SOCIAL VALUE LEAVING A POSITIVE LEGACY
MERCIA PARK EMPLOYMENT SCHEME DELIVERS JOBS, TRAINING AND COMMUNITY BENEFITS
If you read about the completion of the Jaguar Land Rover facilities at Mercia Park on page 9, it might be no surprise to learn that the UK’s largest single occupier park had a significant social value strategy accompanying it. The Mercia Park Employment Scheme took its cue from the Planning Application Socio-Economic Impact Assessment and Winvic, client IM Properties and another 20 partner organisations formed an Employment and Skills Forum. In collaboration, we were able to deliver long-lasting benefits to people who live in the six surrounding local authority areas and across the East and West Midlands. We selected and briefed supply chain partners carefully, which resulted in us having 2,400 team members from within the impact area out of over 3,000 and our attendance at recruitment fairs facilitated local unemployed people gaining jobs with subcontractors. £102 million was spent with suppliers located within the impact area and 45 per cent of that was with SMEs. It’s not just jobs we promote, but careers, so we worked with suppliers, training and education providers, the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Employment and Skills Forum, to deliver training opportunities that led to construction roles. 586 training weeks were delivered, 94 weeks of onsite training programmes and we helped 30 young people advance their careers through apprenticeship, university and work experience placements. Our onsite ‘Future of Construction’ Training Centre (FoCTC) and Sustainability & Innovation Hub (SIH) were used widely by Winvic, subcontract partners and local people for training, educational and upskilling activities.
This included welcoming almost 200 students from colleges and schools to site, and also delivered virtual construction careers insight days and interactive workshops with local education providers. In the community, IM Properties managed over £250,000 of grants through its Community Fund and we worked with a village hall, a church and a primary school to donate time and resources to transformational projects.
team members from within the impact area
EXCEEDING TARGETS AND WINNING AWARDS AT PEDDIMORE
Another one of our projects for IM Properties – Peddimore – also came with significant social value targets and not only are we delighted to say we exceeded them, but also that the strategy has won the Social Value of the Year Award from the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) Midlands. The key drivers for the Peddimore Social Value Strategy were set by IM Properties’ following their successful appointment as development partner with Birmingham City Council (BCC) for the project and the strategy was influenced by BCC’s Business Charter for Social Responsibility. We focused on making the greatest impact in communities with the greatest need and we began work to identify and engage with stakeholders over twelve months prior to construction, first joining IM Properties on the North Birmingham Economic Recovery Board (NBERB) and then forming the North Birmingham Employment and Skills Board (NBESB). This truly collaborative approach resulted in shared actions, flexibility, constant new ideas and robust cross-agency relationships. Our experienced site-based Social Value Manager coordinated activity, which explored deprivation and key on-the-ground challenges, reacted to the economic landscape, found opportunities through grassroots partnerships, aligned training with real job vacancies and engaged local SMEs, VCSEs, education providers and charities. 2,070 training/employment weeks were delivered, 64 people facing back-to-work challenges were supported into employment and 99 learners achieved construction and traffic management qualifications, to name but a few of the successful outcomes. We also delivered events in local schools to educate young people about careers, technology and sustainability in construction, donated food and homeless Dignity Bags to charities and supported five community projects with man-power and materials. Emma has written a blog where more information can be found about the social value delivered on the Peddimore project.
Emma Rhymes, Social Value Manager
“Face-to-face community liaison was crucial to success at Peddimore, and we built robust relationships in vulnerable communities. Also, we were fast reacting in supporting the local community through challenging economic shifts during project delivery; we helped people who were being made redundant from a local firm to retrain and gain construction qualifications around their shift patterns and we distributed energy vouchers to local families in need, for example. Getting the strategy right to increase local skills and employment was important and we mapped skills shortages and job vacancies with our supply chain, which allowed us to create training content – qualifications, expertise, soft skills, career progression next steps – that resulted in on-site jobs and long-lasting careers. It’s amazing how much has been achieved through collaboration, and the CECA Social Value of the Year award is for us all.”
Heidi Salmons, Head of Marketing, Communications and Social Responsibility, Winvic
“Peddimore’s Social Value Strategy is a shining example of what can be achieved when developer, contractors, local authorities, educators, trainers, businesses and non-profits share a common vision. None of it could be possible without the support of the whole site team, including every subcontractor, numerous education and training providers, the local councils and our client IM Properties. We’re all very proud to be recognised for this by CECA Midlands.”
WORKING WITH BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL ACROSS FIVE SOCIAL VALUE STRATEGIES
person weeks employment/training opportunities for every £1m of the project value
With five multi-room projects located across Birmingham – Corkfield, Edgbaston, New Garden Square, Kent Street Baths, Holloway Head and Lancaster Street – we have spent much time collaborating with Birmingham City Council (BCC) as well as their Employment Access Team (EAT). You can read about four of these on either page 14 or 15. BCC’s administrative area has the highest youth unemployment rate in Europe, so training and employment is the highest priority; our target audience is any adult who is currently unemployed within BCC’s boundary, categorised as a new entrant Job Start, Apprentice, Graduate or Work Placement. Section 106 agreements specify the creation of an Employment and Skills Plan and the delivery of 60 person weeks of these categories for every £1m of the project value. We organise briefings on our social value commitments with groups of subcontract teams as they become engaged throughout the construction programme and the EAT also attends to explain how it advertises the skilled and unskilled vacancies, matches local candidates and supports the subcontractors.
Our whole team understood the collective objectives and offer to support numerous local curriculum enhancement activities, gives presentations to students and delivers site tours – we always like to open a dialogue with local schools and colleges about what activity would be beneficial for students. We’ve attended local jobs fairs across the city with subcontractors and the EAT to find candidates and engineering students from Birmingham City University have been to the sites for tours and insights into a live construction site. Local students have undertaken placements and work experience across the different sites to gain practical experience and learn about the many industry roles, including 16 Walsall College T-level students, studying Design, Surveying and Planning. Community projects and charity support also feature in the activity across the city, which are making a real difference to people in most need and provide a positive legacy for many years. For example, we installed a new roof on Martineau Community Gardens’ outdoor kitchen area and team members volunteered at local charity, SIFA Fireside, helping to prepare, serve and clear food and organise clothes and food donations.
