providers to: East Marsh wards - Behaviour change through ... · providers to: East Marsh wards Overview The Worklessness Collaborative Programme, ... conducted, via a questionnaire,

ShowCase │ Worklessness Collaborative Programme 1

Overview

The Worklessness Collaborative Programme,

funded through the Working Neighbourhoods

Fund and managed locally by North East

Lincolnshire Council, aimed to reduce overall

levels of unemployment in two deprived areas

of Grimsby.

The programme centred on the development of

community teams of local residents and service

providers to:

Inspire individuals to achieve personal

changes

Enable them to access appropriate work

Reduce dependence on benefits and

increase overall profitability in South and

East Marsh wards

A social advertising campaign was also

developed to help:

Raise awareness of the available support

for unemployed people

„Nudge‟ people to access this support

Increase number of people accessing help

The programme was piloted between April

2009 and September 2010 and extended until

November 2010. A range of key performance

indicators were used to measure success.

Initial targets were predominantly achieved or

surpassed, with an overwhelming increase in

engagement with the programme by 2,098

participants by November 2010.

Worklessness Collaborative Programme

Topic:

Unemployment

Organisation:

Unique Improvements Ltd

Location:

Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire (Yorkshire & Humber)

Dates:

April 2009 to November 2010

Budget:

£60,600 (Working Neighbourhoods Funding)

Website:

www.uni.gb.com

Contact:

Linda Henry (Director)

Email:

[email protected]

Telephone:

0151 486 6737


Although significant industry employment still

exists in North East Lincolnshire (NEL), the

area has suffered from a decline in

manufacturing and fishing activity.

Worklessness rates have remained relatively

constant, continuing to exceed national and

regional rates overall and significantly in its

most deprived communities. Overall

worklessness levels stand at 17.5 per cent of

the population, compared to 13.2 per cent in

England as a whole.

In 2008, NEL Council (NELC) was awarded

£13.2 million under the Working

Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) to address the

problems faced by people in getting into full-

time sustainable work. In January 2009, NEL

Local Strategic Partnership launched the 10-

year Economic Wellbeing Strategy to address

deprivation across the borough. Branded

„Change‟, the strategy focuses on creating jobs

and strengthening opportunities for all in NEL

to access employment through the creation of

the Change Programme.

The Change Programme is built on an

evidence base of need, gained from

consultation and factual analysis. The

programme has two sides: one which supports

people to address challenges faced by being

out of work for over six months; the other is

about creating opportunities for work through

apprenticeships, training and job creation.

In April 2009 the Change Board (previously the

Economic Wellbeing Board of the Council)

commissioned Unique Improvements, a social

enterprise, to develop a 14-month

worklessness collaborative pilot programme.

With an initial budget of £46,600, the pilot was

planned for development in two areas of

Grimsby – South and East Marsh wards. These

areas had the highest levels of deprivation and

claimants receiving incapacity benefit and Job

Seeker Allowance, and highest child poverty

rates in the region (48 per cent and 44 per cent

respectively, compared to 25 per cent in NEL).

Aim and objectives

The aims of the pilot programme were to

reduce child poverty, improve worklessness

statistics and increase economic wellbeing and

profitability of the participating wards. It was

proposed that this could be achieved by

increasing benefit uptake where appropriate

and increasing economic activity and pre-work

readiness.

Initial scoping work carried out in September

2008 had identified that over 200 organisations

were providing unemployment support, but

these were extremely underused.

The programme therefore aimed to:

Raise awareness of what help was already

available for people to access (not create

more provision, to ensure no duplication

took place)

Help people access this support

Increase the number of people accessing

help

Process-related objectives were to increase by

June 2010:

Community engagement and interaction

with the programme by at least 1,100

people

The number in regular volunteering roles by

at least five people

The availability of new jobs by adding three

full-time job placements

Publicity for the programme (utilising media

opportunities in a proactive manner) by at

least 12 media placements in one year

Utilisation of other framework programmes

by 15 referrals


Target audiences and behavioural goals

Primary audiences

Economically inactive residents within the

priority wards were selected as the primary

target audience, with a specific focus on carers

(parents, grandparents and others) and lone

parents. The desired behaviour was for them to

access existing services with a view to entering

employment, education or training.

