East of England CFOs in collaboration
'To develop a strategic and shared understanding of current and future employment and skills programmes to improve individual customer experience and provider performance.'
Jobcentre Plus in East of England, in collaboration with the Learning and Skills Council, brought together many of their providers of employment and skills programmes from across the region, along with senior managers from each Jobcentre Plus district and representatives from the LSC, EEDA, GO-East, NOMS and local authority CFOs, at the Rowley Mile Conference Centre.
Key objectives of the event were to raise awareness of existing and future provision offered by both Jobcentre Plus and the LSC, improve communications at district/sub-regional level and further develop collaborative working between providers and Jobcentre Plus.
The event was hosted by Lynda Russell, customer services director, Jobcentre Plus, East of England, with proceedings on the day led by Stuart Durrell, regional European Social Fund manager, Jobcentre Plus. Lynda's keynote address talked about the 'challenge of provision', in particular how we improve our understanding of the plethora of new provision, the need for Jobcentre Plus and its delivery partners to work more closely together and the benefits of Local Employment Partnership agreements. Lynda concluded by saying that there is ample provision in place and that we need to maximise that opportunity for our customers and move more of them into work. This was followed by Paul Storey, skills development director, the Learning and Skills Council, who introduced and described the LSC's current and planned pre-employment offers.
The event then moved into Jobcentre Plus district-based workshops, where delegates pooled the intelligence offered by their different perspectives and experience in discussions on how to improve services and address some of the current challenges they face in effective delivery.
Some of the issues under discussion throughout the day were:
- strategies for dealing with effects of the recession
- exploring new ways to work together to maximise take-up of provision
- breaking down barriers to employment
- targeting sectors with best regional employment growth opportunities i.e. retail, hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism, food and drink manufacturing and processing and facilities management, including security.
Feedback included:
- 'Network opportunities very good. Great to see same ideas coming from each county area. Lots of motivational ideas.'
- 'This was one of the most informative, useful and well-run events I have been to for ages.'
The consensus from delegates was that collective discussion provided an important and useful forum for dialogue that could potentially lead to improved services. It is planned that similar provider engagement events will take place in the future.
If you'd like to discuss progress on this activity and/or receive details of future events, please contact Paul Dance, Regional ESF Team, Jobcentre Plus East of England, Office of the Director, tel: (01223) 884661 or e-mail Paul Dance.
