Opening the door to employment support for jobseekers
Success achieved
A UK-wide campaign engaging national and local politicians, influencers and the media, to open the door to employment support for jobseekers.- Website
- http://ersa.org.uk
- Project dates
March - April 2016
Project team
Led by ERSA but events and activities delivered by members across the UK, also supported by government officials, Ministers and influencers.
Introduction
Employability Day has been a vital way to help increase understanding amongst key stakeholders, both nationally and locally, of the work of the employment support sector. It has provided a unique
opportunity to educate people in local communities about the important work taking place on their doorstep and encourage them to support relevant organisations, and the sector, in the future.
Amongst other materials, ERSA provided a toolkit which included: a map of activities; promotional materials – logos, banners, posters; invite letters; suggested targets; template press releases; messaging, visit briefings.
Discovery
The first national UK Employability Day was held by ERSA on 15 April 2016.
Established and driven by ERSA, Employability Day encouraged all types of organisations, both in membership and beyond, to open their doors and invite local stakeholders to see the impact that employment support is having in their local area. ERSA helped to coordinate visits as part of a UK-wide event, in turn sharing the day’s activities with local press and other media.
Employability Day helped employment support providers across the UK to demonstrate the work
of their organisations at the frontline, including the projects and programmes they run, the staff who work on them and the jobseekers they support.
Objectives
Employability Day had a number of primary objectives:
- To provide a rallying point for all employment support providers to raise awareness of the sector’s work and celebrate its achievements.
- Supporting the sector to support itself – growing the confidence and capacity of comms teams within providers.
- As a means of raising ERSA’s profile, particularly outside membership.
In terms of policy shaping, the day used as a hook of a government statistics release – championing the half a million jobseekers helped through one UK-wide programme since 2012.
This helped to engage parliamentarians and ministers and share concerns about future employment support policy.
The expectation was that this would be a trial day, after which point ERSA would review lessons learned and take a decision on repeating the day in subsequent years. The target set was 40 employment support centres hosting visits across the UK. It proved so successful that ERSA’s Board immediately agreed to establish it as an annual campaign day.
Employability Day had a number of component parts:
- A parliamentary breakfast for a targeted cross party section of MPs and Peers.
- »Supporting organisations to host visits from MPs, officials, councillors, media, etc, on the day.
- Media activity, including social media.
Timeline
Timeline - ahead & during the event
Activities
What was ERSA’s approach?
ERSA established Employability Day to enable anyone in the employment support sector, including all of its 230+ members, to take part and celebrate their own work with their own activities and themes, under overarching themes, messages and materials provided by ERSA.
Article in the local press
ERSA used the hook of Employability Day to encourage all types of organisations to open their doors and invite in local stakeholders, agencies and businesses to show what employment support means at the frontline and the impact it is having in the local area. The day helped to coordinate individual visits as part of a UK-wide event, in turn supporting and sharing activities with local press and other media. As part of this, ERSA encouraged members to involve frontline staff and jobseekers themselves, plus incorporating topics of relevance to their services, such as future commissioning, the role of local partners and integrating support.
Ahead of Employability Day, ERSA held a private parliamentary roundtable to engage relevant MPs in the day and its core messages.
ERSA used the hook of a government statistical release on one of the biggest employment support programmes on 17 March. This engaged politicians and also gave a lead in time for activities to be arranged for the 15 April.
Employability Day Parliamentary Breakfast: 12 April 2016
On 12 April, ERSA held a Parliamentary Breakfast meeting, chaired by ERSA’s vice chair and sponsored by Jeremy Quin MP (Conservative Member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee) to discuss the successes of the Work Programme, the changing employment support landscape and Employability Day. This allowed current programme achievements to be noted and contextualised, whilst highlighting the sector’s expertise in delivering outcome. In addition, ERSA raised awareness of forthcoming opportunities and risks to the sector and encouraged MPs to hold further discussions about these issues. In addition, MPs heard first hand experiences from Louise Lowrie, a former jobseeker helped into self-employment by Working Links, and Paul who has been supported by the Twist Partnership.