Additional segmentation across motivation was

conducted, via a questionnaire, according to

readiness and motivation to change, and a

person‟s point on the pathway to work.

Segments included:

Out of work, but keen to re-engage:

Required some assistance with skills and

the application process

Out of work, but potentially keen to re-

engage: Barriers included childcare and

numeracy skills

Out of work and lacking motivation:

Required support with skills building and

overcoming barriers such as childcare

Out of work for some time: Had significant

support needs and possible health

difficulties

Secondary audiences

Local service providers across the Change

Programme delivering interventions to

support the primary audiences – The

desired behaviour was for these providers

to be more receptive, approachable, open

and flexible

Children of the primary audience – The

hope was to engage parents and carers

through a subtle use of „pester power‟ and

by encouraging them to be strong role

models to their children

Building on the success of the „Falls‟, „Early

Presentation of Cancer Symptoms‟ and „Older

People‟s Health and Wellbeing‟ programmes in

NEL, the Worklessness Collaborative

programme centred on the development of

community teams to help gather insight and

develop and deliver suitable interventions.

There were four stages to the programme

1. Mapping and scoping stage – A resource

pack of local and national good practice was

developed to help identify key stakeholders,

good practice, the evidence base and

networks

2. Experts on the Ground Event – Held in July

2009, where local experts agreed and

refined assumptions

3. Developing community teams – South and

East Marsh teams were developed in

November 2009, comprising of both

residents and agency staff, such as local link

workers, employment advisers, voluntary

sector workers, church organisations, health

workers and Sure Start staff

4. Moving into mainstream – Anything that

worked was planned to be extended

throughout the rest of Grimsby

Community team research and training

The community teams progressed through a

capacity building programme with the aim of

using their new skills to inspire motivation in

other individuals to achieve personal changes,

enabling them to access appropriate work,

reduce dependence on benefits and increase

the overall profitability of the two wards.

The residents and service providers in the

community teams attended three one-day

residential learning events, where they were

presented with best practice from across the


country to stimulate thinking and intervention

propositions. The first was held in October

2009, with subsequent events in January and

June 2010 (and an interim event in April 2010).

As well as monthly team meetings, a series of

half-day workshops was supported by Unique

Improvements, who provided training in

research skills as requested by the teams, such

as in mapping services and conducting focus

groups and surveys. The teams used these

skills to gather insight from residents in their

area, through surveying nearly 2,000

individuals across the 2 wards and conducting

focus groups.

Exchange

Through the scoping work and insight gathering

activities, a number of barriers were identified

which prevented members of the target

audience from interacting with services to gain

employment.

Non-monetary:

Perceived time and effort job searching

To overcome this, the benefits of obtaining

a job would be highlighted, including

receiving a wage, being a positive role

model for children, developing skills, gaining

opportunities to socialise, and improving

physical and mental health and wellbeing.

Social standing – both positive and

negative

Peer groups were commonly cited as

important places for support and opinion

and wielded considerable influence over the

target audiences. In relation to job seeking

and associated behaviours, there was a

significant opportunity to reframe social

norms and engage local people in delivering

messages to peers to positively influence

the attitudes and behaviours of target

audiences.

Time away from children

Children and their needs carried significant

influence with the target audiences. Parents

reported deferring serious job hunting until

their children reached at least five years old,

with school age being the significant

transition point. A view almost universally

held was that it was better for a mother to

be at home or close at hand during a child‟s

formative years. Any divergence from that

opinion was strongly challenged by peers in

the group discussions.

