STEPS

Aim

Targeted programme of support for individuals, 15+, in Lancashire, who have multiple needs and are furthest away from employment, education

Our Project

CANWe is a key partner in the National Lottery’s Building Better Opportunities (BBO) project working across Lancashire to tackle the root causes of poverty, promoting social inclusion, and driving local jobs and growth. The project provides individually tailored support, helping each participant to understand, and overcome a wide range of barriers to progression. Delivering this programme has given CANWe a significant amount of experience and exposure to the challenges that the newly designed STEPS programme seeks to address.   

We’ve been able to identify gaps in the provision locally and have developed a delivery model that specifically targets these areas. For instance, many employability programmes have limited long term success when individuals stop being supported once they have secured employment. STEPS will be different – we will continue to engage and develop our participants after they have found a job and will look at individuals holistically, providing support around areas such as their mental health and wellbeing, housing, money management, as well as developing a range of skills and experiences that will help them to find work. 

The interventions in our STEPS programme are bespoke to the individual rather than a one size fits all generic offer. Delivered flexibly and using a variety of delivery techniques, we use our considerable expertise to bring services to meet the individual where they are. Our holistic support builds on strengths and achievements and underpins a progression to employment which matches the aspirations and ambitions of the individual. This is more than a ‘box ticking’ target driven employability service. It is designed and delivered with the unique needs of the individual in mind.  

STEPS will support clients holistically to address their multiple and often complex needs as part of a continuous progression to employment.  

We are focusing our support on people aged 16+ as we have also found that many government and third sector initiatives exist to support young people below working age. There is also a gap for specially tailored support for 25-35 year olds who are unemployed or economically inactive for a wide range of reasons. The STEPS programme seeks to fill these gaps, providing support to those who would otherwise have been missed by existing services. 

Our aim will be to deliver tailored, flexible, and person-centred support to this group of young people and support them to make positive changes in their lives, resulting in sustained employment, or significant progress towards it.  

Housing: 

We have recently developed an Intensive Housing Management support service. Housing is a common need identified by those we support. In the past we have worked with other housing providers to accommodate them but have now developed a service to allow us to accommodate them immediately and provide essential tenancy support to help them develop skills to maintain their tenancy. The same worker can provide the tenancy support as well as their employability support, which creates a continuous and trusted support relationship.  

This unique offer enables us to support throughout the whole ‘journey’. We recently helped someone to move in to their own rented property and worked together to draft a support package. Prior to this we had spent months working together to develop key life skills and provided low-level mental health support when it was most needed. The key was consistency.  

Finance, Benefits & Debt: 

We work closely with all individuals to assess their finances, and ensure they are in receipt of the full range of financial support they’re entitled to. We can support with basic budgeting and financial literacy support, advocate for individuals with landlords, and other creditors until they are able to do so themselves. For more complex financial support, we signpost to FCA accredited services. We anticipate the need for this element of our support to rise drastically in coming months.  

Emotional Therapeutic Support: 

Mental wellbeing, depression and anxiety are the most reported support needs by our participants.  

Research shows that: 

• 1 in 4 adults of working age have a common mental illness, such as anxiety and depression.  

• Of those people attending GP surgeries, nearly one third have mental health problems. 

• 3 in 10 working age people take sick leave in any one year owing to mental illness. 

In response to this clear and identified need, we have developed an Emotional Therapeutic Support Service, which offers low level counselling and support to help people improve their mental health and resilience. This mitigates the long waiting lists for specialist statutory support which often result in a lack of engagement and reduced progress.  

We provide emotional support to individuals alongside confidence building and employability skills, without the need for the individual to work with multiple organisations or share their experiences time and time again, facilitating the development of trusting relationships with the therapeutic team alongside the employability team. Psychoeducation provides individuals with tools and coping strategies to help them more effectively manage their own mental health. This helps develop resilience and independence over time, avoiding longer term dependence on services.   

We use the Warwick Edinburgh Scale to assess and monitor needs and progress which is linked back to the Life Circle tool ensuring a comprehensive and holistic approach to support.  

Education & Employability: 

The STEPS programme seeks to deliver outcomes in relation to education, training and employment, and this holistic support for often multiple and complex needs is essential to preparing people for sustainable employment. Our staff are highly skilled both in providing this support, but also in signposting to local, relevant and appropriate services to help address individuals’ wider needs.  

We will also deliver AQA and ASDAN accredited courses and qualifications. These are highly valued by employers and include Level 1 & 2 qualifications, Functional Skills including Maths & English, and well as vocational taster short courses.  The flexible courses boost engagement and motivation and develop personal effectiveness and life skills, preparing them for further study or employment.  

Volunteering: 

Another stepping-stone to support employment is the provision of planned and appropriate volunteering opportunities. Our Employer Liaison Officer creates links with our network of local employers to create meaningful and authentic volunteering placements with a view to these becoming long term and sustainable jobs.  

We also work in partnership with local Friends of the Parks groups. Our Green Space initiative provides outdoor volunteering sessions, which support the building of confidence, and addresses physical and mental health issues while also developing essential skills.  

This project successfully funded on 20th September 2022