Academy strategy 2018

Transcription

1 Academy strategy

2 Contents 01 Introduction Vision The challenge Our response For residents For staff Stakeholders Budget, costs and funding Impact and return on investment Accreditation and training facility Case studies

3 01 Introduction 02 Vision We are one of the largest charitable housing associations in the country. Over the next ten years we will become one of the largest developers of homes and communities in the country as we work with others to help solve the housing crisis. We remain as committed as ever to our social purpose and continue to innovate to help us achieve our mission to create homes and communities that we can be proud of. We believe that now is the right time to create an L&Q Academy dedicated to helping our people and communities achieve their potential. The L&Q Academy will be recognised as a quality brand and sector leader in the provision of skills training, apprenticeships and professional development for staff. It will provide training and qualifications for maintenance, construction and care and support, and across the business in back office and customer facing roles. It will encourage diversity in the workforce, particularly in areas where specific groups are underrepresented and support the delivery of the L&Q diversity strategy. It will make a key contribution to the progression and retention of staff by supporting L&D s leadership and talent management programmes by enabling staff to gain higher qualifications. Residents will be able to gain skills and qualifications needed to enter employment including the construction industry and related roles so that they may become directly involved in building and maintaining our homes, or may launch careers in health and social care to support our most vulnerable residents. The L&Q Academy offer is simple: to recruit, retain and progress the most talented staff in our business, and to engage, motivate and support our residents and others living in our communities to gain important skills and opportunities to enter employment. The L&Q Academy is dedicated to helping our people and communities achieve their potential

4 03 The challenge 03 The challenge (continued) Welfare changes and poverty Over the last few decades the demand for social housing has outstripped supply, meaning that access to social housing has been restricted to some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people in society. Therefore, our homes have disproportionally high levels of people living in them who are disadvantaged or vulnerable when compared to the general population. supported housing schemes and we will need an ever increasing workforce to meet the needs of our customers. Brexit The onset of Brexit could significantly worsen our ability to secure sufficient skilled labour. Both the care and construction industries rely heavily on workers from abroad. Welfare changes will continue to disproportionately impact on social housing residents. It is estimated that social housing households of working age will face an average loss of annual income of 1,690 by As Universal Credit becomes the norm we will see an increase in demand for support as claimants must wait for six weeks from the date of claim to receive any benefit. The average L&Q household income is 14,706 - ten per cent lower than the average for social housing. A significant proportion of those residents in work are so low paid that they still find themselves in poverty. Our unemployed residents will continue to struggle to sustain their tenancies and pay rent with the implementation of the next wave of welfare reforms. Social care With an ageing population the average age of a resident is already 51 and welfare reforms are increasing financial pressures on people with mental and physical health issues. So the provision of social care and supported housing to the most vulnerable in our communities is a fast growing priority. We are seeing an increase in the proportion of our residents who need social care, whilst at the same time a staff and skills shortage in the care industry. We struggle to recruit sufficient numbers of carers for our Brexit is leading to increased uncertainty not only to existing EU migrants, but also to the potential to attract future talent. The ONS figures suggest that in the first quarter of 2016 around 9% (194,000) of the construction workforce in the UK were EU nationals. Regionally the figures are more pronounced, with migrants comprising 54% of construction workers in London. There is already an acute construction skills shortage in the UK, and yet 25% of young Londoners are unemployed and women make up only 11% of the workforce and just 1% of workers on site. It can be anticipated that Brexit will have an impact on the numbers of skilled and unskilled labour coming from abroad. The average age of a tradesman on site is now 45 years old. London needs to build 49,000 new homes each year to keep up with demand. The construction industry is finding it difficult to attract new talent, particularly women and minority groups which is limiting. The Construction Industry Training Board estimates estimate that more than 230,000 new recruits will be needed by 2020 to meet expected construction demand, not including losses due to retirement. The long timescales involved in training new construction workers means the short to medium term outlook is bleak. The Farmer Review The Government commissioned Mark Farmer, CEO of Cast, to review the UK s labour construction model. The key focuses were on better skills development, innovative techniques (particularly off-site construction), and better structures and investment. His key message is that the industry cannot continue as it is and must modernise or die! Over the next ten years the report estimates that the construction workforce will decrease by 20-25%. Farmer predicts that 620,000 people will have retired from the construction industry by 2026 and suggests that there is no way for these workers to be replaced if new entrances remain at their current levels. Approximately 120,000 new workers would be needed to deliver the necessary 250,000 homes each year. Staff retention The success of the business requires high levels of staff retention across all business areas. This can only be achieved by having clear supported pathways into the organisation at all levels, including via apprenticeships and graduate programmes. There needs to be planned and accessible career progression routes for staff to enable them to grow and progress their careers whilst being retained in the business. Levy April 2017 saw the introduction of the apprenticeship levy, which is a form of tax payable at the rate of 0.5% of the total payroll cost. All training for apprenticeships can be funded by the apprenticeship levy and because of the size of L&Q the Academy will have an annual levy of close to 600,000 available to spend on training. This can be used to pay for accredited training for any business area at any level up to degree level, where there is an apprenticeship standard in place