Monetary:

Benefits and support

Even when Benefit Advisers demonstrated

that people would be financially better off in

employment, there was a reluctance to give

up the range of benefit and support

packages (largely financial, such as housing

benefit and council tax rebate) that would

be withdrawn on returning to work. To

address this perception, the target groups

would be linked up with a range of sources

of financial advice.

Competition

Child dependence

Children provided a significant draw away

from work, learning, volunteering and work

preparedness. Whilst childcare was valued,

it was regarded as a second best option

and often unaffordable. This was one of the

most significant sources of competition for

the target groups.


Economic downturn

Given the worsening economic

environment, the programme had to

compete with a range of information

delivered through national and local media.

This was often pessimistic and largely

negative, with the effect of reinforcing

existing fatalistic attitudes and compounding

low self-esteem among the target

audiences.

Perceptions of services

There was a mixed view of the value of existing

services:

Inflexibility – The most significant and

often mentioned issue with existing services

was that they could not respond quickly or

flexibly to individuals‟ circumstances

Inappropriateness – There was a

perception that none of the existing services

really suited individuals‟ needs

Poor customer service – Services were

described as being „lecturing‟ or

„judgemental‟, unfriendly and disrespectful.

Despite being a service that almost every

unemployed person of working age should

access regularly, few positive experiences

of Jobcentre Plus were noted. Audiences

(particularly women and mothers) described

the physical building as an unpleasant place

to visit and they found the groups of people

hanging around outside the building

intimidating. Once inside, because they

regularly saw different advisors, they

described poor customer care and low

understanding of personal needs. Beliefs

included that information was skewed,

incorrect and given to encourage people

into work at any cost

Influence of peers – Positive and negative

accounts of others‟ experiences of using a

particular service had a huge influence over

whether people were inclined to access a

service

Low motivation – If general motivation and

confidence was low, then the likelihood of

audiences accessing services was low,

irrespective of its locality

Lack of trust – Many of the audience

members exhibited a general distrust of

„official‟ sources information, unless they

had had a specific positive experience of

them. This was especially true of those

parents who had been out of work for some

time, and job agencies in particular elicited

low opinions

In terms of how services should be delivered,

the research suggested that people would

value:

Using the talents and resources of local

people, including peer-to-peer approaches

Flexible points of access, which allowed

participation in non-threatening ways and at

convenient times

Distance from official bureaucracy and

social security services, so that people

would not feel „at risk‟ of changes to their

benefits when accessing services

Receiving prompt and clear feedback

Support in exploring what is on offer and

signposting to other relevant resources

Given the variety of audiences and possible

behaviours that comprise job seeking, there

was recognition that one size does not fit all,

particularly with the strong desire for flexible

and tailored services amongst the target

audiences.

Target audiences were able to list a range of

existing services, but with varying degrees of

accuracy. It was therefore evident that

increasing awareness of offers and correcting

misconceptions already in place would be

beneficial.

Target audiences were clear that any campaign

should use channels like personal and

community networks and service hubs (both

online and physical services), as well as

traditional media channels.


Developing the community teams

People were mobilised into two community

teams, based around priority neighbourhood

areas. Teams comprised at least 50 per cent

local people who were either unemployed

young parents or older unemployed people,

supported by a range of professionals who

contributed their service expertise. There were

roughly 10 core members per team as well as

numerous additional community members who

would attend ad hoc and the number of

volunteers increased as word spread.

Retention of some community members was

difficult due to competing priorities, namely

childcare as many were single parents.

Implicit and explicit rewards were offered to

community team members in exchange for

participating. These included:

Acquiring new skills, such as training for

community members around research skills

Developing confidence in their ability to

influence change within their communities

Participating in residential learning events

In between the workshops for community

teams were action periods, where changes

were tried and tested. The teams were trained

in the Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) approach

(Deming, 1993), which encouraged them to

anticipate problems or barriers, break down

their causes and then suggest intervention

ideas. These had to be easily testable and

achievable within eight days. Results would

then feed into the ongoing activities and

engagement work. These „rapid change cycles‟

enabled the teams to observe the direct link

between activities and outcomes and to

reinforce those that delivered required results,

testing and shaping as they went.

