mpact magazine
Issue No.2 / November 2021
YOUNG PEOPLE GRADUATE NCS SUMMER PROGRAMME
What’s inside...
Page 3 CRS team engage local community in Leeds
Page 4 Wrapping up World Mental Health Day
The thousands of young people who participated in National Citizen Service (NCS) across the South East and East Midlands this Summer had a fantastic time celebrating their graduation with Leicester Riders and Lincoln City Foundation at the Morningside Arena.
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They were all brought on stage to celebrate both their personal and group achievements, including their social action projects, increased confidence, and newfound friendships. This was a brilliant achievement for the young people, as many of them would not have had the confidence to stand and speak in front of large crowds before taking part in the programme. One of the Leicester Riders NCS graduates commented: “NCS has given me a lot of memories - we developed our skills and did a lot of quality gardening! It was a wonderful experience, I was really glad I did it. I’ve been telling people ever since I finished NCS that you get back what you put in - I put in a lot of energy and I got a lot out of it and I’m very happy about that.” Ingeus Newsletter
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A member of staff from Leicester riders added: “We are all so proud of everything that the young people achieved over the summer. We worked with a charity called Saffron Acres and they are still using the green space that we created for them. They talk about it with a lot of pride - the things that the young people did will have an impact for years and will affect many people”.
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Restart Scheme delivers dream role in an unexpected turn of events Restart Scheme participant, Swaine Nelson from Brent, explains how, due to the coronavirus pandemic, he found himself out of a job and at a hard stage in his life, but with the help of the Ingeus team he was able to secure his dream role. Swaine began working with his dedicated Restart Advisor, Leena Kerai, who was on hand to guide and support him while he used the tools on Ingeus’s online careers platform, iWorks. “Leena is magnificent, which was a bonus,” says Swaine. “She really boosted my confidence and helped me a lot with sorting out my CV and getting myself organised in terms of putting an interview presentation together. “I can’t speak more highly of her. I was given maximum support and I believe I needed it because I was at a low stage in life. When you get to a certain age you think you’re going to be written off and you don’t really go in with high expectations. To have someone there to help and guide you and give you encouragement that you can put yourself out there – that was a real boost.” Issue no.2 / November 2021
During lockdown, Swaine had attended an online college course to obtain a CSCS card so he could work on-site in the construction industry. He told Leena he was interested in a role involving fibre-optic splicing as he had worked in that field previously and enjoyed it. Leena found a course he could join but it would mean working as an apprentice. “I knew that meant starting at the bottom, but I wanted to get my foot through the door and back into fibre employment,” says Swaine. He prepared for an interview and put together a presentation with Leena’s guidance. He couldn’t have dreamed what would happen next… “The great thing about it was after the interview, the company said I was slightly advanced for the position, and it would waste my time to go into an apprenticeship,” says Swaine. “Instead, they proposed that I could go into the company with a full-time job. I shed a little tear at that, it was the best news. I really feel elated, and it’s all come through iWorks and the help of Leena. I would tell anyone who’s in the same position as myself that they should go through this programme, I’ll give it the thumbs-up all day long!” Ingeus Newsletter
Ingeus sign Wellbeing of Women Workplace pledge We believe it’s vital that we are aware of the menopause and its many possible symptoms; helping us all support one another, whether a customer, colleague, friend or family. Especially important given that we are proud to have a 63% female workforce! As part of our commitment to wellbeing, we’ve signed the Wellbeing of Women Workplace pledge, which is committed to taking positive action to ensure that everyone going through the menopause is supported. To find out more information on the menopause and women’s menopause stories, click here.
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CRS team engage local community with our impact in Leeds
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JETS propels more people into work with another Career Expo The JETS Preston Career Expo was a huge success on Tuesday 26th October. There was a buzz at the event right from the start, as this was the first time the team had come together in the last 12 months!
Caritas Leeds, in partnership with our Commissioned Rehabilitative Service (CRS), held a successful event on 16th October in the local community, which raised awareness about the criminal justice system and services relating to the needs of prisoners, exoffenders, their families and victims of crime. Issue no.2 / November 2021
The event provided an opportunity for local organisations to come together such as West Yorkshire Police, St George’s Crypt and Restorative Solutions to find out more about the local support for exoffenders and how they can support them and each other. To help individuals break the cycle of reoffending and integrate back into society, the CRS team provide accommodation services; education, training and employment; and personal wellbeing support. It was great to meet so many local organisations at the event and share the services available to help rehabilitate ex-offenders, transform lives and build safer communities.