5 04 Our response The Academy is a direct response to the challenges we face as a business and will help us to become a more accessible and attractive local employer with a reputation for investing in staff. It will provide opportunities for our residents and others living in our communities to gain skills and enter sustainable employment. We will focus particular attention on addressing skills shortages in care and support and construction, using our levy to offer apprenticeships as a supported route way into these sectors. We have a pipeline of 100,000 homes so we must actively contribute to training and developing the new generation of home builders. We need talented, qualified and loyal staff. The Academy will be proactive in supporting the business to recruit talented people to key staff groups including repairs and maintenance, development, care and support and a range of back office and front line roles. The Academy will work with the Foundation s Schools Partnership project to promote careers in construction to schools and increase interest and awareness of the opportunities the industry has to offer. The Academy will provide business leaders more of an opportunity to grow their own talent and fill skills gaps in their teams. It will support HR to work with business leaders to select apprenticeship standards that best suit the needs of each department which will be delivered and assessed to enhance the specific needs of the role. L&Q spends 960,000 annually on agency staff. It is anticipated that in many cases we can replace these roles with apprentices, and in others use our apprenticeship programme to feed vacancies with newly qualified staff, reducing the dependency on agency staff. We will attract high performing graduates to L&Q through an enhanced graduate programme with clear career progression routes and opportunities to gain higher qualifications. Through the Academy staff at all levels will have the opportunity to train and achieve higher level and technical qualifications and increase their earning potential. The Academy is working with the team at Barking Riverside to develop an exciting new model for apprentices placed on the next development plot with Bellway. We aim to provide apprentices with a consistent and high quality experience with equal levels of pay and support regardless of where they are placed on site and who with. We hope that this may be achieved through the direct employment of all apprentices onsite by L&Q. In year one the Academy will be virtual, providing apprenticeships by commissioning apprenticeship training providers and drawing down the apprenticeship levy. It will also offer professional qualifications for staff funded by the levy. Through the first two years we will scope the feasibility of becoming an accredited training provider including the option to establish our own training facility. If there is a strong business case to do so and to fill gaps in provision we will aim to establish this from year three

