Title
Contents
Acknowledgements 9
The Authors 10
Abbreviations 11
Summary 13
1. Introduction 22
1.1 Partners Outreach for Ethnic Minorities 22
1.1.1 POEM aims 23
1.1.2 POEM eligibility 23
1.2 The evaluation of POEM Year 1 24
1.3 Year 2 evaluation methodology 24
1.3.1 Case study visits to providers 25
1.3.2 Client interviews 26
1.3.3 Analysis of Management Information 30
1.4 Overview of this report 30
2. Providers and partners 32
2.1 Summary of findings from Year 1 32
2.2 Key changes to providers in Year 2 33
2.2.1 Provider changes 33
2.2.2 Staff changes 34
2.2.3 Continuity and progress in Year 2 34
2.3 Partnership models 35
2.3.1 Recruitment partnerships 36
2.3.2 Training partnerships 36
2.3.3 Employer partnerships 37
2.3.4 Contact with Jobcentre Plus 38
2.4 Factors for successful partnership working on POEM 38
3. Engaging and recruiting clients 41
3.1 Summary of findings from Year 1 41
3.2 Recruitment strategies 42
3.2.1 Project staff reflecting the target communities 42
3.2.2 Outreach strategies 43
3.3 Use of partnerships 45
3.4 Outreach: what worked well? 46
3.5 Future lessons on engaging and recruiting clients 49
4. POEM clients 50
4.1 Summary of findings from Year 1 50
4.1.1 Client profile 50
4.1.2 Distance from the labour market, and barriers to work 51
4.2 Profile of Year 2 clients 51
4.2.1 Ethnicity 51
4.2.2 Gender 53
4.2.3 Age 54
4.2.4 Eligibility issues 55
4.3 Clients' distance from the labour market on joining POEM 56
4.3.1 Clients who were close to the labour market 57
4.3.2 An intermediate distance from the labour market 57
4.3.3 Far from the labour market 58
4.4 Barriers to work 59
4.4.1 Key barriers to work 59
4.4.2 Additional barriers reported in Year 2 61
4.5 Clients' expectations and aspirations on joining POEM 62
4.5.1 Expectations of POEM 62
4.5.2 Work aspirations 63
5. POEM support and activities 65
5.1 Summary of findings from Year 1 65
5.2 One-to-one support 66
5.2.1 The range of one-to-one support 66
5.2.2 Method of delivery 67
5.2.3 Location and facilities 68
5.2.4 Use of Action Plans 68
5.3 Group activities at the providers 69
5.4 Support and activities provided elsewhere 70
5.4.1 Skills and vocational training 70
5.4.2 Childcare 71
5.4.3 Signposting to other services 71
5.5 Working with employers 71
5.6 Aftercare 73
5.7 Flexibility and demand-led provision 75
5.7.1 Range of activities and support 75
5.7.2 Understanding clients' needs 75
5.8 What was most useful? 76
5.8.1 What worked for particular client groups? 76
6. Outcomes and impact of POEM 79
6.1 Recruitment 79
6.1.1 Headline recruitment figures 79
6.1.2 Performance over time 80
6.1.3 Who did POEM not reach? 85
6.2 Employment 86
6.2.1 Headline employment figures 86
6.2.2 Performance over time 87
6.2.3 Employment destinations 91
6.2.4 Sustainable outcomes 92
6.2.5 Impact of the recession 93
6.3 Converting starts to job entries 94
6.4 Impact on target groups 94
6.4.1 Ethnicity 95
6.4.2 Gender 96
6.4.3 Age 96
6.5 Soft outcomes and distance travelled 100
6.5.1 Key soft outcomes 100
6.5.2 Starting distance from the labour market, and distance travelled on POEM 100
6.6 Other impacts 103
6.6.1 Positive impact 103
6.6.2 Negative impact 104
7. Conclusions 106
7.1 Impact against hard targets 106
7.1.1 Starts 106
7.1.2 Eligibility issues 107
7.1.3 Job entries 108
7.1.4 The ultimate aim of POEM: Job starts or working with harder to reach clients? 108
7.2 Clients' soft outcomes 109
7.3 POEM legacy 110
7.4 Models of engagement 111
7.4.1 Know the local demographics, and the preferences of the target groups 112
7.4.2 Outreach staff must culturally reflect the target communities 112
7.4.3 Word of mouth - a key recruitment tool 113
7.4.4 Did POEM recruit the intended target groups? 113
7.5 Models of delivery 114
7.5.1 A tailored, flexible, one-to-one service 114
7.5.2 Culturally sensitive provision 115
7.5.3 Employer partnerships 115
7.6 Partnership models 116
7.7 Suggestions for future Ethnic Minority Outreach programmes 117
Appendix. Data used in the figures in Chapter 6 119
Table 1.1 Client characteristics of POEM clients interviewed in Year 2 29
Table 4.1 Starts by ethnicity 52
Table 4.2 Starts by gender 53
Table 4.3 Starts by age 54
Table 6.1 POEM starts 80
Table 6.2 Overview of starts achieved against targets 83
Table 6.3 POEM job entries 86
Table 6.4 Overview of job entries achieved against targets 90
Table 6.5 Starts and job entries, by ethnicity 97
Table 6.6 Starts and job entries, by gender 98
Table 6.7 Starts and job entries, by age 99
Table A.1 Data for Figures 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 120
Table A.2 Data for Figures 6.4 and 6.5 121
Table A.3 Data for Figures 6.6, 6.7 and 6.8 122
Table A.4 Data for Figures 6.9 and 6.10 123
Table A.5 Data for Figure 6.11 123
Figure 6.1 Starts and profiled starts, by month - all providers (10) 81
Figure 6.2 Starts and profiled starts, by month - London providers (6) 82
Figure 6.3 Starts and profiled starts, by month - providers outside London (4) 82
Figure 6.4 Cumulative actual and profiled starts - London providers (6) 84
Figure 6.5 Cumulative actual and profiled starts - providers outside London (4) 84
Figure 6.6 Job entries and profiled job entries, by month - all providers (10) 88
Figure 6.7 Job entries and profiled job entries, by month - London providers (6) 88
Figure 6.8 Job entries and profiled job entries, by month - providers outside London (4) 89
Figure 6.9 Cumulative actual and profiled job entries - London providers (6) 90
Figure 6.10 Cumulative actual and profiled job entries - providers outside London (4) 91
Figure 6.11 Job entries as a percentage of starts 94