I recently met with representatives from ‘Shaw Trust’ to hear about the excellent work they are doing to help to transform the lives of adults and young people across the UK and internationally. It was an engaging meeting and I got a genuine and palpable sense of enthusiasm from those who I met with for the work that they do and the outcomes they achieve for individuals and their families.
Shaw Trust is one of the largest charities in the UK and their vision is for a society in which everyone has the opportunity for employment, inclusion and independence. Together, their 3,500 staff and 1,000 volunteers provide joined-up services for people at disadvantage so that they can gain life and employability skills in order to live more independently, secure sustainable employment and actively contribute to family and community life.
Shaw Trust has recently won the contract to deliver the government’s new Work and Health Programme (WHP) in Kenilworth and Southam – along with many other areas in the locality. The WHP is a government funded service designed to help disabled people, and others with long term health problems, and other complex needs, to find good jobs, and live happy, inclusive, independent lives.
Through the WHP, Shaw Trust together with their partner organisation ‘Wise-ability’ will deliver specialised, tailored employment support (distinct and additional to that available through Jobcentre Plus) - fully joined up with local health and support services - to people with disabilities or health conditions, and others who have been unemployed for over two years. The team have already been in close contact with Warwickshire County Council over delivery of the programme and also engaged with a range of local employers to encourage them to take on WHP participants.
Representatives from both Shaw Trust and Wise-ability were universally positive about WHP and the new opportunities that it presents. They emphasised that this truly is a fresh employment programme, which does not adopt a ‘one size fits all’ approach but rather recognises that everyone is different in terms of challenges, reasons for being out of work and paths to finding work.
The WHP will target those people who are most likely to benefit from the additional support of the programme. New participants in this scheme will be referred to Shaw Trust by Jobcentre Plus Work Coaches, who will identify eligible people from the target groups and then engage them to access the provision.
By 2022, Shaw Trust aspires to be helping one million young people and adults to transform their lives each year. This would place them at the centre of a global movement for social change and inclusion. I applaud the work that they do.
For more information about the work of Shaw Trust and how you may be able to connect with them, please visit their website at https://www.shaw-trust.org.uk. You can also contact my constituency office by telephone on 01926 853650 or by email at jeremy@jeremywright.org.uk.