6 05 For residents 05 For residents (continued) We want people living in our homes and communities who are able to be in sustainable employment. Our Academy will offer residents and people living in our communities support to gain skills, qualifications and experience to enter and sustain employment. Access to traineeships and apprenticeships with dedicated guidance and mentoring will provide a supported pathway from engagement to employment. We will work to engage and move residents into employment by linking employment support and early careers programmes for residents to the Academy s traineeship and apprenticeship programmes, including recruitment to our internal posts and opportunities with our supply chain. The L&Q Academy will enable us to address specific skills shortages and a lack of diversity with targeted recruitment including degree level apprenticeships and the graduate programme, making us an accessible local employer with career progression opportunities. This will support resource planning by enabling parts of the business that have struggled to recruit to high level and technical posts such as quantity surveyors. Apprenticeships The aims and objectives of the apprenticeship programme: Attract and recruit top talent and a diverse workforce by strengthening L&Q s brand in order to be better positioned as an employer of choice Improve retention levels of high performing individuals by creating the working environment that encourages people to remain and thrive within the organisation Embed apprenticeships working with HR and the business to identify roles that can be converted into apprenticeships, with clear progression routes into permanent jobs. In April 2017 apprenticeships in the UK changed. Apprentices can be of any age and apprenticeships undertaken can range from level 1 up to higher degree level qualifications at level 6 and 7. The old apprenticeship frameworks are being replaced by new standards. The apprenticeship levy was introduced, placing the purchasing power with the employer. L&Q have recruited and supported apprentices for four years. It is a flagship programme that has a reputation within the sector for being high quality, employer-led and robust. The Academy will continue to develop and grow the programme with the aim of significantly increasing numbers in a sustainable way, whilst achieving high completion rates and providing a great experience for our apprentices. Apprentice wages Our level 1 to 3 apprentices will start on the National Minimum Wages for 21 to 24 year olds of 7.05 per hour. This is a significant improvement on the apprentice minimum wage of 3.40 per hour. This is necessary to enable a larger programme to be affordable, and to avoid placing apprentices alongside staff on lower wages. After successfully completing 12 months the wage will increase to the 25 plus National Living Wage of 7.50 per hour. Apprentices on higher level apprenticeships at level 4 or above will receive London Living Wage 9.75 per hour from year four onwards in line with graduates. All staff will be eligible for the bonus scheme. The full cost of wages will be covered by the Academy budget through the first three years and then reviewed. The new wage rates will be reviewed after the recruitment of our first cohort of apprentices. Apprenticeship training providers We have appropriate providers in place to serve the needs of our current apprentices and will negotiate and establish suitable contracts with them going forward to enable the levy fund to be drawn down to pay for training, support and end point assessment. We also will seek and secure new providers who are best placed to provide the best possible training, support and end point assessment for new awards and apprenticeships as the range and number of apprenticeships increases through year one to three. Mentoring The L&Q Academy will be supported by Learning and Development with a structured mentoring programme to support and offer pastoral care to all our apprentices. Trained mentors from across the business will provide dedicated support to individual apprentices, giving them an additional layer of attention and an independent source of inspiration not linked to their line manager or training provider. Traineeships Many of our own residents and others living in our communities will not be sufficiently equipped with the skills and attitudes to enable them to enter and sustain an apprenticeship. To support them to become ready we will establish a traineeship programme providing a combination of training, advice and guidance and work experience to prepare participants for an apprenticeship. Each participant will be provided with a bespoke programme based on an initial assessment, which may include training in basic skills, soft skills and attitudes, employability, confidence and motivation. Training will be underpinned by advice and guidance and regular review. When ready, participants will have the opportunity to undertake voluntary work experience, often in the department where they aspire to secure an apprenticeship. Our Academy will offer residents and people living in our communities support to gain skills, qualifications and experience to enter and sustain employment

7 06 For staff 07 Stakeholders Our vision is that we will grow our own staff through our apprenticeship and graduate programmes and enable staff at all levels to gain higher level qualifications and progress in their careers. This will improve our ability to address staff shortages, increase staff satisfaction and retention, increase diversity and make L&Q a more attractive place to work and an employer of choice. The existing apprenticeship and graduate programmes will be expanded to increase numbers and place graduates in more areas of the business beyond just Development and Finance. Learning and Development will support the programme by identifying and facilitating clear progression pathways into senior permanent roles. The Academy will support HR and Learning and Development to increase the scope of professional development for staff across the business. There will be a particular focus on providing opportunities for the high potential rising stars to develop their careers, which would not be limited to managers and leaders, but will apply to staff at all levels who have been identified as the most talented employees. HR will work with the rising stars offering assessment leading to accredited training programmes provided by the Academy. This approach will help guide those individuals on their career development path and help us to develop and retain our top talent. The Academy will support our wider workforce planning centred on future leadership and talent programmes. HR will lead on the talent strategy customised to our business needs, which will underpin all activity through the talent life cycle. The strategy will provide a common thread running through the way the organisation engages with people, building its brand and recruiting, to managing performance and engaging teams. The Academy will commission accredited training. We will grow our own staff to fill specific roles from front line customer facing roles to technical roles with our development teams using apprenticeships and graduate programmes to do so and using the levy to fund training wherever possible. Staff will be provided with the opportunity to increase their skills and knowledge and achieve higher level and technical qualifications. Access to accredited training opportunities with support from the Academy team will provide a supported pathway from engagement to achieving a professional qualification. The Academy will: Be informed by HR in identifying individual members of staff who would benefit from developmental opportunities and roles where there is difficulty to recruit or where there are skills gaps Provide supported inductions for staff embarking on studies Commission and monitor training providers, colleges and universities, and support staff to enrol Provide ongoing support for staff on programme through to completion Provide advice for line managers of staff studying towards qualifications Enrol apprentice supervisors on an aspiring managers programme provided by Learning and Development Proactively advertise the L&Q Academy s developmental opportunities to staff. The Academy will also support and enable HR by working with Learning and Development to maximise our offer for the professional development of staff by commissioning technical and higher level qualifications. Through year one we will further explore the relationship with HR and Learning and Development and the Academy s role in the delivery of talent management and accredited training. L&Q operations and construction Trade apprenticeships offered to meet the needs on site generated by the programme of works, will include targeting those with the largest need and/or skills shortages, which will be informed and guided by a steering group of our framework contractors. We will also grow our own technical staff including roles such as general practice surveyors, clerk of works, quantity surveyors and project managers through our graduate programme. We will also encourage the recruitment of more women to trade and technical roles. L&Q suppliers and contractors We will work with our contractors to maximise the opportunities for apprenticeships and employment on all of our developments. We will pilot a direct employed apprentice programme on Barking Riverside to ensure a consistent quality of experience for all apprentices on our sites regardless of which plot or contractor they are placed with. L&Q Direct Maintenance The Academy will work with our Direct Maintenance service to provide apprenticeships for our property maintenance operatives. This builds on a successful programme delivered since We will also support the upskilling of staff with levy fundable qualifications responding to the outcomes of training needs analysis. L&Q Living and care and support Apprenticeships in care and support will be carefully considered so that apprentices placed in our supported housing and care schemes complement existing teams by providing additional resource and capacity, whilst reducing the burden of supervising an apprentice on care workers and scheme managers. We will also upskill staff with management and technical qualifications. Apprenticeships across the wider business Opportunities for apprenticeships will be identified and negotiated with leaders from across the business by HR for inclusion in an annual apprenticeship plan. These are likely to be predominantly back office and administrative roles, but will include more specific apprenticeships in IT, Finance and our customer services centre. Apprenticeships will be at all levels including degree level opportunities. Human Resources The Academy will support HR and Learning and Development by providing knowledge and guidance towards the selection of appropriate courses and qualifications for new graduates, apprentices and existing staff. It will seek and secure the best training providers and maximise the drawdown of the levy to pay for training

