2-3. Introduction from the

Chief Executive

4-5. London Stansted

Cambridge Consortium

Conference

6-7. Interview with Gareth

Evans

7. Employer Accounts Team

8-9. New Offices

9. The Urban Futures Group

10-11. Interview with

Christophe Ah-Hang

11. Community Work

Programme Team

12. CWP Updates

12. Job Broker Reward

Scheme

12. Deaf Awareness Training

Event

13. New Staff

14. CSCS Training

15. Contact Us

16. Find us Online

2

Welcome to our very latest edition of

the Urban Futures Newsletter –

designed to be informative to both

customers and staff alike. It’s been a

very busy Summer for us here at

Urban Futures and we now have had a

surge of new staff supporting the

delivery of the new DWP and G4S

Community Work Placements (CWP)

Programme. A big welcome to all of

these new staff and indeed our new

look HR team situated in Parma House.

Of course we would be nothing without our customers therefore

a very big welcome to our CWP customers and I sincerely hope

that you find your service here at Urban Futures one which will

support your journey back into the world of work and eventually

into a career pathway that you find rewarding for both yourself

and your family. And it’s not just here at the Chocolate

Factory in Wood Green that delivers the CWP

programme. Customers access this service in our

Wembley offices and from 2 brand new offices situated

in Ilford Town Centre, Redbridge and at Blackhorse

Lane Industrial area in Walthamstow, Waltham Forest.

A big thank you to the staff that supported the opening

of these new offices, and a huge welcome to the new

staff working out of them.

The story therefore is continued growth for the

company. We are now a company of 123 staff

(including our colleagues in Haringey Education

Business Partnership) situated in 10 sites across London

and London’s 2 principal airports at Heathrow and

Stansted in Essex. Whilst some offices have only a few

staff operating from them, we have large operations

working out of the Heathrow Academy, our office at

Hammersmith & Fulham, and of course the Chocolate

Factory here in Wood Green. The challenge remains to

raise the profiles further of the other offices and

increase their service delivery and through our Business

Development we are continuing to look towards this.

We have continued to restructure to meet the

demands of the industry and to try and continue to be

at the forefront of developments, particularly in the

welfare to work arena. To this end over the past year or

so we have introduced two new internal teams

designed to support delivery across the board albeit in

different ways. Firstly, we now have our Employer

Accounts team headed by Gareth Evans (interview with

Gareth inside) which supports all frontline teams by

accessing job opportunities, looks for Apprenticeship

opportunities, and supports the delivery of in work

upskilling opportunities. The other new team is the

internal Compliance Team headed up by Victor

Henshaw-Stephenson and this team is designed to

ensure that all the paperwork related to these

programmes, whether welfare to work, ESF or training,

is to the standards required by funders and thus

ensuring we are paid for the work conducted.

And we will continue to change. Time stands still for no

person and a company like Urban Futures needs to

ensure that is relevant to the very customers who need

us to support them.

We will continue to

restructure our

training teams to

ensure that we

remain relevant to

the industry

standards (adapting

to the new LANTRA

construction

standards is a prime example) and we will look

tentatively towards new markets which may include in

the future work dedicated to ex offenders through the

National Offender Management System (NOMS) and

the new emerging youth related European Social Fund

(ESF) programme coming out later in the year. It very

much looks like the coming months will remain as busy

as ever!

Now that we are fast approaching the Autumn it won’t

be long before we are all thinking about Christmas and

the festive period. However we do have a few things to

keep us occupied before this. One such issue is the

Hammersmith & Fulham RAISE ESF Celebration and

Awards Ceremony event scheduled for December 2014

and to be held at the Town Hall in the borough. Yours

truly along with a host of other local borough

dignitaries will be attending to celebrate some of the

real achievements of the programme and to listen to

some of the recipients talk about their journey on the

programme. I look forward to this immensely.

Remember if you as a customer or staff member have

an issue you would like to raise both good or bad then

please ensure that you get your comments to our

editorial team in the marketing department and

support us to continually improve our services. We will

never be perfect all of the time but we do commit to

trying to be the best we can be at all times and we

welcome input from all of our customers, funders, and

staff alike. I continue to look forward to working with

you all for the remaining months of this year and

beyond.

Steve Delaney, Chief Executive.

