WorkBasedCVInterv

Annual Review 2008-2009

YoungPeop

2009

08

Calderdale & Kirklees CareersContents

Introduction 1

Board of Directors at 31 March 2009 1

The Executive Team at 1 November 2009 1

Young People 2

Involving Young People in Shaping Our Services 3

Work Based Services 4

C&K Training 4

Careers 4 Adults 5

Information Services 5

Personnel 6

Financial Effectiveness 7

Compliment, Comments & Complaints 7

Annual Review 2008-9Board of Directors at 31 March 2009KMC appointed Directors:Cllr Molly Walton (Chair)Denis GraingerCllr Kath TaylorCMBC appointed Directors:Cllr Grenville HorsfallCllr Peter S ColesUniversity of Huddersfi eld appointed Directors:Andrew McConnellRev. Paul WilcockBusiness Link Yorkshire appointed Directors:Seamus QuinnSue CookeGerald FryerCalderdale & Kirklees Careers Chief Executive:Jack Costello (retired 30 September 2009 succeeded by Gerald Hey from 1 October 2009)

The Executive Team at 1 November 2009Gerald Hey (Chief Executive and Company Secretary)Mike Benton (Head of Service - Calderdale)Steve Collins (Head of Service - Kirklees)Katren North (Head of Business Development)Sarah Thorn (Head of Corporate Performance)

On behalf of the Board of Directors we are very pleased to introduce the Annual Review of Calderdale & Kirklees Careers for the year 2008/9.

We are particularly proud of:

operating as a not-for-profi t, social enterprise providing high quality careers services for young people and adults in Calderdale and Kirklees.our reputation as a trusted and reliable partner and successful deliverer of servicesmeeting our targets.our fl exible, professional and imaginative response to new challenges.

This Review sets out the Company’s principal achievements in 2008/9 and reaffi rms our commitment to playing our full part in the Integrated Youth Support and Connexions Services in Calderdale and Kirklees and to our role as the largest local provider of Information Advice and Guidance (IAG) to adults .

We are delighted that both local authorities selected C&K Careers as the Connexions Information Advice and Guidance provider. Apart from securing the continuation of C&K Careers for the foreseeable future, we hope you will agree that this provides a brilliant opportunity for a fresh start for Connexions services locally and a new impetus for the improvement of careers Information, advice and guidance.

Gerald Hey (Chief Executive) and Councillor Molly Walton (Chair of the Board)

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Calderdale & Kirklees CareersYoung People

The key focus of activity for the Company’s work under its Connexions contracts remains the reduction in the number of young people who are Not in Education Employment or Training (NEET) or whose status has become unknown because we have lost contact with them. This year we achieved the lowest percentage of ‘Not known’ since the commencement of Connexions in 1995.

The company plays a key role in the achievement of targets for the local authority areas. The achievement of this target relies on:

work with young people in schools to ensure they make appropriate career choices and suffi cient support to put those into actionsustained intensive work with those who have become NEETmaintaining contact with all young people who are between 16 and 18 in order to offer an appropriate serviceadvocating on behalf of young people to ensure that there are suffi cient appropriate opportunities for them when they leave school.

Achievement also depends upon the economic climate. Unfortunately, in this period, the UK economy entered what turned out to be the longest recession since records began over fi fty years ago.

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Reducing NEET (not in education, employment or training)

Target 2007/8 Achieved 2007/8

Target 2008/9 Achieved 2008/9

NEET in Calderdale 8.2% 8.25% 7.6% 8.25%Not Known in Calderdale 7.7% 4.5% 7.1% 3.7%NEET in Kirklees 8.5% 8.8% 8.9% 9.7%Not Known in Kirklees 8% 6.4% 7.5% 5.0%

‘I have been to so many people, you are the only one who has helped me fi nd the education I wanted’ - Connexions Centre client

It has been particularly rewarding to be involved with Campus Calderdale and Kirklees Collegiates on 14-19 curriculum developments such as the area-wide prospectus and common application process (extensively trialled in Calderdale), and to notice the contribution that those developments are making to increasing the number of young people who stay in learning after compulsory education. We continue to track progress on Staying in Learning, towards local authority targets.

Staying in learning 2006/7 2007/8 2008/9Numbers staying in learning after Year 11

CalderdaleKirklees

89.1%86.3%

90.1%89.0%

91.7%90.2%

Numbers with whom we have lost contact after Year 11

CalderdaleKirklees

1.0%1.5%

0.9%0.9%

0.6%0.9%

‘I really appreciate all the work you have done for me and all the students’ - Head of Year 11

Against such a challenging environment, it is something of an achievement in Calderdale not to have fallen back from the previous year!