Ingeus Newsletter
A fantastic mixture of training providers and employers attended the two floors at Cotton Court in Preston, engaging with over 65 of our participants from across Central Lancashire, supporting them to develop and move closer to employment. Around 30 job interviews have been offered to participants from a variety of Employers including Euro Garages, R2R, Adecco and Runshaw College. Kirsty and Charlotte from Runshaw College commented on the event: “Thank you for letting Runshaw Apprenticeships be a part of this, it was a huge success! We had a great day, met some lovely people and have found some potential applicants for our apprenticeships.”
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Wrapping up World Mental Health Day
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Sunday 10th October was World Mental Health Day, an international day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy. A study by News Medical confirmed that mental health in the UK has continued to deteriorate since the start of the pandemic, making World Mental Health Day more important than ever before. As part of this annual event, our Able Futures team held a series of webinars on how work life balance can affect your mental health at work. Able Futures is a nationwide specialist partnership set up to provide the Access to Work Mental Health Support Service on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions. Their webinars explained the support available to staff struggling with their work life balance or other mental health issues, including burnout, that can arise if work life balance isn’t right.
I found the content to be interesting and some of which was new to me. I will certainly utilise this. Other elements served as a great refresher and covered topics and tips which I can easily forget or overlook at times. Visit able-futures.co.uk for more information and for the latest blogs on how to maintain a good work life balance.
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Ingeus in Abu Dhabi We are continuing to expand our mission to enable better lives internationally as Abu Dhabi’s Government Human Resource Department have commissioned an exciting new project to Ingeus. We will be supporting their vision of establishing job placement centres (JPCs) in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Al Dhafra.
Ingeus Newsletter
The centres will provide employment support to job seekers, in line with the implementation of the Emiratization policy, which gives preferential hiring status to Emiratis. Ingeus is supporting the set-up of the job centres by developing a delivery service framework which connects job seekers with employers, providing them with the right tools to help them find work.
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Restart team kick start success at learning and employment fare The Restart Scheme team and the Work and Health Programme attended Bolton’s Learning and Employment fare recently, and it was a great success!
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People came in droves to the event and together with our Partners from the Bolton Council workshop, the Ingeus team, Restart team, WHP and EAMs spoke to well over 100 people across the two days. The team offered lots of great support and advice, which even encouraged some people to sign up there and then onto courses, such as how to boost confidence at work and how to build their IT skills.
Health team recognised in RSPH Awards The RSPH Health & Wellbeing Awards recognise and celebrate a wide range of activities, policies and strategies that empower communities and individuals, improve the population’s health, and address the wider social determinants of health. A new category for 2021, the Health Equality Award celebrates programmes and projects that have
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helped to reduce health inequalities and had a positive impact on the health of a social, economic or geographic population. And this year, we’re proud to have been shortlisted for the new Health Equality Award for our work to improve access to employment, training opportunities and wellbeing support.
Ingeus Newsletter
Jayne Garner, Head of Integration for Working Well (Work and Health Programme), said: “We are thrilled to have been recognised by the RSPH. The calibre of organisations in the final was outstanding and seeing our work alongside such inspiring projects makes us extremely proud.”
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Enabling better lives with money management advice for students On 22nd October, our JETS team attended a drop-in day at St Damian’s college in Ashton, Manchester to talk all things money management. Ian Girvin, Money Management Advisor for JETS, delivered two workshops to provide help and guidance to students on managing their finances. In the first workshop, Ian talked about money management and budget planners, whilst the second workshop focussed on careers in finance, with an add on for understanding payslips and university finance. Greater Manchester Combined Authority created the initiative, and the two sessions went extremely well, with students taking a real interest in how they could effectively manage their money. They asked lots of questions about how to save, university and student finance costs, getting a part-time job alongside your university course, career paths in the finance industry, the future of inflation and currency markets, and career options if they choose not to go into higher education.
Beer sales boost money for Bolton youth club
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Many of the teachers even stated that they had learnt a lot from the workshops! They provided some excellent feedback to our team: “Thank you for your excellent delivery and comprehensive preparation. It is very clear that both sets of students gained a huge amount from the sessions.” “A great session - all pupils were fully involved and engaged. Lots of relevant were questions asked, it promoted so much discussion. It would be great to have more sessions to educate students on money management.” So many young people are either unaware or ill-informed on things like budgeting, how to borrow, credit scores, how to get a mortgage and much more. As money management is something that many school curriculums don’t cover, it was a real eye-opener for many of the students. Ian Girvin comments: “In the UK, we send our young people out into the workplace with no real understanding of how they should manage their personal finances. Too often they rely on credit to survive, but with good education this can be avoided. The more we can do to promote our services and our company, helping the younger generations to avoid common money management mistakes, the stronger we can make our communities going forward.”
