Supporting people who are out of work
Introduction
For 3 decades, National Lottery funding has transformed lives by helping people gain skills, confidence and pathways into work, starting with its first grants in 1995. Here we share learning from this work, highlighting the special contribution of voluntary and community (VCS) sector and how it adds value to what others are able to offer.
Why this matters
Having a job can be crucial for individuals and families to survive and thrive. In addition to providing an income, it can also provide a sense of achievement, a social outlet, and a feeling of structure that can be incredibly important to a person’s wellbeing.
But people can be out of work for any number of personal, health, economic or structural reasons. This is where VCS groups come in. They tend to support people who may need more help, for longer, or in more flexible formats than other services like jobcentres may be able to offer.
We think they stand out in how they support people, especially people who have never worked, have been out of work for a while, or have particular barriers to accessing employment.
That’s why in 5 years to 2021, The National Lottery Community Fund distributed £800 million of National Lottery, government and European funding to employment projects led by charities and community groups.
Eight of our larger programmes alone supported 181,000 people on their employment journey between 2010 and 2021.
What we've learned
Here we share some of the techniques and ways of working that charities and community groups are using to help people who are out of work.
Getting started
Many VCS organisations base their services in places people are familiar with, where they feel comfortable, and which they trust. This includes places like community and youth centres and homeless drop-in centres. Some find formal environments intimidating, making it hard to take the first step towards looking for work.
In some cases, charities start with home visits, knowing that some people need that extra encouragement to get involved. In Scotland, Making it Work support workers used a mix of home visits, drop-in events and networking to engage and then help 3,115 lone parents onto the employment ladder.
It’s important to find out what’s really going on in people’s lives, their ambitions and talents. For that reason charities really focus on this step, recognising its importance when working with people who are the least likely to access support. Simple things help, like starting with conversations rather than form-filling, and having the first meeting over a coffee rather than over a computer.
It’s helpful to have staff with lived experience of the issues that are affecting their beneficiaries. At the Limehouse project, four-fifths of their staff come from the local community so they have a good understanding of the issues people face, and the strengths they bring.
“The advice that staff have given to myself in my condition trying to find meaningful employment has been good. Staff have been great; it’s better because they come from a military background themselves. Know the pitfalls ex-servicemen like myself encounter”
Big Lottery Veterans Service
Delivering employment support
One-to-one support should be at the core of the employment journey. This is something that the VCS does well, going the extra mile. For example, mentors from Greater Manchester Talent Match accompanied young people to interviews, appointments and open days, and drove them to work on their first day to ensure they settled in well.
We’ve learned that it’s important for people to feel ownership of their employment journey. The route can be long, but it’s important that services show people that they matter by adapting support to what’s going on for that person.
Artificial deadlines to support don’t work for all. Setbacks are part of life, so we’ve found that it’s helpful when people can return or access support as long as they need it. One support worker on our Building Better Opportunities programme visited a participant in their home for a number of weeks and talked to them through the bedroom door until they felt ready to come out.
It’s helpful when public and private partners work together with the VCS to create integrated services. These can address and support people with both work and non-work issues without having to signpost them to other services.
Embedding mental health support in employment projects is particularly important, recognising it as an issue affecting people of all ages and backgrounds. Talent Match Plus Liverpool used to refer young people to specialist mental health providers but staff realised they lost some people during the referral process. As a result they started to provide speech and language therapy, counselling and behavioural therapy in-house, delivered in a trusted environment.
Lots of people benefit from simple changes in their lives to improve their employability. This might be getting money to buy work clothes, acquiring skills that many of us take for granted like budgeting or using public transport. Usually these require only small amounts of money, but can make a huge difference.
Listening and flexing the employment support to people’s needs can really pay off. Responding to frequent requests from people wanting to enter the construction industry but not having the money to get the necessary permissions, the Welsh Centre for Action on Dependency and Addiction funded costs associated with the construction certification scheme. This covered health and safety training, card registration fees, course costs, and travel expenses for those interested in career in construction.
Mentors and key workers are particularly good at identifying priorities, so they get the right support for people at the right time. This might mean dealing with other issues before thinking about employment, like housing or addiction. For others, the job is the hook, and it’s only later that issues in the background can be addressed.
Peer support and group work can be important too, to help people to create connections and networks, and avoid developing a dependency on their key worker.
“A lot of the cases that we’re working with are very complex, and many of the parents do not feel confident on an initial engagement to be coming along to a job club, or to a corporate, office-type environment. So, the fact that support workers are going to actually visit them in their homes has been really successful.”
Gingerbread, Scotland
Setting people up to succeed
If you’ve never worked before, it’s difficult to know what it will be like when you start. That’s why many community projects help people understand what’s expected of them in the workplace. This includes things like setting goals, communicating with colleagues, managing time, and dealing with difficult situations.
Lots of things can affect people’s ability to stay in or progress within work, like working relationships and ongoing personal issues. For this reason many of the groups we fund continue to help participants three to six months into their first or new job. The Getting Ahead programme in Wales employed mediators to help smooth any issues between new employees and employers.
Appropriate support should be available for employers too, to help them understand what they, their supervisors and other employees can do to make the transition into the workplace as smooth as possible. Staff at Accelerate in Warwickshire created workplace circles of support to help participants settle into a job and sustain employment.
“If this support wasn’t available, I would be lying in bed looking at four walls. Or on the streets.”
Big Lottery Veterans Service
Key messages
There are unique features that make the VCS stand out in providing employment support, especially for people who have been out of work for a while or have particular barriers to accessing in employment.
Charities and community groups tend to support people who may need more help, for longer, or in more flexible formats than other services like jobcentres may be able to offer.
It’s helpful when public and private partners work together with the VCS to create integrated employment services. These can address and support people with both work and non-work issues without having to signpost them to other services and risk losing them in the referral process.
Find out more
We carried out this research in 2021. To learn more and view the full findings, visit our dedicated webpage.
Visit our Evidence Library for other National Lottery funded studies and evaluations.