First Things First branding

Insight from the focus groups and surveys of

local residents and unemployed young parents

identified children as a motivator to engaging

with employment services. Parents related to

the message about doing „anything for their

children‟.

All target audiences reported that the message

strategy for engagement into services should

be reassuring, supportive, promote a sense of

immediacy and build beliefs that „this is

possible‟ and „I can make a change‟, while

supporting people to end negative and habitual

behaviour and challenge social norms, such as

„there are no jobs out there‟ and ‟I can‟t do

that‟.

This led to the development of a creative

concept called „First Things First‟. This more

positive, inspiring and proactive brand replaced

the „Worklessness‟ project title, which had

strong negative associations. It appealed to

parents and carers by drawing on their

emotional relationships with children by

encouraging them to „be a superhero‟ and good

role models.


Mapping

The community teams conducted a mapping

exercise of local service provision, which

identified the various agencies in the two wards

where unemployed people could get help

entering employment or education. The

mapping exercise involved splitting the ward up

into smaller sections and each team member

walked around the area identifying both the

obvious and less obvious venues for support.

These were then plotted onto a large map so

all relevant provision could be seen.

This information was developed into a resource

pack provided at six venues across the two

wards. The resource pack consisted of a

foolscap folder that contained paper copies of

the prospectuses for local services, along with

model CVs and application form hints. The

information was replicated on a USB stick as a

high percentage of people in the focus groups

said they used the computer and internet to

find work.

How2 campaign and resource pack

A social advertising campaign „How2‟ was

developed after the second community team

workshop in December 2009, which aimed to

get parents to make a step towards working –

whether it be training, careers advice, or job

seeking – with a view of being able to help their

children later. Launched in March 2010, the

How2 campaign included a series of humorous

postcards and posters that encouraged people

to go to local distribution points, such as

children‟s centres, to pick up the resource

pack. The teams promoted the resources at

their roadshows and events in community fairs

and retail outlets, as well as in betting shops,

the job centre, pubs, clubs and bingo halls.

Advertisements also featured on local

television and radio.

To overcome attitudinal barriers to

employment, a series of audience specific

messages were developed. For example, some

addressed the difficulty audience‟s feared

balancing work and caring responsibilities.

Some acknowledged and used the transition

point of children reaching school age to

motivate parents to prepare for work. Others

implicitly drew on parents as role models. The

exact messages and look were pretested with

target audiences. Illustration was used to

reinforce the look and feel of the resource and

fridge magnets, postcards, stickers and flash

cards were included to create a child-focused

feel.


The proposition was not ‟Get a job‟ – it was

wider than this, in acknowledgement of the

multiple steps people sometimes must take

before they actually get a job. The proposition

was „Plan for your child‟s future by getting

ready for work now‟.

Community champions

Drawing on the insight of using the talents and

resources of local people, as well as providing

flexible and non-threatening points of access

for existing services, new key worker roles

were set up within the community teams.

These people provided support to the teams

and acted as an entry point for the unemployed

and unengaged, providing them with support,

information, direction and purpose, and putting

together a plan of action that moved

participants towards employment and beyond.

This was achieved through:

Referral and signposting into services

through community events and peer-to-peer

interaction across community networks

Providing new volunteering opportunities

and promoting existing opportunities

Attending interviews with participants if

required

Peer-to-peer coaching

The workers supported individuals during their

initial employment and monitored their journey

to gainful activity.

The community champion role was particularly

effective in the South ward. Tracey Greetham

was well known in the community and suffered

from long-term depression, unable to work or

sometimes go out, which had lasted for some

years. Subsequently she joined the

Collaborative team in the South ward.