8 08 Budget, costs and funding 08 Budget, costs and funding (continued) We have made a commitment of up to 5 million per annum for all Academy activity and costs. This sizeable investment provides a significant opportunity for the Academy to develop into a flagship project to deliver impressive outcomes for our communities and the business. Forecasts are based on anticipated costs of agreed provision rather than working to this as the budget. The budget for year one will be 1,576,745 including the full cost of wages for existing and new apprentices. The majority of the costs are for the wage bill for planned apprenticeships at plan at 1,393,520 in year one. This would rise year on year as we increase the number of apprentices supported. Beyond year three we would like to see the business picking up at least part of this cost. The Academy will manage the drawdown of the apprenticeship levy to pay for all apprenticeship training costs for apprentices, and professional development for staff where applicable. Costs Years 5,000,000 4,500,000 4,000,000 3,500,000 Academy budget Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Apprentices per year (new and existing) Programme budget (apprentice wages and overheads) 1,393,520 2,522,426 3,974,194 Establishment budget (including overheads) 183, , ,040 Training budget (levy drawdown) 13, , ,500 Academy budget 1,576,745 2,855,515 4,432,234 3,000,000 2,500,000 2,000,000 1,500,000 1,000, , Apprentices in year one will be placed across the business including corporate, Direct Maintenance, L&Q Living and Development. If we decide to become an accredited training provider in later years there will be additional and more substantial start-up costs and running costs including accreditation, registrations and certifications, premises and utilities (including IT). 1,576,745 The Academy s budget for year one Apprentices Apprentices on programme New apprentices

9 09 Impact and return on investment The Academy will have a comprehensive evaluation and monitoring framework. This will be aligned to the Foundation so that we can accurately gauge the difference that the Academy will make to our communities, staff and business. The apprenticeship programme will be targeted to achieve 70% completion by all apprentices of their respective qualification, with a minimum of 50% securing permanent roles within L&Q or its supply chain. Within five years we aim to create a staff structure where 5% of all staff are apprentices. Key performance indicators for the Academy will include Apprentices Upskilling Graduates Recruited and placed Staff starting courses Recruited and placed Successful completions of apprenticeships Conversions from apprenticeships to job offers Levy drawdown Distance travelled Staff completing courses Savings made to Learning and Development budget Distance travelled Successful completions and becoming chartered Retained within the business Distance travelled We will adopt the HACT social value calculator and other tools to provide a framework for measuring impact. In addition to key performance indicators such as the numbers and success rates of apprenticeships, we will capture and measure soft outcomes such as wellbeing and distanced travelled. The Academy will seek to evaluate important indirect outcomes including increased earning potential, the impact of better qualified staff on customers, apprentices as ambassadors and mentors and wellbeing amongst staff. We will capture case studies (positive and negative) that can be evaluated and provide lessons to improve future provision. Continuous improvement will be driven by a programme of quarterly and annual monitoring and evaluation of statistics, soft outcomes and reliable measures of quality. If we can justify plans to become an accredited learning provider we will align to the Common Inspection Framework in preparation for future inspections and audits by OFSTED