The event was held in Portcullis House and the room was at capacity, with attendance from:
- Jeremy Quin MP (W&P committee, Con Horsham)
- David Rutley MP (Con, PPS to Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Con MP for Macclesfield)
- Nick Thomas-Symonds MP and his researcher Briony Robinson (shadow Employment Minister, Lab Torfaen)
- Craig Williams MP (Work and Pensions Committee, and Welsh Committee, Con, Cardiff North)
- Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP (education committee, Chair Labour backbench W&P committee, Lab Newham, former shadow employment minister)
- Baroness Burt (Lorely Burt, Lib Dem, former MP for Solihull, interest in enterprise, women and entrepreneurship)
- In terms of attracting attendees and levels of debate, the breakfast was a success. In addition, follow up meetings were arranged to discuss the points in more detail.
UK Employability Day: 15 April 2016
After the agreement of the ERSA Board in early 2016, ERSA engaged with organisations across its forums, active contacts and work streams. Each organisation was encouraged to tailor the day as they saw fit, with a wide range of activities taking place. For those providers who were unable to host a visit there were a number of other ways to get involved, including supporting the day on social media.
ERSA provided a toolkit which included: a map of activities; promotional materials – logos, banners, posters; template letters and emails of invitation; suggested target stakeholders; template local press releases; messaging document; internal and external visit briefings with practical guidance; plus a briefing on the employment support landscape.
An example of the direct communications given were:
You can hold a visit for individuals and/or groups – this can be on or around 15th April.
- Where? You can hold a visit at your office/centre, at one of your subprime partners, at a local employer, anywhere where a visitor can get a good understanding of your work
- Who should we invite? ERSA will provide a list of suggested groups of invitees – this is not limited to MPs, it can include contacts from Local Authority, employers, CCGs, LEPs, journalists, JCP. The Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and think tank researchers are already interested, so please let us know where you will be hosting a visit and we can put them in touch.
- When? Ideally visits will be co-ordinated to occur on 15th April, but if a contact would like to visit and is unable to make that date, host a visit when convenient and we can include it as part of the overall Employability Day activities.
Help get the word out
- Support the day with social media activities on twitter, linked in, facebook and elsewhere.
- Engage your local press e.g. send a case study and press release to your local paper.
Celebrate yourself
- Celebrate the work of your staff and the jobseekers you are working with. Take a twenty minute break in the day, to thank everyone for their hard work and maybe eat some cake!
- Promote your party on social media and with local press, as part of UK Employability Day. Photos would work well.
Who was involved?
Attendees at the UK Employability Day
ERSA did not limit this to only ERSA members – it was a day for everyone who works in, or with,
the employment support sector. ERSA made all supporting documents available via the ERSA website and used its networks within and outside government to pass the information on to any individuals or organisations interested in being part of the day. Politicians, VIPs, employers, think tanks, government officials and relevant contacts were involved in the final day.
What was produced by ERSA?
ERSA provided a toolkit, with all the necessary information and guidance to help organisations to host a visit or support with getting the word out. Below is a list of what was in the toolkit, and a timeline on when it was made available.
Ahead of 17 March:
- Draft invitation letters to MPs/stakeholders/ employers to visit on Employability Day
- Information on where to find out about local stakeholders to invite
- Draft email to send to subcontractors/ partner organisations to encourage them to get involved in Employability Day
- Draft press release about latest ONS stats
- Content for social media including, dummy tweets, facts etc
- Employability day logos, banners, posters
Ahead of Employability Day, 15 April:
- External and internal briefings for visits, including suggested visit agenda
- How to make a successful visit, plus visit checklist
- Draft post-event press release about the visit and employability day
- Messaging document
- Draft press release about Employability day
- Suggested activities to promote your celebration of staff and jobseekers
Challenges
The employment support sector is facing a period of change in terms of the programmes and landscape in which it operates. The main challenge was to provide members with the confidence to speak out, work ‘above the line’ and not be hampered by the risks of doing so.
