CareTech Foundation Impact Report 2020/2021 >> Skills development for the care sector
The CareTech Foundation currently supports five initiatives working with young people to improve employability and skills, particularly into the care sector.
The need for health and social care professionals in the UK continues to grow. Forecasts show that an increase of 29% (490,000 extra jobs) will be required by 2035.
In parallel, young workers have been hit hardest during the crisis, with those under 35 accounting for almost 80% of the decline in payrolled employees, alongside a further rise in young people moving into economic inactivity.
This year, the Foundation has provided funding of £147,090 to improve the skills of care workers and support them into work.
359 have been supported with employability skills and qualifications.
Partnering with The Prince’s Trust, the Foundation supports two employment programmes for Young People – ‘Get Into’ and ‘Get Started’, which have seen 57 young people into work this year. CareTech Foundation works with its partner EY Foundation to deliver the ‘Beyond Your Limits’ programme supporting care experienced young people, with 20 currently on the two-year programme. EY Foundation’s ‘Smart Futures’ programme for young people with barriers to employment has provided training for a further 20 young people. In addition, the Positive Pathways project, run by the Disability Resource Centre (DRC), has been completed by 103 people with disabilities across the West Midlands and South Staffordshire.
Employability support, training & qualifications provided
The Positive Pathways project creates individually tailored pathways using a person-centred approach through education, volunteering, and employment. COVID-19 restrictions dictated a shifting offer, with DRC adapting the course to Zoom delivery of the ‘Back on Track’ programme and the Opportunities Hub offered online. The ‘Back on Track’ programme is a six-week course of weekly workshops covering Understanding Disability, Latest COVID-19 Information, Managing Isolation, CV Skills/Job Search Online, Interview Skills and Techniques for video calls, and Confidence and Self-Belief.
103 beneficiaries completed the Positive Pathways programme and a further 180 participants who are on, or have been on, an employment programme continue to receive support through the weekly Opportunities Hubs, which provide access to job advertisements and application support from the Positive Pathways team.
As a result of DRC’s Positive Pathways, 30 participants received new qualifications including IT, Foundational English, Estate Agency and Debt Management.
In addition, the changed programme delivery and DRC’s digital support increased the confidence of the participants to use IT to access the programme and the Facebook page. In the latest quarter, DRC re-started and opened their core training services following the easing of restrictions of COVID-19 and have started delivering disability awareness for taxi drivers.
The Foundation’s partnership with EY Foundation supports young people with barriers to employment, increasing their skills and experience with a focus on careers within the care sector and; has developed an employability programme aimed at care experienced young people. The Foundation supports two EY Foundation Programmes: ‘Beyond Your Limits’ and ‘Smart Futures’ (which was combined with last year’s ‘Our Futures’).
Beyond Your Limits support by CareTech Foundation directly supported a total of 27 young people in three cohorts with a programme specifically co-designed with and for care-experienced young people (aged 16-24), currently in full or part-time education. The programme offers up to two years of support including paid skills training, multiple work experience placements, financial support through a personal development grant, and access to a business mentor and a progression coach. 20 young people remain on the two-year programme in Hounslow, Manchester, and London, with EY Foundation currently recruiting a fourth that the Foundation will support.
Smart Futures is a 10-month programme for young people who have been eligible for free school meals or a college bursary, developing employability skills and offering a paid two-week work experience in the care sector. Students engage on an accredited course and receive 10 months of mentoring support. 20 young people started the Smart Futures programmes in Birmingham and Manchester in April 2021.
“CareTech Foundation are creative funders looking for opportunities to connect our young people and organisations with different opportunities, for example exploring a connection with a provider who could share a number of second hand laptops which can form our pool to loan to students and promoting job vacancies to our young people.”