“When I first joined the Collaborative I was

lacking in confidence. I had suffered with

depression for a number of years and had just

started to attend the children‟s centre. Being

part of the Collaborative has boosted my

confidence.”

During her membership, she participated in a

number of training days and was supported to

learn outreach work skills. This led to her being

employed as a part-time community champion

and in her first four weeks in the role she

helped seven people into further education and

one person into a training place with a

permanent job. She is now in great demand

and is developing initiatives to help other

people with depression to be more active within

their communities.

“I have heard so many people say that they just

did not know where to start with getting back

into employment, and what a difference our

help has made not only financially but also to

their own wellbeing.”

Programme management

Day-to-day management was provided by a

local project manager employed by the Council

and supported by the Unique Improvements

team. This involved:

Developing and monitoring the project plan

to ensure objectives were being met


Developing agendas for steering group

meetings and team meetings

Measuring impacts on a monthly basis

using various data streams

Reception to the programme

Local people were initially wary of the

programme as unemployment is a contentious

topic in the two target areas. Both communities

are particularly deprived and very suspicious of

service providers. However they do respond to

peer-to-peer engagement, which meant

personal networks were strongly utilised. Local

relationships acted as „passports‟ and identified

a range of networks to use, many of which

were closed to professionals.

Local services saw the programme as a threat

and expected to have to compete for the same

group of clients. This changed over the course

of the programme as services realised that

working in collaboration maximised their efforts.

Jobcentre Plus was initially keen to get

involved, but their reputation amongst the local

unemployed caused a barrier to engagement.

How2 launch

The campaign was launched in April 2010 at an

open event held at Tukes Conference Centre in

Grimsby. Personal invitations were sent to a

wide range of stakeholders and service

providers from a „hit list‟ generated by the

teams of people they considered useful to their

cause. Local people were also invited via local

community networks and a free lunch was

provided. In addition to launching the

campaign, the event was used to energise the

teams, promote the programme and

recruitment more team members. The

campaign is ongoing with the team members

taking it in turns to place the „Superwoman‟

banner in local venues to promote the resource

packs.

South team: Example activities

South ward team initially focused on young

fathers, as they felt there were a lot of

resources already in place to support young

mothers. They set out by surveying a small

number of young fathers using their own

existing personal networks, with the intention of

finding places where this group assemble and

that could be used for targeting. However, this

approach was unsuccessful, as the men were

reticent and suspicious when they were asked

about where they gathered. The team had to

use an existing event at the Children‟s Centre

instead and identified that a children‟s party

could be a „hook‟ for fathers. They

subsequently ran a children‟s Christmas party,

where they were able to engage 96 parents, of

whom 36 per cent were fathers.

From this the team developed a range of

activities attractive to fathers, such as rope

walks, football penalty shoot outs and days out.

With the help of these parents, the South team

put together a questionnaire to assess attitudes

to worklessness in the wider community. The

questionnaire was trialled a number of times

until it was considered successful. The

questionnaire was delivered to 2,098 people

between July 2009 and November 2010,

predominantly in public venues such as post

offices, local shops and libraries.

East Marsh team: Example activities

The East Marsh team set up the Children‟s

Centre Worklessness Coffee Mornings, where


people who attended the Children‟s Centre

were invited to attend, get a sausage butty and

receive advice about getting back to work or

study. These coffee mornings provided existing

services within a „safe‟ and acceptable venue

to deliver their assistance to people who would

not visit independent services. The community

team members attended these coffee

mornings, acting as facilitators and introducing

individuals to the services. Seeing the services

out of context helped the target audiences

change their perceptions about the services.

As a result of the first workshop, the team also

organised a coach trip from East Marsh

Children‟s Centre to Scarborough as a means

of engaging and recruiting 400 families who

were out of work but who used the local

Children‟s Centre. While on the coach, team

members surveyed the families about their

attitudes to work and what would help or hinder

them in searching for employment. Where

necessary, they signposted people to services

and invited them to the next coffee morning.