3

Urban Futures were proud to attend and be

one of the conference sponsors at the LSCC

(London Stansted Cambridge Consortium)

Conference on July 10th 2014. The conference

saw over 180 delegates through the doors of

the Wellcome Trust building in central London.

Over 40 speakers from across the region

shared their knowledge throughout the day, all

contributing to an informative and packed

programme. The speakers, from across the

region contributed to the conference including

leaders and senior Cabinet members from a

range of local authorities, as well as all three of

the corridors LEP chairs - (Greater Cambridge/

Greater Peterborough, Hertfordshire, South-

East) plus London’s Vice Chair.

Steve Delaney (Chief Executive) and Anita

Gerrard (Training and Quality Manager) both

attended the event on behalf of Urban Futures.

The conference covered topics such as

Stansted, the West Anglia line, high-tech

4

clusters and skills for business.

Andrew Harrison, MD London Stansted Airport

stated;

“I am delighted to be chairing the London

Stansted Cambridge Business Leaders’ Group,

with an impressive line up of founder members.

The group will ensure a strong business voice

making the case for investment in strategic

infrastructure, and strengthening the link

between employers and skills providers”

The conference saw the signing of the LSCC

Skills and Employment Partnership Agreement

bringing together the corridor’s Local

Authorities, Further education Colleges, Job

Centre Plus, and Chambers of Commerce. The

partnership agreement builds on the good

practice already in place in parts of the region

and works towards unlocking the specific

advantages of working at a more sub-regional

level, across administrative boundaries.

5

The signing of the LSCC Employment and

Skills Partnership Agreement;

Del Goddard, Director of Urban Futures and the Lee valley Trust.

Neville Reyner, Chair, Herts Chamber.

Cllr Whitbread, Leader, Epping Forest.

Leon Ranson, DWP.

Suzanne Jude, Essex Skills Board.

Anne Constatine, Principal Cambridge Regional College.

A

Photo A - Del Goddard, Director of Urban Fu-tures and John McGill, Director of LSCC.

Photo B - David Lammy, FRSA MP and Johnny Popper, London Communications

Photo C - Attendees of the London Stansted Cambridge Consortium Conference

Photo D - Greg Clark, LSCC chair speaking, Sir Bill Castell, Chair Wellcome Trust, then Chair of Medcity, Claire Ruskin - CEO Cambridge Net-work, Clive Morris, V-P AstraZencia

B

C

D

6

Q1. What is your official job title?

Head of Employer Accounts

Q2. How long have you worked at Urban

Futures?

I’ve been with Urban Futures for 7 months

now.

Q3. What are your main duties and day-to-

day tasks as the head of employer

accounts?

My main duties are to ensure that the

Employer Accounts team generates

opportunities for customers across the

business, including full & part time vacancies,

apprenticeships and work placements. I also

need to ensure that the right kind of

vacancies & opportunities are being sourced

and to fit in with the needs of the customers

to ensure we can place candidates and

ensure they sustain. The vision is to build

long lasting relationships with employers for

the future generating repeat business

through a continually high level of service

delivered to employers.

My day to day tasks vary. I manage the face

to face relationship with Hammersmith &

Fulham council on the RAISE contract, I

attend meetings with various London

councils exploring new opportunities for UF,

monitoring performance within the

Employer Accounts team, oversee the Skills

Support for the Workforce (SSW) contract

and a multitude of other tasks.

Q4. What are the current numbers within

your employer accounts team?

I have a total of 6 Employer Account

Managers.

Q5. What are your goals for you and your

employer accounts team?

To build long lasting and continually fruitful

relationships with employers across London,

building bespoke packages of recruitment

and training for employers. There are a

7

multitude of welfare to work/work

programme providers offering the same

thing, and in this market it is important to

offer a more bespoke service to set Urban

Futures apart from everyone else. It’s vital

for my team to understand employer’s

needs, their business, vision and values to

be able to accurately recruit for them. It’s

not only about candidates with the right

experience, it’s also about getting the right

cultural fit for their business.

The Accounts team should be seen as a

trusted resource by employers when it

comes to recruitment and training and they

In Order from left to right—Tony Lowe, Rowena Walker, Kevin Lowe, Donna Walton. The employer

accounts team also includes: Vitaliy Zaporozhets, Johir Ahmed and Lola Aisida (not pictured)

Vitaliy is the CWP Account Manager, Johir is based at Westfield in Shepherds Bush working with Ham-

mersmith & Fulham Council on the RAISE contract and Tony is the Apprenticeship Account Manager.

