to launch his first board game in the next two months.

Since it was launched in 2020, the SMP’s Wellbeing and Work for Refugee Integration project (WW4RI) has supported more than 1,500 refugees.

Working closely with the statutory, volunteer, private and community sectors, the project provides a range of support for refugees wanting to enter the world of work, as well assisting businesses to be ‘refugee ready’.

Mother-of-three Boshra Hasan was studying in the UK when war broke out in her home country of Syria.

“I came here in 2010 to study and to do a masters and a PhD,” she said.

“Then the war happened and I couldn’t go back.”

As she spoke good English, Boshra started working for an organisation supporting refugees resettle.

Looking to further her career as an interpreter, Boshra, who now lives in Colchester, contacted MENTA and the SMP for advice and assistance.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do them without the support and funding from MENTA,” she said.

“I would recommend to any other refugees to look for support – the help is there.

“The problem is many refugees don’t know about these services – it’s so important to spread the word as much as we can.

“I know a lot of refugees who have lots of skills but just need a little help, a little push in the right direction.

“There is help out there like MENTA and the Strategic Migration Partnership they can use.

“With that help they can really flourish.”

Ferzana Kusair, High Skills Employment Advisor at the SMP said: “Refugees have a huge positive impact on the region’s economy.

“There is a wealth of talent and experience among refugees and we want to help match employers with the perfect employee.

“Many refugees, like Yuriy and Boshra, want to build businesses of their own but just need some advice and support to make it happen.”

For more on the SMP and its work helping refugees into work, visit https://smp.eelga.gov.uk

 

 

The region’s Strategic Migration Partnership (SMP) urges businesses to sign up for its free ‘Let’s Employ Refugees’ online event on Tuesday May 16.

The SMP, hosted by the East of England Local Government Association, is working with more than 1,000 refugees eager to find their first job in the UK. The SMP  helps match employers with their perfect candidates.

The organisation seeks to reduce barriers for refugees working in the east, giving them the best possible chance to  integrate and become part of their local communities.

Ferzana Kusair, High Skills Employment Advisor at the SMP, said “There are still a lot of barriers refugees face when trying to find employment.

“ Many businesses are unaware of the wealth of talent and experience many of our refugees have. They are eager to work and would love to be given a chance to shine.

“This event looks to match the East of England’s refugee talent with the region’s job vacancies, while helping more businesses become inclusive employers.”

To make it as accessible as possible, the event will be hosted on Microsoft Teams.

Joining Ferzana Kusair on the day will be Farsh Raoufi MBE, an award-winning diversity and inclusion champion, who will be telling his extraordinary story since fleeing Iran in 1979.

Following civil unrest and the installing of a new dictator, Farsh’s father smuggled him out of the country to the UK when he was just 13-years-old.

Mr Raoufi worked his way up through Cambridge Fire and Rescue Service, becoming Station Commander.

After 31 years in the fire service, he retired to help educate others on the challenges faced by refugees like him.

Ferzana Kusair said: “Mr Raoufi has such an inspiring story and shows not only the barriers many refugees face when looking for work, but also how much they can achieve if these barriers are set aside.

“We look forward to sharing his story and hope to inspire employers to give more refugees a chance at a new life in the UK”

For more information on the event and to book your free place, see https://smp.eelga.gov.uk/events/lets-employ-refugees/

We have had an outstanding Quarter 12 (January - March 2023). Read more: WW4RI extended and exceeding targets - EELGA SMP

 

You can also read more about Quarter 12 in the quarterly progress report here: WW4RI Project Updates-EELGA SMP - EELGA SMP

  • We are delighted that the WW4RI project has been extended into 2023 and look forward to helping more refugees with wellbeing and work.

  • The Bell Foundation has welcomed the WW4RI evaluation report published here: Employment, Language and Wellbeing Support Key To Refugee Integration - EELGA SMP and will continue to fund embedding the lessons learned from the evaluation into local refugees organisations in 2023. This work will be undertaken by a full-time training and compliance manager who will join the team as soon as possible. They will then ensure that all participating organisations are both informed about best practice and compliant with all funder requirements.

  •  WW4RI have employed a new full time administrator Katie Chiu, and we are excited for the value she will add to the team.

Read about The Bell Foundation's four new ESOL partnerships, including the WW4RI project, and the impact of ESOL on refugees' education and employment in their new blog post:

The Bell Foundation: News & Blog

A project for strengthening skills to improve mental wellbeing resilience for Syrian refugees has been given a regional award by the NHS Parliamentary group and put forward for the national Parliamentary Awards.  The project run by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CCG now forms part of the wellbeing strand of our region-wide WW4RI project, reaching into more refugee communities.

For further details on the award in the local and national contexts, see:

Peterborough MPs nominate NHS teams for Parliamentary Awards - PeterboroughMatters.co.uk

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CCG’s Wellbeing Pilot for Syrian Refugees

Project Launch

On Wednesday 21 October we hosted an online project launch event attended by over 100 people region wide. The event gave an opportunity to find out about the services we are providing, how to access these services and make referrals into the scheme, and to learn more generally about the project’s scope and vision.  Speakers participated from the employment advice and therapeutic services, ESOL and employer liaison provision, and the specialist skills providers Concept Training and MENTA, with a keynote speaker Farsh Raoufi MBE providing an inspirational testament of a refugee’s journey to UK integration.

Presenters slides are available to view below:

Louise Gooch, Project Lead (EELGA SMP)

Abdul Atteh, Employment Adviser (Essex Integration)

Sasha Nemeckova, Therapeutic Services Operations Manager (Refugee Council)

Bahareh Saremi, Therapeutic Services Regional Project Manager (Refugee Council)

Gill Searl, ESOL Coordinator (EELGA SMP)

Chris Pound, Programme Director/Devt Manager (Concept Training)

Rachel Heathcock, Employer Liaison Officer (EELGA SMP)

Quarterly Progress Reports

Overview

Across all streams, this quarter we reached a total of 101 new beneficiaries. This means that we have reached a total of 1795 people since the project started, 53% above the target.

 

As the project draws to a close, legacy materials will be made available online, such as access to a webinar and self-study materials for our most popular ESOL offer, ESOL for driving theory: Driving theory - EELGA SMP. Central Project staff have been briefing stakeholders about the changes in provision in the refugee employability sector from October / November 2023: Comparison of EON, Step Ukraine and REP PowerPoint Presentation (eelga.gov.uk)

Our PR contractor Prominent has put out three stories this quarter, featuring some of the activities that have been most impactful: Charity’s mock interviews help Peterborough refugees access the job market - EELGA SMP.

 

Employment Support

During this quarter, 22 beneficiaries entered employment. The employers where our clients are working include Royal Mail, Primark, local schools and a social care charity. Those in self-employment are a plumber and three people who, following the interpreting course with CAD, are now undertaking interpreting assignments for Contact HITS - Herts Interpreting & Translation Service. Two people successfully completed DLUHC funded CELTA training organised by the SMP and are now looking for work as ESOL teachers.

Other training and support included helping a social worker and a psychologist with the process of registering in the UK, 25 people attending a mock interview session from Milestone to give them real world experience of a UK interview held by professionals, general employability workshops and an employment advice workshop from a retired GP for refugee doctors on the OET course from SLC.  

Certificate recognition is a major challenge faced by refugees. Their university or professional certificates are not recognised in the UK and require processing via ENIC – the UK National Information Centre for the recognition and evaluation of international qualifications. This comes at a cost, which the project is covering, and 20 clients have benefitted from this service in this quarter.

However, much of the activity in the latter part of this final quarter has involved reaching all the employment beneficiaries to make sure that they have CVs, Indeed accounts and have been through ‘better off’ calculations so they know how their welfare payments would change when taking on paid work. Our advisers have also introduced those who qualify to either the new Refugee Employability Programme providers or STEP Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the High Skills Employment Advisor is making links across the NHS and has found clinical attachments for two refugee doctors in Essex.  

Entrepreneurialism

MENTA and the Project Team held three seed-funding meetings to approve business plans from amongst the project’s beneficiaries. The beneficiaries (one in Suffolk, one in Essex and one in Norfolk) were partially successful in their bids, but with limited time to enable their plans to be fully realised under the umbrella of the project, we only awarded for the activities that can come to life before the end of the year. Their business plans are as T-shirt designer (mother and son), taxi driver and architectural drawing provider. Workshops provided by MENTA this quarter included business planning and marketing and social media.

Wellbeing support

In this quarter 53 beneficiaries benefitted from wellbeing support. Clients valued the service being available over the long college summer holidays when other provision is more limited. Other interesting relationships include liaising with the Sue Ryder Charity Shop in Bedford which is offering bike repairs to young people using their bikes as the main mode of transportation. They are teaching them how to maintain and fix them, should they break. In Suffolk, the therapist connected with the Youth coordinator at Suffolk Refugee Support. Clients who are struggling with issues such as loneliness, idleness, isolation have been referred to the service. The activities offered have been highly engaging and work cohesively with improving the clients’ overall level of wellbeing.

Skills and Technical Language Training

Training remains a fundamental element of this project to provide beneficiaries the necessary language, employability and specialist skills to enter work. A total of 17 courses ran during the quarter, reaching a total of 118 beneficiaries. 103 learners took more than one course with the following breakdown:

Course

Learners

Confident Women

4

Driving Theory

8

Understanding the English education system

4

Finance and budgeting

10

How to use the NHS

33

IELTS International English Language Testing System

10

Introduction to interpreting

9

IT Skills

17

Job search skills

11

Business Planning

8

Social Media and marketing

4

Total ESOL learners

118

 

During this quarter, 5 people on the driving theory course booked or sat and passed their tests. In addition, 9 people are accessing the OET (Occupational English Test) necessary for those wishing to enter a medical career which began last quarter. A midwife, pharmacist, five nurses and two doctors are making good progress to reach the standards required by their professional bodies in the UK.

Summary

We have delivered a well-being or employment service, or both, to a total of 1795 people since we began the project, exceeding the target we set out to have achieved by the end of December 2023 of 1164. A final project report will be the next output from the project team and will form the basis of learning for other agencies wanting to deliver a similar service in the coming years.

***

Please direct any questions about this report to: Louise Gooch at [email protected] or 07834 129582

In order to deliver better employment outcomes for refugees, the Wellbeing and Work for Refugee Integration project (WW4RI) continued its holistic work across the East of England. Whilst the target number of beneficiaries had already been met, the project team and partners did not rest on their laurels and continued to ensure continued wraparound services for new and existing participants across the project’s three strands: well-being support; skills & technical language training; and targeted employment support.

Our links with major employers is a strength of the project, with the exemplary support of our Employment Advisors who are employed in each county. In Essex, four beneficiaries were supported with applications and interviews and have secured work this quarter at Stansted Airport; Tesco; Rainbow service; and as a self-employed translator/interpreter; and one client took up a work placement with the East of England Co-Op. IKEA is a key employment partner, working closely in Cambridgeshire and Essex through its employability programme which involves an employment course covering CV writing, preparing for interviews, followed by an interview, and, if they pass the interview, they will be offered 8 weeks paid employment, with possibility of a temporary or permanent employment after the 8 weeks placement. Tesco is also a strong partner in Peterborough, offering to review various CVs. In Hertfordshire, clients have been enrolled onto sector-specific training for forklift training, warehouse operations as well as hair and beauty. In Suffolk, one beneficiary has been promoted to a senior labourer position, now manages a team of labourers and he is being considered for a site-manager role. This was facilitated by courses provided by the project. His livelihood has greatly improved as a result, allowing him to rent a house for his family, which he is currently refurbishing. Also in Suffolk, an individual secured a short-term contract as an accountant, which has boosted her confidence; one beneficiary is working to establish her permanent makeup and massage studio; one has been appointed as the manager of a Lithuanian shop; one secured a job at M&S in Ipswich; another is a teaching assistant at Northgate School; one started working as a flight attendant for WizzAir. The East of England Co-op remains a key partner in some of our counties. In Norfolk and Essex beneficiaries have been encouraged to apply for a role that has opened up at that store following placements. These clients were supported by the employment advisors who helped set up online job application profiles. Two more beneficiaries have requested work placements with East of England Co-op and the project anticipates positive outcomes.

The project continued to provide self-employment support via partners MENTA. In total ten new referrals were made to this service. One recent example is in Suffolk: the beneficiary has established a crochet business through which she sells her products, including bracelets. 61 cases continue to be supported. MENTA is developing video case studies to highlight the success of this initiative.

Certificate recognition is a major challenge faced by refugees. Their university or professional certificates may not be recognised in the UK and require processing via ENIC – the UK National Information Centre for the recognition and evaluation of international qualifications and skills. This comes at a cost, which the project is able to cover for beneficiaries and more than 10 clients have benefitted from this service in this quarter.

Our wellbeing therapists continued to provide services both online and in person. This included in schools, colleges, ESOL classes and hotels and reached both adults and children. Approaches ranged from one-to-one therapy to psychosocial activities including park trips, dance and movement and sewing groups. These non-verbal activities have proved to be especially successful, as clients experienced significant improvements without explicitly discussing their trauma.

The project’s skills and training courses continue to be popular. An overwhelming number of clients continue to enrol of the driving theory course. Others also enrolled on the How to Use the NHS course, finding the role-playing exercises about how to call their GP with particular ailments particularly useful. Meanwhile others found the Understanding the UK Education System Course useful as they had children in school. The project continued to fund widely recognised language exams, specifically the OET (Occupational English Test) necessary for those wishing to enter a medical career; and IELTS (International English Language Testing System) which is necessary for entrance to UK universities and some workplaces. During the quarter nine students were recommended for examination, demonstrating that they could pass the test with a sufficient score (6.5 -7.0) to enter university. A further 20 students are under training and also showing similar aptitude. Our driving theory course remains particularly popular: its flexible curriculum allows it to be tailored to learners’ needs, and one course was altered to focus more on maintenance and the language required at a garage; whilst another was delivered to a majority of Ukrainian learners who had licences already. We are capitalising on the popularity of this course by developing two webinars and an online learning portal, through further funding from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Care (ADASS).

In Refugee Week (19-25 June) we held the successful Let’s Employ Refugees Seminar & Recruitment Fair in Norwich with the organisational support of Norwich County Council People from Abroad Team. The seminar provided regional employers with information about the benefits of employing refugees and how to bridge challenges, while the afternoon session was attended by refugees and international workers and provided an opportunity for direct engagement. Employers present included social care organisations, poultry processing factories, delivery and courier companies and education. The project hopes to maintain links with employer to understand success rates.

Looking at the long-term, the SMP made an application for the Home Office Refugee Employability Programme and were unfortunately unsuccessful. However, we have established close ties with the successful provider in order to transfer our expertise and ensure continuity of service for clients. We are reflecting on how we can best secure the learning from the project and ensure that legacy materials are available for the future. One part of our legacy work is to ensure that we garner sufficient media and communications activity for the project. We onboarded Prominent PR to provide these services. With thanks to their proactive work, we have managed to get attention on local newspapers, websites, and radio. All our press releases are also available on our website.

Please direct any questions about this report to: Louise Gooch at [email protected] or 07834 129582.

Overall project aim: To promote effective integration by actions that support access to the labour market for 1164 refugees in the East of England to deliver better employment outcomes for refugees in the East of England.

Overview

Across all streams, this quarter reached a total of 178 new beneficiaries which meets the target. Partners have reported significantly more streamlined referral mechanisms since the establishment of quarterly, in-person, “area” meetings, where representatives from each stream meet to share updates, understand each other’s sectors and solve issues regarding communications or individual cases.

A total of 166 beneficiaries received Skills and Technical Language Training and Employment Support.

Considering the ongoing popularity of the driving theory courses, the project team are exploring funding opportunities which will enable development of enhanced interactive materials online which will enable greater reach and ensure sustainable results beyond the end of the project. 

In February, the team recruited a Training and Compliance Manager who will ensure that successes and good practices are shared with all partners to ensure lessons learnt continue to be applied beyond the project, and into future funding applications. The team also recruited a full-time Project Administrator to prepare the analysis of partners’ quarterly returns.

In March the Project Team awarded a contract to an external PR firm who, using funding from this project, will develop internal and external communications content in partnership with the Project Team and partners. The Team considers this an important activity to promote the many diverse partners’ good work, and amplify and share good practices online, on social, and traditional, media. The team hope that dedicated press releases and social media on employing refugees will attract new employers in future.

Employment Support

During this quarter, 38 beneficiaries entered employment. The sectors that beneficiaries are employed by include administrators, factory workers, delivery drivers, health and social care and working in supermarkets. As the quarter closed, employment advisors continued to support beneficiaries with CV writing, job applications, work placements, volunteering and sector specific training. Training included forklift driving, warehouse distribution, electrics and plumbing and hairdressing. The more tailored, person-centred approach, that was adopted in this quarter is proving very successful and the project team hope to update on more beneficiaries being successfully hired in the next quarter.

The Project Team is strengthening its ties with the East of England Co-op as they are present across Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex and show the requisite interest and capacity to support refugees into employment. One client obtained a Security Industry Authority (SIA) badge with the support of project staff who helped them through the criminal record check processes via their Embassy. Meanwhile, the High Skills Employment Advisor is making links with Stansted Airport to secure work opportunities.

Entrepreneurialism

A total of seven beneficiaries were referred to the services of MENTA Business Support. MENTA and the Project Team held two seed-funding meetings to approve business plans from amongst the project’s beneficiaries. Both beneficiaries (one in Suffolk and one in Norfolk) were successful in their bids, and MENTA will continue to provide them business support in parallel to the project. Workshops provided by MENTA included media and marketing and UK Tax.

Wellbeing support

In this quarter 30 beneficiaries benefitted from wellbeing support.

Skills and Technical Language Training

Training remains a fundamental element of this project to provide beneficiaries the necessary language, employability and specialist skills to enter work. A total of 23 courses ran during the quarter, reaching a total of 166 beneficiaries. Some of the learners took multiple courses with the following breakdown:

Course

Learners

   

Confident Women

31

Driving Theory

84

Understanding the English education system

21

Finance and budgeting

29

How to use the NHS

26

IELTS

21

Introduction to interpreting

14

Mindfulness (Refugee Council)

2

Total ESOL learners

228

Driving theory remains the most popular course across the region.

Summary

We have delivered a well-being or employment service, or both, to a total of 1540 people since we began the project, exceeding the target we set out to have achieved by the end of December 2022. The chart below shows the beneficiaries that joined the project this quarter:

Please direct any questions about this report to: Louise Gooch at [email protected] or 07834 129582

Project Report Quarter 11: 1 October 2022 - 31 December 2022

In November we heard that we had been successful in obtaining an extension to the project that will allow us to work through until the end of September 2023, in order to support another 500 unique beneficiaries with employment, well-being or ESOL services. We have taken this as an opportunity to offer some ESOL for integration classes to some lower level learners, as well as continuing to provide ESOL for work courses.

Delivery Objective 1: Pathways to employment

Our network of employment advisers has now registered 958 people to the service, undertaking skills assessments and directing people to the best project pathway for their needs.

Delivery Objective 2: Access to the wellbeing service

284 people have benefited from well-being therapies delivered by the Refugee Council and Suffolk Health Outreach since the project started in April 2020.

Refugee Council therapists are visiting the bridging hotels in the region where Afghans are living temporarily and are networking with councils in Hertfordshire, Southend and Essex Integration to inform them about their wellbeing services and provide group activities to the families as they wait to move.  

Delivery Objective 3: Registration for an ESOL and Skills course and/or refugee entrepreneurship programme

A total of 621 beneficiaries have so far benefitted from one or more of the project’s ESOL and Skills courses.

80 clients are actively working up plans for their businesses with MENTA’s refugee entrepreneur programme. We have held two seed funding panels and are helping to fund refugee entrepreneurs develop their business, one as an interpreter and the second as an LGV driver. 22 refugee entrepreneurs have now started to trade.

On top of the regular IELTS course, in Q11 we offered an IELTS foundation course for those who need IELTS but aren’t working at a high enough level to embark on the full programme, but with the extra support that this programme offers, they can move to the IELTS course in 2023.

5 beneficiaries attended the CSCS preparation course, and three of them passed at first attempt, with one securing work the day after he passed the test.

Lastly, our High Skills Employment Adviser delivered ‘Let’s Employ Refugees’ for employers in Peterborough who are looking to recruit. This has led to vacancies through Sue Ryder and Huntingdonshire Council being made available to our beneficiaries. The project extension will enable us to offer more of these courses across the region.

Delivery Objective 4:  Work placement on completion of a sector-specific Skills Course

No courses that lead into employment sectors finished during Q11 so no beneficiaries were offered work placements.

We have agreed with our funders to refocus our efforts on working with employers through our High Skills Employment Adviser to secure paid opportunities for refugees looking for work, plus for the local employment advisers to encourage beneficiaries to tap into more informal voluntary roles in their neighbourhood.

Delivery Objective 5:  74 new Afghan arrivals with low or no English to access mobile ESOL, ESOL café in Bedford or short ESOL course in the summer of 2022 (how to use the NHS) to help with integration into UK life.

A total of 80 eligible learners have accessed this provision. The short ESOL course on using the NHS will be offered to low level learners over 2023, and mobile ESOL will continue where it has been most effective – in Suffolk and Essex.