This took a huge amount of support, both in terms of materials but also in engaging key individuals (particularly CEOs and the comms teams) in the spirit of the day, which in turn helped to engage their staff in localities to take part. This will now build year on year as ERSA increases this reach and confidence within its membership.
Achievements
Employability Day was received extremely positively by the employment support sector, politicians and the media:
The private parliamentary breakfast was at capacity - hosted by Jeremy Quin MP, attended by four more MPs and one Peer. Attendees heard experiences from former jobseekers helped into employment. In terms of attendees and level of debate, the breakfast was a success and follow up meetings were held.
UK Employability saw over 80 centres across the UK participating, double the number anticipated. Activities included:
- One to one VIP visits
- Tailored jobseeker workshops
- An Employability Day elections hustings,
- A report launched on veterans and mental health and
- Events wth a large range of employers, including Newcastle United FC.
Visitors included:
- MPs: Yvette Cooper, Jeremy Quin, Craig Williams, Jon Ashworth, David Mackintosh, Tom Pursglove, Chris Heaton Harris, Julie Cooper, Nick Thomas Symonds, John Spellar, Karin Smyth, Sir David Amess, Marie Rimmer.
- Four officials from the Department for Work and Pensions
- An official from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
- Three HMPS officials - “the visit was extremely helpful...Many thanks for your help in identifying and starting, I think, a longer term relationship.”
- Jane Collins MEP: “...The visit helped to give me a better understanding of some of the issues and impediments that affects employment prospects.”
- Councillor Ken Smith, Mayor of Kirklees – Cllr Chaz Singh
- Four Westminster think tank researchers
Tweets during ERSA day
A significant amount of media activity was generated, including a City AM editorial from the Employment Minister, ERSA’s hashtag trending at #4 (218 users tweeted with a combined reach of 777,900 people), vlogging, blogs from MPs and local coverage (including Sussex Argus, the Huddersfield Examiner, Somerset Gazette, Lancashire Business Review; and Express & Star in Staffordshire, Sandwell, Dudley & Wyre Forest).
Employability Day made immediate changes to the lives of the jobseekers who were helped into work and frontline staff.
Overall those who had contributed to the day saw key positive outcomes for their organisations and their employment support work and staff:
- Internal engagement: The day helped to highlight the role of employment support within large organisations and provided a welcome boost to the teams working in that area, also providing links between different parts of the business and different teams.
- External engagement: The day helped member engagement with a wide range of external individuals and organisations, including political stakeholders, such as MPs, councillors, officials. People also used it to build engagement with local employers and partner organisations, such as specialist charities.
The coordinated of visits by ERSA was felt to be very useful and has led to long term relationships and joint working with new partners. Providers used the toolkit contents, mostly dual branded and adapted to fit each different organisation, and the broad theme allowed all parts of the sector to contribute in their own ways. There was some negative activity on social media
but ERSA worked hard to encourage positive tweets and photos throughout the day which built a greater weight of new and positive content.
What would we do differently?
ERSA will now hold Employability Day on an annual basis to support the sector. In the future, having evaluated the day with member feedback, ERSA will look to:
- Increase engagement with stakeholders prior to the day and coordinate more visits.
- Coordinate approach to local / regional press.
- Create a spirit of competition by promoting what people are doing. Also we can now provide best practice. by showing what people have done in the past.
- Consider creating a microsite.
- Have a slow build of employability day announcements and encouragement.
- Keep the theme of day broad but consider partnering to increase reach.
Feedback & Testimonials
“Had a wonderful time talking to learndirect customers and presenting some achievement prizes on esday16”
Marie Rimmer, MP