Kevin, Rowena and Donna focus on all vacancies and the Skills Support for the Workforce (SSW)

contract.

keep in touch with employers on a regular

basis to check on recruitment

requirements and vacancies.

The vision is to be a one stop shop for

employers to use when vacancies arise in

their business. We also actively seek to be

included on a company PSL (Preferred

Supplier List) which mean that the

company will make Urban Futures their

first point of call when looking to recruit.

But to get to that stage lots of work has to

be done to build trust and reputation in the

market.

Our Wembley office has moved to…

4th Floor Suite 1 Wembley Point 1 Harrow Road

Wembley Middlesex HA9 6DE

Our new Ilford office is located at...

Suite 2, Cranbrook House 61 Cranbrook Road

Ilford Essex

IG1 4PG

8

Our new Walthamstow office is located at…

Unit 41 Uplands Park

Blackhorse Lane Walthamstow

London E17 5QN

Q1. What is your official job title?

I am the CPA3 Business Manager on the G4S

Community Work Placement (CWP).

Q2. How long have you worked at Urban Futures

and how do you find working here?

I started my career with Urban Futures London

Ltd as a Business Manager on 2nd June 2014. I

cover the Job Centre Plus Contract Package Area 3

(CPA3) of London via G4S (G4S CWP prime

contractor).

Working here at Head Office, Urban Futures

Wood Green office is a breath of fresh air as I am

working alongside well experienced and skilled

Operations Management Teams. I am able to

express new ways of working and influence

internal processes to ensure the CWP contract

works well and performs to meet the contractual

objectives.

Q3. Have you worked in the Welfare to Work

sector before?

I have over 7 years of Welfare to Work sector

experience from delivering the New Deal contract

and the Work Programme contract, helping the

unemployed across London. My past experience

in this sector has given me various skills set in

management and in managing performance to

meet the contract needs. I am able to read the

DWP Provider Guidance of a Welfare to Work

contract and implement an internal delivery

model/ working processes.

Q4. What are your main duties and day-to-day

tasks as a business manager for CWP?

My main duties and the day to day tasks as a

Business Manager is to lead and manage teams of

Senior Employment Advisors and Work

Placement coordinators to ensure the CWP CPA3

performs well. To ensure quality assurance of

CWP documents and working practice are

delivered to our service users. I liaised with the

CPA3 & CPA4 Job Centre Plus offices networks to

maintain a working relationship.

A key part of my role which I am passionate about

as a Business Manager is to fully understand the

CWP contract and the internal processes

requirements, therefore I am able to train and

coach staff members on those elements to

empower them into their roles to perform.

In June / July 2014 I have taken the lead on

supporting the running of our new Ilford office in

East London (CPA4), to ensure our service users

would benefit appropriately from the CWP

contract.

Q5. How is the Community Work Programme

currently doing?

10

11

Head Office - Wood Green Office Charlene Greenaway – Director of Operations Soji Olukunle – CWP Operations Manager Victor Stephenson-Henshaw - Data Quality & Compli-ance Manager Derek Wheeler - CWP Liaison Manager

Christophe Ah-Hang – CWP Business Manager Jamie Nicolas – Work Placement Coordinator Nedret Husseyin – Work Placement Coordinator

We are currently into the 5th month of the Com-

munity Work Placement contract. We have en-

gaged well with the long term unemployed who

have been referred by the Job Centre Plus offices.

The Senior Employment Advisors and the Work

Placement Coordinators are working closely with

the unemployed adults supporting them into a

culture of a work. This includes our service users

attending a 5 day Preparation 4 Work training

course with the Skills & Training Team, to arrang-

ing a work placement 30 hours per week includ-

ing 4 hours job search and supporting them into

paid employment 16 hours or more. Many of our

service users have found the CWP contract deliv-

ery by Urban Futures beneficial in gaining new

skills and work experience.

Q6. What are your future goals for you and your

team?

The plans for my area is to become the number

one performing team in the district. This is to be

achieved by supporting many of the long term un-

employed into a work placement or into paid em-

ployment and will result in the outcomes needed

on the CWP contract.

Through the experience of the CWP contract one

of my goals will be to become a contract’s manag-

er leading on a major DWP Welfare to Work con-

tract across London.