10 10 Accreditation and training facility 11 Case studies Through year one and two we will scope the feasibility and business case to establish the Academy as an accredited training provider and whether it will be housed in its own building. This could be achieved by becoming a satellite site for one of our existing partner providers, which would enable us to use their funding, accreditation and staff to deliver training. However we aim to become an independent, accredited training provider with our own premises, staff and programmes. We could become an accredited learning provider by applying to the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) or the Institute for Apprenticeships. Once assessed as compliant we would be awarded accredited training provider status and become a RAPTO (Recognised Apprenticeship Provider Training Organisation). Three year plan We would then approach an awarding body (for example City and Guilds) to secure accreditation for the awards we want to deliver. If we choose to establish our own premises, the location would be chosen based on accessibility for residents and employers. This will be informed by the geography of concentrations of housing stock and if we decide to provide construction training, proximity to large construction projects and developments with long lifespans. Any plans to become a provider would have to be aligned and complementary to the wider skills strategies in London, including initiatives from the Homes for Londoners, Construction Skills sub-group and the Mayor s Construction Academy Scheme. Year /18 Year /19 Year /2020 Establish the academy team Expand the academy team Recruit specialist staff as required Adopt apprenticeship programme Apprenticeship plan for 2018/19 Recruit 25 new apprentices Draw down levy Commission training providers Adopt graduate programme Provide upskilling for staff Adopt the construction work experience programme Develop and launch pilot for a new model for apprentices on Barking Riverside Public launch of the academy Expand the apprenticeship programme Recruit 40 new apprentices Develop the graduate programme Deliver, monitor and evaluate the new model for apprentices on Barking Riverside Enhance staff development offer with levy fundable upskilling and other commissioned accredited training Continue expansion of apprenticeship programme Recruit 50 new apprentices Expand the graduate programme Roll out the construction apprenticeship model on all of our developments Continue to enhance the staff development offer with accreditation If the case is made, start delivery of training as an accredited provider and open our training facility Apprenticeship Programme: Afolake, IT Support Engineer Afolake came to the UK from Nigeria for a better life for her family. Finding a job was her biggest challenge. She and her husband were both working in banks in Nigeria but had to put their professional lives on hold when they came to the UK. After endless interviews, Afolake finally found a job as a cashier at Poundland. After two years at Poundland, Afolake wanted to get her career back on track and was prompted by an from L&Q about the apprenticeship scheme for residents. She called to enquire and was relieved to find that there was no age limit. She then applied online and following an assessment day, was told that she had been successful. Afolake said: I couldn t believe I would be getting paid and gain a qualification as well. In preparation, she enrolled herself on an IT course to brush up on her skills and made childcare arrangements. Afolake enjoyed an eighteen month apprenticeship with L&Q. She built up her systems knowledge and gained valuable experience working on the IT Support Desk resolving problems. She is now a qualified IT Support Engineer. Afolake said: It was definitely the best move I ever made. Graduate Programme: Matt, Resident Services Manager After leaving university, Matt gained experience working at the Citizens Advice Bureau. Whilst helping tenants with arrears, he became aware of L&Q. Matt said: I hadn t thought about a career in housing before, but I could see the connection between studying law and housing, as it involves dealings with courts and the legal system. He found out about the L&Q graduate scheme and was successful in securing a place. In his first six months he worked in the North East Property Services team. Matt s job was to manage and find resolutions for disrepair cases. It involved dealing with opposition lawyers and consulting with surveyors. After six months Matt moved into a Neighbourhood Services Officer (NSO) position. It was a frontline role, meeting residents and dealing with tenancy issues, estate inspections and starter visits. Matt said: This role certainly kept me on my toes and gave me useful experience. After a year as a graduate trainee, Matt was encouraged to apply for a permanent role as a Team Leader. Matt found himself managing eight NSOs and eighteen months later was promoted to Resident Services Manager, a more strategic role. He has been an integral part of projects like the Chobham Manor development at the Olympic Park. Matt said: L&Q really is a friendly place to work and the graduate programme is a great route into the business

11 Our partners: For more information L&Q Group T: Academy facebook.com/londonandquadrant strategy L&Q Design Studio LQ0651