Successes, achievements and milestones delivered during this reporting period

We have delivered a well-being or employment service, or both, to a total of 1322 people since we began the project, exceeding the target we set out to have achieved by the end of December 2022.

We have reflected on what strands have been most popular and in demand and have used the project extension to focus on them for 2023.

Please direct any questions about this report to: Louise Gooch at [email protected] or 07834 129582

Delivery Objective 1: Pathways to employment

Our network of employment advisers has now registered 848 people to the service, undertaking skills assessments and directing people to the best project pathway for their needs.

Delivery Objective 2: Access to the wellbeing service

249 people have benefited from well-being therapies delivered by the Refugee Council and Suffolk Health Outreach since the project started in April 2020.

Refugee Council therapists are visiting the bridging hotels in the region where Afghans are living temporarily and are networking with councils in Hertfordshire, Southend and Essex Integration to inform them about their wellbeing services and provide group activities to the families as they wait to move.  

The make-up of beneficiaries accessing one of these two core services is shown below:

Afghans - 28%

Syrians - 27%

Ukrainians 12%

Hong Kong BNOs - 6%

Delivery Objective 3: Registration for an ESOL and Skills course and/or refugee entrepreneurship programme

A total of 552 beneficiaries have so far benefitted from one or more of the project’s ESOL and Skills courses.

56 clients are actively working up plans for their businesses with MENTA’s refugee entrepreneur programme. We have held two seed funding panels and are helping to fund refugee entrepreneurs develop their business, one as an electrician and the other in the beauty industry.

We revisited the Driving Theory and Job Search courses as one or both will be of particular benefit to Afghans, Hong Kongers and Ukrainians to help improve their opportunities to find work. 62 people started these courses at the end of the quarter.

We ran an expanded online ESOL summer school delivered by SLC and CAD which reached 118 learners, 43 of whom were new beneficiaries.

One IELTS course for continued for high skilled refugees started this quarter, for those who need this qualification to resume their professions. On top of the regular IELTS course, in Q11 we will offer an IELTS foundation course for those who need IELTS but aren’t working at a high enough level to embark on the full programme, but with the extra support that this programme offers, they can move to the IELTS course later in the year.

Lastly, our High Skills Employment Adviser started a Job Search course for graduate refugees looking for bespoke advice and guidance to enter the job market in a way that will enable them to grow into a professional role. 7 participants attended regularly.

 

 

Delivery Objective 4:  Work placement on completion of a sector-specific Skills Course

No courses that lead into employment sectors finished during Q10 so no beneficiaries were offered work placements.

We no longer employ an Employment Liaison Officer but have instead developed the role of High Skills Employment Adviser, to build capacity for the local employment advisers and to develop resources for graduate beneficiaries. As well as the course delivered to beneficiaries by this High Skills Employment Adviser, she has delivered a training workshop for HR leads in our local councils to encourage them to recruit refugees. We are working with the NHS International Recruitment Team and Anglia Ruskin University to progress a programme to allow medics who qualified overseas to practice in the UK.    

Successes, achievements and milestones delivered during this reporting period

We have delivered a well-being or employment service, or both, to a total of 1200 people since we began the project, exceeding the target we set out to have achieved by the end of December 2022.

The additional funding we were awarded from AMIF to support Afghan refugees living in the region last quarter has enabled us to work with Kings Arms Project in Bedfordshire, Essex Integration in Suffolk and Essex and Community Action Dacorum in Hertfordshire. The programme has started slowly with recruitment of ESOL teachers a challenge, but we are reaching 35 households who can’t access ‘hub’ ESOL locations because of transport challenges, health issues or caring responsibilities.

We completed 3 ESOL health literacy course for a total of 30 learners in Peterborough, Colchester and Norwich which ran over 5 weeks to maintain and improve ESOL levels when colleges close for the summer.  

Please direct any questions about this report to: Louise Gooch at [email protected] or 07834 129582

Delivery Objective 1: Pathways to employment

Our network of employment advisers has now registered 679 people to the service, undertaking skills assessments and directing people to the best project pathway for their needs. Our services are now reaching 234 Afghans and 42 Hong Kong BN(O)s, plus 36 new Ukrainian arrivals.

Delivery Objective 2: Access to the wellbeing service

214 people have benefited from well-being therapies delivered by the Refugee Council and Suffolk Health Outreach since the project started in April 2020.

Refugee Council therapists are visiting the bridging hotels in the region where Afghans are living temporarily. They are connecting with councils in Hertfordshire, Southend and Essex Integration to inform them about their wellbeing services and provide group activities to the families as they wait to move.  

Delivery Objective 3: Registration for an ESOL and Skills course and/or refugee entrepreneurship programme

A total of 369 beneficiaries have so far benefitted from one or more of the project’s ESOL and Skills courses.

60 clients are actively working up plans for their businesses with MENTA’s refugee entrepreneur programme. We have held three seed funding panels and are helping to fund refugee entrepreneurs in catering, beauty and translation.

We revisited the Driving Theory and Job Search courses as one or both will be of particular benefit to Afghans, Hong Kongers and Ukrainians to help improve their opportunities to find work.

We set up one IELTS course for high skilled refugees who need this qualification to resume their professions. On top of the regular IELTS course, we have also developed an IELTS foundation course for those who need IELTS but aren’t working at a high enough level to embark on the full programme, but with the extra support that this programme offers, they can move to the IELTS course later in the year.

Delivery Objective 4:  Work placement on completion of a sector-specific Skills Course

No courses that lead into employment sectors finished during Q9 so the 7 people taking up placements this quarter are beneficiaries who have finished earlier courses. Our Employer Liaison Officer moved to a new role in a partner organisation making it harder to make progress this quarter.

However, we have recruited a High Skills Employment Adviser for the region who is working on 22 referrals from the local employment advisers for those beneficiaries who need bespoke support to help them find a way back into the work they are qualified to do. We are working with the NHS International Recruitment Team in the region to progress towards suitable employment for the ones who have medical careers.    

Successes, achievements and milestones delivered during this reporting period

We have delivered a well-being or employment service, or both, to a total of 993 people since we began the project, exceeding the target we set out to have achieved by the end of December 2022.

The additional funding we were awarded from AMIF to support Afghan refugees living in the region last quarter has enabled us to work with Kings Arms Project in Bedfordshire, Essex Integration in Suffolk and Essex and Community Action Dacorum in Hertfordshire. The programme has started slowly with recruitment of ESOL teachers a challenge, but we are reaching 17 households who can’t access ‘hub’ ESOL locations because of transport challenges, health issues or caring responsibilities.

We have started a ESOL health literacy course for 11 learners in Peterborough which will be running over 5 weeks to maintain and improve ESOL levels when colleges close for the summer.  This programme will help new Afghan arrivals to use the NHS. Colchester and Norwich classes will follow in Q10.

Planning started in Q9 to commission providers to deliver ESOL summer schools for 100 low level ESOL learners who currently can’t access our services. Two providers will be delivering these online classes in Q10.

Pathways to employment

Our network of employment advisers has now registered 589 people to the service, undertaking skills assessments and directing people to the best project pathway for their needs. A number of those registered onto the project during this quarter are Afghans and Hong Kong BN(O)s – a trend we expect to continue.

Access to the wellbeing service

202 people have benefited from well-being therapies delivered by the Refugee Council and Suffolk Health Outreach since the project started in April 2020.

Refugee Council therapists are visiting the bridging hotels in the region where Afghans are living temporarily and are networking with local councils, British Red Cross and Essex Integration to inform them about their wellbeing services and provide group activities to the families as they wait to move.  

Registrations for an ESOL and Skills course and/or refugee entrepreneurship programme

A total of 377 beneficiaries have so far benefitted from one or more of the project’s ESOL and Skills courses. The Preparing to Work in Childcare course has run successfully across most of the region. This course has led to many work placements being offered by schools keen to offer their support.

3 learners who took part in a new course for warehouse work in Peterborough, secured a placement which has led to paid work with AM Fresh, and another with Clipper.

52 clients are actively working up plans for their businesses with MENTA’s refugee entrepreneur programme. 4 learners who took part in Concept Training’s construction industry CSCS course have passed the qualification and another 7 are planning resits in Q9. 

We revisited the Driving Theory and Job Search courses as both will be of particular benefit to Afghans and Hong Kongers to help improve their opportunities to find work. These courses are proving particularly popular.

We set up the second IELTS course for high skilled refugees who need this qualification to resume their professions.

Work placement on completion of a sector-specific Skills Course

Courses in three different employment sectors finished during Q8, enabling us to start working with a wider range of employers. Preparing to Work in Childcare, Preparing to Work with Customers, and Preparing to Work in Warehousing and Logistics were run across the region.  Of the 27 placements offered to course graduates around the region in Q8, 18 have been accepted and all have either completed, are in progress or awaiting recruitment processes to be finalised in order to start.

Q8 has seen a range of new work placement providers come forward to work with us, and we now have opportunities in retail (East of England Coop), in construction (SEH & Colchester Borough Homes), in warehousing (AM Fresh and Clipper) and with the NHS as well as the many schools across the region that are supporting our placements.

Successes, achievements and milestones delivered during this reporting period

We have been awarded additional funding from AMIF to support Afghan refugees living in the region. We will be working with Kings Arms Project in Bedfordshire, Essex Integration in Suffolk and Essex and Community Action Dacorum in Hertfordshire to offer mobile ESOL teachers to 35 households who can’t access ‘hub’ ESOL locations because of transport challenges, health issues or caring responsibilities.

And in Colchester, Peterborough and Norwich we will be offering a ‘Health Literacy’ ESOL summer school over 5 weeks to maintain and improve ESOL levels when colleges close for the summer.  This programme will help new Afghan arrivals to use the NHS.

A regional High Skills Employment Adviser has been recruited to help professionally qualified beneficiaries we are supporting from Afghanistan, Hong Kong and elsewhere to find the most effective way back into their professions.  We have had 8 referrals from across the region and more are expected soon.  Some beneficiaries have come from a medical background with qualifications that are not recognised at the same level in the UK.  We are working with the NHS International Recruitment Team in the region to progress towards suitable employment for them.   Across all sectors, we’re also beginning the process of introducing mentoring by professionals in the same industry on a 1-2-1 basis. 

 Well-being Therapist support has been boosted in Bedfordshire and Essex.  

Menta’s seed-funding initiative. This was informed by our participation in the refugee entrepreneurship pilot - Centre for Entrepreneurs pilot project, where it was identified that refugee start-ups struggle to secure the informal capital that indigenous entrepreneurs can access from friends and family. We now have a small pot to fund grants to get businesses started. Our second award was made in Q8 to a refugee entrepreneur in Essex to support his goal of establishing a painting and decorating business.  

The Refugee Council facilitated 3 new psychoeducational workshops to support beneficiaries dealing with a range of trauma. They were well attended by more than 25 refugees from across the region.

The beginning of Q7 was a period of some stability which lasted until the reintroduction of the Covid work from home guidance. During the period of stability, project partners and local employers came to together in October for a fair in Peterborough which attracted 40 beneficiaries. This pilot event was one of the topics presented to the whole project team, at an event in November which saw all the project strands gathered together for the first time. It was an opportunity for reflection on project achievements and a chance to plan for how we can build on these going into the final year of the project. Key decisions made mean that we are now recruiting for:

- A regional High Skills Employment Adviser – to help the professionally qualified beneficiaries we are supporting from Afghanistan, Hong Kong and elsewhere find the most effective way back into their professions.

- Well-being Therapists for parts of the region where we have not had this service before: south Essex and Bedfordshire.  

Following the success of the pilot courses, we are tendering for an IELTS provider to deliver a series of courses across 2022 to provide high skilled beneficiaries with evidence of their English level.

The November event was also where Menta launched their seed-funding initiative. This was informed by our participation in this pilot project: refugee entrepreneurship pilot - Centre for Entrepreneurs, where it was identified that refugee start-ups struggle to secure the informal capital that indigenous entrepreneurs can access from friends and family. We now have a small pot to fund grants to get businesses started. Our first award was made in Q7 to a refugee entrepreneur in Bedfordshire to support his goal to establish a badminton academy.

Q7 has seen more work placements providers come forward to work with us, and we now have opportunities in retail (East of England Coop), in construction (SEH & Colchester Borough Homes), in warehousing (AM Fresh) and with the NHS as well as the many schools across the region which are supporting our placements.

The beginning of Q6 was a period of some stability and the lifting of lockdown restrictions in mid-July enabled partner organisations’ offices to reopen and project team meetings in Ipswich and Bedford to take place, facilitating in-person communications and cross-project networking and collaboration. However, the period has also been marked by the events in Afghanistan and ensuing arrival of Afghans into the UK at an unpredicted scale and speed.  In terms of the project, this is requiring a reassessment of our provision for a different client-base, ensuring that the newly arrived Afghans (and Hong Kong BN(O)s who have also started to arrive in greater numbers), many of whom have professional qualifications, can be assisted into employment relative to their existing skills and experience.  This will involve adjusting existing courses to suit higher ESOL levels and assisting with qualification conversion and preparation for IELTS and other high-level language testing required for entry into higher education and professional occupations.  The project’s wellbeing therapists are already registering new Afghan arrivals and visiting bridging hotels where they are meeting directly with families to learn more about their current needs and two additional therapist roles have been advertised to cope with the requirement for increased capacity.

The E2 Summer Schools which took place during this period were an overwhelming success, enabling many beneficiaries region-wide to progress into the project’s skills courses this Autumn.  The first Childcare course finished in Q6 followed by the first work placement in a school at the beginning of term and further Childcare courses have now either started or have been scheduled in all parts of the region.  43 placements have now been offered in schools around the region, providing a good choice for beneficiaries in terms of location and education setting once they complete their course.  The first Preparing to Work with Customers course started late in Q6 in some parts of the region, and employers are currently being sought to offer work experience placements in customer-facing roles for course graduates. 

Looking towards Q7, we are planning the first whole project in-person meeting in November, gathering all project strands together for the first time to discuss project achievements and how we can build on these going into the final year of the project. Q7-8 will see some exciting developments in the project’s direction and scope and the fruition of groundwork laid during earlier quarters and we look forward to reporting on this early next year.

Road to Recovery

As we moved gradually towards a loosening of restrictions during the early summer and are seeing the first green shoots of recovery, we have been able to adapt the project correspondingly.  During this period the sector-specific courses have been reframed in consultation with the project Employment Advisers, informed by direct feedback from the project beneficiaries.  Two new curricula now complete the full suite of courses on offer: Preparing to Work with Food and Preparing to Work with Customers. These will assist employment pathways into hospitality, a newly re-opened sector currently experiencing severe staffing shortages, and a diverse range of opportunities in customer-facing roles. The courses will also dovetail into and enhance the self-employment support provided by our project partner MENTA for refugee entrepreneurs wanting to open their own hospitality business, and we hope these new courses will be well received.

146 project beneficiaries have now taken part in the project’s existing courses comprising the core curricula courses Driving Theory, IT Skills, Study Skills, Job Search Skills and Confident Women.  In addition, the first two sector-specific courses Preparing to Work in Childcare started during Q5 for Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Suffolk beneficiaries who would like to work in educational settings.  Finishing early in Q6, beneficiaries from these courses can then move into short term work experience placements in schools to consolidate their learning, and placements have now been secured in schools for the first cohort to move into at the start of the next academic year. Sector-specific courses in Essex, Norfolk and Peterborough are due to commence later in the year, with placements in those counties being arranged for early 2022.

For those project beneficiaries currently at too low a level of ESOL to register onto these courses (E3 being the minimum requirement), E2 Summer Schools have been organised across the region, starting in Q5 and continuing over the summer.  These will improve the English of beneficiaries at E2 to a sufficient extent that they are then able to take part in the project’s courses during the Autumn and into the final year of the project.  There has been much interest in registering onto the summer schools with all classes now full to capacity.

With lockdown easing, the team were able to hold their first in-person meeting for the Cambridgeshire-based project members in the beautiful surroundings of the Peterborough Quaker Meeting House garden, the local project base for Refugee Council’s therapy service.  This facilitated an in-depth discussion on cross-functional collaboration across the project strands in the area, with representatives from the wellbeing and employment services and from UKRA, together with the ESOL coordinator and other EELGA SMP project team members.  The project team are planning further in- person meetings in other parts of the region as circumstances allow.

Formal qualitative exploration of the project is now underway, beginning in May and running through to April 2022.  Research consultancy ERS has been appointed to undertake the evaluation, funded by the Bell Foundation, commencing with the production of a logic model followed by a series of focus groups and interviews with key stakeholders throughout Q6.  By Q7 a detailed evaluation plan should be in place and interviews with beneficiaries will be taking place towards the latter part of the year.  An interim report will be produced in January 2022 and a final report in July 2022.

At this half-way stage of the project a total of 432 beneficiaries have thus far been actively participating in the programme across the East of England.  That these high numbers have been reached in such a challenging year gives some indication, and much optimism, about what could be achieved in less precarious times.

Overcoming challenges in national lockdown

Q4 (Jan-Mar 2021) proved to be an extremely challenging quarter since all parts of the region were subject to national lockdown restrictions for the entire period. Even so, the whole team, partner organisations and subcontractors were able to exceed their targets for completing skills assessments, people accessing the wellbeing service and the numbers registering and attending ESOL and Skills classes (including the construction course offered by Concept Training and the entrepreneurs’ support by MENTA) during this period. Across the project, employment advisers, therapists and ESOL providers are now working with more than 327 beneficiaries against a target of 225.

As a result of the national lockdown, it was not possible for employment advisers, therapists and ESOL tutors to meet beneficiaries in-person. This led to a slower rate of referrals and a lower take-up of the ESOL and Skills courses. The challenges associated with online learning (such as access to devices, data and in particular the necessary digital skills) remained a problem for some learners. The consequences of this included lower attendance and a higher number of dropouts since people were again managing children not being in school and nursery as well as many other issues created by the ‘stay at home’ requirements.

A range of ESOL & Skills classes took place during the quarter. These included job search, driving theory, IT skills and study skills. The first Concept-run course to obtain a CSCS card and work in the construction industry also started in Q4. MENTA continues to offer support to refugee entrepreneurs and we expect to see a number of Bedfordshire entrepreneurs accessing this service in Q5. Their 1-to-1 advice – of course provided remotely in Q4 – is complemented by an online course on relevant subjects. The first module covers moving from Universal Credit to the DWP self-employment track.

The Confident Women course is scheduled to take place in Q5 and we expect to run the various Preparing to Work In courses (hospitality, childcare and warehousing) in Q5 and Q6. Concept will also run an additional course to obtain an SIA card for the security industry.

We currently have no plans to expand the range of ESOL courses on offer but recognise that many potential participants are working at ESOL levels below Entry 3. In order to secure and maintain the pipeline of learners for future quarters, we will be running general Entry 2 ESOL classes in Q5 and Q6 as on-line summer schools. We hope that these learners will then be able to access the other courses by the end of 2021 or the start of 2022.

Achieving our Targets in Challenging Times

The project’s Q3 period between October to December 2020 saw significant upward growth across all areas of the project and all project strands are meeting and in many cases far exceeding projected targets; a significant achievement under the extraordinary conditions presented by COVID-19. 

Employment Advisers and Skills Assessors have worked extremely hard to promote the project and have completed a total of 193 skills assessments and action plans for beneficiaries across the region, directing each to a relevant project pathway, which surpasses the cumulative target for the end of Q3 of 110. 34 refugees have taken up wellbeing provision with the service to date and the wellbeing team have adopted a robust foundation in delivering therapeutic services using online platforms. The project’s ESOL core curricula courses (IT Skills, Job Search Skills, Driving Theory) are now operating in all counties with 72 beneficiaries attending, mostly online, classes across the region, and 23 project beneficiaries have been accepted onto the MENTA Refugee Entrepreneur Support Programme and have begun their 1:1 sessions with a business adviser to support them through the various stages of setting up a business.

In October the project was formally launched via a virtual MS Teams Live event with the aim of ensuring that all relevant organisations in the region are aware of the project and how to refer potential beneficiaries into the services offered.  Over 100 people attended and very encouraging post-event feedback was received.  The keynote speech from a former UASC and the films of resettled refugees working in the region produced for the event have been adapted to be included into the ESOL and Skills modules.

Consolidating the Project Pathways

The ESOL core curricula (IT Skills, Job Search Skills, Study Skills, Driving Theory) are now being delivered region-wide and the project’s ESOL Coordinator has been refining four sector-specific courses ready for rollout from January 2021: Preparing to Work in Childcare and Early Years Education; Preparing to Work in Warehousing and Logistics; Preparing to Work in Hospitality (ready for delivery in Q5 when hospitality work opportunities are predicted to be more numerous); Confident Women.  The Confident Women course will be offered exclusively to women and taught by women, focusing on boosting confidence and providing employment skills to the large number of women registered with the project who have never previously worked outside the home.

During the course of Q3 the SMP project team started to consider ways to boost provision of services by working with other established course providers and external bodies.  For example, the WEA offer a Community Interpreting course, a route in which a number of project beneficiaries are interested.  On completion of this course the project is working up a route in conjunction with CCGs to prepare beneficiaries to deliver health improvement information on the COVID-19 vaccination programme, extending to provision of more general community health advice.  This will serve a mutually beneficial function, providing beneficiaries with valuable employment experience whilst using their skills to assist in crucial local community advocacy on vaccination.

