3 April 2020- ESL Briefing

Dear Colleagues

This week I’ve been blown away by the new connections being made and the creative use of digital technology for remote working. It just goes to show you can’t lock down the human spirit!
I’m now part of the One City Economy Board and, Darren and Paul and I have also joined the Economic Impact Working Group. In one of the zoom meetings, the Mayor shared his ideas for building a path to get us beyond Coronavirus, starting with daily measures to survive the crisis, moving to handling less urgent but impactful issues, and then preparing well for the aftermath.

With a solid focus on stage one, all ESL teams have been working out what they can do to help our service users survive the crisis stage well. I’d like to shine a spot light on the Employment Support Team, just one of our services where things are developing fast and well:

The Employment Support Team have done a fantastic job making contact with over 180 employers who are urgently seeking staff during the current crisis. There are signs of an uptick in critical job areas – for example supermarkets, drivers, health and social care staff. The team have worked quickly to adapt the Ways2Work website and social media to act as a channel for marketing job vacancies to the public, other Council teams and support agencies. They have also published links to a wide range of resources to support all our service users. Just click on this new link to find out more: https://ways2work.org.uk/covid-19/.

The Future Bright Team have also embraced new ways of supporting their clients through remote technologies and are contacting the City’s support and referral agencies to publicise the fact they are still very much open for business, offering support for people who are in work and rely on benefits to get by.. Working with WECA, we have put forward a strong case together with our partner local authorities for the Future Bright eligibility to be widened – so that career coaches are not just available for people in low paid work, but also people at risk of redundancy, and those who have been made redundant and are now applying for Universal Credit. To find out more and help spread the word, just go to: https://www.westofengland-ca.gov.uk/future-bright/.

We can be certain that many, many people are relying on this information and support to make it through.

Best wishes

Jane Taylor