Rachel Lyons – Corporate Partnerships Leader, EY Foundation
The Prince’s Trust works with partners across the UK to offer hundreds of free courses, grants and mentoring opportunities to inspire young people to build their confidence and start a career. The CareTech Foundation has supported 198 participants across two employment programmes for Young People: “Get Into” and “Get Started”, helping young people into careers in health and social care, alongside the NHS, Health Education England (HEE), and other partners. CareTech Foundation’s grant has helped to ensure that the care sector side of this partnership receives equal spotlight to the NHS element. Furthermore, the CareTech Foundation’s donation of £225,000 for the three-year grant enabled the Prince’s Trust to leverage a further £640,800 from HEE.
“The CareTech Foundation is a key player in bringing together innovators within the sector, enabling them to share their knowledge and assist in funding their schemes to a successful conclusion. The legacy of The Caretech Foundation’s partnership work is improved outcomes for Children and Young People and the creation of new professional networks within the sector.”
Lee Jones – Managing Director CareTech Children’s Services
Increased resilience & wellbeing
CareTech Foundation believes increased resilience and wellbeing for participants is one of the key determinants of effective interventions, but also an underlying predictor of sustained positive outcomes. Participants like Tumi, on EY Foundation’s ‘Beyond Your Limits’ programme talk about their increased confidence and resilience.
The unique programme has helped me develop skills and build my confidence even more. Some of the fantastic skills I’ve learned were presentation and good time management public speaking, how to get ready for an interview and what expect out of it”
London BYL participant
“I feel like I learned a lot from last week’s work experience. And the important thing is that I don’t feel stressed or anxious about the tasks that I have to do. I have met people who have their own clothing brands. They talked about what they did and they showed me the skills that I should do if I want to have a brand of my own. It makes me feel good to talk about the job I want in the future.”
Manchester BYL participant
In the West Midlands, the DRC Positive Pathways programme is delivering clear results. 65% of Positive Pathways participants report an increase in resilience and wellbeing, half feel less isolated and more than half are motivated to take the next positive step on their journey.
Reflecting the importance in building resilience to sustain outcomes, participants in the Princes Trust programmes experienced a 28% growth in confidence and 23% increase in emotional resilience (and ability to manage feelings).
The Foundation continues to support the development of Barnardo’s ‘Journey’ App, aiming to increase the resilience of children and young people leaving care and the likelihood of employment, training or education. This year has seen testing of the app among CareTech plc staff and young people across 40 sites, with onboard training now taking place, as well as testing with a range of other providers. Barnardo’s report that they have had good feedback across different service types, with Leaving Care, Supported Lodgings, Employment & Training, Home Support Services, and Transitional Training flats all finding the Journey model a good fit. The final app is looking to launch in Spring 2022 as a commercial proposition within Barnardo’s, supporting young people in care while also raising funds to support more young people.
Feedback from one of their young people in care testing the app, Jason:
“I really love it. I’ve been kind of advocating for it from the start. I think it’s brilliant. I think it’s a great tool for young people to use and to actually just have a little app on their phone that they can open up that has their actions and their goals for [service] on it. It is so useful.”
And positive feedback among case workers too:
“So in a session, if they’re on Journey, I will incorporate that. So they’ll look at it on their screen, I’ll look at it on mine or I’ll share my screen with them…and we just got through it. And then sometimes I’m putting the goals in the tasks and assigning it to them. Sometimes they’re doing it. Sometimes we do it together. And then they edit it until they get the idea of what it’s about and how it works…”
“One of my young people has been actually more motivated since having Journey, which is good. And that’s because he really struggles to organize himself…so just having it there in his pocket on his phone has actually made him engage better and to actually do more.”
Into Education, Employment or Training and Number employed in Care Sector
In total, 83 beneficiaries have secured employment following their involvement in a CareTech Foundation funded programme this year – 23 DRC Positive Pathways participants, 57 supported through The Prince’s Trust, and three through EY Foundation. Crucially, all of the grantee organisations have committed to reporting back the proportion of their supported young people who at the end of the programme are heading into education, employment and training.
CareTech plc has employed three of the Prince’s Trust participants and one past participant of EY Foundation’s ‘Our Futures’ is now employed in a care role.