And for those clients who have a skills assessment and action plan but do not currently need an AMIF funded service, employment advice has seen them benefit from referrals to external training providers, eg SWBA, Code Your Future, ESOL, Functional Skills, or to similar or complimentary services to ensure clients are well supported, eg the Shaw Trust.

During Q4 the project’s Employer Liaison Officer will continue to build links with the DWP, other training providers and employers able to offer work placements.  In order to further promote the project’s Employer Liaison service and the benefits of employing refugees, the project team has produced two new pages for the website: WW4RI Employer Liaison - EELGA SMP and WW4RI - Employing Refugees - EELGA SMP

The wellbeing strand of the project continues to collaborate and network across the region, meeting CCGs and ESOL providers to introduce the service available and establish solid referral pathways.  A pilot phase of the project which was rolled out across Cambridgeshire and informed how the wellbeing service across the region would be delivered has been chosen by four MPs to represent the East of England in the Health Equalities award in the national NHS Parliamentary awards: Shortlist | NHS Parliamentary Awards

Although there are a multitude of challenges presented by operating the project under the present circumstances, that targets continue to be met is testament to the resourcefulness and tenacity of those involved.  As delivery overall well exceeds projected targets at this stage, the project is in an excellent position to ride out the current storm of Q4 and emerge later in the Spring to return to in-person teaching and advice sessions, and the full scope of employment opportunities originally envisaged when the project was planned pre-pandemic.

The period July-September has seen significant progress on the project with all six counties having services in place to submit quarterly returns.  The project now has a full team of Employment Advisers and Skills Assessors who have worked extremely hard to promote the project and enrol clients.  As a result, 60 beneficiaries have completed skills assessments and action plans in quarter 2 which brings the project total to 101 beneficiaries, 61 ahead of the projected quarter target figure.  Connections are starting to be made with local businesses, and a wide range of paid employment and volunteering roles have been secured.  The project’s Employer Liaison Officer is working to build networks with regional DWP contacts to encourage engagement with the project.

68 beneficiaries have completed Google classroom enrolment activities while waiting to start relevant ESOL skills pathways.  26 have already embarked on the ESOL and Skills pathways, surpassing the projected quarter target by 11 enrolments.  This includes registrations on classes started this quarter in Essex and Norfolk, in IT Skills and Job Search courses respectively, and 7 cross region registrations to entrepreneur advisers MENTA.  WEA are providing ESOL in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Suffolk.  All learners registered with the WEA ESOL and Skills pathway will benefit from a tablet and data if required to enable them to access 90 hours of learning and can retain the tablet to help with future job searching.  Delivery has been delayed however due to several different factors including approvals from the funders and the slow availability of devices.  The service is now expected to start in Q3.

Q2 has seen 14 beneficiaries access the project’s therapeutic strand, delivered by the Refugee Council.  Early in Q2 the Refugee Council focused on introducing the wellbeing service to stakeholders across the region and as a response received back a substantial inflow of referrals.  They are also working on collaboration with project partner organisations to establish solid referral pathways.  Vacant placements in the service are expected to be filled during Q3 (2 placements within the Refugee Council; 1 placement within the Suffolk Health Outreach team).

A series of online Getting to Know You events in September enabled the project partners and sub-contractors to come together and for each to become more of aware of the project services and how to access the different project strands, consolidating internal networks and communications. The impact of Covid-19 is certainly being felt, but the project team have shown resilience and creativity in adapting to the situation to not only meet but far exceed targets, as the quarterly figures indicate.  Many of these impacts have had immediate practical consequences such as the necessity for dealing with clients online and difficulties securing office space.  But there are other issues which have a more underlying impact on service provision, not least that there are currently no new arrivals under the refugee resettlement scheme, paused due to Covid-19, and a client group who could have benefitted from early access to the wellbeing service.

Activity during the project’s first quarter has seen 41 people already having undertaken a skills assessment, exceeding the projected target of 20, 37 of whom are planning to start on the ESOL and skills pathway.  Most assessments were for people resident in Hertfordshire and Norfolk where employment advisers have been in place since April; two further appointments for Employment Advisors in Essex were made towards the end of the period.  The SMP team has recruited two Employer Liaison Officers during this quarter to identify employers able to provide relevant work experience.

Recruitment of psychological therapists to deliver the well-being stream is progressing well with therapists now in place in Essex, Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and Suffolk.

The exceptional Covid-19 position means that significant adaptations to the ESOL and skills course content and delivery have been required to keep project performance on track.  The ESOL curricula have been re-profiled as the launch course for hospitality would have been readying people to work in a sector with now scarce opportunities. Four courses in driving theory, IT skills, study skills and job search have been prepared to equip beneficiaries with the skills they will need to access the new sector-based ESOL classes which are being drafted.

In the event that we need to deliver all our ESOL curricula on-line for 2020-2021, funding will need to be redirected into buying basic tablets for learners and ensuring that they have sufficient data to be able access the classes.

There are opportunities that this situation is now presenting.  If we move to on-line ESOL, beneficiaries can be recruited more quickly as they will not be required to travel to learn in one classroom.  We have developed an IT ESOL Skills Module as IT will be essential to access vocational courses, undertake work searches and secure work in the UK job market, but this was not one of the sector-specific ESOL programmes that we had originally planned to deliver.  In the event that local Covid-19 lockdowns are enforced, having online skills will be vital for adults seeking work and to support their children at home.

Working with the project partners on mobilisation has been successful and the SMP team has created multiple guidance and networking opportunities. This has ensured consistency across the East of England and provided an opportunity for partners to share experience, best practice and ideas on project delivery. This comment from the Refugee Council exemplifies how we have worked together: ‘We appreciate the difficulty of launching a project during the COVID-19 pandemic and it is testament to the WW4RI team that this has been achieved.’

Overview

Across all streams, this quarter we reached a total of 101 new beneficiaries. This means that we have reached a total of 1795 people since the project started, 53% above the target.

 

As the project draws to a close, legacy materials will be made available online, such as access to a webinar and self-study materials for our most popular ESOL offer, ESOL for driving theory: Driving theory - EELGA SMP. Central Project staff have been briefing stakeholders about the changes in provision in the refugee employability sector from October / November 2023: Comparison of EON, Step Ukraine and REP PowerPoint Presentation (eelga.gov.uk)

Our PR contractor Prominent has put out three stories this quarter, featuring some of the activities that have been most impactful: Charity’s mock interviews help Peterborough refugees access the job market - EELGA SMP.

 

Employment Support

During this quarter, 22 beneficiaries entered employment. The employers where our clients are working include Royal Mail, Primark, local schools and a social care charity. Those in self-employment are a plumber and three people who, following the interpreting course with CAD, are now undertaking interpreting assignments for Contact HITS - Herts Interpreting & Translation Service. Two people successfully completed DLUHC funded CELTA training organised by the SMP and are now looking for work as ESOL teachers.

Other training and support included helping a social worker and a psychologist with the process of registering in the UK, 25 people attending a mock interview session from Milestone to give them real world experience of a UK interview held by professionals, general employability workshops and an employment advice workshop from a retired GP for refugee doctors on the OET course from SLC.  

Certificate recognition is a major challenge faced by refugees. Their university or professional certificates are not recognised in the UK and require processing via ENIC – the UK National Information Centre for the recognition and evaluation of international qualifications. This comes at a cost, which the project is covering, and 20 clients have benefitted from this service in this quarter.

However, much of the activity in the latter part of this final quarter has involved reaching all the employment beneficiaries to make sure that they have CVs, Indeed accounts and have been through ‘better off’ calculations so they know how their welfare payments would change when taking on paid work. Our advisers have also introduced those who qualify to either the new Refugee Employability Programme providers or STEP Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the High Skills Employment Advisor is making links across the NHS and has found clinical attachments for two refugee doctors in Essex.  

Entrepreneurialism

MENTA and the Project Team held three seed-funding meetings to approve business plans from amongst the project’s beneficiaries. The beneficiaries (one in Suffolk, one in Essex and one in Norfolk) were partially successful in their bids, but with limited time to enable their plans to be fully realised under the umbrella of the project, we only awarded for the activities that can come to life before the end of the year. Their business plans are as T-shirt designer (mother and son), taxi driver and architectural drawing provider. Workshops provided by MENTA this quarter included business planning and marketing and social media.

Wellbeing support

In this quarter 53 beneficiaries benefitted from wellbeing support. Clients valued the service being available over the long college summer holidays when other provision is more limited. Other interesting relationships include liaising with the Sue Ryder Charity Shop in Bedford which is offering bike repairs to young people using their bikes as the main mode of transportation. They are teaching them how to maintain and fix them, should they break. In Suffolk, the therapist connected with the Youth coordinator at Suffolk Refugee Support. Clients who are struggling with issues such as loneliness, idleness, isolation have been referred to the service. The activities offered have been highly engaging and work cohesively with improving the clients’ overall level of wellbeing.

Skills and Technical Language Training

Training remains a fundamental element of this project to provide beneficiaries the necessary language, employability and specialist skills to enter work. A total of 17 courses ran during the quarter, reaching a total of 118 beneficiaries. 103 learners took more than one course with the following breakdown:

Course

Learners

Confident Women

4

Driving Theory

8

Understanding the English education system

4

Finance and budgeting

10

How to use the NHS

33

IELTS International English Language Testing System

10

Introduction to interpreting

9

IT Skills

17

Job search skills

11

Business Planning

8

Social Media and marketing

4

Total ESOL learners

118

 

During this quarter, 5 people on the driving theory course booked or sat and passed their tests. In addition, 9 people are accessing the OET (Occupational English Test) necessary for those wishing to enter a medical career which began last quarter. A midwife, pharmacist, five nurses and two doctors are making good progress to reach the standards required by their professional bodies in the UK.

Summary

We have delivered a well-being or employment service, or both, to a total of 1795 people since we began the project, exceeding the target we set out to have achieved by the end of December 2023 of 1164. A final project report will be the next output from the project team and will form the basis of learning for other agencies wanting to deliver a similar service in the coming years.

***

Please direct any questions about this report to: Louise Gooch at [email protected] or 07834 129582

In order to deliver better employment outcomes for refugees, the Wellbeing and Work for Refugee Integration project (WW4RI) continued its holistic work across the East of England. Whilst the target number of beneficiaries had already been met, the project team and partners did not rest on their laurels and continued to ensure continued wraparound services for new and existing participants across the project’s three strands: well-being support; skills & technical language training; and targeted employment support.

Our links with major employers is a strength of the project, with the exemplary support of our Employment Advisors who are employed in each county. In Essex, four beneficiaries were supported with applications and interviews and have secured work this quarter at Stansted Airport; Tesco; Rainbow service; and as a self-employed translator/interpreter; and one client took up a work placement with the East of England Co-Op. IKEA is a key employment partner, working closely in Cambridgeshire and Essex through its employability programme which involves an employment course covering CV writing, preparing for interviews, followed by an interview, and, if they pass the interview, they will be offered 8 weeks paid employment, with possibility of a temporary or permanent employment after the 8 weeks placement. Tesco is also a strong partner in Peterborough, offering to review various CVs. In Hertfordshire, clients have been enrolled onto sector-specific training for forklift training, warehouse operations as well as hair and beauty. In Suffolk, one beneficiary has been promoted to a senior labourer position, now manages a team of labourers and he is being considered for a site-manager role. This was facilitated by courses provided by the project. His livelihood has greatly improved as a result, allowing him to rent a house for his family, which he is currently refurbishing. Also in Suffolk, an individual secured a short-term contract as an accountant, which has boosted her confidence; one beneficiary is working to establish her permanent makeup and massage studio; one has been appointed as the manager of a Lithuanian shop; one secured a job at M&S in Ipswich; another is a teaching assistant at Northgate School; one started working as a flight attendant for WizzAir. The East of England Co-op remains a key partner in some of our counties. In Norfolk and Essex beneficiaries have been encouraged to apply for a role that has opened up at that store following placements. These clients were supported by the employment advisors who helped set up online job application profiles. Two more beneficiaries have requested work placements with East of England Co-op and the project anticipates positive outcomes.

The project continued to provide self-employment support via partners MENTA. In total ten new referrals were made to this service. One recent example is in Suffolk: the beneficiary has established a crochet business through which she sells her products, including bracelets. 61 cases continue to be supported. MENTA is developing video case studies to highlight the success of this initiative.

Certificate recognition is a major challenge faced by refugees. Their university or professional certificates may not be recognised in the UK and require processing via ENIC – the UK National Information Centre for the recognition and evaluation of international qualifications and skills. This comes at a cost, which the project is able to cover for beneficiaries and more than 10 clients have benefitted from this service in this quarter.

Our wellbeing therapists continued to provide services both online and in person. This included in schools, colleges, ESOL classes and hotels and reached both adults and children. Approaches ranged from one-to-one therapy to psychosocial activities including park trips, dance and movement and sewing groups. These non-verbal activities have proved to be especially successful, as clients experienced significant improvements without explicitly discussing their trauma.

The project’s skills and training courses continue to be popular. An overwhelming number of clients continue to enrol of the driving theory course. Others also enrolled on the How to Use the NHS course, finding the role-playing exercises about how to call their GP with particular ailments particularly useful. Meanwhile others found the Understanding the UK Education System Course useful as they had children in school. The project continued to fund widely recognised language exams, specifically the OET (Occupational English Test) necessary for those wishing to enter a medical career; and IELTS (International English Language Testing System) which is necessary for entrance to UK universities and some workplaces. During the quarter nine students were recommended for examination, demonstrating that they could pass the test with a sufficient score (6.5 -7.0) to enter university. A further 20 students are under training and also showing similar aptitude. Our driving theory course remains particularly popular: its flexible curriculum allows it to be tailored to learners’ needs, and one course was altered to focus more on maintenance and the language required at a garage; whilst another was delivered to a majority of Ukrainian learners who had licences already. We are capitalising on the popularity of this course by developing two webinars and an online learning portal, through further funding from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Care (ADASS).

In Refugee Week (19-25 June) we held the successful Let’s Employ Refugees Seminar & Recruitment Fair in Norwich with the organisational support of Norwich County Council People from Abroad Team. The seminar provided regional employers with information about the benefits of employing refugees and how to bridge challenges, while the afternoon session was attended by refugees and international workers and provided an opportunity for direct engagement. Employers present included social care organisations, poultry processing factories, delivery and courier companies and education. The project hopes to maintain links with employer to understand success rates.

Looking at the long-term, the SMP made an application for the Home Office Refugee Employability Programme and were unfortunately unsuccessful. However, we have established close ties with the successful provider in order to transfer our expertise and ensure continuity of service for clients. We are reflecting on how we can best secure the learning from the project and ensure that legacy materials are available for the future. One part of our legacy work is to ensure that we garner sufficient media and communications activity for the project. We onboarded Prominent PR to provide these services. With thanks to their proactive work, we have managed to get attention on local newspapers, websites, and radio. All our press releases are also available on our website.

Please direct any questions about this report to: Louise Gooch at [email protected] or 07834 129582.

Overall project aim: To promote effective integration by actions that support access to the labour market for 1164 refugees in the East of England to deliver better employment outcomes for refugees in the East of England.

Overview

Across all streams, this quarter reached a total of 178 new beneficiaries which meets the target. Partners have reported significantly more streamlined referral mechanisms since the establishment of quarterly, in-person, “area” meetings, where representatives from each stream meet to share updates, understand each other’s sectors and solve issues regarding communications or individual cases.

A total of 166 beneficiaries received Skills and Technical Language Training and Employment Support.

Considering the ongoing popularity of the driving theory courses, the project team are exploring funding opportunities which will enable development of enhanced interactive materials online which will enable greater reach and ensure sustainable results beyond the end of the project. 

In February, the team recruited a Training and Compliance Manager who will ensure that successes and good practices are shared with all partners to ensure lessons learnt continue to be applied beyond the project, and into future funding applications. The team also recruited a full-time Project Administrator to prepare the analysis of partners’ quarterly returns.

In March the Project Team awarded a contract to an external PR firm who, using funding from this project, will develop internal and external communications content in partnership with the Project Team and partners. The Team considers this an important activity to promote the many diverse partners’ good work, and amplify and share good practices online, on social, and traditional, media. The team hope that dedicated press releases and social media on employing refugees will attract new employers in future.

Employment Support

During this quarter, 38 beneficiaries entered employment. The sectors that beneficiaries are employed by include administrators, factory workers, delivery drivers, health and social care and working in supermarkets. As the quarter closed, employment advisors continued to support beneficiaries with CV writing, job applications, work placements, volunteering and sector specific training. Training included forklift driving, warehouse distribution, electrics and plumbing and hairdressing. The more tailored, person-centred approach, that was adopted in this quarter is proving very successful and the project team hope to update on more beneficiaries being successfully hired in the next quarter.

The Project Team is strengthening its ties with the East of England Co-op as they are present across Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex and show the requisite interest and capacity to support refugees into employment. One client obtained a Security Industry Authority (SIA) badge with the support of project staff who helped them through the criminal record check processes via their Embassy. Meanwhile, the High Skills Employment Advisor is making links with Stansted Airport to secure work opportunities.

Entrepreneurialism

A total of seven beneficiaries were referred to the services of MENTA Business Support. MENTA and the Project Team held two seed-funding meetings to approve business plans from amongst the project’s beneficiaries. Both beneficiaries (one in Suffolk and one in Norfolk) were successful in their bids, and MENTA will continue to provide them business support in parallel to the project. Workshops provided by MENTA included media and marketing and UK Tax.

Wellbeing support

In this quarter 30 beneficiaries benefitted from wellbeing support.

Skills and Technical Language Training

Training remains a fundamental element of this project to provide beneficiaries the necessary language, employability and specialist skills to enter work. A total of 23 courses ran during the quarter, reaching a total of 166 beneficiaries. Some of the learners took multiple courses with the following breakdown:

Course

Learners

   

Confident Women

31

Driving Theory

84

Understanding the English education system

21

Finance and budgeting

29

How to use the NHS

26

IELTS

21

Introduction to interpreting

14

Mindfulness (Refugee Council)

2

Total ESOL learners

228

Driving theory remains the most popular course across the region.

Summary

We have delivered a well-being or employment service, or both, to a total of 1540 people since we began the project, exceeding the target we set out to have achieved by the end of December 2022. The chart below shows the beneficiaries that joined the project this quarter:

Please direct any questions about this report to: Louise Gooch at [email protected] or 07834 129582

Project Report Quarter 11: 1 October 2022 - 31 December 2022

In November we heard that we had been successful in obtaining an extension to the project that will allow us to work through until the end of September 2023, in order to support another 500 unique beneficiaries with employment, well-being or ESOL services. We have taken this as an opportunity to offer some ESOL for integration classes to some lower level learners, as well as continuing to provide ESOL for work courses.

Delivery Objective 1: Pathways to employment

Our network of employment advisers has now registered 958 people to the service, undertaking skills assessments and directing people to the best project pathway for their needs.

Delivery Objective 2: Access to the wellbeing service

284 people have benefited from well-being therapies delivered by the Refugee Council and Suffolk Health Outreach since the project started in April 2020.

Refugee Council therapists are visiting the bridging hotels in the region where Afghans are living temporarily and are networking with councils in Hertfordshire, Southend and Essex Integration to inform them about their wellbeing services and provide group activities to the families as they wait to move.  

Delivery Objective 3: Registration for an ESOL and Skills course and/or refugee entrepreneurship programme

A total of 621 beneficiaries have so far benefitted from one or more of the project’s ESOL and Skills courses.

80 clients are actively working up plans for their businesses with MENTA’s refugee entrepreneur programme. We have held two seed funding panels and are helping to fund refugee entrepreneurs develop their business, one as an interpreter and the second as an LGV driver. 22 refugee entrepreneurs have now started to trade.

On top of the regular IELTS course, in Q11 we offered an IELTS foundation course for those who need IELTS but aren’t working at a high enough level to embark on the full programme, but with the extra support that this programme offers, they can move to the IELTS course in 2023.

5 beneficiaries attended the CSCS preparation course, and three of them passed at first attempt, with one securing work the day after he passed the test.

Lastly, our High Skills Employment Adviser delivered ‘Let’s Employ Refugees’ for employers in Peterborough who are looking to recruit. This has led to vacancies through Sue Ryder and Huntingdonshire Council being made available to our beneficiaries. The project extension will enable us to offer more of these courses across the region.

Delivery Objective 4:  Work placement on completion of a sector-specific Skills Course

No courses that lead into employment sectors finished during Q11 so no beneficiaries were offered work placements.

We have agreed with our funders to refocus our efforts on working with employers through our High Skills Employment Adviser to secure paid opportunities for refugees looking for work, plus for the local employment advisers to encourage beneficiaries to tap into more informal voluntary roles in their neighbourhood.

Delivery Objective 5:  74 new Afghan arrivals with low or no English to access mobile ESOL, ESOL café in Bedford or short ESOL course in the summer of 2022 (how to use the NHS) to help with integration into UK life.