In June 2010, one parent from the East Marsh

team set up a healthy burger van as a means

of engaging people outside of the Jobcentre,

which is still operating at the Co-op car park

across the road. In addition to offering healthy

food options, the van service helps the team

raise money, creates a job, and acts as an

outlet for the team to distribute materials and

engage target audience members in

meaningful conversations about other

employment services.

SWOT analysis

During the third and final learning workshop in

June 2010, a Strengths, Weaknesses,

Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis

was used to analyse whether to expand the

programme elsewhere.

Strengths: Included the mobilisation of a

team of residents in a social marketing

programme to reduce child poverty

Weaknesses: Inability to gain acceptance

from some of the existing Change providers

who saw the programme as a competitor.

Plans were made to do some PR with the

most difficult providers to try and overcome

this

Opportunities: Acknowledgement of the

success of the programme by other areas.

Overall, the community teams felt

empowered and inspired to initiate and

support social change

Threat: Absence of any future funding due

to budget cuts within the Council. The

teams started to plan how they would gain

further funding

Evaluation planning

An evaluation plan was developed from the

outset, which included the use of key

performance indicators (KPIs) to demonstrate

achievement of the outcomes on a monthly

basis. To track activities and demonstrate that

the community teams were addressing the joint

aims, a number of measures was developed to

link back to the KPIs. These included:

attendance lists of events; logging the number

of meaningful conversations had with

individuals; number of resource packs collected

by individuals and a signposting referral form.

Key findings

The approach used to achieve improved

economic activity in NEL was to raise

awareness of the services already in place to

assist the unemployed back into work and to

„nudge‟ them to use these services. Initial

targets were predominantly achieved or

surpassed.


The table below shows the progress towards

achieving the necessary targets in the first

phase (October 2009 to June 2010).

Description Phase

One

target

Total

to

June

2010

Increasing engagement/ interaction

with the programme

1100 1140

Increasing the availability of new

jobs

3 2

Demonstrating partnership working

by working with other agencies to

develop new employment

opportunities

3 11

Increasing referral to the key

workers programme

4 20

Increasing utilisation of other

framework programmes

15 435

Increasing confidence in individuals

to access what is already in

existence for them

5 0

Increasing the number in regular

volunteering roles

5 21

Increasing publicity for the

programme by utilising media

opportunities in a proactive manner.

12 29

The table below includes results for the second

phase (September to November 2010). Data

was not collected in July and August 2010

because of holidays and changes in the project

management arrangements.

Description Phase

One

total

Phase

Two

total

Overall

total

Increasing engagement/

interaction with the

programme

1140 958 2098

Increasing utilisation of

other framework

programmes

435 34 469

Increasing the number in

regular volunteering roles

21 3 24

Increasing publicity for the

programme by utilising

media opportunities in a

proactive manner

29 1 30

Unique Improvements conducted a pre- and

post-programme confidence questionnaire with

the team members and evaluated each of the

three workshops to see how confidence

improved over time. All team members

reported an increase in confidence and over

the 12 months there was a notable increase in

reported confidence to discuss worklessness

issues amongst the community members and

local service providers. Normalising the

discussion around worklessness has potentially

helped to counter the generational negativity

previously identified in the wards.

Involvement in the community teams has also

prompted members from long-term

unemployed backgrounds to think more

creatively about their own situations and

become more active in their employment

searches, with success. They have also been

able to lead change in their immediate areas.

For example, one community champion had

been unemployed for a number of years and

among his wider family there was a real

concern about coming off benefits to get a job.

His attempts had been half-hearted and

unsuccessful, but as a result of the

Collaborative he volunteered as a community

champion and is now paid for his role.

The number of people coming forward to join

the teams increased as word spread. Existing

community team members individually reported

increased confidence when dealing with all

services, not just those related to

worklessness. This confidence is having an

obvious effect on their willingness to engage

with other programmes, as many of the people

who expressed a desire to join the


Collaborative have gone on to become

volunteers for public service organisations and

voluntary groups, such as lunch clubs and

older people‟s social clubs.

