ESF-Works

Common Ground - Breaking New Ground

Logo for Common Ground - Breaking New Ground www.kirklees.gov.uk/community/international/european-unit/equal.shtml 

Description

Background 

Common Ground - Breaking New Ground was an extension of the successful work already carried out under EQUAL Round One. During the evaluation of Round One, it was noted that the overall success of the first phase had been hindered by employers not being receptive to issues surrounding equality and diversity in the workplace. Therefore the second round of EQUAL was designed primarily to target work with employers, with an aim to help them remove their own barriers and also to understand the positive gains of employing a diverse workforce.

Aim 

The main focus of Common Ground - Breaking New Ground was ‘harnessing local potential’ to develop the Kirklees workforce. To do this, the project worked to support local employers in embracing a diverse workforce and also in engaging individuals from ‘underrepresented’ and ‘disadvantaged’ target groups, with an overall aim to broker the two together.

Objectives

  • Primary research into business motives, leading to the creation of interactive tools to support diversity in the workplace.
  • Development of a GRADES measurement and benchmarking toolkit to support local businesses on issues around equality and diversity.
  • Piloting new ways to redesign and re-package work/jobs.
  • Creation of a community employment agency to encourage local employment by linking up with local services, going beyond standard models, thus creating an integrated and overarching framework for the delivery of support services such as health, education, transport and childcare to supplement the employment need.

 Target groups

  • Unemployed
  • Employed
  • SMEs

Round

2

Round 1 to Round 2

The Round One DP (Common Ground) had the aim of establishing ‘common ground’ with employers, promoting the principle that diversity pays, and that by identifying and building on the latent skills of the population, it is possible to move towards a more productive local economy and a more inclusive society.

Common Ground was a vast laboratory in which a host of different approaches to labour market integration were tried and tested. The work was hindered by a lack of employer involvement and/or inability to embrace a diverse workforce. For Round Two, the partnership has been concentrating on SMEs/micro SMEs and helping them to understand the social and economic benefits of equality and diversity.

Lead partner

Kirklees Council >>
www.kirklees.gov.uk >>

Core partners

ACAS >>
Business Link West Yorkshire >>
Careers Partnership >>
Huddersfield Pride >>
Jobcentre Plus >>
Kirklees Racial Equality Council >>
Learning & Skills Council >>
Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce & Industry Ltd >>
Voluntary Action Kirklees >>
Worklink >>

Transnational partnerships

Information for Transnational partnerships

Contact

Alison Bruton
Kirklees Metropolitan Council - Economic Development Services (Civic Centre )
alison.bruton@kirklees.gov.uk >>
Heather Waddington
Kirklees Metropolitan Council - Economic Development Services (Civic Centre )
heather.waddington@kirkleesmc.gov.uk >>

End-dates

Action 2: 31 March 2008
Action 3: 31 March 2008

Equal theme

Facilitating access

Origins

The original Common Ground development partnership was formed in October 2001 and brought together key organisations in Kirklees from the public sector, education and training organisations, employers and the voluntary and community sector.

The partnership was created after a process of widespread consultation that resulted in 21 organisations signing up to become members. They included voluntary organisations, community groups, the public employment service, the Learning and Skills Council and the local chamber of commerce.

Beneficiaries

Employed in SMEs, Unemployed
Total beneficiaries: 1027

Achievements

Common Ground - Breaking New Ground exceeded the original target number of profiled individuals/companies that it was set up to support. The DP worked with a total of 1027 individual beneficiaries and 95 company beneficiaries.

Common Ground successfully developed and implemented the following:

  • innovative marketing material – a targeted campaign focusing on underrepresented groups in childcare. The materials were adapted and created to suit each group.
  • promotional material designed to attract care leavers and employers to support the programme
  • a job diagnostic survey toolkit – designed to support employers in redesigning work
  • the Job Diagnostic report, designed to ensure that the results of the JDS toolkit were easily disseminated and understood by the target audience
  • a community employment agency (CEA), created to engage and support the hardest to reach
  • community champions used to engage local people
  • a development programme designed to support care leavers
  • the Slivers of Time initiative, which is now embedded in Kirklees
  • the GRADES toolkit – designed to support employers around aspects of equality and diversity in their organisations
  • the redesigning of NVQ 3, LDSS and A Awards qualifications for support staff in schools and community settings
  • employer-focused diversity workshops and training materials, to be used in conjunction with the GRADES toolkit
  • equality and diversity GRADES newsletters circulated to local employers
  • modular courses designed to encourage underrepresented groups into childcare. Each course was adapted to meet the individual needs of the target group.
  • positive role models induction pack developed for all participating beneficiaries
  • focus groups, established for underrepresented groups to try and discuss and talk openly about stereotypical views in a bid to start to break these barriers down
  • a women's support network ‘shanti’, established by a group of women from the BME community, which was open to all women.
Jobs created: 26.
Businesses created: 20.

Intended impact/ sustainability

By linking deprived communities to job opportunities and nearby growth, this project also aims to provide a long-term plan to target beneficiaries in terms of addressing poverty, community cohesion, and changing long-term attitudinal and organisational cultures.

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Connections

Main outputs

Printable document
Reaching Common Ground achievement brochure and Lesson in Diversity Posters >> Dissemination Products: Reaching Common Ground (brochure of achievements) and the Diversity posters (six posters) were produced to help raise awareness of the work of the partnership and provide a comprehensive account of the lessons learned through the work of the Kirklees Common Ground Development Partnership 2001-2007.


Activities and products

Activity
Community Employment Agency - Up and Working >> Up and Working is a new community employment agency based in Huddersfield that goes beyond standard models to create an integrated and holistic approach to supporting individuals to move towards and re-engage with employment.Expand/collapse Products (1)


Activity
Developing Public Procurement Policies >> This activity involved working with public procurement policies to develop ways in which to implement contractual obligations for local suppliers to employ people from the main socially excluded groups.


ActivityFair Ground is a transnational partnership
Fair Ground >> A transnational partnership has been developed with established partners in Sweden, the Czech Republic and Austria as they essentially share the view that in order to tackle inequalities and combat discrimination in the labour market, there is a desperate need to also work on removing the barriers to inclusion on the demand side (i.e.Expand/collapse Products (1)


Activity
GRADES (gender, race, age, disability, ethnicity, sexual) orientation >> GRADES, standing for gender, religion, age, disability, ethnicity and sexual orientation, is a toolkit designed to support employers in identifying and improving equality and diversity in the workplace.Expand/collapse Products (2)


Activity
Positive Role Models project >> The Positive Role Models project aims to promote a career in childcare to underrepresented groups through supporting access to further education, training and employment opportunities within the childcare sector.Expand/collapse Products (3)


Meeting/congress
Reaching Common Ground - A showcase event >> A celebration event, to showcase the work of Common Ground over the last seven years.Expand/collapse Products (1)


Activity
Redesign and re-packaging theme >> Activities under this theme focused on new ways to re-package and redesign work so that those who find it difficult to enter or re-enter the workforce are integrated into work and stay in employment.Expand/collapse Products (2)


Activity
Research Theme >> Activity under this theme was led by primary research into business motives leading to the creation of interactive tools to support diversity in the workplace.Expand/collapse Products (2)