The Joined Up For Jobs website, Notice Board and On-line Directory can be accessed by clicking on the appropriate titles above.

Joined Up For Jobs was first established as the joint strategy for access to work in Edinburgh 2002. It brought together a consortium of key organisations including Capital City Partnership, Skills Development Scotland, Jobcentre Plus, Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce and the City of Edinburgh Council.

The jobs strategy underwent a step change in 2006, when the Edinburgh consortium was successful in its bid to become a Pathfinder area for the Department for Work and Pensions' City Strategy initiative. The original partners have now been joined by NHS Lothian and by the three Edinburgh Colleges (Jewel and Esk Valley, Stevenson and Telford). The group is chaired by a senior employers' representative from the city's financial services industry.

A Business Plan has been developed, approved by DWP and adopted by all members of the consortium. A copy of both the plan and the executive summary can be found on the Joined Up For Jobs website.

Through the strategy the partners work together to co-ordinate provision around the aims which it sets out. These include focusing effort on the needs of target groups with particular difficulties in relation to work; and helping employers meet their skills and workforce needs. The partners aim to improve opportunities for those in Edinburgh who need jobs, to improve the position of those in low paid and insecure work, and to help employers find the workers they need. The aim is that employability services in Edinburgh:

• operate as effectively as possible through being demand-led and client-centred
• are co-ordinated and integrated into a city-wide network
• are targeted on identified excluded groups and are adequate to address the needs in the city.

This core group of key policy and funding agencies works with a wider partnership of provider agencies in the city. It seeks to make it easier for them to do their work by co-ordinating funding around agreed objectives and tasks.

A number of initiatives have sprung directly from the Joined Up For Jobs strategy and will continue to be developed as the consortium goes forward:

SECTORAL ACADEMIES

One of the specific initiatives under Joined Up For Jobs was the creation of sectoral employment academies which tailor training to the needs of their industries and for known vacancies. They aim to assist employers and people seeking work to find the training and employment opportunities they need. The industries covered include:

• Healthcare
• Construction
• Cultural Industries
• Public Administration
• Childcare
• Social Care
• Edinburgh Community Technology Academy
• Academy at St James Shopping

The academies are working at the jobs end of the employability spectrum, opening up new opportunities for people seeking work with the help of community-based intermediaries. They have proven an effective way of engaging employers.

Details of the Employment Academies can be viewed at www.joinedupforjobs.org.uk/Employment_Academies.shtml

TARGETING EMPLOYABILITY SERVICES

The strategy is concerned with a pattern of services which ensures a universal access to a basic level of service. In Edinburgh’s areas of high unemployment this is achieved through the funding of employment intermediaries which are located in these local areas.

The strategy also has a set of city-wide target groups, for each an assessment has been undertaken covering the scale of the group, their needs in relation to employability and mapping of existing resources supporting them. On this basis gaps have be identified and measures taken to fill them. The target groups are:

• Disabled people, including:
  Physical Disabilities
  Learning Disabilities
  Mental Health Problems
• Ethnic Minorities including:
  Refugees
  Asylum Seekers
• Lone parents
• Ex-prisoners
• Care leavers
• Substance Abusers
• Homeless people
• Not in Employment, Education or Training School Leavers (16-19)
   

COMMUNICATIONS

The Joined Up For Jobs website carries information and updates on the strategy, as well as a database of local service providers. The notice board carries announcements on a variety of topics including courses/training programmes, new initiatives, job vacancies, and upcoming events.

The Joined Up For Jobs Forum is held every two months: these meetings provide opportunities for networking and information sharing among local service providers, and updates on local and national policy developments and labour market trends. They give service providers a channel to feed back issues of concern from the ‘frontline’ to inform the evolving Jobs strategy and provide a focus to develop new projects and other working groups and events.

Working Capital is a quarterly magazine for Joined Up For Jobs which highlights issues which are being worked on and so explains the benefits of working within the strategy. It is distributed free across the network. Editions of Working Capital can be viewed in PDF format at http://www.joinedupforjobs.org.uk/employment/workingcapital.shtml. To be added to the mailing list for future editions contact workingcapital@edinburgh.gov.uk

STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT

Cities Strategy Pathfinder status brings to the consortium control of an additional grant (formerly the Deprived Areas Fund). This is used to support the agreed priorities which are to:

• align existing funding so that partners can work better together;
• extend existing programmes along strategic lines;
• commission new work to further the strategy;
• meet employment and benefit dependency rate targets agreed with DWP.

The key operational priority is to establish and implement a ‘common offer’ for both employers and jobseekers. This will mean in practice that no matter which agency or provider is the first point of contact for an individual jobseeker or employer they will receive a high quality service which meets their individual needs whatever they may be. The principle adopted is to ensure that there is ‘no wrong door’ for customers.

FURTHER INFORMATION & MINUTES OF MEETINGS

MINUTES OF MEETINGS

The minutes of the Joined Up For Jobs Partnership Forum and the Jobs Strategy Group are available on the Joined Up For Jobs website at www.joinedupforjobs.org.uk/employment/docs_minutes.shtml

For further information about Edinburgh City Jobs Strategy, contact Jim Rafferty at the Capital City Partnership; jimrafferty@capitalcitypartnership.org, 0131 270 6037.

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