Congratulations to the Working Well (Work and Health Programme) team who volunteered at the Bolton Beer Festival. While a beer festival is not the most traditional activity for fundraising, it definitely works! Each barrel sold is sponsored by a local business to raise as much money as possible. All the money raised will go towards Bolton Lads and Girls club - one of the largest youth clubs in the United
Ingeus Newsletter
You can find out more about the JETs money management service here on the Ingeus website and watch a short video on our YouTube channel. The JETS team will also be supporting the Meet Your Future (MYF) campaign, launched by the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, in April 2019 to enable more young people in Greater Manchester to have access to experiences of the workplace.
Kingdom, with a membership of over 4,000 young people. Joanne Gavin, Integration Coordinator for Greater Manchester WWWHP commented: “The team were a true credit to Ingeus – their helpful and friendly manner sold plenty of pints to please the crowds! The total for the money raised is expected to be around £60,000, which is a fantastic achievement and something we are really proud of.”
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Black History Month October marked Black History Month which gave us the opportunity to recognise and appreciate the contributions of black people in society over many generations.
Our team celebrated throughout the month with a range of activities including a quiz on black history, sharing family recipes on traditional Jamaican food, and a podcast on being mixed race from colleagues Eudene Griffith and Gemma Heywood. You can listen to the podcast on our Facebook page.
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Finally a podcast that is not black or white, thank you! I can relate to many of the things you said. Nicole Rosenthal, Commercial & Contracts
Really interesting and real! This is my first podcast, and a great listen at that. Jason Brown, Personal Wellbeing Advisor
Ready steady ACTION Spoiler alert! We’ve been out and about meeting colleagues across the country to talk about our work and why we do it as part of a new video coming soon. Kicking off at the CFO Activity Hub in Durham, filming continued at our centres in the North West, West Midlands and London. We can’t wait to share it with you soon!
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Ingeus Newsletter
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JETS boosts money for breast cancer
Customer feedback
Wear it Pink Day was celebrated across the country, and in Greater Manchester, the local JETS team held a quiz to raise funds for Breast Cancer Now, in aid of breast cancer awareness and research. Well done to the team who have raised £187 so far!
Sheryl Hendrickson, Restart Advisor in Islington, received a lovely surprise from a participant who she placed in work earlier on this month as a Housekeeping Team Member at Premier Inn County Hall.
Emma, Team Manager, said: “23% of breast cancer cases in the UK are preventable, therefore it’s so important
to raise awareness of the signs of breast cancer and encourage women (and men) to check their breasts regularly. I’m so proud of the team for raising money for such a great cause.” If you would like to donate to Breast Cancer now, you can find the link to the page here: https://www.justgiving. com/fundraising/jetsgm
Behind the scenes with... Ian Tolley This week we’ve put the spotlight on Ian Tolley, who describes Ingeus as a “working heaven” and a place where he really feels valued. As a dad to four children, including eight-year-old triplets, it’s meant a lot to Ian that he’s been able adapt his role around his busy family life. Working at Ingeus enables him to share the school runs and adjust his working hours to suit. Ian worked in hospitality and entertainment before moving to employability. When his triplets arrived prematurely, he took 18
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The participant sent flowers and a card to Sheryl, thanking her for all her help and hard work!
We asked Ian to answer some of life’s essential ‘this or that’ questions to get to know him a little better: •
Summer or Winter? Summer
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Chocolate or sweets? Chocolate
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Night or morning? Morning
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City or countryside? City
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Cats or dogs? Dogs
As a keyworker, Ian’s role is to help clients believe in themselves again. He loves the challenge of his job and the diverse mix of people he gets to work with and help.
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Dressed up or casual? Casual
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Phone calls or emails? Phone Calls
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Books or films? Films
During lockdown, Ian also set up a fortnightly radio show for his, with requests, shoutouts and a quiz. What a great way to finish the week!
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Night out or night in? Night Out
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Holidays or home comforts? Holidays
Local Integration Lead, Restart Scheme Greater Manchester months out of work to help care for them, so can empathise with how some participants feel trying to re-enter the world of work after a prolonged time away.
Ingeus Newsletter
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