A total of 80 eligible learners have accessed this provision. The short ESOL course on using the NHS will be offered to low level learners over 2023, and mobile ESOL will continue where it has been most effective – in Suffolk and Essex.

Successes, achievements and milestones delivered during this reporting period

We have delivered a well-being or employment service, or both, to a total of 1322 people since we began the project, exceeding the target we set out to have achieved by the end of December 2022.

We have reflected on what strands have been most popular and in demand and have used the project extension to focus on them for 2023.

Please direct any questions about this report to: Louise Gooch at [email protected] or 07834 129582

Delivery Objective 1: Pathways to employment

Our network of employment advisers has now registered 848 people to the service, undertaking skills assessments and directing people to the best project pathway for their needs.

Delivery Objective 2: Access to the wellbeing service

249 people have benefited from well-being therapies delivered by the Refugee Council and Suffolk Health Outreach since the project started in April 2020.

Refugee Council therapists are visiting the bridging hotels in the region where Afghans are living temporarily and are networking with councils in Hertfordshire, Southend and Essex Integration to inform them about their wellbeing services and provide group activities to the families as they wait to move.  

The make-up of beneficiaries accessing one of these two core services is shown below:

Afghans - 28%

Syrians - 27%

Ukrainians 12%

Hong Kong BNOs - 6%

Delivery Objective 3: Registration for an ESOL and Skills course and/or refugee entrepreneurship programme

A total of 552 beneficiaries have so far benefitted from one or more of the project’s ESOL and Skills courses.

56 clients are actively working up plans for their businesses with MENTA’s refugee entrepreneur programme. We have held two seed funding panels and are helping to fund refugee entrepreneurs develop their business, one as an electrician and the other in the beauty industry.

We revisited the Driving Theory and Job Search courses as one or both will be of particular benefit to Afghans, Hong Kongers and Ukrainians to help improve their opportunities to find work. 62 people started these courses at the end of the quarter.

We ran an expanded online ESOL summer school delivered by SLC and CAD which reached 118 learners, 43 of whom were new beneficiaries.

One IELTS course for continued for high skilled refugees started this quarter, for those who need this qualification to resume their professions. On top of the regular IELTS course, in Q11 we will offer an IELTS foundation course for those who need IELTS but aren’t working at a high enough level to embark on the full programme, but with the extra support that this programme offers, they can move to the IELTS course later in the year.

Lastly, our High Skills Employment Adviser started a Job Search course for graduate refugees looking for bespoke advice and guidance to enter the job market in a way that will enable them to grow into a professional role. 7 participants attended regularly.

 

 

Delivery Objective 4:  Work placement on completion of a sector-specific Skills Course

No courses that lead into employment sectors finished during Q10 so no beneficiaries were offered work placements.

We no longer employ an Employment Liaison Officer but have instead developed the role of High Skills Employment Adviser, to build capacity for the local employment advisers and to develop resources for graduate beneficiaries. As well as the course delivered to beneficiaries by this High Skills Employment Adviser, she has delivered a training workshop for HR leads in our local councils to encourage them to recruit refugees. We are working with the NHS International Recruitment Team and Anglia Ruskin University to progress a programme to allow medics who qualified overseas to practice in the UK.    

Successes, achievements and milestones delivered during this reporting period

We have delivered a well-being or employment service, or both, to a total of 1200 people since we began the project, exceeding the target we set out to have achieved by the end of December 2022.

The additional funding we were awarded from AMIF to support Afghan refugees living in the region last quarter has enabled us to work with Kings Arms Project in Bedfordshire, Essex Integration in Suffolk and Essex and Community Action Dacorum in Hertfordshire. The programme has started slowly with recruitment of ESOL teachers a challenge, but we are reaching 35 households who can’t access ‘hub’ ESOL locations because of transport challenges, health issues or caring responsibilities.

We completed 3 ESOL health literacy course for a total of 30 learners in Peterborough, Colchester and Norwich which ran over 5 weeks to maintain and improve ESOL levels when colleges close for the summer.  

Please direct any questions about this report to: Louise Gooch at [email protected] or 07834 129582

Delivery Objective 1: Pathways to employment

Our network of employment advisers has now registered 679 people to the service, undertaking skills assessments and directing people to the best project pathway for their needs. Our services are now reaching 234 Afghans and 42 Hong Kong BN(O)s, plus 36 new Ukrainian arrivals.

Delivery Objective 2: Access to the wellbeing service

214 people have benefited from well-being therapies delivered by the Refugee Council and Suffolk Health Outreach since the project started in April 2020.

Refugee Council therapists are visiting the bridging hotels in the region where Afghans are living temporarily. They are connecting with councils in Hertfordshire, Southend and Essex Integration to inform them about their wellbeing services and provide group activities to the families as they wait to move.  

Delivery Objective 3: Registration for an ESOL and Skills course and/or refugee entrepreneurship programme

A total of 369 beneficiaries have so far benefitted from one or more of the project’s ESOL and Skills courses.

60 clients are actively working up plans for their businesses with MENTA’s refugee entrepreneur programme. We have held three seed funding panels and are helping to fund refugee entrepreneurs in catering, beauty and translation.

We revisited the Driving Theory and Job Search courses as one or both will be of particular benefit to Afghans, Hong Kongers and Ukrainians to help improve their opportunities to find work.

We set up one IELTS course for high skilled refugees who need this qualification to resume their professions. On top of the regular IELTS course, we have also developed an IELTS foundation course for those who need IELTS but aren’t working at a high enough level to embark on the full programme, but with the extra support that this programme offers, they can move to the IELTS course later in the year.

Delivery Objective 4:  Work placement on completion of a sector-specific Skills Course

No courses that lead into employment sectors finished during Q9 so the 7 people taking up placements this quarter are beneficiaries who have finished earlier courses. Our Employer Liaison Officer moved to a new role in a partner organisation making it harder to make progress this quarter.

However, we have recruited a High Skills Employment Adviser for the region who is working on 22 referrals from the local employment advisers for those beneficiaries who need bespoke support to help them find a way back into the work they are qualified to do. We are working with the NHS International Recruitment Team in the region to progress towards suitable employment for the ones who have medical careers.    

Successes, achievements and milestones delivered during this reporting period

We have delivered a well-being or employment service, or both, to a total of 993 people since we began the project, exceeding the target we set out to have achieved by the end of December 2022.

The additional funding we were awarded from AMIF to support Afghan refugees living in the region last quarter has enabled us to work with Kings Arms Project in Bedfordshire, Essex Integration in Suffolk and Essex and Community Action Dacorum in Hertfordshire. The programme has started slowly with recruitment of ESOL teachers a challenge, but we are reaching 17 households who can’t access ‘hub’ ESOL locations because of transport challenges, health issues or caring responsibilities.

We have started a ESOL health literacy course for 11 learners in Peterborough which will be running over 5 weeks to maintain and improve ESOL levels when colleges close for the summer.  This programme will help new Afghan arrivals to use the NHS. Colchester and Norwich classes will follow in Q10.

Planning started in Q9 to commission providers to deliver ESOL summer schools for 100 low level ESOL learners who currently can’t access our services. Two providers will be delivering these online classes in Q10.

Pathways to employment

Our network of employment advisers has now registered 589 people to the service, undertaking skills assessments and directing people to the best project pathway for their needs. A number of those registered onto the project during this quarter are Afghans and Hong Kong BN(O)s – a trend we expect to continue.

Access to the wellbeing service

202 people have benefited from well-being therapies delivered by the Refugee Council and Suffolk Health Outreach since the project started in April 2020.

Refugee Council therapists are visiting the bridging hotels in the region where Afghans are living temporarily and are networking with local councils, British Red Cross and Essex Integration to inform them about their wellbeing services and provide group activities to the families as they wait to move.  

Registrations for an ESOL and Skills course and/or refugee entrepreneurship programme

A total of 377 beneficiaries have so far benefitted from one or more of the project’s ESOL and Skills courses. The Preparing to Work in Childcare course has run successfully across most of the region. This course has led to many work placements being offered by schools keen to offer their support.

3 learners who took part in a new course for warehouse work in Peterborough, secured a placement which has led to paid work with AM Fresh, and another with Clipper.

52 clients are actively working up plans for their businesses with MENTA’s refugee entrepreneur programme. 4 learners who took part in Concept Training’s construction industry CSCS course have passed the qualification and another 7 are planning resits in Q9. 

We revisited the Driving Theory and Job Search courses as both will be of particular benefit to Afghans and Hong Kongers to help improve their opportunities to find work. These courses are proving particularly popular.

We set up the second IELTS course for high skilled refugees who need this qualification to resume their professions.

Work placement on completion of a sector-specific Skills Course

Courses in three different employment sectors finished during Q8, enabling us to start working with a wider range of employers. Preparing to Work in Childcare, Preparing to Work with Customers, and Preparing to Work in Warehousing and Logistics were run across the region.  Of the 27 placements offered to course graduates around the region in Q8, 18 have been accepted and all have either completed, are in progress or awaiting recruitment processes to be finalised in order to start.

Q8 has seen a range of new work placement providers come forward to work with us, and we now have opportunities in retail (East of England Coop), in construction (SEH & Colchester Borough Homes), in warehousing (AM Fresh and Clipper) and with the NHS as well as the many schools across the region that are supporting our placements.

Successes, achievements and milestones delivered during this reporting period

We have been awarded additional funding from AMIF to support Afghan refugees living in the region. We will be working with Kings Arms Project in Bedfordshire, Essex Integration in Suffolk and Essex and Community Action Dacorum in Hertfordshire to offer mobile ESOL teachers to 35 households who can’t access ‘hub’ ESOL locations because of transport challenges, health issues or caring responsibilities.

And in Colchester, Peterborough and Norwich we will be offering a ‘Health Literacy’ ESOL summer school over 5 weeks to maintain and improve ESOL levels when colleges close for the summer.  This programme will help new Afghan arrivals to use the NHS.

A regional High Skills Employment Adviser has been recruited to help professionally qualified beneficiaries we are supporting from Afghanistan, Hong Kong and elsewhere to find the most effective way back into their professions.  We have had 8 referrals from across the region and more are expected soon.  Some beneficiaries have come from a medical background with qualifications that are not recognised at the same level in the UK.  We are working with the NHS International Recruitment Team in the region to progress towards suitable employment for them.   Across all sectors, we’re also beginning the process of introducing mentoring by professionals in the same industry on a 1-2-1 basis. 

 Well-being Therapist support has been boosted in Bedfordshire and Essex.  

Menta’s seed-funding initiative. This was informed by our participation in the refugee entrepreneurship pilot - Centre for Entrepreneurs pilot project, where it was identified that refugee start-ups struggle to secure the informal capital that indigenous entrepreneurs can access from friends and family. We now have a small pot to fund grants to get businesses started. Our second award was made in Q8 to a refugee entrepreneur in Essex to support his goal of establishing a painting and decorating business.  

The Refugee Council facilitated 3 new psychoeducational workshops to support beneficiaries dealing with a range of trauma. They were well attended by more than 25 refugees from across the region.

The beginning of Q7 was a period of some stability which lasted until the reintroduction of the Covid work from home guidance. During the period of stability, project partners and local employers came to together in October for a fair in Peterborough which attracted 40 beneficiaries. This pilot event was one of the topics presented to the whole project team, at an event in November which saw all the project strands gathered together for the first time. It was an opportunity for reflection on project achievements and a chance to plan for how we can build on these going into the final year of the project. Key decisions made mean that we are now recruiting for:

- A regional High Skills Employment Adviser – to help the professionally qualified beneficiaries we are supporting from Afghanistan, Hong Kong and elsewhere find the most effective way back into their professions.

- Well-being Therapists for parts of the region where we have not had this service before: south Essex and Bedfordshire.  

Following the success of the pilot courses, we are tendering for an IELTS provider to deliver a series of courses across 2022 to provide high skilled beneficiaries with evidence of their English level.

The November event was also where Menta launched their seed-funding initiative. This was informed by our participation in this pilot project: refugee entrepreneurship pilot - Centre for Entrepreneurs, where it was identified that refugee start-ups struggle to secure the informal capital that indigenous entrepreneurs can access from friends and family. We now have a small pot to fund grants to get businesses started. Our first award was made in Q7 to a refugee entrepreneur in Bedfordshire to support his goal to establish a badminton academy.

Q7 has seen more work placements providers come forward to work with us, and we now have opportunities in retail (East of England Coop), in construction (SEH & Colchester Borough Homes), in warehousing (AM Fresh) and with the NHS as well as the many schools across the region which are supporting our placements.

The beginning of Q6 was a period of some stability and the lifting of lockdown restrictions in mid-July enabled partner organisations’ offices to reopen and project team meetings in Ipswich and Bedford to take place, facilitating in-person communications and cross-project networking and collaboration. However, the period has also been marked by the events in Afghanistan and ensuing arrival of Afghans into the UK at an unpredicted scale and speed.  In terms of the project, this is requiring a reassessment of our provision for a different client-base, ensuring that the newly arrived Afghans (and Hong Kong BN(O)s who have also started to arrive in greater numbers), many of whom have professional qualifications, can be assisted into employment relative to their existing skills and experience.  This will involve adjusting existing courses to suit higher ESOL levels and assisting with qualification conversion and preparation for IELTS and other high-level language testing required for entry into higher education and professional occupations.  The project’s wellbeing therapists are already registering new Afghan arrivals and visiting bridging hotels where they are meeting directly with families to learn more about their current needs and two additional therapist roles have been advertised to cope with the requirement for increased capacity.

The E2 Summer Schools which took place during this period were an overwhelming success, enabling many beneficiaries region-wide to progress into the project’s skills courses this Autumn.  The first Childcare course finished in Q6 followed by the first work placement in a school at the beginning of term and further Childcare courses have now either started or have been scheduled in all parts of the region.  43 placements have now been offered in schools around the region, providing a good choice for beneficiaries in terms of location and education setting once they complete their course.  The first Preparing to Work with Customers course started late in Q6 in some parts of the region, and employers are currently being sought to offer work experience placements in customer-facing roles for course graduates. 

Looking towards Q7, we are planning the first whole project in-person meeting in November, gathering all project strands together for the first time to discuss project achievements and how we can build on these going into the final year of the project. Q7-8 will see some exciting developments in the project’s direction and scope and the fruition of groundwork laid during earlier quarters and we look forward to reporting on this early next year.

Road to Recovery

As we moved gradually towards a loosening of restrictions during the early summer and are seeing the first green shoots of recovery, we have been able to adapt the project correspondingly.  During this period the sector-specific courses have been reframed in consultation with the project Employment Advisers, informed by direct feedback from the project beneficiaries.  Two new curricula now complete the full suite of courses on offer: Preparing to Work with Food and Preparing to Work with Customers. These will assist employment pathways into hospitality, a newly re-opened sector currently experiencing severe staffing shortages, and a diverse range of opportunities in customer-facing roles. The courses will also dovetail into and enhance the self-employment support provided by our project partner MENTA for refugee entrepreneurs wanting to open their own hospitality business, and we hope these new courses will be well received.

146 project beneficiaries have now taken part in the project’s existing courses comprising the core curricula courses Driving Theory, IT Skills, Study Skills, Job Search Skills and Confident Women.  In addition, the first two sector-specific courses Preparing to Work in Childcare started during Q5 for Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Suffolk beneficiaries who would like to work in educational settings.  Finishing early in Q6, beneficiaries from these courses can then move into short term work experience placements in schools to consolidate their learning, and placements have now been secured in schools for the first cohort to move into at the start of the next academic year. Sector-specific courses in Essex, Norfolk and Peterborough are due to commence later in the year, with placements in those counties being arranged for early 2022.

For those project beneficiaries currently at too low a level of ESOL to register onto these courses (E3 being the minimum requirement), E2 Summer Schools have been organised across the region, starting in Q5 and continuing over the summer.  These will improve the English of beneficiaries at E2 to a sufficient extent that they are then able to take part in the project’s courses during the Autumn and into the final year of the project.  There has been much interest in registering onto the summer schools with all classes now full to capacity.

With lockdown easing, the team were able to hold their first in-person meeting for the Cambridgeshire-based project members in the beautiful surroundings of the Peterborough Quaker Meeting House garden, the local project base for Refugee Council’s therapy service.  This facilitated an in-depth discussion on cross-functional collaboration across the project strands in the area, with representatives from the wellbeing and employment services and from UKRA, together with the ESOL coordinator and other EELGA SMP project team members.  The project team are planning further in- person meetings in other parts of the region as circumstances allow.

Formal qualitative exploration of the project is now underway, beginning in May and running through to April 2022.  Research consultancy ERS has been appointed to undertake the evaluation, funded by the Bell Foundation, commencing with the production of a logic model followed by a series of focus groups and interviews with key stakeholders throughout Q6.  By Q7 a detailed evaluation plan should be in place and interviews with beneficiaries will be taking place towards the latter part of the year.  An interim report will be produced in January 2022 and a final report in July 2022.

At this half-way stage of the project a total of 432 beneficiaries have thus far been actively participating in the programme across the East of England.  That these high numbers have been reached in such a challenging year gives some indication, and much optimism, about what could be achieved in less precarious times.

Overcoming challenges in national lockdown

Q4 (Jan-Mar 2021) proved to be an extremely challenging quarter since all parts of the region were subject to national lockdown restrictions for the entire period. Even so, the whole team, partner organisations and subcontractors were able to exceed their targets for completing skills assessments, people accessing the wellbeing service and the numbers registering and attending ESOL and Skills classes (including the construction course offered by Concept Training and the entrepreneurs’ support by MENTA) during this period. Across the project, employment advisers, therapists and ESOL providers are now working with more than 327 beneficiaries against a target of 225.

As a result of the national lockdown, it was not possible for employment advisers, therapists and ESOL tutors to meet beneficiaries in-person. This led to a slower rate of referrals and a lower take-up of the ESOL and Skills courses. The challenges associated with online learning (such as access to devices, data and in particular the necessary digital skills) remained a problem for some learners. The consequences of this included lower attendance and a higher number of dropouts since people were again managing children not being in school and nursery as well as many other issues created by the ‘stay at home’ requirements.

A range of ESOL & Skills classes took place during the quarter. These included job search, driving theory, IT skills and study skills. The first Concept-run course to obtain a CSCS card and work in the construction industry also started in Q4. MENTA continues to offer support to refugee entrepreneurs and we expect to see a number of Bedfordshire entrepreneurs accessing this service in Q5. Their 1-to-1 advice – of course provided remotely in Q4 – is complemented by an online course on relevant subjects. The first module covers moving from Universal Credit to the DWP self-employment track.

The Confident Women course is scheduled to take place in Q5 and we expect to run the various Preparing to Work In courses (hospitality, childcare and warehousing) in Q5 and Q6. Concept will also run an additional course to obtain an SIA card for the security industry.

We currently have no plans to expand the range of ESOL courses on offer but recognise that many potential participants are working at ESOL levels below Entry 3. In order to secure and maintain the pipeline of learners for future quarters, we will be running general Entry 2 ESOL classes in Q5 and Q6 as on-line summer schools. We hope that these learners will then be able to access the other courses by the end of 2021 or the start of 2022.

Achieving our Targets in Challenging Times

The project’s Q3 period between October to December 2020 saw significant upward growth across all areas of the project and all project strands are meeting and in many cases far exceeding projected targets; a significant achievement under the extraordinary conditions presented by COVID-19. 

Employment Advisers and Skills Assessors have worked extremely hard to promote the project and have completed a total of 193 skills assessments and action plans for beneficiaries across the region, directing each to a relevant project pathway, which surpasses the cumulative target for the end of Q3 of 110. 34 refugees have taken up wellbeing provision with the service to date and the wellbeing team have adopted a robust foundation in delivering therapeutic services using online platforms. The project’s ESOL core curricula courses (IT Skills, Job Search Skills, Driving Theory) are now operating in all counties with 72 beneficiaries attending, mostly online, classes across the region, and 23 project beneficiaries have been accepted onto the MENTA Refugee Entrepreneur Support Programme and have begun their 1:1 sessions with a business adviser to support them through the various stages of setting up a business.

In October the project was formally launched via a virtual MS Teams Live event with the aim of ensuring that all relevant organisations in the region are aware of the project and how to refer potential beneficiaries into the services offered.  Over 100 people attended and very encouraging post-event feedback was received.  The keynote speech from a former UASC and the films of resettled refugees working in the region produced for the event have been adapted to be included into the ESOL and Skills modules.

Consolidating the Project Pathways

The ESOL core curricula (IT Skills, Job Search Skills, Study Skills, Driving Theory) are now being delivered region-wide and the project’s ESOL Coordinator has been refining four sector-specific courses ready for rollout from January 2021: Preparing to Work in Childcare and Early Years Education; Preparing to Work in Warehousing and Logistics; Preparing to Work in Hospitality (ready for delivery in Q5 when hospitality work opportunities are predicted to be more numerous); Confident Women.  The Confident Women course will be offered exclusively to women and taught by women, focusing on boosting confidence and providing employment skills to the large number of women registered with the project who have never previously worked outside the home.

