Good homes and employment opportunities improve lives and build strong communities.
We work hard so that we can give as many people as possible, who are furthest from entering the jobs market, opportunities and support to gain real skills and build lasting careers.
Because of our super-efficient way of doing things EN:Procure generates surpluses that are used to fund innovative employment and training schemes (our Social Mobility Programme) that are focused on helping local people in our members' communities to make meaningful steps toward employment.
We focus our efforts on those who may need more support to get them ready for work, for example school leavers, ex-offenders and women in construction.
Social Value is at the heart of all of EN:Procure procurement frameworks – by building social value in to every contract, we ensure consistent, measurable and meaningful social value outcomes, linked directly to sustainable employment, to the benefit of our landlord member (registered provider) communities.
In each region, we engage with ‘local employment groups’ (LEGs) to achieve social value objectives. These groups are typically grass roots organisations, rather than major welfare to work providers. LEGs engage with local workless people who have a wide range of barriers to employment, providing various services to support individuals in to work. We assist the LEGs by providing capacity building support and professional training and development to enhance and improve their services. We also provide employment-with-training opportunities directly to the LEGs, generated via the social value clauses in the procurement frameworks.
In addition, we work actively with contractors, suppliers and manufacturers on our frameworks as they work with us to identify employment-with-training (usually apprenticeship) opportunities at entry level. As candidates often have typically had barriers to entering employment, we provide guidance on personal development for the candidates and selection processes for employers to ensure these are accessible to candidates supplied by the LEGs.
In partnership with the LEGs, we provide intensive support for both employers and candidates through at least the first six months of employment. Lighter-touch support is then available through to the end of the individual’s training, which may be up to three years. This ensures individuals are supported to sustain their own employment as early as possible.
Whilst ensuring that our employment programme is delivered, our wider Social Value offer is in place to help regenerate our members communities, either through small scale projects (funded through our EN:Able Community Investment Fund) or through what will be our next phase, where individual member driven programmes will be created to support their activities, adding value to our working partnerships.