The CareTech Foundation has supported 198 participants across two employment programmes for Young People, with 101 into employment as a result. 78% sustain a job for at least 3 months after programme completion. 30% of these jobs are in the care sector.
In their own words…
The impact of these CareTech Foundation-funded projects on individuals is clear from the case studies, which tell the stories of the beneficiaries.
George’s Story
“Before the pandemic, I was mainly doing gigs on the side, and I was looking forward to starting work on a cruise ship before it fell through because of coronavirus. I went on universal credit in May, and tried to apply for work in factories, but none of them got back to me.”
George decided to start looking for jobs that were classified as essential work, figuring there would be more opportunities there. His work coach put him in contact with The Prince’s Trust.
“I was interested in care work because I’ve always wanted to help people. I definitely needed the knowledge that I learnt on the course about care work, like information on safeguarding, because it was all brand new for me. The course gave me a lot of confidence as well. The Prince’s Trust staff gave us mock interviews in preparation for the real ones at the end. I was nervous for the mock interview and getting through that really helped me deal with the real interview. If it weren’t for that practice, I wouldn’t have got it.”
George was offered a role in domiciliary care at Abbeycare Nursing at the end of the course.
“I’ll be visiting people’s houses and helping them in a few ways, like chatting with them, making them food and taking them out the house. After a lot of uncertainty it’s refreshing to know I’ll be on a payroll and have fixed hours and a timetable. I would like to go back to freelance music work in the future, but for now I’m lucky to have a normal job, and I’m still working on creative projects on the side. I had a really wonderful time on The Prince’s Trust course, I learnt a lot and I am much better off with The Trust’s support.”
Temmy’s Story
Temmy, from Islington, found herself unemployed when she had to delay starting her University course due to family issues. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, she knew she wanted to help and was able to secure a job as a care home assistant through The Prince’s Trust.
“My mum works for the NHS so I feel like it’s in my nature to want to help people. I had been looking for a job for a while but hadn’t had any luck. I’d lost hope in ever finding something and was close to giving up, the only reason I didn’t was because I knew I had to support my family. My experience with The Prince’s Trust was amazing, my mentor helped me every step of the way and I’ve now got a job with a care home in my local area. I’ve always been interested in working in healthcare and I think the coronavirus crisis, despite what most people might think, is what really motivated me to apply for my job. Although things are difficult in our industry at the moment, I am committed to being part of a team that helps support my community and the NHS. Having a secure job has definitely helped to keep my motivation up during a time that I think some young people might be struggling. I’ve also found certain coping mechanisms to help with the changes that have come with lockdown. I hope that other young people can find something to keep them going too.”
JM’s Story
JM was referred to a project officer, needing further support with possible employment or education. Quiet, struggling with his confidence and self-esteem, JM did not feel ready for work or training. He was encouraged to enrol on to the Positive Pathways course. With consistent attendance at the Positive pathways course, along with the additional 1-to-1 support from the Programme, his confidence grew. JM began to ask questions in the group and talk about his experiences.
JM also received support to improve his CV and had a person-centred plan developed, JM was given the goal of starting a Forklift Licensed Training course. The Project Officer supported JM in completing the application form. His initial assessment was extremely positive, he achieved a level 2 in his English (the highest mark) and a Level 1 in Maths and ICT, giving him a sense of personal achievement. He has since gone on to do a full-time online FLT course and is confident that he will pass his upcoming Theory and Practical. The Project Officer reports a remarkable growth in the confidence and self-esteem of JM.
Abu’s Story
Abu is studying electrical engineering at college and is ambitious about his future. As part of the Beyond Your Limits programme, he was helped to secure a work placement at NG Bailey, the UK’s leading independent engineering and services business. Over the course of the week-long placement Abu had the chance to build skills and gain insight into different aspects of electrical engineering, meeting with different teams and visiting live projects including Manchester Town Hall. He is hoping to explore apprenticeship pathways with NG Bailey after college.