During the course of Q3 the SMP project team started to consider ways to boost provision of services by working with other established course providers and external bodies.  For example, the WEA offer a Community Interpreting course, a route in which a number of project beneficiaries are interested.  On completion of this course the project is working up a route in conjunction with CCGs to prepare beneficiaries to deliver health improvement information on the COVID-19 vaccination programme, extending to provision of more general community health advice.  This will serve a mutually beneficial function, providing beneficiaries with valuable employment experience whilst using their skills to assist in crucial local community advocacy on vaccination.

And for those clients who have a skills assessment and action plan but do not currently need an AMIF funded service, employment advice has seen them benefit from referrals to external training providers, eg SWBA, Code Your Future, ESOL, Functional Skills, or to similar or complimentary services to ensure clients are well supported, eg the Shaw Trust.

During Q4 the project’s Employer Liaison Officer will continue to build links with the DWP, other training providers and employers able to offer work placements.  In order to further promote the project’s Employer Liaison service and the benefits of employing refugees, the project team has produced two new pages for the website: WW4RI Employer Liaison - EELGA SMP and WW4RI - Employing Refugees - EELGA SMP

The wellbeing strand of the project continues to collaborate and network across the region, meeting CCGs and ESOL providers to introduce the service available and establish solid referral pathways.  A pilot phase of the project which was rolled out across Cambridgeshire and informed how the wellbeing service across the region would be delivered has been chosen by four MPs to represent the East of England in the Health Equalities award in the national NHS Parliamentary awards: Shortlist | NHS Parliamentary Awards

Although there are a multitude of challenges presented by operating the project under the present circumstances, that targets continue to be met is testament to the resourcefulness and tenacity of those involved.  As delivery overall well exceeds projected targets at this stage, the project is in an excellent position to ride out the current storm of Q4 and emerge later in the Spring to return to in-person teaching and advice sessions, and the full scope of employment opportunities originally envisaged when the project was planned pre-pandemic.

The period July-September has seen significant progress on the project with all six counties having services in place to submit quarterly returns.  The project now has a full team of Employment Advisers and Skills Assessors who have worked extremely hard to promote the project and enrol clients.  As a result, 60 beneficiaries have completed skills assessments and action plans in quarter 2 which brings the project total to 101 beneficiaries, 61 ahead of the projected quarter target figure.  Connections are starting to be made with local businesses, and a wide range of paid employment and volunteering roles have been secured.  The project’s Employer Liaison Officer is working to build networks with regional DWP contacts to encourage engagement with the project.

68 beneficiaries have completed Google classroom enrolment activities while waiting to start relevant ESOL skills pathways.  26 have already embarked on the ESOL and Skills pathways, surpassing the projected quarter target by 11 enrolments.  This includes registrations on classes started this quarter in Essex and Norfolk, in IT Skills and Job Search courses respectively, and 7 cross region registrations to entrepreneur advisers MENTA.  WEA are providing ESOL in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Suffolk.  All learners registered with the WEA ESOL and Skills pathway will benefit from a tablet and data if required to enable them to access 90 hours of learning and can retain the tablet to help with future job searching.  Delivery has been delayed however due to several different factors including approvals from the funders and the slow availability of devices.  The service is now expected to start in Q3.

Q2 has seen 14 beneficiaries access the project’s therapeutic strand, delivered by the Refugee Council.  Early in Q2 the Refugee Council focused on introducing the wellbeing service to stakeholders across the region and as a response received back a substantial inflow of referrals.  They are also working on collaboration with project partner organisations to establish solid referral pathways.  Vacant placements in the service are expected to be filled during Q3 (2 placements within the Refugee Council; 1 placement within the Suffolk Health Outreach team).

A series of online Getting to Know You events in September enabled the project partners and sub-contractors to come together and for each to become more of aware of the project services and how to access the different project strands, consolidating internal networks and communications. The impact of Covid-19 is certainly being felt, but the project team have shown resilience and creativity in adapting to the situation to not only meet but far exceed targets, as the quarterly figures indicate.  Many of these impacts have had immediate practical consequences such as the necessity for dealing with clients online and difficulties securing office space.  But there are other issues which have a more underlying impact on service provision, not least that there are currently no new arrivals under the refugee resettlement scheme, paused due to Covid-19, and a client group who could have benefitted from early access to the wellbeing service.

Activity during the project’s first quarter has seen 41 people already having undertaken a skills assessment, exceeding the projected target of 20, 37 of whom are planning to start on the ESOL and skills pathway.  Most assessments were for people resident in Hertfordshire and Norfolk where employment advisers have been in place since April; two further appointments for Employment Advisors in Essex were made towards the end of the period.  The SMP team has recruited two Employer Liaison Officers during this quarter to identify employers able to provide relevant work experience.

Recruitment of psychological therapists to deliver the well-being stream is progressing well with therapists now in place in Essex, Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and Suffolk.

The exceptional Covid-19 position means that significant adaptations to the ESOL and skills course content and delivery have been required to keep project performance on track.  The ESOL curricula have been re-profiled as the launch course for hospitality would have been readying people to work in a sector with now scarce opportunities. Four courses in driving theory, IT skills, study skills and job search have been prepared to equip beneficiaries with the skills they will need to access the new sector-based ESOL classes which are being drafted.

In the event that we need to deliver all our ESOL curricula on-line for 2020-2021, funding will need to be redirected into buying basic tablets for learners and ensuring that they have sufficient data to be able access the classes.

There are opportunities that this situation is now presenting.  If we move to on-line ESOL, beneficiaries can be recruited more quickly as they will not be required to travel to learn in one classroom.  We have developed an IT ESOL Skills Module as IT will be essential to access vocational courses, undertake work searches and secure work in the UK job market, but this was not one of the sector-specific ESOL programmes that we had originally planned to deliver.  In the event that local Covid-19 lockdowns are enforced, having online skills will be vital for adults seeking work and to support their children at home.

Working with the project partners on mobilisation has been successful and the SMP team has created multiple guidance and networking opportunities. This has ensured consistency across the East of England and provided an opportunity for partners to share experience, best practice and ideas on project delivery. This comment from the Refugee Council exemplifies how we have worked together: ‘We appreciate the difficulty of launching a project during the COVID-19 pandemic and it is testament to the WW4RI team that this has been achieved.’

Quarterly Progress Reports

East of England LGA, Strategic Migration Partnership

Wellbeing and Work for Refugee Integration

Project Report Quarter 13: 1 April 2023 - 30 June 2023

In order to deliver better employment outcomes for refugees, the Wellbeing and Work for Refugee Integration project (WW4RI) continued its holistic work across the East of England. Whilst the target number of beneficiaries had already been met, the project team and partners did not rest on their laurels and continued to ensure continued wraparound services for new and existing participants across the project’s three strands: well-being support; skills & technical language training; and targeted employment support.

Our links with major employers is a strength of the project, with the exemplary support of our Employment Advisors who are employed in each county. In Essex, four beneficiaries were supported with applications and interviews and have secured work this quarter at Stansted Airport; Tesco; Rainbow service; and as a self-employed translator/interpreter; and one client took up a work placement with the East of England Co-Op. IKEA is a key employment partner, working closely in Cambridgeshire and Essex through its employability programme which involves an employment course covering CV writing, preparing for interviews, followed by an interview, and, if they pass the interview, they will be offered 8 weeks paid employment, with possibility of a temporary or permanent employment after the 8 weeks placement. Tesco is also a strong partner in Peterborough, offering to review various CVs. In Hertfordshire, clients have been enrolled onto sector-specific training for forklift training, warehouse operations as well as hair and beauty. In Suffolk, one beneficiary has been promoted to a senior labourer position, now manages a team of labourers and he is being considered for a site-manager role. This was facilitated by courses provided by the project. His livelihood has greatly improved as a result, allowing him to rent a house for his family, which he is currently refurbishing. Also in Suffolk, an individual secured a short-term contract as an accountant, which has boosted her confidence; one beneficiary is working to establish her permanent makeup and massage studio; one has been appointed as the manager of a Lithuanian shop; one secured a job at M&S in Ipswich; another is a teaching assistant at Northgate School; one started working as a flight attendant for WizzAir. The East of England Co-op remains a key partner in some of our counties. In Norfolk and Essex beneficiaries have been encouraged to apply for a role that has opened up at that store following placements. These clients were supported by the employment advisors who helped set up online job application profiles. Two more beneficiaries have requested work placements with East of England Co-op and the project anticipates positive outcomes.

The project continued to provide self-employment support via partners MENTA. In total ten new referrals were made to this service. One recent example is in Suffolk: the beneficiary has established a crochet business through which she sells her products, including bracelets. 61 cases continue to be supported. MENTA is developing video case studies to highlight the success of this initiative.

Certificate recognition is a major challenge faced by refugees. Their university or professional certificates may not be recognised in the UK and require processing via ENIC – the UK National Information Centre for the recognition and evaluation of international qualifications and skills. This comes at a cost, which the project is able to cover for beneficiaries and more than 10 clients have benefitted from this service in this quarter.

Our wellbeing therapists continued to provide services both online and in person. This included in schools, colleges, ESOL classes and hotels and reached both adults and children. Approaches ranged from one-to-one therapy to psychosocial activities including park trips, dance and movement and sewing groups. These non-verbal activities have proved to be especially successful, as clients experienced significant improvements without explicitly discussing their trauma.

The project’s skills and training courses continue to be popular. An overwhelming number of clients continue to enrol of the driving theory course. Others also enrolled on the How to Use the NHS course, finding the role-playing exercises about how to call their GP with particular ailments particularly useful. Meanwhile others found the Understanding the UK Education System Course useful as they had children in school. The project continued to fund widely recognised language exams, specifically the OET (Occupational English Test) necessary for those wishing to enter a medical career; and IELTS (International English Language Testing System) which is necessary for entrance to UK universities and some workplaces. During the quarter nine students were recommended for examination, demonstrating that they could pass the test with a sufficient score (6.5 -7.0) to enter university. A further 20 students are under training and also showing similar aptitude. Our driving theory course remains particularly popular: its flexible curriculum allows it to be tailored to learners’ needs, and one course was altered to focus more on maintenance and the language required at a garage; whilst another was delivered to a majority of Ukrainian learners who had licences already. We are capitalising on the popularity of this course by developing two webinars and an online learning portal, through further funding from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Care (ADASS).

In Refugee Week (19-25 June) we held the successful Let’s Employ Refugees Seminar & Recruitment Fair in Norwich with the organisational support of Norwich County Council People from Abroad Team. The seminar provided regional employers with information about the benefits of employing refugees and how to bridge challenges, while the afternoon session was attended by refugees and international workers and provided an opportunity for direct engagement. Employers present included social care organisations, poultry processing factories, delivery and courier companies and education. The project hopes to maintain links with employer to understand success rates.

Looking at the long-term, the SMP made an application for the Home Office Refugee Employability Programme and were unfortunately unsuccessful. However, we have established close ties with the successful provider in order to transfer our expertise and ensure continuity of service for clients. We are reflecting on how we can best secure the learning from the project and ensure that legacy materials are available for the future. One part of our legacy work is to ensure that we garner sufficient media and communications activity for the project. We onboarded Prominent PR to provide these services. With thanks to their proactive work, we have managed to get attention on local newspapers, websites, and radio. All our press releases are also available on our website.

Please direct any questions about this report to: Louise Gooch at [email protected] or 07834 129582.

East of England LGA, Strategic Migration Partnership

Wellbeing and Work for Refugee Integration

Project Report Quarter 12: 1 January 2023 - 31 March 2023

Overall project aim: To promote effective integration by actions that support access to the labour market for 1164 refugees in the East of England to deliver better employment outcomes for refugees in the East of England.

Overview

Across all streams, this quarter reached a total of 178 new beneficiaries which meets the target. Partners have reported significantly more streamlined referral mechanisms since the establishment of quarterly, in-person, “area” meetings, where representatives from each stream meet to share updates, understand each other’s sectors and solve issues regarding communications or individual cases.

A total of 166 beneficiaries received Skills and Technical Language Training and Employment Support.

Considering the ongoing popularity of the driving theory courses, the project team are exploring funding opportunities which will enable development of enhanced interactive materials online which will enable greater reach and ensure sustainable results beyond the end of the project. 

In February, the team recruited a Training and Compliance Manager who will ensure that successes and good practices are shared with all partners to ensure lessons learnt continue to be applied beyond the project, and into future funding applications. The team also recruited a full-time Project Administrator to prepare the analysis of partners’ quarterly returns.

In March the Project Team awarded a contract to an external PR firm who, using funding from this project, will develop internal and external communications content in partnership with the Project Team and partners. The Team considers this an important activity to promote the many diverse partners’ good work, and amplify and share good practices online, on social, and traditional, media. The team hope that dedicated press releases and social media on employing refugees will attract new employers in future.

Employment Support

During this quarter, 38 beneficiaries entered employment. The sectors that beneficiaries are employed by include administrators, factory workers, delivery drivers, health and social care and working in supermarkets. As the quarter closed, employment advisors continued to support beneficiaries with CV writing, job applications, work placements, volunteering and sector specific training. Training included forklift driving, warehouse distribution, electrics and plumbing and hairdressing. The more tailored, person-centred approach, that was adopted in this quarter is proving very successful and the project team hope to update on more beneficiaries being successfully hired in the next quarter.

The Project Team is strengthening its ties with the East of England Co-op as they are present across Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex and show the requisite interest and capacity to support refugees into employment. One client obtained a Security Industry Authority (SIA) badge with the support of project staff who helped them through the criminal record check processes via their Embassy. Meanwhile, the High Skills Employment Advisor is making links with Stansted Airport to secure work opportunities.

Entrepreneurialism

A total of seven beneficiaries were referred to the services of MENTA Business Support. MENTA and the Project Team held two seed-funding meetings to approve business plans from amongst the project’s beneficiaries. Both beneficiaries (one in Suffolk and one in Norfolk) were successful in their bids, and MENTA will continue to provide them business support in parallel to the project. Workshops provided by MENTA included media and marketing and UK Tax.

Wellbeing support

In this quarter 30 beneficiaries benefitted from wellbeing support.

Skills and Technical Language Training

Training remains a fundamental element of this project to provide beneficiaries the necessary language, employability and specialist skills to enter work. A total of 23 courses ran during the quarter, reaching a total of 166 beneficiaries. Some of the learners took multiple courses with the following breakdown:

Course

Learners

   

Confident Women

31

Driving Theory

84

Understanding the English education system

21

Finance and budgeting

29

How to use the NHS

26

IELTS

21

Introduction to interpreting

14

Mindfulness (Refugee Council)

2

Total ESOL learners

228

Driving theory remains the most popular course across the region.

Summary

We have delivered a well-being or employment service, or both, to a total of 1540 people since we began the project, exceeding the target we set out to have achieved by the end of December 2022. The chart below shows the beneficiaries that joined the project this quarter:

Please direct any questions about this report to: Louise Gooch at [email protected] or 07834 129582

East of England LGA, Strategic Migration Partnership

Wellbeing and Work for Refugee Integration

Project Report Quarter 11: 1 October 2022 - 31 December 2022

Overall project aim: To promote effective integration by actions that support access to the labour market for 590 refugees in the East of England.  We will provide an intensive, wrap around model of support across the region in partnership with the Refugee Council, Health Outreach (Suffolk), Essex Integration, BRASS, PARCA, Suffolk Refugee Support and Norfolk County Council delivering a well-being service and a targeted employment support service. WEA, Gladca, Essex Integration, SLC, Concept and Menta will deliver ESOL & technical language training for employment. This should deliver enhanced employment outcomes for refugees in the East of England.

In addition, this quarter sees us the final results from Kings Arms Project in Bedfordshire and Community Action Dacorum in Hertfordshire, who along with Essex Integration in Essex and Suffolk, should be supporting 47 Afghan households by providing additional / mobile ESOL services to those remote from the central hubs in their counties.

In November we heard that we had been successful in obtaining an extension to the project that will allow us to work through until the end of September 2023, in order to support another 500 unique beneficiaries with employment, well-being or ESOL services. We have taken this as an opportunity to offer some ESOL for integration classes to some lower level learners, as well as continuing to provide ESOL for work courses.

Delivery Objective 1: Pathways to employment

Our network of employment advisers has now registered 958 people to the service, undertaking skills assessments and directing people to the best project pathway for their needs.

Delivery Objective 2: Access to the wellbeing service

284 people have benefited from well-being therapies delivered by the Refugee Council and Suffolk Health Outreach since the project started in April 2020.

Refugee Council therapists are visiting the bridging hotels in the region where Afghans are living temporarily and are networking with councils in Hertfordshire, Southend and Essex Integration to inform them about their wellbeing services and provide group activities to the families as they wait to move.  

Delivery Objective 3: Registration for an ESOL and Skills course and/or refugee entrepreneurship programme

A total of 621 beneficiaries have so far benefitted from one or more of the project’s ESOL and Skills courses.

80 clients are actively working up plans for their businesses with MENTA’s refugee entrepreneur programme. We have held two seed funding panels and are helping to fund refugee entrepreneurs develop their business, one as an interpreter and the second as an LGV driver. 22 refugee entrepreneurs have now started to trade.

On top of the regular IELTS course, in Q11 we offered an IELTS foundation course for those who need IELTS but aren’t working at a high enough level to embark on the full programme, but with the extra support that this programme offers, they can move to the IELTS course in 2023.

5 beneficiaries attended the CSCS preparation course, and three of them passed at first attempt, with one securing work the day after he passed the test.

Lastly, our High Skills Employment Adviser delivered ‘Let’s Employ Refugees’ for employers in Peterborough who are looking to recruit. This has led to vacancies through Sue Ryder and Huntingdonshire Council being made available to our beneficiaries. The project extension will enable us to offer more of these courses across the region.

Delivery Objective 4:  Work placement on completion of a sector-specific Skills Course

No courses that lead into employment sectors finished during Q11 so no beneficiaries were offered work placements.

We have agreed with our funders to refocus our efforts on working with employers through our High Skills Employment Adviser to secure paid opportunities for refugees looking for work, plus for the local employment advisers to encourage beneficiaries to tap into more informal voluntary roles in their neighbourhood.

Delivery Objective 5:  74 new Afghan arrivals with low or no English to access mobile ESOL, ESOL café in Bedford or short ESOL course in the summer of 2022 (how to use the NHS) to help with integration into UK life.

 

A total of 80 eligible learners have accessed this provision. The short ESOL course on using the NHS will be offered to low level learners over 2023, and mobile ESOL will continue where it has been most effective – in Suffolk and Essex.

Successes, achievements and milestones delivered during this reporting period

We have delivered a well-being or employment service, or both, to a total of 1322 people since we began the project, exceeding the target we set out to have achieved by the end of December 2022.

We have reflected on what strands have been most popular and in demand and have used the project extension to focus on them for 2023.

Please direct any questions about this report to: Louise Gooch at [email protected] or 07834 129582

Delivery Objective 1: Pathways to employment

Our network of employment advisers has now registered 848 people to the service, undertaking skills assessments and directing people to the best project pathway for their needs.

 

Delivery Objective 2: Access to the wellbeing service

249 people have benefited from well-being therapies delivered by the Refugee Council and Suffolk Health Outreach since the project started in April 2020.

Refugee Council therapists are visiting the bridging hotels in the region where Afghans are living temporarily and are networking with councils in Hertfordshire, Southend and Essex Integration to inform them about their wellbeing services and provide group activities to the families as they wait to move.  

The make-up of beneficiaries accessing one of these two core services is shown below:

Afghans - 28%

Syrians - 27%

Ukrainians 12%

Hong Kong BNOs - 6%

Delivery Objective 3: Registration for an ESOL and Skills course and/or refugee entrepreneurship programme

A total of 552 beneficiaries have so far benefitted from one or more of the project’s ESOL and Skills courses.

56 clients are actively working up plans for their businesses with MENTA’s refugee entrepreneur programme. We have held two seed funding panels and are helping to fund refugee entrepreneurs develop their business, one as an electrician and the other in the beauty industry.

We revisited the Driving Theory and Job Search courses as one or both will be of particular benefit to Afghans, Hong Kongers and Ukrainians to help improve their opportunities to find work. 62 people started these courses at the end of the quarter.

We ran an expanded online ESOL summer school delivered by SLC and CAD which reached 118 learners, 43 of whom were new beneficiaries.

One IELTS course for continued for high skilled refugees started this quarter, for those who need this qualification to resume their professions. On top of the regular IELTS course, in Q11 we will offer an IELTS foundation course for those who need IELTS but aren’t working at a high enough level to embark on the full programme, but with the extra support that this programme offers, they can move to the IELTS course later in the year.

Lastly, our High Skills Employment Adviser started a Job Search course for graduate refugees looking for bespoke advice and guidance to enter the job market in a way that will enable them to grow into a professional role. 7 participants attended regularly.

 

 

Delivery Objective 4:  Work placement on completion of a sector-specific Skills Course

No courses that lead into employment sectors finished during Q10 so no beneficiaries were offered work placements.

We no longer employ an Employment Liaison Officer but have instead developed the role of High Skills Employment Adviser, to build capacity for the local employment advisers and to develop resources for graduate beneficiaries. As well as the course delivered to beneficiaries by this High Skills Employment Adviser, she has delivered a training workshop for HR leads in our local councils to encourage them to recruit refugees. We are working with the NHS International Recruitment Team and Anglia Ruskin University to progress a programme to allow medics who qualified overseas to practice in the UK.    

