Information and presentations from all events in the EQUAL Access Learning Events series will be made available here shortly after the event has been held.

Workforce plus - The Scottish Employabilty Framework

Integrating health, social care and employability services

EQUAL Service User Involvement Project

Delivering better local services

Work and Wellbeing

Thursday 5th October 2006

Workforce plus – The Scottish Employability Framework

CCA (Centre for Contemporary Arts), Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow

The long-awaited action plan aimed at helping 66,000 Scots off benefits and into work over the next four years was published in June. Workforce Plus: An Employability Framework for Scotland sets out how organisations can better work together at a national and local level to improve support for those facing barriers to employment, including people with disabilities and lone parents.

Actions will include:

• Locally agreed targets for reducing the number of people dependent on work-related benefits in seven priority areas with the highest number of workless people.
• Additional funding of £11 million between now and 2007-08 for target employability areas to implement local action plans. Increased engagement with businesses through advisory groups, trade unions and others to build the role employers play, both public and private.

This event looked at the policies behind the document, explored current practice across Scotland, and suggest how what is working well can be replicated and mainstreamed.

Full Programme

Presentations from this event:

David Seers, Scottish Executive

Lynn Cooper, Department for Work and Pensions

AnnMarie Murphy and David McIntosh, Routes to Work

Matthew Crighton, Capital City Partnership

Liz Furssedon-Wood, National Employment Panel

Integrating health, social care and employability services

CoSLA, Rosebery House, Haymarket, Edinburgh

Anne Corden and Katharine Nice, University of York, spoke about their research informing the development of the DWP programme to support people with impairments or long term ill health who were interested in moving towards paid work. This includes a longitudinal qualitative panel of incapacity benefit recipients who have been in touch with Pathways to Work; and a small qualitative study of the Return to Work Credit.
The EQUAL Access case study looked at Stirling Council’s Well Connected service. This links training and employment support provision with General Practitioners and other community based medical staff in terms of patient referral and the use of ‘social prescriptions’.

David Seers provided an update on progress on Scotland’s employability strategy. With City Strategy proposals in, and Workforce Plus local plans due shortly, David provide dsome insight into what themes are emerging and what service improvements we might expect to see.

The workshop brought together policy makers and practitioners with particular interests in health, social care and employability and explored how possible barriers to joint working can be overcome.

Presentations from this event:

Anne Corden and Katharine Nice, University of York

Neil Boyd, Stirling Council

David Seers, The Scottish Executive

Thursday 8th March 2007

EQUAL Service User involvement Project

This event aimed to help inform and influence the development of an integrated approach to user involvement at both the strategic and day-to-day levels of service planning.
As part of its programme of work, EQUAL Access is seeking a means whereby service users’ opinions can inform and influence the development of Scottish Executive’s employability planning and implementation strategies.

Download the programme

Presentations from this event:

Professor Gill Scott, Scottish Poverty Information Unit

Kate Lindsay, Scottish Poverty Information Unit

Alison McCrae & Margaret Ann Brunjes

Joan Currie, Scottish Drugs Forum

Thursday 7th June 2007

Delivering better local services

Joining up employability, health and social care services

The newly elected Parliament has said that it wants to refocus the way government in Scotland works, ensure it gets best value and services for taxpayers’ money and achieves more local ownership of decision making.

EQUAL Access has been piloting how employability, health and social services can join up more effectively at a local level and achieve better results.

This free half-day seminar explored how policy approaches in Scotland may now develop and showcase practice examples from EQUAL Access local partnerships.

Friday 5th October 2007

Work and Wellbeing:

Lessons to increase Scotland's employment options

This free one-day conference presented the lessons from Scotland's three Theme A Development partnerships - EQUAL Access, RE:FOCUS and Equal Employability.

Themes from the conference included:

Culture Change and Integration of Services
Service User Involvement and Empowerment
Engagement with the Harder to Reach

Download the programme

Presentations from this event:

Andrew Harris, Director, Scottish Council Foundation
Brian Martin, RE:FOCUS
Robin Walker, Equal Employability
Gill Scott, EQUAL Access

Jim McColl, Chairman and Chief Executive of Clyde Blowers