By building my network with One Horton Heath’s contractors, I can access a wide range of skilled professionals that can help schools and students to learn about the wide range of job roles associated with a mixed-use development.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT & PRACTICE
THE ONE HORTON HEATH SOCIAL VALUE FRAMEWORK L LEA HAMPTON TALKS ABOUT HOW SHE IS USING SOCIAL VALUE COMMITMENTS FROM A LOCAL DEVELOPMENT TO UNLOCK OPPORTUNITIES TO ENRICH CAREERS PROGRAMMES WITH HER PARTNER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES
ike many Career Matters readers, I came into the world of CEIAG via the role of a Careers Leader in a local secondary school. Now, in my current role as Employment and Skills Manager for Eastleigh Borough Council working on an innovative new development project named One Horton Heath, one of my main tasks is to broker employability support, training and employment opportunities for local schools and colleges.
This support can take any number of forms – from helping training providers with meeting Gatsby Benchmarks, to engaging professionals in supporting training initiatives and to helping charities and voluntary groups with business support. In schools, I’m involved in careers fairs, business breakfasts and more, and have recently begun a series of exciting ‘Industry Informing Education’ workshops, linking housing and construction sector professionals with lecturers and senior leadership teams to discuss skills gaps and evolving needs regarding the training of current and future employees. My role is also to act as a bridge between education and industry to ensure the right skills are being delivered to meet local employer needs. By building my network with One Horton Heath’s contractors, I can access a wide range of skilled professionals that can help schools and students to learn about the wide range of job roles associated with a mixed-use development.
Career Matters June 2022 / Issue 10.3
Whatever the size or type of contract, every new agreement requires organisations to contribute a minimum of 0.5% of the contract cost back to the local community through employment and skills initiatives, which my team is there to help them achieve.
With this contract-led approach, one potential challenge we identified was how to help organisations deliver employment and skills support that fed into the wider picture. Our answer was to develop the Social Value: Employment and Skills Toolkit - a framework that I authored in collaboration with the project’s management team setting out how organisations can engage with us, complete with example deliverables.
The toolkit categorises support into four pillars: 1. New Jobs, 2. Careers Education Enrichment, 3. Employability Enrichment and 4. Charity/Voluntary Sector/Small Business Enrichment. Contracts valued over £1 million are expected to support each pillar to ensure an even Why One Horton Heath? One Horton Heath sits on a 355-acre plot of land that will, spread of support across the employment and skills spectrum. over the coming 15 years, become host to around 2,500 homes, a new road network, a primary school, several commercial and industrial areas, a community-focused local centre, and much more. The development sets itself apart from others for the simple reason that it is being delivered by a local authority, Eastleigh Borough Council. This broadly translates into less emphasis being placed on profit, with a long-term investment in the community that would not generally be considered viable by most private developers.
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How we’re generating employment and skills value from local development supply chains One of the most innovative ways that One Horton Heath is set to make a difference in the employment and skills arena is by leveraging its supply chain. Upon drawing up contracts with One Horton Heath, organisations agree an employment and skills plan (ESP) with myself and the team that they will commit to for the duration of their social value contract.
Thanks to that local authority ownership, the project is able to pursue an array of socially and environmentally beneficial goals: a strong focus on sustainability, a promise to deliver infrastructure first to the benefit of both new and existing residents, and a commitment to 35% affordable housing, to name but a few.
Most crucially for me, however, is that the project places a great deal of value on employment and skills.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT & PRACTICE
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The best thing about my role is being able to bring added value to local residents and employees via education.
The social value project has already seen success garnering careers. A recent networking event with Fareham College saw One Horton Heath contractors talk to local educators about industry recruitment barriers. We also feel it is important to work with our contractors on social value in a way that is no different to their ‘normal’ contractual commitments. A key part of my role is to manage these commitments and support organisations with their delivery; I’ll be on hand throughout an organisation’s time with us, helping with employment and skills plans and generally greasing the wheels.
To help with the monitoring side of things, we’re also developing a web portal that contractors will use to document their work on social value. In addition to helping organisations keep track of their work, the portal will allow us to collect data, case studies and supporting media, all of which will be used to tout the value of the work and hopefully encourage the adoption of similar projects further afield. We’re also keen to avoid delivering social value in isolation. Over the past few years we’ve been laying the groundwork by building networks with local schools, colleges, business networks and charities, and these relationships continue to inform the goals and methods of the project. From working towards filling skills gaps in construction and development to understanding how best to support disadvantaged young people, the conversations we have with these groups are vital to ensure the support we generate hits the right spots.
Moving forward Although still in its infancy, we’re already starting to see some successes, most notably the creation of a suite of
construction careers resources entitled Place Creators, developed in response to an expressed need for highquality resources by local colleges. This library of 20 job-role videos is useful in opening up discussions with students about careers in developments and is freely available for schools and colleges to use.
One Horton Heath is just beginning to get going and contractors will increasingly start appearing on site, with opportunities widening for students and staff to join us on immersive visits to learn about construction roles and innovative technologies. Beyond that, the development is a crucial opportunity to refine the social value framework and show off just how beneficial projects like this can be. We’re in a great position and we’re just getting started. The best thing about my role is being able to bring added value to local residents and employees via education. By developing the social value toolkit, there’s an unmissable opportunity to champion lifelong learning, facilitate much-needed careers and employability discussions and, ultimately, ensure that local people have access to all the tools and resources they need to make realistic and informed career choices. To find out more about employment and skills at One Horton Heath, and discover our range of resources, visit: www.onehortonheath.co.uk/ employment-and-skills
Lea Hampton RCDP is the Employment and Skills Manager at Eastleigh Borough Council
31 Career Matters June 2022 / Issue 10.3