Successes, achievements and milestones delivered during this reporting period

We have delivered a well-being or employment service, or both, to a total of 1200 people since we began the project, exceeding the target we set out to have achieved by the end of December 2022.

The additional funding we were awarded from AMIF to support Afghan refugees living in the region last quarter has enabled us to work with Kings Arms Project in Bedfordshire, Essex Integration in Suffolk and Essex and Community Action Dacorum in Hertfordshire. The programme has started slowly with recruitment of ESOL teachers a challenge, but we are reaching 35 households who can’t access ‘hub’ ESOL locations because of transport challenges, health issues or caring responsibilities.

We completed 3 ESOL health literacy course for a total of 30 learners in Peterborough, Colchester and Norwich which ran over 5 weeks to maintain and improve ESOL levels when colleges close for the summer.  

 

Please direct any questions about this report to: Louise Gooch at [email protected] or 07834 129582

Delivery Objective 1: Pathways to employment

Our network of employment advisers has now registered 679 people to the service, undertaking skills assessments and directing people to the best project pathway for their needs. Our services are now reaching 234 Afghans and 42 Hong Kong BN(O)s, plus 36 new Ukrainian arrivals.

Delivery Objective 2: Access to the wellbeing service

214 people have benefited from well-being therapies delivered by the Refugee Council and Suffolk Health Outreach since the project started in April 2020.

Refugee Council therapists are visiting the bridging hotels in the region where Afghans are living temporarily. They are connecting with councils in Hertfordshire, Southend and Essex Integration to inform them about their wellbeing services and provide group activities to the families as they wait to move.  

Delivery Objective 3: Registration for an ESOL and Skills course and/or refugee entrepreneurship programme

A total of 369 beneficiaries have so far benefitted from one or more of the project’s ESOL and Skills courses.

60 clients are actively working up plans for their businesses with MENTA’s refugee entrepreneur programme. We have held three seed funding panels and are helping to fund refugee entrepreneurs in catering, beauty and translation.

We revisited the Driving Theory and Job Search courses as one or both will be of particular benefit to Afghans, Hong Kongers and Ukrainians to help improve their opportunities to find work.

We set up one IELTS course for high skilled refugees who need this qualification to resume their professions. On top of the regular IELTS course, we have also developed an IELTS foundation course for those who need IELTS but aren’t working at a high enough level to embark on the full programme, but with the extra support that this programme offers, they can move to the IELTS course later in the year.

Delivery Objective 4:  Work placement on completion of a sector-specific Skills Course

No courses that lead into employment sectors finished during Q9 so the 7 people taking up placements this quarter are beneficiaries who have finished earlier courses. Our Employer Liaison Officer moved to a new role in a partner organisation making it harder to make progress this quarter.

However, we have recruited a High Skills Employment Adviser for the region who is working on 22 referrals from the local employment advisers for those beneficiaries who need bespoke support to help them find a way back into the work they are qualified to do. We are working with the NHS International Recruitment Team in the region to progress towards suitable employment for the ones who have medical careers.    

Successes, achievements and milestones delivered during this reporting period

We have delivered a well-being or employment service, or both, to a total of 993 people since we began the project, exceeding the target we set out to have achieved by the end of December 2022.

The additional funding we were awarded from AMIF to support Afghan refugees living in the region last quarter has enabled us to work with Kings Arms Project in Bedfordshire, Essex Integration in Suffolk and Essex and Community Action Dacorum in Hertfordshire. The programme has started slowly with recruitment of ESOL teachers a challenge, but we are reaching 17 households who can’t access ‘hub’ ESOL locations because of transport challenges, health issues or caring responsibilities.

We have started a ESOL health literacy course for 11 learners in Peterborough which will be running over 5 weeks to maintain and improve ESOL levels when colleges close for the summer.  This programme will help new Afghan arrivals to use the NHS. Colchester and Norwich classes will follow in Q10.

Planning started in Q9 to commission providers to deliver ESOL summer schools for 100 low level ESOL learners who currently can’t access our services. Two providers will be delivering these online classes in Q10.

Pathways to employment

Our network of employment advisers has now registered 589 people to the service, undertaking skills assessments and directing people to the best project pathway for their needs. A number of those registered onto the project during this quarter are Afghans and Hong Kong BN(O)s – a trend we expect to continue.

Access to the wellbeing service

202 people have benefited from well-being therapies delivered by the Refugee Council and Suffolk Health Outreach since the project started in April 2020.

Refugee Council therapists are visiting the bridging hotels in the region where Afghans are living temporarily and are networking with local councils, British Red Cross and Essex Integration to inform them about their wellbeing services and provide group activities to the families as they wait to move.  

Registrations for an ESOL and Skills course and/or refugee entrepreneurship programme

A total of 377 beneficiaries have so far benefitted from one or more of the project’s ESOL and Skills courses. The Preparing to Work in Childcare course has run successfully across most of the region. This course has led to many work placements being offered by schools keen to offer their support.

3 learners who took part in a new course for warehouse work in Peterborough, secured a placement which has led to paid work with AM Fresh, and another with Clipper.

52 clients are actively working up plans for their businesses with MENTA’s refugee entrepreneur programme. 4 learners who took part in Concept Training’s construction industry CSCS course have passed the qualification and another 7 are planning resits in Q9. 

We revisited the Driving Theory and Job Search courses as both will be of particular benefit to Afghans and Hong Kongers to help improve their opportunities to find work. These courses are proving particularly popular.

We set up the second IELTS course for high skilled refugees who need this qualification to resume their professions.

Work placement on completion of a sector-specific Skills Course

Courses in three different employment sectors finished during Q8, enabling us to start working with a wider range of employers. Preparing to Work in Childcare, Preparing to Work with Customers, and Preparing to Work in Warehousing and Logistics were run across the region.  Of the 27 placements offered to course graduates around the region in Q8, 18 have been accepted and all have either completed, are in progress or awaiting recruitment processes to be finalised in order to start.

Q8 has seen a range of new work placement providers come forward to work with us, and we now have opportunities in retail (East of England Coop), in construction (SEH & Colchester Borough Homes), in warehousing (AM Fresh and Clipper) and with the NHS as well as the many schools across the region that are supporting our placements.

Successes, achievements and milestones delivered during this reporting period

We have been awarded additional funding from AMIF to support Afghan refugees living in the region. We will be working with Kings Arms Project in Bedfordshire, Essex Integration in Suffolk and Essex and Community Action Dacorum in Hertfordshire to offer mobile ESOL teachers to 35 households who can’t access ‘hub’ ESOL locations because of transport challenges, health issues or caring responsibilities.

And in Colchester, Peterborough and Norwich we will be offering a ‘Health Literacy’ ESOL summer school over 5 weeks to maintain and improve ESOL levels when colleges close for the summer.  This programme will help new Afghan arrivals to use the NHS.

A regional High Skills Employment Adviser has been recruited to help professionally qualified beneficiaries we are supporting from Afghanistan, Hong Kong and elsewhere to find the most effective way back into their professions.  We have had 8 referrals from across the region and more are expected soon.  Some beneficiaries have come from a medical background with qualifications that are not recognised at the same level in the UK.  We are working with the NHS International Recruitment Team in the region to progress towards suitable employment for them.   Across all sectors, we’re also beginning the process of introducing mentoring by professionals in the same industry on a 1-2-1 basis. 

 Well-being Therapist support has been boosted in Bedfordshire and Essex.  

Menta’s seed-funding initiative. This was informed by our participation in the refugee entrepreneurship pilot - Centre for Entrepreneurs pilot project, where it was identified that refugee start-ups struggle to secure the informal capital that indigenous entrepreneurs can access from friends and family. We now have a small pot to fund grants to get businesses started. Our second award was made in Q8 to a refugee entrepreneur in Essex to support his goal of establishing a painting and decorating business.  

The Refugee Council facilitated 3 new psychoeducational workshops to support beneficiaries dealing with a range of trauma. They were well attended by more than 25 refugees from across the region.

The beginning of Q7 was a period of some stability which lasted until the reintroduction of the Covid work from home guidance. During the period of stability, project partners and local employers came to together in October for a fair in Peterborough which attracted 40 beneficiaries. This pilot event was one of the topics presented to the whole project team, at an event in November which saw all the project strands gathered together for the first time. It was an opportunity for reflection on project achievements and a chance to plan for how we can build on these going into the final year of the project. Key decisions made mean that we are now recruiting for:

- A regional High Skills Employment Adviser – to help the professionally qualified beneficiaries we are supporting from Afghanistan, Hong Kong and elsewhere find the most effective way back into their professions.

- Well-being Therapists for parts of the region where we have not had this service before: south Essex and Bedfordshire.  

Following the success of the pilot courses, we are tendering for an IELTS provider to deliver a series of courses across 2022 to provide high skilled beneficiaries with evidence of their English level.

The November event was also where Menta launched their seed-funding initiative. This was informed by our participation in this pilot project: refugee entrepreneurship pilot - Centre for Entrepreneurs, where it was identified that refugee start-ups struggle to secure the informal capital that indigenous entrepreneurs can access from friends and family. We now have a small pot to fund grants to get businesses started. Our first award was made in Q7 to a refugee entrepreneur in Bedfordshire to support his goal to establish a badminton academy.

Q7 has seen more work placements providers come forward to work with us, and we now have opportunities in retail (East of England Coop), in construction (SEH & Colchester Borough Homes), in warehousing (AM Fresh) and with the NHS as well as the many schools across the region which are supporting our placements.

The beginning of Q6 was a period of some stability and the lifting of lockdown restrictions in mid-July enabled partner organisations’ offices to reopen and project team meetings in Ipswich and Bedford to take place, facilitating in-person communications and cross-project networking and collaboration. However, the period has also been marked by the events in Afghanistan and ensuing arrival of Afghans into the UK at an unpredicted scale and speed.  In terms of the project, this is requiring a reassessment of our provision for a different client-base, ensuring that the newly arrived Afghans (and Hong Kong BN(O)s who have also started to arrive in greater numbers), many of whom have professional qualifications, can be assisted into employment relative to their existing skills and experience.  This will involve adjusting existing courses to suit higher ESOL levels and assisting with qualification conversion and preparation for IELTS and other high-level language testing required for entry into higher education and professional occupations.  The project’s wellbeing therapists are already registering new Afghan arrivals and visiting bridging hotels where they are meeting directly with families to learn more about their current needs and two additional therapist roles have been advertised to cope with the requirement for increased capacity.

The E2 Summer Schools which took place during this period were an overwhelming success, enabling many beneficiaries region-wide to progress into the project’s skills courses this Autumn.  The first Childcare course finished in Q6 followed by the first work placement in a school at the beginning of term and further Childcare courses have now either started or have been scheduled in all parts of the region.  43 placements have now been offered in schools around the region, providing a good choice for beneficiaries in terms of location and education setting once they complete their course.  The first Preparing to Work with Customers course started late in Q6 in some parts of the region, and employers are currently being sought to offer work experience placements in customer-facing roles for course graduates. 

Looking towards Q7, we are planning the first whole project in-person meeting in November, gathering all project strands together for the first time to discuss project achievements and how we can build on these going into the final year of the project. Q7-8 will see some exciting developments in the project’s direction and scope and the fruition of groundwork laid during earlier quarters and we look forward to reporting on this early next year.

Road to Recovery

As we moved gradually towards a loosening of restrictions during the early summer and are seeing the first green shoots of recovery, we have been able to adapt the project correspondingly.  During this period the sector-specific courses have been reframed in consultation with the project Employment Advisers, informed by direct feedback from the project beneficiaries.  Two new curricula now complete the full suite of courses on offer: Preparing to Work with Food and Preparing to Work with Customers. These will assist employment pathways into hospitality, a newly re-opened sector currently experiencing severe staffing shortages, and a diverse range of opportunities in customer-facing roles. The courses will also dovetail into and enhance the self-employment support provided by our project partner MENTA for refugee entrepreneurs wanting to open their own hospitality business, and we hope these new courses will be well received.

146 project beneficiaries have now taken part in the project’s existing courses comprising the core curricula courses Driving Theory, IT Skills, Study Skills, Job Search Skills and Confident Women.  In addition, the first two sector-specific courses Preparing to Work in Childcare started during Q5 for Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Suffolk beneficiaries who would like to work in educational settings.  Finishing early in Q6, beneficiaries from these courses can then move into short term work experience placements in schools to consolidate their learning, and placements have now been secured in schools for the first cohort to move into at the start of the next academic year. Sector-specific courses in Essex, Norfolk and Peterborough are due to commence later in the year, with placements in those counties being arranged for early 2022.

For those project beneficiaries currently at too low a level of ESOL to register onto these courses (E3 being the minimum requirement), E2 Summer Schools have been organised across the region, starting in Q5 and continuing over the summer.  These will improve the English of beneficiaries at E2 to a sufficient extent that they are then able to take part in the project’s courses during the Autumn and into the final year of the project.  There has been much interest in registering onto the summer schools with all classes now full to capacity.

With lockdown easing, the team were able to hold their first in-person meeting for the Cambridgeshire-based project members in the beautiful surroundings of the Peterborough Quaker Meeting House garden, the local project base for Refugee Council’s therapy service.  This facilitated an in-depth discussion on cross-functional collaboration across the project strands in the area, with representatives from the wellbeing and employment services and from UKRA, together with the ESOL coordinator and other EELGA SMP project team members.  The project team are planning further in- person meetings in other parts of the region as circumstances allow.

Formal qualitative exploration of the project is now underway, beginning in May and running through to April 2022.  Research consultancy ERS has been appointed to undertake the evaluation, funded by the Bell Foundation, commencing with the production of a logic model followed by a series of focus groups and interviews with key stakeholders throughout Q6.  By Q7 a detailed evaluation plan should be in place and interviews with beneficiaries will be taking place towards the latter part of the year.  An interim report will be produced in January 2022 and a final report in July 2022.

At this half-way stage of the project a total of 432 beneficiaries have thus far been actively participating in the programme across the East of England.  That these high numbers have been reached in such a challenging year gives some indication, and much optimism, about what could be achieved in less precarious times.

Overcoming challenges in national lockdown

Q4 (Jan-Mar 2021) proved to be an extremely challenging quarter since all parts of the region were subject to national lockdown restrictions for the entire period. Even so, the whole team, partner organisations and subcontractors were able to exceed their targets for completing skills assessments, people accessing the wellbeing service and the numbers registering and attending ESOL and Skills classes (including the construction course offered by Concept Training and the entrepreneurs’ support by MENTA) during this period. Across the project, employment advisers, therapists and ESOL providers are now working with more than 327 beneficiaries against a target of 225.

As a result of the national lockdown, it was not possible for employment advisers, therapists and ESOL tutors to meet beneficiaries in-person. This led to a slower rate of referrals and a lower take-up of the ESOL and Skills courses. The challenges associated with online learning (such as access to devices, data and in particular the necessary digital skills) remained a problem for some learners. The consequences of this included lower attendance and a higher number of dropouts since people were again managing children not being in school and nursery as well as many other issues created by the ‘stay at home’ requirements.

A range of ESOL & Skills classes took place during the quarter. These included job search, driving theory, IT skills and study skills. The first Concept-run course to obtain a CSCS card and work in the construction industry also started in Q4. MENTA continues to offer support to refugee entrepreneurs and we expect to see a number of Bedfordshire entrepreneurs accessing this service in Q5. Their 1-to-1 advice – of course provided remotely in Q4 – is complemented by an online course on relevant subjects. The first module covers moving from Universal Credit to the DWP self-employment track.

The Confident Women course is scheduled to take place in Q5 and we expect to run the various Preparing to Work In courses (hospitality, childcare and warehousing) in Q5 and Q6. Concept will also run an additional course to obtain an SIA card for the security industry.

We currently have no plans to expand the range of ESOL courses on offer but recognise that many potential participants are working at ESOL levels below Entry 3. In order to secure and maintain the pipeline of learners for future quarters, we will be running general Entry 2 ESOL classes in Q5 and Q6 as on-line summer schools. We hope that these learners will then be able to access the other courses by the end of 2021 or the start of 2022.

Achieving our Targets in Challenging Times

The project’s Q3 period between October to December 2020 saw significant upward growth across all areas of the project and all project strands are meeting and in many cases far exceeding projected targets; a significant achievement under the extraordinary conditions presented by COVID-19. 

Employment Advisers and Skills Assessors have worked extremely hard to promote the project and have completed a total of 193 skills assessments and action plans for beneficiaries across the region, directing each to a relevant project pathway, which surpasses the cumulative target for the end of Q3 of 110. 34 refugees have taken up wellbeing provision with the service to date and the wellbeing team have adopted a robust foundation in delivering therapeutic services using online platforms. The project’s ESOL core curricula courses (IT Skills, Job Search Skills, Driving Theory) are now operating in all counties with 72 beneficiaries attending, mostly online, classes across the region, and 23 project beneficiaries have been accepted onto the MENTA Refugee Entrepreneur Support Programme and have begun their 1:1 sessions with a business adviser to support them through the various stages of setting up a business.

In October the project was formally launched via a virtual MS Teams Live event with the aim of ensuring that all relevant organisations in the region are aware of the project and how to refer potential beneficiaries into the services offered.  Over 100 people attended and very encouraging post-event feedback was received.  The keynote speech from a former UASC and the films of resettled refugees working in the region produced for the event have been adapted to be included into the ESOL and Skills modules.

Consolidating the Project Pathways

The ESOL core curricula (IT Skills, Job Search Skills, Study Skills, Driving Theory) are now being delivered region-wide and the project’s ESOL Coordinator has been refining four sector-specific courses ready for rollout from January 2021: Preparing to Work in Childcare and Early Years Education; Preparing to Work in Warehousing and Logistics; Preparing to Work in Hospitality (ready for delivery in Q5 when hospitality work opportunities are predicted to be more numerous); Confident Women.  The Confident Women course will be offered exclusively to women and taught by women, focusing on boosting confidence and providing employment skills to the large number of women registered with the project who have never previously worked outside the home.

During the course of Q3 the SMP project team started to consider ways to boost provision of services by working with other established course providers and external bodies.  For example, the WEA offer a Community Interpreting course, a route in which a number of project beneficiaries are interested.  On completion of this course the project is working up a route in conjunction with CCGs to prepare beneficiaries to deliver health improvement information on the COVID-19 vaccination programme, extending to provision of more general community health advice.  This will serve a mutually beneficial function, providing beneficiaries with valuable employment experience whilst using their skills to assist in crucial local community advocacy on vaccination.

And for those clients who have a skills assessment and action plan but do not currently need an AMIF funded service, employment advice has seen them benefit from referrals to external training providers, eg SWBA, Code Your Future, ESOL, Functional Skills, or to similar or complimentary services to ensure clients are well supported, eg the Shaw Trust.

During Q4 the project’s Employer Liaison Officer will continue to build links with the DWP, other training providers and employers able to offer work placements.  In order to further promote the project’s Employer Liaison service and the benefits of employing refugees, the project team has produced two new pages for the website: WW4RI Employer Liaison - EELGA SMP and WW4RI - Employing Refugees - EELGA SMP

The wellbeing strand of the project continues to collaborate and network across the region, meeting CCGs and ESOL providers to introduce the service available and establish solid referral pathways.  A pilot phase of the project which was rolled out across Cambridgeshire and informed how the wellbeing service across the region would be delivered has been chosen by four MPs to represent the East of England in the Health Equalities award in the national NHS Parliamentary awards: Shortlist | NHS Parliamentary Awards

Although there are a multitude of challenges presented by operating the project under the present circumstances, that targets continue to be met is testament to the resourcefulness and tenacity of those involved.  As delivery overall well exceeds projected targets at this stage, the project is in an excellent position to ride out the current storm of Q4 and emerge later in the Spring to return to in-person teaching and advice sessions, and the full scope of employment opportunities originally envisaged when the project was planned pre-pandemic.

The period July-September has seen significant progress on the project with all six counties having services in place to submit quarterly returns.  The project now has a full team of Employment Advisers and Skills Assessors who have worked extremely hard to promote the project and enrol clients.  As a result, 60 beneficiaries have completed skills assessments and action plans in quarter 2 which brings the project total to 101 beneficiaries, 61 ahead of the projected quarter target figure.  Connections are starting to be made with local businesses, and a wide range of paid employment and volunteering roles have been secured.  The project’s Employer Liaison Officer is working to build networks with regional DWP contacts to encourage engagement with the project.

68 beneficiaries have completed Google classroom enrolment activities while waiting to start relevant ESOL skills pathways.  26 have already embarked on the ESOL and Skills pathways, surpassing the projected quarter target by 11 enrolments.  This includes registrations on classes started this quarter in Essex and Norfolk, in IT Skills and Job Search courses respectively, and 7 cross region registrations to entrepreneur advisers MENTA.  WEA are providing ESOL in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Suffolk.  All learners registered with the WEA ESOL and Skills pathway will benefit from a tablet and data if required to enable them to access 90 hours of learning and can retain the tablet to help with future job searching.  Delivery has been delayed however due to several different factors including approvals from the funders and the slow availability of devices.  The service is now expected to start in Q3.

