People & Skills

Key Objectives

Intensive wrap around one-to-one support to help people into employment
Increasing numeracy skills in communities for life and work

Our Approach

A strategic and evidenced based approach to prioritisation and activity was taken to inform where we should we target our investment.

The UKSPF Evidence Base sets out the challenges and opportunities that informed the prioritisation of funding under the three UKSPF investment priorities, including People & Skills.

The evidence base identified that Tees Valley has a higher-than-average number of residents who are unemployed and economically inactive, with one third of all economic inactivity in Tees Valley due to long term sick or temporary sick.

However, Tees Valley is an area of significant opportunity, a strong platform on which to build and deliver economic growth and the evidence base identified that Tees Valley had a higher rate of economically inactive that ‘want a job’ (27.2%) compared to the UK rate of 18.6%.

The UKSPF objective to increase numeracy skills in communities for life and work was managed centrally by the Department for Education and within our total People & Skills funding allocation was a £3.6m ring-fenced allocation to deliver the Multiply adult numeracy programme.

Funding was targeted where it would have the biggest impact in the 3-year delivery period. Our approach was to invest where there were gaps in activity alongside enhancing, adding value and complementing other funding sources, but where it would not duplicate or displace existing provision.

Case Studies

Tees Valley Move Forward

Show

The Move Forward programme is fully funded through UKSPF and has helped people into work who are not working or have health conditions preventing them from working. Our delivery partners offer flexible, personalised support including building confidence, providing care support and guidance with CVs and job searches.

The programme over two years has:

Helped 777 economically inactive people engage with the benefits system
Helped 976 people sustain employment
Helped 4,344 people engage in job searches
Helped 949 people into work after support

Examples include:

Stockton resident Steve Edwards – who made the decision to return to the world of work after just a couple of years in retirement. Support with CVs and modern ways of securing work helped him get back into the job market as an exam invigilator.
Jemma Durham who secured her first job in a decade after returning to employment after raising her children.
Groundworks North East & Cumbria have helped cohorts of dozens of jobseekers in Middlesbrough boost their confidence at volunteering days.

Multiply

Show

Overview: Aimed at those 19+, the programme provided support for functional numeracy skills with the help of providers. It offered easy access to free numeracy courses to helped build confidence with numbers – and gain qualifications to access more training or employment.

The programme has:

Helped 6,710 people take part
Helped 2,859 people participating in courses boost their confidence
Helped 2,908 people progress to further learning