Agenda item

This report provides a summary of employment and training support commissioned and / or delivered by the Employment, Skills and Enterprise team for vulnerable residents, including those with a disability.

Kaya Chatterji (the Council’s Service Development Manager for Employment, Skills and Enterprise) introduced the report, which provided an overview of the employment and training support for vulnerable residents, including those with a disability, which were commissioned or delivered by the Employment, Skills and Enterprise Team. The Committee heard that there were barriers to vulnerable people which caused significant inequality, and that there was a growing body of evidence to suggest that paid employment could assist vulnerable people to live independently for longer, improve their mental health and wellbeing whilst reducing reliance on traditional support services. Ms Chatterji noted that there was a clear theme around holistic, integrated working for residents with complex needs across different services and organisations in all of the projects contained in the report.

The Committee heard about four specific project examples. The overview included their aims and the key outcomes which were hoped to be delivered. These examples were: the Brent Works Learning Disabilities Contract (Section 7.0-7.1 of the report); Brent Start courses for learners with learning difficulties or disabilities (Section 7.2 of the report); Mental Health Trailblazer project (Section 5.0-5.1 of the report); and Job Brokerage Contract (Section 6.1 of the report). She specified the estimated job starts for people who were engaged with the projects over the length of the respective contracts.

A Committee member noted that it was clear that Brent residents were going to be badly affected by the Government’s benefit changes, and questioned whether there was any grant funding from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) extended to these projects in assisting residents with disabilities or mental health problems find work. Kaya Chatterji responded by stating that DWP had provided a degree of funding to some of the projects in the report but not all. She noted that Section 6 of the report detailed the Council programmes which responded to the changes to the Welfare system. Matthew Dibben (the Council’s Head of Employment, Skills and Enterprise) added that the Employment, Skills and Enterprise Team was aware that there were huge numbers of households in Brent affected by the welfare reforms and was working hard to identify those most vulnerable so they could be steered towards the most appropriate support programme. Discussions continued on what the Council was doing more widely to ensure that the most vulnerable residents were supported, and Matthew Dibben suggested that services such as Troubled Families and Adult Social Care would be approached to obtain information on current practices and the Committee would be informed respectively. 

The Chair welcomed the report, mentioning specifically that it was pleasing that the Team was commissioning projects to improve outcomes for residents on the autistic spectrum. She advised the Committee that she was part of the London Councils Grants Committee, which offered grants to community projects aimed at improving employment and skills, and asked whether this had been explored as a source of funding. Matthew Dibben stated that the Team’s next steps were to look at how to make these projects more sustainable whether this was through grant funding or exploring different commissioning routes such as through the Brent Clinical Commissioning Group. He noted that it would be beneficial to discuss any potential to utilise the London Councils’ Grants Committee with the Chair going forward.

Another Member of the Committee noted that the targeted approach was interesting and questioned whether there was any scope for this approach to be adopted by the Council on a wider scale in helping residents to find employment such as schemes with College Leaders focusing on youth employment. Matthew Dibben stated that there was potential to take these projects further than the pilots and if their impact was successful then that is what the Team would be aiming to do. He did note however that large scale projects would be dependent on the level of investment and how well these were managed.

RESOLVED that:

(i)         The contents of the report be noted; and

(ii)        A report specifying what input the Council’s Adult Social Care and Troubled Families teams have in identifying vulnerable families due to be adversely affected by the welfare reforms be brought to the next meeting of the Equalities Committee.