Q2 has seen 14 beneficiaries access the project’s therapeutic strand, delivered by the Refugee Council.  Early in Q2 the Refugee Council focused on introducing the wellbeing service to stakeholders across the region and as a response received back a substantial inflow of referrals.  They are also working on collaboration with project partner organisations to establish solid referral pathways.  Vacant placements in the service are expected to be filled during Q3 (2 placements within the Refugee Council; 1 placement within the Suffolk Health Outreach team).

A series of online Getting to Know You events in September enabled the project partners and sub-contractors to come together and for each to become more of aware of the project services and how to access the different project strands, consolidating internal networks and communications. The impact of Covid-19 is certainly being felt, but the project team have shown resilience and creativity in adapting to the situation to not only meet but far exceed targets, as the quarterly figures indicate.  Many of these impacts have had immediate practical consequences such as the necessity for dealing with clients online and difficulties securing office space.  But there are other issues which have a more underlying impact on service provision, not least that there are currently no new arrivals under the refugee resettlement scheme, paused due to Covid-19, and a client group who could have benefitted from early access to the wellbeing service.

Activity during the project’s first quarter has seen 41 people already having undertaken a skills assessment, exceeding the projected target of 20, 37 of whom are planning to start on the ESOL and skills pathway.  Most assessments were for people resident in Hertfordshire and Norfolk where employment advisers have been in place since April; two further appointments for Employment Advisors in Essex were made towards the end of the period.  The SMP team has recruited two Employer Liaison Officers during this quarter to identify employers able to provide relevant work experience.

Recruitment of psychological therapists to deliver the well-being stream is progressing well with therapists now in place in Essex, Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and Suffolk.

The exceptional Covid-19 position means that significant adaptations to the ESOL and skills course content and delivery have been required to keep project performance on track.  The ESOL curricula have been re-profiled as the launch course for hospitality would have been readying people to work in a sector with now scarce opportunities. Four courses in driving theory, IT skills, study skills and job search have been prepared to equip beneficiaries with the skills they will need to access the new sector-based ESOL classes which are being drafted.

In the event that we need to deliver all our ESOL curricula on-line for 2020-2021, funding will need to be redirected into buying basic tablets for learners and ensuring that they have sufficient data to be able access the classes.

There are opportunities that this situation is now presenting.  If we move to on-line ESOL, beneficiaries can be recruited more quickly as they will not be required to travel to learn in one classroom.  We have developed an IT ESOL Skills Module as IT will be essential to access vocational courses, undertake work searches and secure work in the UK job market, but this was not one of the sector-specific ESOL programmes that we had originally planned to deliver.  In the event that local Covid-19 lockdowns are enforced, having online skills will be vital for adults seeking work and to support their children at home.

Working with the project partners on mobilisation has been successful and the SMP team has created multiple guidance and networking opportunities. This has ensured consistency across the East of England and provided an opportunity for partners to share experience, best practice and ideas on project delivery. This comment from the Refugee Council exemplifies how we have worked together: ‘We appreciate the difficulty of launching a project during the COVID-19 pandemic and it is testament to the WW4RI team that this has been achieved.’

East of England LGA, Strategic Migration Partnership

Wellbeing and Work for Refugee Integration

Project Report Quarter 13: 1 April 2023 - 30 June 2023

In order to deliver better employment outcomes for refugees, the Wellbeing and Work for Refugee Integration project (WW4RI) continued its holistic work across the East of England. Whilst the target number of beneficiaries had already been met, the project team and partners did not rest on their laurels and continued to ensure continued wraparound services for new and existing participants across the project’s three strands: well-being support; skills & technical language training; and targeted employment support.

Our links with major employers is a strength of the project, with the exemplary support of our Employment Advisors who are employed in each county. In Essex, four beneficiaries were supported with applications and interviews and have secured work this quarter at Stansted Airport; Tesco; Rainbow service; and as a self-employed translator/interpreter; and one client took up a work placement with the East of England Co-Op. IKEA is a key employment partner, working closely in Cambridgeshire and Essex through its employability programme which involves an employment course covering CV writing, preparing for interviews, followed by an interview, and, if they pass the interview, they will be offered 8 weeks paid employment, with possibility of a temporary or permanent employment after the 8 weeks placement. Tesco is also a strong partner in Peterborough, offering to review various CVs. In Hertfordshire, clients have been enrolled onto sector-specific training for forklift training, warehouse operations as well as hair and beauty. In Suffolk, one beneficiary has been promoted to a senior labourer position, now manages a team of labourers and he is being considered for a site-manager role. This was facilitated by courses provided by the project. His livelihood has greatly improved as a result, allowing him to rent a house for his family, which he is currently refurbishing. Also in Suffolk, an individual secured a short-term contract as an accountant, which has boosted her confidence; one beneficiary is working to establish her permanent makeup and massage studio; one has been appointed as the manager of a Lithuanian shop; one secured a job at M&S in Ipswich; another is a teaching assistant at Northgate School; one started working as a flight attendant for WizzAir. The East of England Co-op remains a key partner in some of our counties. In Norfolk and Essex beneficiaries have been encouraged to apply for a role that has opened up at that store following placements. These clients were supported by the employment advisors who helped set up online job application profiles. Two more beneficiaries have requested work placements with East of England Co-op and the project anticipates positive outcomes.

The project continued to provide self-employment support via partners MENTA. In total ten new referrals were made to this service. One recent example is in Suffolk: the beneficiary has established a crochet business through which she sells her products, including bracelets. 61 cases continue to be supported. MENTA is developing video case studies to highlight the success of this initiative.

Certificate recognition is a major challenge faced by refugees. Their university or professional certificates may not be recognised in the UK and require processing via ENIC – the UK National Information Centre for the recognition and evaluation of international qualifications and skills. This comes at a cost, which the project is able to cover for beneficiaries and more than 10 clients have benefitted from this service in this quarter.

Our wellbeing therapists continued to provide services both online and in person. This included in schools, colleges, ESOL classes and hotels and reached both adults and children. Approaches ranged from one-to-one therapy to psychosocial activities including park trips, dance and movement and sewing groups. These non-verbal activities have proved to be especially successful, as clients experienced significant improvements without explicitly discussing their trauma.

The project’s skills and training courses continue to be popular. An overwhelming number of clients continue to enrol of the driving theory course. Others also enrolled on the How to Use the NHS course, finding the role-playing exercises about how to call their GP with particular ailments particularly useful. Meanwhile others found the Understanding the UK Education System Course useful as they had children in school. The project continued to fund widely recognised language exams, specifically the OET (Occupational English Test) necessary for those wishing to enter a medical career; and IELTS (International English Language Testing System) which is necessary for entrance to UK universities and some workplaces. During the quarter nine students were recommended for examination, demonstrating that they could pass the test with a sufficient score (6.5 -7.0) to enter university. A further 20 students are under training and also showing similar aptitude. Our driving theory course remains particularly popular: its flexible curriculum allows it to be tailored to learners’ needs, and one course was altered to focus more on maintenance and the language required at a garage; whilst another was delivered to a majority of Ukrainian learners who had licences already. We are capitalising on the popularity of this course by developing two webinars and an online learning portal, through further funding from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Care (ADASS).

In Refugee Week (19-25 June) we held the successful Let’s Employ Refugees Seminar & Recruitment Fair in Norwich with the organisational support of Norwich County Council People from Abroad Team. The seminar provided regional employers with information about the benefits of employing refugees and how to bridge challenges, while the afternoon session was attended by refugees and international workers and provided an opportunity for direct engagement. Employers present included social care organisations, poultry processing factories, delivery and courier companies and education. The project hopes to maintain links with employer to understand success rates.

Looking at the long-term, the SMP made an application for the Home Office Refugee Employability Programme and were unfortunately unsuccessful. However, we have established close ties with the successful provider in order to transfer our expertise and ensure continuity of service for clients. We are reflecting on how we can best secure the learning from the project and ensure that legacy materials are available for the future. One part of our legacy work is to ensure that we garner sufficient media and communications activity for the project. We onboarded Prominent PR to provide these services. With thanks to their proactive work, we have managed to get attention on local newspapers, websites, and radio. All our press releases are also available on our website.

Please direct any questions about this report to: Louise Gooch at [email protected] or 07834 129582.

East of England LGA, Strategic Migration Partnership

Wellbeing and Work for Refugee Integration

Project Report Quarter 12: 1 January 2023 - 31 March 2023

Overall project aim: To promote effective integration by actions that support access to the labour market for 1164 refugees in the East of England to deliver better employment outcomes for refugees in the East of England.

Overview

Across all streams, this quarter reached a total of 178 new beneficiaries which meets the target. Partners have reported significantly more streamlined referral mechanisms since the establishment of quarterly, in-person, “area” meetings, where representatives from each stream meet to share updates, understand each other’s sectors and solve issues regarding communications or individual cases.

A total of 166 beneficiaries received Skills and Technical Language Training and Employment Support.

Considering the ongoing popularity of the driving theory courses, the project team are exploring funding opportunities which will enable development of enhanced interactive materials online which will enable greater reach and ensure sustainable results beyond the end of the project. 

In February, the team recruited a Training and Compliance Manager who will ensure that successes and good practices are shared with all partners to ensure lessons learnt continue to be applied beyond the project, and into future funding applications. The team also recruited a full-time Project Administrator to prepare the analysis of partners’ quarterly returns.

In March the Project Team awarded a contract to an external PR firm who, using funding from this project, will develop internal and external communications content in partnership with the Project Team and partners. The Team considers this an important activity to promote the many diverse partners’ good work, and amplify and share good practices online, on social, and traditional, media. The team hope that dedicated press releases and social media on employing refugees will attract new employers in future.

Employment Support

During this quarter, 38 beneficiaries entered employment. The sectors that beneficiaries are employed by include administrators, factory workers, delivery drivers, health and social care and working in supermarkets. As the quarter closed, employment advisors continued to support beneficiaries with CV writing, job applications, work placements, volunteering and sector specific training. Training included forklift driving, warehouse distribution, electrics and plumbing and hairdressing. The more tailored, person-centred approach, that was adopted in this quarter is proving very successful and the project team hope to update on more beneficiaries being successfully hired in the next quarter.

The Project Team is strengthening its ties with the East of England Co-op as they are present across Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex and show the requisite interest and capacity to support refugees into employment. One client obtained a Security Industry Authority (SIA) badge with the support of project staff who helped them through the criminal record check processes via their Embassy. Meanwhile, the High Skills Employment Advisor is making links with Stansted Airport to secure work opportunities.

Entrepreneurialism

A total of seven beneficiaries were referred to the services of MENTA Business Support. MENTA and the Project Team held two seed-funding meetings to approve business plans from amongst the project’s beneficiaries. Both beneficiaries (one in Suffolk and one in Norfolk) were successful in their bids, and MENTA will continue to provide them business support in parallel to the project. Workshops provided by MENTA included media and marketing and UK Tax.

Wellbeing support

In this quarter 30 beneficiaries benefitted from wellbeing support.

Skills and Technical Language Training

Training remains a fundamental element of this project to provide beneficiaries the necessary language, employability and specialist skills to enter work. A total of 23 courses ran during the quarter, reaching a total of 166 beneficiaries. Some of the learners took multiple courses with the following breakdown:

Course

Learners

   

Confident Women

31

Driving Theory

84

Understanding the English education system

21

Finance and budgeting

29

How to use the NHS

26

IELTS

21

Introduction to interpreting

14

Mindfulness (Refugee Council)

2

Total ESOL learners

228

Driving theory remains the most popular course across the region.

Summary

We have delivered a well-being or employment service, or both, to a total of 1540 people since we began the project, exceeding the target we set out to have achieved by the end of December 2022. The chart below shows the beneficiaries that joined the project this quarter:

Please direct any questions about this report to: Louise Gooch at [email protected] or 07834 129582

East of England LGA, Strategic Migration Partnership

Wellbeing and Work for Refugee Integration

Project Report Quarter 11: 1 October 2022 - 31 December 2022

Overall project aim: To promote effective integration by actions that support access to the labour market for 590 refugees in the East of England.  We will provide an intensive, wrap around model of support across the region in partnership with the Refugee Council, Health Outreach (Suffolk), Essex Integration, BRASS, PARCA, Suffolk Refugee Support and Norfolk County Council delivering a well-being service and a targeted employment support service. WEA, Gladca, Essex Integration, SLC, Concept and Menta will deliver ESOL & technical language training for employment. This should deliver enhanced employment outcomes for refugees in the East of England.

In addition, this quarter sees us the final results from Kings Arms Project in Bedfordshire and Community Action Dacorum in Hertfordshire, who along with Essex Integration in Essex and Suffolk, should be supporting 47 Afghan households by providing additional / mobile ESOL services to those remote from the central hubs in their counties.

In November we heard that we had been successful in obtaining an extension to the project that will allow us to work through until the end of September 2023, in order to support another 500 unique beneficiaries with employment, well-being or ESOL services. We have taken this as an opportunity to offer some ESOL for integration classes to some lower level learners, as well as continuing to provide ESOL for work courses.

Delivery Objective 1: Pathways to employment

Our network of employment advisers has now registered 958 people to the service, undertaking skills assessments and directing people to the best project pathway for their needs.

Delivery Objective 2: Access to the wellbeing service

284 people have benefited from well-being therapies delivered by the Refugee Council and Suffolk Health Outreach since the project started in April 2020.

Refugee Council therapists are visiting the bridging hotels in the region where Afghans are living temporarily and are networking with councils in Hertfordshire, Southend and Essex Integration to inform them about their wellbeing services and provide group activities to the families as they wait to move.  

Delivery Objective 3: Registration for an ESOL and Skills course and/or refugee entrepreneurship programme

A total of 621 beneficiaries have so far benefitted from one or more of the project’s ESOL and Skills courses.

80 clients are actively working up plans for their businesses with MENTA’s refugee entrepreneur programme. We have held two seed funding panels and are helping to fund refugee entrepreneurs develop their business, one as an interpreter and the second as an LGV driver. 22 refugee entrepreneurs have now started to trade.

On top of the regular IELTS course, in Q11 we offered an IELTS foundation course for those who need IELTS but aren’t working at a high enough level to embark on the full programme, but with the extra support that this programme offers, they can move to the IELTS course in 2023.

5 beneficiaries attended the CSCS preparation course, and three of them passed at first attempt, with one securing work the day after he passed the test.

Lastly, our High Skills Employment Adviser delivered ‘Let’s Employ Refugees’ for employers in Peterborough who are looking to recruit. This has led to vacancies through Sue Ryder and Huntingdonshire Council being made available to our beneficiaries. The project extension will enable us to offer more of these courses across the region.

Delivery Objective 4:  Work placement on completion of a sector-specific Skills Course

No courses that lead into employment sectors finished during Q11 so no beneficiaries were offered work placements.

We have agreed with our funders to refocus our efforts on working with employers through our High Skills Employment Adviser to secure paid opportunities for refugees looking for work, plus for the local employment advisers to encourage beneficiaries to tap into more informal voluntary roles in their neighbourhood.

Delivery Objective 5:  74 new Afghan arrivals with low or no English to access mobile ESOL, ESOL café in Bedford or short ESOL course in the summer of 2022 (how to use the NHS) to help with integration into UK life.

 

A total of 80 eligible learners have accessed this provision. The short ESOL course on using the NHS will be offered to low level learners over 2023, and mobile ESOL will continue where it has been most effective – in Suffolk and Essex.

Successes, achievements and milestones delivered during this reporting period

We have delivered a well-being or employment service, or both, to a total of 1322 people since we began the project, exceeding the target we set out to have achieved by the end of December 2022.

We have reflected on what strands have been most popular and in demand and have used the project extension to focus on them for 2023.

Please direct any questions about this report to: Louise Gooch at [email protected] or 07834 129582

Delivery Objective 1: Pathways to employment

Our network of employment advisers has now registered 848 people to the service, undertaking skills assessments and directing people to the best project pathway for their needs.

 

Delivery Objective 2: Access to the wellbeing service

249 people have benefited from well-being therapies delivered by the Refugee Council and Suffolk Health Outreach since the project started in April 2020.

Refugee Council therapists are visiting the bridging hotels in the region where Afghans are living temporarily and are networking with councils in Hertfordshire, Southend and Essex Integration to inform them about their wellbeing services and provide group activities to the families as they wait to move.  

The make-up of beneficiaries accessing one of these two core services is shown below:

Afghans - 28%

Syrians - 27%

Ukrainians 12%

Hong Kong BNOs - 6%

Delivery Objective 3: Registration for an ESOL and Skills course and/or refugee entrepreneurship programme

A total of 552 beneficiaries have so far benefitted from one or more of the project’s ESOL and Skills courses.

56 clients are actively working up plans for their businesses with MENTA’s refugee entrepreneur programme. We have held two seed funding panels and are helping to fund refugee entrepreneurs develop their business, one as an electrician and the other in the beauty industry.

We revisited the Driving Theory and Job Search courses as one or both will be of particular benefit to Afghans, Hong Kongers and Ukrainians to help improve their opportunities to find work. 62 people started these courses at the end of the quarter.

We ran an expanded online ESOL summer school delivered by SLC and CAD which reached 118 learners, 43 of whom were new beneficiaries.

One IELTS course for continued for high skilled refugees started this quarter, for those who need this qualification to resume their professions. On top of the regular IELTS course, in Q11 we will offer an IELTS foundation course for those who need IELTS but aren’t working at a high enough level to embark on the full programme, but with the extra support that this programme offers, they can move to the IELTS course later in the year.

Lastly, our High Skills Employment Adviser started a Job Search course for graduate refugees looking for bespoke advice and guidance to enter the job market in a way that will enable them to grow into a professional role. 7 participants attended regularly.

 

 

Delivery Objective 4:  Work placement on completion of a sector-specific Skills Course

No courses that lead into employment sectors finished during Q10 so no beneficiaries were offered work placements.

We no longer employ an Employment Liaison Officer but have instead developed the role of High Skills Employment Adviser, to build capacity for the local employment advisers and to develop resources for graduate beneficiaries. As well as the course delivered to beneficiaries by this High Skills Employment Adviser, she has delivered a training workshop for HR leads in our local councils to encourage them to recruit refugees. We are working with the NHS International Recruitment Team and Anglia Ruskin University to progress a programme to allow medics who qualified overseas to practice in the UK.    

Successes, achievements and milestones delivered during this reporting period

We have delivered a well-being or employment service, or both, to a total of 1200 people since we began the project, exceeding the target we set out to have achieved by the end of December 2022.

The additional funding we were awarded from AMIF to support Afghan refugees living in the region last quarter has enabled us to work with Kings Arms Project in Bedfordshire, Essex Integration in Suffolk and Essex and Community Action Dacorum in Hertfordshire. The programme has started slowly with recruitment of ESOL teachers a challenge, but we are reaching 35 households who can’t access ‘hub’ ESOL locations because of transport challenges, health issues or caring responsibilities.

We completed 3 ESOL health literacy course for a total of 30 learners in Peterborough, Colchester and Norwich which ran over 5 weeks to maintain and improve ESOL levels when colleges close for the summer.  

 

Please direct any questions about this report to: Louise Gooch at [email protected] or 07834 129582

Delivery Objective 1: Pathways to employment

Our network of employment advisers has now registered 679 people to the service, undertaking skills assessments and directing people to the best project pathway for their needs. Our services are now reaching 234 Afghans and 42 Hong Kong BN(O)s, plus 36 new Ukrainian arrivals.

Delivery Objective 2: Access to the wellbeing service

214 people have benefited from well-being therapies delivered by the Refugee Council and Suffolk Health Outreach since the project started in April 2020.

Refugee Council therapists are visiting the bridging hotels in the region where Afghans are living temporarily. They are connecting with councils in Hertfordshire, Southend and Essex Integration to inform them about their wellbeing services and provide group activities to the families as they wait to move.  

Delivery Objective 3: Registration for an ESOL and Skills course and/or refugee entrepreneurship programme

A total of 369 beneficiaries have so far benefitted from one or more of the project’s ESOL and Skills courses.

60 clients are actively working up plans for their businesses with MENTA’s refugee entrepreneur programme. We have held three seed funding panels and are helping to fund refugee entrepreneurs in catering, beauty and translation.

We revisited the Driving Theory and Job Search courses as one or both will be of particular benefit to Afghans, Hong Kongers and Ukrainians to help improve their opportunities to find work.

We set up one IELTS course for high skilled refugees who need this qualification to resume their professions. On top of the regular IELTS course, we have also developed an IELTS foundation course for those who need IELTS but aren’t working at a high enough level to embark on the full programme, but with the extra support that this programme offers, they can move to the IELTS course later in the year.

Delivery Objective 4:  Work placement on completion of a sector-specific Skills Course

No courses that lead into employment sectors finished during Q9 so the 7 people taking up placements this quarter are beneficiaries who have finished earlier courses. Our Employer Liaison Officer moved to a new role in a partner organisation making it harder to make progress this quarter.

However, we have recruited a High Skills Employment Adviser for the region who is working on 22 referrals from the local employment advisers for those beneficiaries who need bespoke support to help them find a way back into the work they are qualified to do. We are working with the NHS International Recruitment Team in the region to progress towards suitable employment for the ones who have medical careers.    