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Annual Review 2008-9

Interventions 2005/6 2006/7 2007/8 2008/9Young people in school 17,968 18,544 19,462 21,615Young people outside school 22,728 18,160 20,650 26,291Total 40,696 36,704 40,112 47,906

Interventions with young people up by 19.5%

Callers at Connexions Centres (Calderdale & Kirklees)

2006/7 2007/8 2008/9

Young people 42,763 42,643 48,880Adults 16,590 15,118 17,354Total 59,353 57,761 66,234

Caller traffi c in the Centres up by 15%

‘Helpful and client-focused staff’ - Parent re Connexions Centre

Involving Young People in Shaping Our Services

The involvement of young people is central to the development of our services. We regularly consult and involve them through schools and our Connexions Centres. During 2008/9 they took part in the recruitment of all Connexions staff and were also involved in the assessment of schools and colleges for the local quality standard.

Young people continue to infl uence and contribute to the design and content of information booklets and the layout of our Centres.

The annual Year 11 Survey showed again that a high number of young people value the service they have received. 93% of respondents were very or quite satisfi ed with the service they had received. 91% felt clearer about their plans after meeting their Personal Adviser.

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Calderdale & Kirklees CareersWork Based Services

The company’s recruitment team offers assistance and advice to companies on the recruitment and employment of young people. 1,177 vacancies were notifi ed to us by employers across the two districts. During the year we visited 381 employers and training providers. Overall we placed 2,288 young people into opportunities.

The work experience team organised work placements for 7,347 school students aged 14-16 across Calderdale and Kirklees in 2008/9. 162 students were placed on extended work experience and over 200 students aged 16-18 attended work shadowing placements.

‘The placements for our students were really successful and very suitable’ -LDD school.

C&K Training

This has been another successful year for C&K Training. We have delivered training to over 250 candidates and accredited:

NVQ 3 Advice and Guidance – 30 full awards and 176 unitsNVQ 4 Advice and Guidance – 11 full awards and 86 unitsNVQ 4 LDSS 21 - full awards and 199 unitsNOCN Level 2 Introduction to Advice and Guidance – 83 achieved this award

We gained Approved Verifi er Status with NOCN which, together with Direct Claims Status with OCR, means that we can accredit qualifi cations directly as a Centre, thus speeding up the process for candidates. We have now added the A Award to our portfolio of accredited courses. We were successful in our bid to the Train to Gain Enhancement Fund which has enabled us to offer subsidised training places to 32 NVQ candidates from 18 employers.

We continued to receive funding from the Children’s Fund which enabled us to deliver the Make it Real Project to 6 more Kirklees primary schools.

We developed careers education materials for the Kirklees PSHCE Toolkit, a resource which is now available for all Kirklees secondary schools.

In autumn 2008 we launched our revised Quality Standards in Careers Education Advice and Guidance which are mapped against the National Standards. In February 2009 Huddersfi eld New College was the fi rst institution to renew their accredition, following assessment against the revised standards.

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4C &Tra

Annual Review 2008-9Information Services

Five publications, covering key transition points, were distributed to over 25,000 young people in Calderdale and Kirklees.

13,503 homes received two additional booklets, aimed at parents and carers of Year 11s and Year 12s.

More than 50 schools and colleges were supported in providing careers and lifestyle information for their students.

3,757 individual students ordered information leafl ets. This fi gure continues to drop as more students access and print out information from our website.Our Workabout website was expanded with games, interactive activities and additional sections on labour market trends in Calderdale and Kirklees.

2,937 callers were helped by the Learningline; 105 of these were calls following redundancy. We continued working with Calderdale and Kirklees Local Authorities to develop their online 14-19 area-wide prospectuses.

We delivered 3 parents events jointly with the University of Huddersfi eld

Careers 4 Adults

In 2008/9, 17,084 adults across Calderdale and Kirklees visited one of our Centres to obtain information and advice regarding careers, education and training. This is nearly 2,000 more adults seeking help from us than in the previous year.

Careers 4 Adults was able to provide an initial universal service to all adults. Those who needed more support were able to have at least one in-depth support session. This support was provided using LSC nextstep funding.

During the contract year 2008/9, local unemployment fi gures escalated and the impact of the economic downturn was felt deeply. In an attempt to meet the demand for our advice service, Careers 4 Adults Advisers delivered 1,656 short advice sessions against a planned target of 948.