Phase Two

£20,000 was made available by NELC in

September 2010 to extend the programme.

From September to November 2010 a limited

number of evaluation measures were used, as

the priority for that period was developing

expansion and sustainability plans for the

programme. Some of the community team

members who had joined in the first year of the

pilot left to allow the Collaborative to reshape

itself with a different set of objectives. The

teams had been predominantly made up of

residents of the communities, rather than

professional service providers. However, the

reduction in the number of team members did

not have a detrimental effect on outputs, as the

measure „Increasing engagement/interaction

with the programme‟ still showed significant

results, with 958 people engaged in just three

months, increasing from an average of 127 per

month to 319 per month. This demonstrates

that the methodology has been embedded and

adopted by the community team members.

The community teams progressed from just

seeking opinions and gaining insight to refining

their activities and developing community-led

responses to the issues that arose. This

included developing plans to start new

businesses to support employment activities,

working with others to create new posts and

planning to improve their communities for

unemployed families.

Ongoing community engagement

Funding for the programme has now ceased as

a result of budget cuts within the public sector.

Nevertheless, elements of the programme are

being sustained within the community. For

example, the community champion posts have

been sustained as result of a partnership

between the Care Trust Plus, Contract Lincs

and the Children‟s Centres.

The remaining members of the community

teams continue to run and develop local

interventions beyond the funding of the

programme and have spread their involvement

into additional community activity, like

implementing a voucher system for the

resource packs to log interest (those who

collect a pack receive a voucher for a free tea

or coffee at a local cafe).

The legacy of the Worklessness Collaborative

can also be seen in a greater acceptance of

partnership working in South and East Marsh

wards. This is evident in the number of new

initiatives originating from the Collaborative,

which have been shared across a numerous

agencies and led by the community teams.

Lessons learned

Increases in levels of confidence have been

difficult to measure

Originally the programme planned to develop

its own confidence measuring tool, but this was

discarded to enable consistency within the

Change Programme by adopting the Rickter

Tool. However, training was not organised

within the Change Programme, preventing the

community teams from accessing the tool and

recording people‟s confidence in accessing

existing services. Instead, the teams decided to

demonstrate confidence by recording case

studies and testimonials.

Difficulty engaging with Jobcentre Plus

Despite a lot of effort, the inclusion of key

services within the programme, such as

Jobcentre Plus, was difficult and may have


related to their ability to agree involvement at a

local level or conflicting priorities. Typically,

strategic involvement is at a level too high to

properly allow services to get involved in a local

initiative. An understanding of this arrangement

may have helped engage more local managers

who might have been better levers for change.

Managing complexity

There are significant advantages of adopting

co-production approaches within social

marketing projects, but it brings added

complexity and project management demands,

which stakeholders need to plan for. Specific

and dedicated project management is

essential, as is an organisational culture that

can respond quickly and flexibly to meet

community member‟s needs. This includes, for

example, practical considerations, such as

meeting at times and places to suit community

members, and adopting values that champion

communities as assets and equal partners.

Developing stakeholder and partner assets

The number and variety of local stakeholders

presented specific challenges, which were

compounded by the variety in confidence, skill

and value attached to engaging communities.

The importance of developing a clear

stakeholder and partner development and

management plan is an important tactic when

developing effective coalitions.

What worked well:

Face-to-face contact via personal and

community networks

Peer based messages

Working with young mothers as a group

distinct from parents

Community retail venues

Coffee mornings with free food

Interventions that recognised parents‟

decisions to defer working until their

children started school

What worked less well:

Targeting fathers as a distinct group

Service directed messages

Interventions that involved the Jobcentre

providers to: East Marsh wards - Behaviour change through ... · providers to: East Marsh wards Overview The Worklessness Collaborative Programme, ... conducted, via a questionnaire,

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