Successes, achievements and milestones delivered during this reporting period

We have delivered a well-being or employment service, or both, to a total of 993 people since we began the project, exceeding the target we set out to have achieved by the end of December 2022.

The additional funding we were awarded from AMIF to support Afghan refugees living in the region last quarter has enabled us to work with Kings Arms Project in Bedfordshire, Essex Integration in Suffolk and Essex and Community Action Dacorum in Hertfordshire. The programme has started slowly with recruitment of ESOL teachers a challenge, but we are reaching 17 households who can’t access ‘hub’ ESOL locations because of transport challenges, health issues or caring responsibilities.

We have started a ESOL health literacy course for 11 learners in Peterborough which will be running over 5 weeks to maintain and improve ESOL levels when colleges close for the summer.  This programme will help new Afghan arrivals to use the NHS. Colchester and Norwich classes will follow in Q10.

Planning started in Q9 to commission providers to deliver ESOL summer schools for 100 low level ESOL learners who currently can’t access our services. Two providers will be delivering these online classes in Q10.

Pathways to employment

Our network of employment advisers has now registered 589 people to the service, undertaking skills assessments and directing people to the best project pathway for their needs. A number of those registered onto the project during this quarter are Afghans and Hong Kong BN(O)s – a trend we expect to continue.

Access to the wellbeing service

202 people have benefited from well-being therapies delivered by the Refugee Council and Suffolk Health Outreach since the project started in April 2020.

Refugee Council therapists are visiting the bridging hotels in the region where Afghans are living temporarily and are networking with local councils, British Red Cross and Essex Integration to inform them about their wellbeing services and provide group activities to the families as they wait to move.  

Registrations for an ESOL and Skills course and/or refugee entrepreneurship programme

A total of 377 beneficiaries have so far benefitted from one or more of the project’s ESOL and Skills courses. The Preparing to Work in Childcare course has run successfully across most of the region. This course has led to many work placements being offered by schools keen to offer their support.

3 learners who took part in a new course for warehouse work in Peterborough, secured a placement which has led to paid work with AM Fresh, and another with Clipper.

52 clients are actively working up plans for their businesses with MENTA’s refugee entrepreneur programme. 4 learners who took part in Concept Training’s construction industry CSCS course have passed the qualification and another 7 are planning resits in Q9. 

We revisited the Driving Theory and Job Search courses as both will be of particular benefit to Afghans and Hong Kongers to help improve their opportunities to find work. These courses are proving particularly popular.

We set up the second IELTS course for high skilled refugees who need this qualification to resume their professions.

Work placement on completion of a sector-specific Skills Course

Courses in three different employment sectors finished during Q8, enabling us to start working with a wider range of employers. Preparing to Work in Childcare, Preparing to Work with Customers, and Preparing to Work in Warehousing and Logistics were run across the region.  Of the 27 placements offered to course graduates around the region in Q8, 18 have been accepted and all have either completed, are in progress or awaiting recruitment processes to be finalised in order to start.

Q8 has seen a range of new work placement providers come forward to work with us, and we now have opportunities in retail (East of England Coop), in construction (SEH & Colchester Borough Homes), in warehousing (AM Fresh and Clipper) and with the NHS as well as the many schools across the region that are supporting our placements.

Successes, achievements and milestones delivered during this reporting period

We have been awarded additional funding from AMIF to support Afghan refugees living in the region. We will be working with Kings Arms Project in Bedfordshire, Essex Integration in Suffolk and Essex and Community Action Dacorum in Hertfordshire to offer mobile ESOL teachers to 35 households who can’t access ‘hub’ ESOL locations because of transport challenges, health issues or caring responsibilities.

And in Colchester, Peterborough and Norwich we will be offering a ‘Health Literacy’ ESOL summer school over 5 weeks to maintain and improve ESOL levels when colleges close for the summer.  This programme will help new Afghan arrivals to use the NHS.

A regional High Skills Employment Adviser has been recruited to help professionally qualified beneficiaries we are supporting from Afghanistan, Hong Kong and elsewhere to find the most effective way back into their professions.  We have had 8 referrals from across the region and more are expected soon.  Some beneficiaries have come from a medical background with qualifications that are not recognised at the same level in the UK.  We are working with the NHS International Recruitment Team in the region to progress towards suitable employment for them.   Across all sectors, we’re also beginning the process of introducing mentoring by professionals in the same industry on a 1-2-1 basis. 

 Well-being Therapist support has been boosted in Bedfordshire and Essex.  

Menta’s seed-funding initiative. This was informed by our participation in the refugee entrepreneurship pilot - Centre for Entrepreneurs pilot project, where it was identified that refugee start-ups struggle to secure the informal capital that indigenous entrepreneurs can access from friends and family. We now have a small pot to fund grants to get businesses started. Our second award was made in Q8 to a refugee entrepreneur in Essex to support his goal of establishing a painting and decorating business.  

The Refugee Council facilitated 3 new psychoeducational workshops to support beneficiaries dealing with a range of trauma. They were well attended by more than 25 refugees from across the region.

The beginning of Q7 was a period of some stability which lasted until the reintroduction of the Covid work from home guidance. During the period of stability, project partners and local employers came to together in October for a fair in Peterborough which attracted 40 beneficiaries. This pilot event was one of the topics presented to the whole project team, at an event in November which saw all the project strands gathered together for the first time. It was an opportunity for reflection on project achievements and a chance to plan for how we can build on these going into the final year of the project. Key decisions made mean that we are now recruiting for:

- A regional High Skills Employment Adviser – to help the professionally qualified beneficiaries we are supporting from Afghanistan, Hong Kong and elsewhere find the most effective way back into their professions.

- Well-being Therapists for parts of the region where we have not had this service before: south Essex and Bedfordshire.  

Following the success of the pilot courses, we are tendering for an IELTS provider to deliver a series of courses across 2022 to provide high skilled beneficiaries with evidence of their English level.

The November event was also where Menta launched their seed-funding initiative. This was informed by our participation in this pilot project: refugee entrepreneurship pilot - Centre for Entrepreneurs, where it was identified that refugee start-ups struggle to secure the informal capital that indigenous entrepreneurs can access from friends and family. We now have a small pot to fund grants to get businesses started. Our first award was made in Q7 to a refugee entrepreneur in Bedfordshire to support his goal to establish a badminton academy.

Q7 has seen more work placements providers come forward to work with us, and we now have opportunities in retail (East of England Coop), in construction (SEH & Colchester Borough Homes), in warehousing (AM Fresh) and with the NHS as well as the many schools across the region which are supporting our placements.

The beginning of Q6 was a period of some stability and the lifting of lockdown restrictions in mid-July enabled partner organisations’ offices to reopen and project team meetings in Ipswich and Bedford to take place, facilitating in-person communications and cross-project networking and collaboration. However, the period has also been marked by the events in Afghanistan and ensuing arrival of Afghans into the UK at an unpredicted scale and speed.  In terms of the project, this is requiring a reassessment of our provision for a different client-base, ensuring that the newly arrived Afghans (and Hong Kong BN(O)s who have also started to arrive in greater numbers), many of whom have professional qualifications, can be assisted into employment relative to their existing skills and experience.  This will involve adjusting existing courses to suit higher ESOL levels and assisting with qualification conversion and preparation for IELTS and other high-level language testing required for entry into higher education and professional occupations.  The project’s wellbeing therapists are already registering new Afghan arrivals and visiting bridging hotels where they are meeting directly with families to learn more about their current needs and two additional therapist roles have been advertised to cope with the requirement for increased capacity.

The E2 Summer Schools which took place during this period were an overwhelming success, enabling many beneficiaries region-wide to progress into the project’s skills courses this Autumn.  The first Childcare course finished in Q6 followed by the first work placement in a school at the beginning of term and further Childcare courses have now either started or have been scheduled in all parts of the region.  43 placements have now been offered in schools around the region, providing a good choice for beneficiaries in terms of location and education setting once they complete their course.  The first Preparing to Work with Customers course started late in Q6 in some parts of the region, and employers are currently being sought to offer work experience placements in customer-facing roles for course graduates. 

Looking towards Q7, we are planning the first whole project in-person meeting in November, gathering all project strands together for the first time to discuss project achievements and how we can build on these going into the final year of the project. Q7-8 will see some exciting developments in the project’s direction and scope and the fruition of groundwork laid during earlier quarters and we look forward to reporting on this early next year.

Road to Recovery

As we moved gradually towards a loosening of restrictions during the early summer and are seeing the first green shoots of recovery, we have been able to adapt the project correspondingly.  During this period the sector-specific courses have been reframed in consultation with the project Employment Advisers, informed by direct feedback from the project beneficiaries.  Two new curricula now complete the full suite of courses on offer: Preparing to Work with Food and Preparing to Work with Customers. These will assist employment pathways into hospitality, a newly re-opened sector currently experiencing severe staffing shortages, and a diverse range of opportunities in customer-facing roles. The courses will also dovetail into and enhance the self-employment support provided by our project partner MENTA for refugee entrepreneurs wanting to open their own hospitality business, and we hope these new courses will be well received.

146 project beneficiaries have now taken part in the project’s existing courses comprising the core curricula courses Driving Theory, IT Skills, Study Skills, Job Search Skills and Confident Women.  In addition, the first two sector-specific courses Preparing to Work in Childcare started during Q5 for Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Suffolk beneficiaries who would like to work in educational settings.  Finishing early in Q6, beneficiaries from these courses can then move into short term work experience placements in schools to consolidate their learning, and placements have now been secured in schools for the first cohort to move into at the start of the next academic year. Sector-specific courses in Essex, Norfolk and Peterborough are due to commence later in the year, with placements in those counties being arranged for early 2022.

For those project beneficiaries currently at too low a level of ESOL to register onto these courses (E3 being the minimum requirement), E2 Summer Schools have been organised across the region, starting in Q5 and continuing over the summer.  These will improve the English of beneficiaries at E2 to a sufficient extent that they are then able to take part in the project’s courses during the Autumn and into the final year of the project.  There has been much interest in registering onto the summer schools with all classes now full to capacity.

With lockdown easing, the team were able to hold their first in-person meeting for the Cambridgeshire-based project members in the beautiful surroundings of the Peterborough Quaker Meeting House garden, the local project base for Refugee Council’s therapy service.  This facilitated an in-depth discussion on cross-functional collaboration across the project strands in the area, with representatives from the wellbeing and employment services and from UKRA, together with the ESOL coordinator and other EELGA SMP project team members.  The project team are planning further in- person meetings in other parts of the region as circumstances allow.

Formal qualitative exploration of the project is now underway, beginning in May and running through to April 2022.  Research consultancy ERS has been appointed to undertake the evaluation, funded by the Bell Foundation, commencing with the production of a logic model followed by a series of focus groups and interviews with key stakeholders throughout Q6.  By Q7 a detailed evaluation plan should be in place and interviews with beneficiaries will be taking place towards the latter part of the year.  An interim report will be produced in January 2022 and a final report in July 2022.

At this half-way stage of the project a total of 432 beneficiaries have thus far been actively participating in the programme across the East of England.  That these high numbers have been reached in such a challenging year gives some indication, and much optimism, about what could be achieved in less precarious times.

Overcoming challenges in national lockdown

Q4 (Jan-Mar 2021) proved to be an extremely challenging quarter since all parts of the region were subject to national lockdown restrictions for the entire period. Even so, the whole team, partner organisations and subcontractors were able to exceed their targets for completing skills assessments, people accessing the wellbeing service and the numbers registering and attending ESOL and Skills classes (including the construction course offered by Concept Training and the entrepreneurs’ support by MENTA) during this period. Across the project, employment advisers, therapists and ESOL providers are now working with more than 327 beneficiaries against a target of 225.

As a result of the national lockdown, it was not possible for employment advisers, therapists and ESOL tutors to meet beneficiaries in-person. This led to a slower rate of referrals and a lower take-up of the ESOL and Skills courses. The challenges associated with online learning (such as access to devices, data and in particular the necessary digital skills) remained a problem for some learners. The consequences of this included lower attendance and a higher number of dropouts since people were again managing children not being in school and nursery as well as many other issues created by the ‘stay at home’ requirements.

A range of ESOL & Skills classes took place during the quarter. These included job search, driving theory, IT skills and study skills. The first Concept-run course to obtain a CSCS card and work in the construction industry also started in Q4. MENTA continues to offer support to refugee entrepreneurs and we expect to see a number of Bedfordshire entrepreneurs accessing this service in Q5. Their 1-to-1 advice – of course provided remotely in Q4 – is complemented by an online course on relevant subjects. The first module covers moving from Universal Credit to the DWP self-employment track.

The Confident Women course is scheduled to take place in Q5 and we expect to run the various Preparing to Work In courses (hospitality, childcare and warehousing) in Q5 and Q6. Concept will also run an additional course to obtain an SIA card for the security industry.

We currently have no plans to expand the range of ESOL courses on offer but recognise that many potential participants are working at ESOL levels below Entry 3. In order to secure and maintain the pipeline of learners for future quarters, we will be running general Entry 2 ESOL classes in Q5 and Q6 as on-line summer schools. We hope that these learners will then be able to access the other courses by the end of 2021 or the start of 2022.

Achieving our Targets in Challenging Times

The project’s Q3 period between October to December 2020 saw significant upward growth across all areas of the project and all project strands are meeting and in many cases far exceeding projected targets; a significant achievement under the extraordinary conditions presented by COVID-19. 

Employment Advisers and Skills Assessors have worked extremely hard to promote the project and have completed a total of 193 skills assessments and action plans for beneficiaries across the region, directing each to a relevant project pathway, which surpasses the cumulative target for the end of Q3 of 110. 34 refugees have taken up wellbeing provision with the service to date and the wellbeing team have adopted a robust foundation in delivering therapeutic services using online platforms. The project’s ESOL core curricula courses (IT Skills, Job Search Skills, Driving Theory) are now operating in all counties with 72 beneficiaries attending, mostly online, classes across the region, and 23 project beneficiaries have been accepted onto the MENTA Refugee Entrepreneur Support Programme and have begun their 1:1 sessions with a business adviser to support them through the various stages of setting up a business.

In October the project was formally launched via a virtual MS Teams Live event with the aim of ensuring that all relevant organisations in the region are aware of the project and how to refer potential beneficiaries into the services offered.  Over 100 people attended and very encouraging post-event feedback was received.  The keynote speech from a former UASC and the films of resettled refugees working in the region produced for the event have been adapted to be included into the ESOL and Skills modules.

Consolidating the Project Pathways

The ESOL core curricula (IT Skills, Job Search Skills, Study Skills, Driving Theory) are now being delivered region-wide and the project’s ESOL Coordinator has been refining four sector-specific courses ready for rollout from January 2021: Preparing to Work in Childcare and Early Years Education; Preparing to Work in Warehousing and Logistics; Preparing to Work in Hospitality (ready for delivery in Q5 when hospitality work opportunities are predicted to be more numerous); Confident Women.  The Confident Women course will be offered exclusively to women and taught by women, focusing on boosting confidence and providing employment skills to the large number of women registered with the project who have never previously worked outside the home.

During the course of Q3 the SMP project team started to consider ways to boost provision of services by working with other established course providers and external bodies.  For example, the WEA offer a Community Interpreting course, a route in which a number of project beneficiaries are interested.  On completion of this course the project is working up a route in conjunction with CCGs to prepare beneficiaries to deliver health improvement information on the COVID-19 vaccination programme, extending to provision of more general community health advice.  This will serve a mutually beneficial function, providing beneficiaries with valuable employment experience whilst using their skills to assist in crucial local community advocacy on vaccination.

And for those clients who have a skills assessment and action plan but do not currently need an AMIF funded service, employment advice has seen them benefit from referrals to external training providers, eg SWBA, Code Your Future, ESOL, Functional Skills, or to similar or complimentary services to ensure clients are well supported, eg the Shaw Trust.

During Q4 the project’s Employer Liaison Officer will continue to build links with the DWP, other training providers and employers able to offer work placements.  In order to further promote the project’s Employer Liaison service and the benefits of employing refugees, the project team has produced two new pages for the website: WW4RI Employer Liaison - EELGA SMP and WW4RI - Employing Refugees - EELGA SMP

The wellbeing strand of the project continues to collaborate and network across the region, meeting CCGs and ESOL providers to introduce the service available and establish solid referral pathways.  A pilot phase of the project which was rolled out across Cambridgeshire and informed how the wellbeing service across the region would be delivered has been chosen by four MPs to represent the East of England in the Health Equalities award in the national NHS Parliamentary awards: Shortlist | NHS Parliamentary Awards

Although there are a multitude of challenges presented by operating the project under the present circumstances, that targets continue to be met is testament to the resourcefulness and tenacity of those involved.  As delivery overall well exceeds projected targets at this stage, the project is in an excellent position to ride out the current storm of Q4 and emerge later in the Spring to return to in-person teaching and advice sessions, and the full scope of employment opportunities originally envisaged when the project was planned pre-pandemic.

The period July-September has seen significant progress on the project with all six counties having services in place to submit quarterly returns.  The project now has a full team of Employment Advisers and Skills Assessors who have worked extremely hard to promote the project and enrol clients.  As a result, 60 beneficiaries have completed skills assessments and action plans in quarter 2 which brings the project total to 101 beneficiaries, 61 ahead of the projected quarter target figure.  Connections are starting to be made with local businesses, and a wide range of paid employment and volunteering roles have been secured.  The project’s Employer Liaison Officer is working to build networks with regional DWP contacts to encourage engagement with the project.

68 beneficiaries have completed Google classroom enrolment activities while waiting to start relevant ESOL skills pathways.  26 have already embarked on the ESOL and Skills pathways, surpassing the projected quarter target by 11 enrolments.  This includes registrations on classes started this quarter in Essex and Norfolk, in IT Skills and Job Search courses respectively, and 7 cross region registrations to entrepreneur advisers MENTA.  WEA are providing ESOL in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Suffolk.  All learners registered with the WEA ESOL and Skills pathway will benefit from a tablet and data if required to enable them to access 90 hours of learning and can retain the tablet to help with future job searching.  Delivery has been delayed however due to several different factors including approvals from the funders and the slow availability of devices.  The service is now expected to start in Q3.

Q2 has seen 14 beneficiaries access the project’s therapeutic strand, delivered by the Refugee Council.  Early in Q2 the Refugee Council focused on introducing the wellbeing service to stakeholders across the region and as a response received back a substantial inflow of referrals.  They are also working on collaboration with project partner organisations to establish solid referral pathways.  Vacant placements in the service are expected to be filled during Q3 (2 placements within the Refugee Council; 1 placement within the Suffolk Health Outreach team).

A series of online Getting to Know You events in September enabled the project partners and sub-contractors to come together and for each to become more of aware of the project services and how to access the different project strands, consolidating internal networks and communications. The impact of Covid-19 is certainly being felt, but the project team have shown resilience and creativity in adapting to the situation to not only meet but far exceed targets, as the quarterly figures indicate.  Many of these impacts have had immediate practical consequences such as the necessity for dealing with clients online and difficulties securing office space.  But there are other issues which have a more underlying impact on service provision, not least that there are currently no new arrivals under the refugee resettlement scheme, paused due to Covid-19, and a client group who could have benefitted from early access to the wellbeing service.

Activity during the project’s first quarter has seen 41 people already having undertaken a skills assessment, exceeding the projected target of 20, 37 of whom are planning to start on the ESOL and skills pathway.  Most assessments were for people resident in Hertfordshire and Norfolk where employment advisers have been in place since April; two further appointments for Employment Advisors in Essex were made towards the end of the period.  The SMP team has recruited two Employer Liaison Officers during this quarter to identify employers able to provide relevant work experience.

Recruitment of psychological therapists to deliver the well-being stream is progressing well with therapists now in place in Essex, Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and Suffolk.

The exceptional Covid-19 position means that significant adaptations to the ESOL and skills course content and delivery have been required to keep project performance on track.  The ESOL curricula have been re-profiled as the launch course for hospitality would have been readying people to work in a sector with now scarce opportunities. Four courses in driving theory, IT skills, study skills and job search have been prepared to equip beneficiaries with the skills they will need to access the new sector-based ESOL classes which are being drafted.

In the event that we need to deliver all our ESOL curricula on-line for 2020-2021, funding will need to be redirected into buying basic tablets for learners and ensuring that they have sufficient data to be able access the classes.

There are opportunities that this situation is now presenting.  If we move to on-line ESOL, beneficiaries can be recruited more quickly as they will not be required to travel to learn in one classroom.  We have developed an IT ESOL Skills Module as IT will be essential to access vocational courses, undertake work searches and secure work in the UK job market, but this was not one of the sector-specific ESOL programmes that we had originally planned to deliver.  In the event that local Covid-19 lockdowns are enforced, having online skills will be vital for adults seeking work and to support their children at home.

Working with the project partners on mobilisation has been successful and the SMP team has created multiple guidance and networking opportunities. This has ensured consistency across the East of England and provided an opportunity for partners to share experience, best practice and ideas on project delivery. This comment from the Refugee Council exemplifies how we have worked together: ‘We appreciate the difficulty of launching a project during the COVID-19 pandemic and it is testament to the WW4RI team that this has been achieved.’