‘I now have options and possibilities. Thank you for helping me to see them’ - Adult client

Many of these customers were referred to our service in our Careers Centres by Jobcentre Plus, but Advisers also continued to deliver support in community centres and at learning providers throughout Calderdale and Kirklees, especially to help those who had not been referred to our service by offi cial agencies .

In addition, Careers 4 Adults provided increased levels of information, advice and guidance to those taking part in local projects e.g. Access to Employment, Sure Start, European Social Fund.

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Calderdale & Kirklees CareersPersonnel

We have proudly held the Investor in People Award since 1997 and our three-yearly assessment against the national standard was held in December 2008.

The assessor had no hesitation in renewing our accreditation and opened her report by saying “This is one of the few organisations I have come across that I would love to work for!!! There is a real passion for the work they do, a clear understanding of everyone’s contribution and value, and most of all, a belief in teamwork and trust across the whole staff team. People enjoy the work they do, like the people they work with and have pride in their organisation and what it achieves!”

We were particularly pleased to receive glowing remarks about our business. Here are just some of them:

Communications across the organisation - people get to know what they need to know. There are good communication processes and people trust managers to tell them what is important (not just what they think they want to hear).

• Everyone feels valued and part of a team. There are absolutely no issues or concerns about equality of opportunity with regards to development or anything else. People are respected for their skills, their experience and as individual people.

• Learning and development is viewed as a high priority.• Managers at all levels are very effective. They constantly give feedback, encourage and

support staff throughout the business.• People do feel appreciated and valued. Managers and staff described a culture where

people are respected for what they can do and what they achieve.• As there are clear roles and people receive the development they need, there are quite

high levels of delegation and empowerment throughout most of the organisation. Staff are generally respected as “experts” and most are trusted to get on with their own jobs.

For the record, during the year we employed an average of 172 staff, 80% of which were female. A third of our staff worked part-time refl ecting our approach to fl exible working and our family-friendly policies. We continued to have low rates of employee turnover, our staff retention rate being much higher than in comparable organisations. Our sickness record was also below national averages, refl ecting our positive approach to welfare and support.

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6

Annual Review 2008-9Compliments, Comments & Complaints

During 2008/9 46 compliments were received by post or email, compared with 22 in 2007/8. In the same period we received seven complaints from users (the same number as the previous year). An analysis of the complaints received showed that:

• One was from an adult complaining about waiting times for the drop in service at Dewsbury during a busy period.

• One was from an adult complaining about service received at Halifax Connexions Centre.

• One was from a school governor complaining that their child had been given information about alternative provision outside the school’s own 6th form

• One was from a head teacher regarding a misunderstanding over work experience charges.

• One was from an employer regarding the handling of a vacancy.

• Two were from clients who chose not to give their contact details so could not be followed up.

Complaints were followed up and resolved; where appropriate, changes were made to working practices.

Financial Effectiveness

During 2008/9, the Company continued to maintain a strong fi nancial position thanks to the successful application of stringent fi nancial policies.

The Company successfully delivered services on over 50 contracts. New contracts were obtained, replacing those coming to an end so that turnover increased by 5% to £5.4m. For the seventh consecutive year we faced a situation where the fi nancial value of contracts was not increased in line with infl ation. In order to maintain delivery levels, the Company introduced additional measures to further improve effi ciency and overall effectiveness, whilst improving the quality of everything we do.

Turnover Analysis for 2008/9

Careers Yorkshire & the Humber 8.6%

Kirklees MC 52.8%

Kirklees College 2.0%

Schools and Colleges 3.2%

Calderdale MBC 28.0%

Other 5.4%

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Contact us

We are always interested in hearing your views. If you wouldlike to comment on anything contained in this Annual Reviewor any aspect of the service, visit the Shoutabout section onour website www.workabout.org.uk or telephone our headoffi ce.

Head Offi ce:78 John William Street, Huddersfi eld, HD1 1EHT: 01484 226700F: 01484 226725E-mail: careers@ckcareers.org.uk

Dewsbury Connexions

Centre

Dewsbury Library

Railway Street, Dewsbury,

WF12 8EB

T: 01924 324200

F: 01924 324153

Huddersfi eld Connexions

Centre

24 High Street,

Huddersfi eld, HD1 2LR

T: 01484 226800

F: 01484 221478

Halifax Connexions

Centre

16 Alexandra Street,

Halifax, HX1 1BS

T: 01422 342106

F: 01422 348257

Registered in England No: 3039360

VAT No: 6406676 31