1. General Needs Housing Employment Compact Training December 2009

2. Why is the Compact being put in place?  Housing organisations have a unique position to engage with their tenants (and families) to encourage them to move towards employment  Raising incomes can also: - widen people’s housing choices - increase confidence and reduce isolation - improve mental health - reduce domestic violence and other forms of abuse - create safer and more stable communities - increase input into houses and flats  Costs of unemployment are felt by individuals, council tax payers, city council, and government

3. Unemployment in Newcastle Newcastle residents at end of 2008:  27.4% of people of working age were economically inactive - 21.2% in the country as a whole  8.9% were unemployed - 5.7% across the whole country Council tenants in Newcastle at Sept 09  9.9% are unemployed

4. Unemployment amongst social housing tenants 55% of working age social housing tenants are economically inactive – compared to 21.1% of general population (Sept 09)  Social housing tenants are 15% of working age population but 30% of workless  The worklessness rate in social housing is twice that in the owner occupied sector  People unemployed in 1994 were more than twice as likely to still be unemployed ten years later if they were social tenants

5. Newcastle’s Local Area Agreement National Indicator 152:  To reduce the proportion of residents of working age who are on out-of-work benefits to 14.9% by March 2011  Baseline is 16.3% in 2007

6. Newcastle’s Employability Action Plan 2008-2011 Priorities are:  Engagement at all stages along the pathway – priority groups are harder-to-reach groups (including homeless), young people, lone parents, people from BME groups, and people in Incapacity Benefit  Progression sustained  Holistic 1-1 support

7. Other drivers  Welfare reform – people will need to be able to demonstrate that they are moving towards work – or face reduced benefit  Adding value to the other work of housing providers  Building links with other agencies

8. Our aims 1. Developing clear progression pathways towards employment for social housing (and supported ) residents: - engagement - training - education - employment 2. Same minimum level of help regardless of which landlord or support provider

9. Our aims 3.Ensure housing staff know how and where to refer residents to 4.Ensure opportunities offered within the housing sector are available to all 5.Be able to demonstrate the outcomes from the offer of help from housing providers

10. The client journey ENGAGEMENTDIAGNOSTICS Employer Involvement EMPLOYABILITY SERVICES JOB PLACEMENT RETENTION Pre - engagement Stability Phase

11. The offer for social housing residents  Ask all unemployed tenants in first 6 weeks if they want help to get involved in education, training or employment  Use other opportunities to introduce the idea of moving towards work  Help people to overcome barriers to work, and to develop their skills, confidence, and motivation  Make referrals to Newcastle Futures or other services  Display information about access to employment and skills provision  Monitor outcomes – so we know if the approach is helping

12. Our partners  Tackling worklessness: Newcastle Futures – employment support agency targeting most disadvantaged and hardest to reach, and strategic co-ordination role  Supporting people into independence: Supporting People – fulfilling government expectations  Housing providers  JobCentre Plus and Connexions  Welfare Rights Service