Natasha Wilson - Senior Employment Advisor Sherene McDonald-Graham - Senior Employment Advisor Gilleen White - Senior Employment Advisor Ilford and Walthamstow Office Bilan Jama – CWP Business Manager Jade Gargan – Work Placement Coordinator Outhman Peerbocus - Senior Employment Advisor Marc Pritchard - Senior Employment Advisor Wembley Office Bally Singh – CWP Business Manager Neil Tannk - Work Placement Coordinator Dee Pindoria - Senior Employment Advisor

12

JOB BROKER REWARD SCHEME

Urban Futures were recently featured in the ‘G4S Community Work placement newsletter’.

Natasha Wilson was nominated by Soji Olukunle, Interim Operations Manager at Urban Futures for her focus and ability to support clients. Natasha has been supporting clients in Wood Green, Ilford, Waltham Forest, Hackney and Enfield. She has been assisting them with inductions, diagnostics and job searches as well as updating ISET the G4S Monitoring system.

Soji said that by remaining focused Natasha “has achieved all her objectives and competently balances the task of involving others and being sensitive to time pressures.”

Urban Futures are currently in the 5th

month of delivering under contract to G4S

the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP)

Community Work Placement (CWP) pro-

gramme. We deliver over a significant part

of London and encompass the boroughs of

Haringey; Enfield; Waltham Forest; Red-

bridge, Havering; Hackney; Harrow; Barnet;

Brent; Tower Hamlets; & Hillingdon.

Deaf and Interpreter

Awareness

Training Event

Nedret Husseyin, Work Place-

ment Coordinator for the CWP

programme attended a train-

ing event designed to help employees better under-

stand deaf culture. The deaf and interpreter aware-

ness training event, which was held at Stratford Li-

brary in The Grove, was organised by the Deafroots

Association. Those who attended learnt basic sign

language and how to work with interpreters using

British Sign Language.

Angie Joseph, employment project coordinator with

the association, said: “The whole purpose of this

event was to give employers an insight into the Deaf

Culture and to enable them to give our deaf custom-

ers an opportunity of employment and work place-

ments. The training also aimed to help them gain

confidence when interacting with deaf people. “The

Trainers were invited by Deafroots from Commu-

nityid who provided a superb training event.”

Soji Olukunle

Interim

Operations

Manager of G4S

Community

Work

Programme

Claire Kennedy—HR Manager

Scott Price – Trainer

Kevin Lowe – Employer Accounts Manager

Neil Tannk – Work Placement Co-ordinator

Namita Paul – Employment Advisor

Cheryl Dawe – Employment Advisor

Shrooq Memar – Employment Advisor

Clive Merrifield – Trainer

Mark Philips – Trainer

Gilleen White – Senior Employment Advisor

Bilan Jama – Business Manager

Jayde Small – Data Quality and Compliance Apprentice

Outhman Peerbocus – Senior Employment Advisor

Omar Shibley – Data Quality and Compliance Apprentice

Donna Walton –Employer Account Manager

Ali Rauf – Employability Skills Trainer

Marc Pitchard – Senior Employment Advisor

Dee Pindoria – Senior Employment Advisor

Harley Hall – Trainee Data Quality and Compliance Officer

Jade Gargen – Employment and Placement Co-ordinator

Nedret Husseyin –Employment and Placement Co-ordinator

Faith Balogun – Receptionist

13

Contact:

aaron.sands@urbanfutures.org.uk

joseph.andrews@urbanfutures.org.uk

info@urbanfutures.org.uk

Alternatively, you can contact by telephone on 020 8352 5900 or via the website and other electronic connections

Here at Urban Futures we welcome input and ideas from all staff and customers. If you have any ideas for articles of interest then please forward these to the marketing department.

What to expect from our next edition

Newsletter coming soon…

RAISE Conference

The Annual Urban Futures Conference

Interview with Victor Henshaw

Stephenson

The Compliance Team

Community Work Placement Updates

Latest Projects

www.urbanfutures.org.uk

www.urbanfuturesjobs.org.uk

www.facebook.com/urbanfutures

www.twitter.com/urbanfuturesuk

Email: info@urbanfutures.org.uk

Urban Futures, Unit A012, The Chocolate Factory,

Clarendon Road, Wood Green, London, N22 6XJ

Urban Futures is a company registered in England & Wales.

Company registration number: 04131420.