Southern and Eastern Region
AUTUMN 2012
update Former Paralympian Tara Flood on the skills legacy of 2012
Bringing down the barriers
The skills legacy the games deserve
Barry Francis, Regional Manager
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© Cambridge Regional College
It was an amazing summer of sporting success, built around Team GB’s excellent all-round performance, securing third place in the medals tables of both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. But now that the games themselves are behind us, we can turn our full attention to all the issues involved in securing the legacy, and for unionlearn, that means concentrating on the learning legacy in terms of jobs, skills and apprenticeships. This is a huge issue, and doing it right has the potential to make a massive contribution to the redevelopment of a historically deprived part of the region unionlearn SERTUC covers. The legacy plans for the park and the venues will involve 2,500 construction jobs as the site is transformed over the next few years, and the good news is that the London Legacy Development Corporation is working to ensure that every one of its contractors hires and trains apprentices (in much the same way as the Olympic Delivery Authority did during the build phase). But, crucial as this is, the jobs, skills and apprenticeships legacy of London 2012 must be about much more than the future of the park and venues. After all, the bid which won the Olympic and Paralympic Games for London back in 2005 promised us the regeneration of an entire community for the benefit of everyone who lived there. As our director Tom Wilson said at our successful event during the Paralympics focussing people’s minds on the legacy for disabled people, there are crucial lessons we can learn from our athletes’ successes this summer: however dedicated and talented they were, they couldn’t have achieved what they did without the funding and the organisation that was put at their disposal over the past four years. We need a similar approach to winning the legacy gold.
PCS opens apprentice route for HMRC staff
PCS’s Darrell Binding (front left) signs the agreement with CRC deputy principal Chris Lang, watched by (back row, from left) unionlearn’s Mick Hadgraft, CRC’s Phil Stittle, Peter Knight (PCS) and CRC’s Howard Cordingley
More than 300 Revenue and Customs (HMRC) workers across East Anglia are set to boost their knowledge and skills through a new apprenticeship programme set up by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) and Cambridge Regional College (CRC). The union has offered the training to all regional HMRC staff (union and non-union members alike) to give everyone the chance to boost their qualifications and improve their skills in customer service, IT, business administration, team leading and management. “The message is that people need to upskill now on a regular basis, and get their qualifications up to date,” explains PCS union learning representative Darrell Binding. “Apprenticeships are flexible (so staff can train in the workplace) and there is a proper qualification at the end.” CRC Business Development Manager Phil Stittle says that one of the benefits of the apprenticeship approach is that programmes already existed in all the areas PCS felt qualifications were needed. “We hope to train around 300 people, working in over 10 offices across East Anglia,” Phil says.
Greenwich offers good value Greenwich University is now offering a 10 per cent discount for union members who enrol on either the Higher Apprenticeship in Business and Professional Administration or the Applied Professional Studies programmes. The Higher Apprenticeship will be offered by a number of partner colleges in London, Kent and Surrey, while the Applied Professional Studies programmes will be tutored by staff from the Centre for Work-Based Learning at the university in the first instance. Greenwich University and unionlearn SERTUC are set to sign a Memorandum of Understanding at this year’s annual conference.
It’s a deal (from left): Usdaw’s Jim Carty signs the learning agreement with the Co-op’s Graeme Evered, while NDL’s Paul Murray seals the deal with Unite’s Steve Rowlatt
Photos © Sarah Turton
It’s all about co-operation Union members at Co-operative Food’s new distribution centre in Andover, Hampshire, are improving their skills this autumn, thanks to the new learning centre opened by Usdaw and Unite this summer. The centre offers courses in literacy, numeracy and computing, with tutors provided by local education providers Basingstoke College of Technology and Aldershot College, while NVQ courses will be run by M2 Training. The centre formally opened its doors in July, when Usdaw signed a learning agreement with Co-operative Food and Unite struck a similar deal with logistics company Norbert Dentressangle (NDL). Discussions about opening the centre began a year ago, when the Co-op first announced it was closing its supply chain logistics operation in Fareham and opening a new facility 45 miles away in Andover. Staff who chose to take redundancy rather than transfer were able to improve their skills and employability with the help of unionlearn SERTUC and the union learning reps at the Fareham site.
At the same time, unionlearn, the unions and the employers set up a steering group to develop a workplace learning agenda for staff at the new facility. While the Co-op provided the venue and the furniture for the new centre, Usdaw paid for a set of laptops and Unite provided the printers, and both employers offered union members time to train as ULRs (there are now five on the new site). Although the unions originally considered working on a single agreement, in the end they decided it would be most effective to sign separate agreements with the two employers. Usdaw Divisional Officer Jim Carty signed the agreement with CDC Distribution General Manager Graeme Evered, while Unite Regional Learning Organiser Steve Rowlatt signed the agreement with NDL Transport General Manager Paul Murray.
Co-op Distribution Learning and Development Officer Sally Skora opens the new learning centre, flanked by Usdaw ULR Jimmy Meads (left) and Unite counterpart James Malone
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Q&A
Include us in What is your proudest memory from your career as a competitive swimmer? The gold medal and world record in Barcelona in 1992 was the absolute pinnacle of my career. I left competitive swimming shortly after that because anything else would simply be repeating that success, and I’d become increasingly disillusioned with the structure of disability sport.
How would you assess the development of the Paralympics between Barcelona in 1992 and London 2012? The profile of the Paralympics has increased on a massive level, as demonstrated by the new interest from corporate sponsors, although I do have real concerns about how sponsors are chosen: for example, I was very concerned that ATOS was the main sponsor for the London games. The media is also more interested now, but I think it still has a lot to learn in terms of how it covers Paralympic sport. I think Channel 4, which was the host broadcaster this time, significantly failed in its approach to covering the games in a more empowering, radical and adventurous way. Why is there still a media obsession about our impairments or health conditions? Don’t get me wrong: it was great to see disabled presenters. But I talked to many people who loved every minute of the Paralympic Games and there was absolute consensus that what people want is an understanding of the classification system. What they don’t need is a medical description of individual athletes, and they don’t want ‘triumph over tragedy’ stories. This kind of out-of-date coverage is both hugely disappointing and disrespectful to the athletes. I am also concerned that a downside of the increase in profile and sponsorship is
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Portraying disabled people either as Paralympic superheroes or work-shy benefit scroungers doesn’t help improve their learning and life chances, argues former Paralympian and disability campaigner Tara Flood.
that there seem to be fewer Paralympic athletes with significant impairments competing at an international level: for example, there now appear to be no lower classification swimmers competing for Team GB. That’s a very worrying trend. What’s going wrong with sports development that athletes with more significant levels of impairment are being excluded?
Shining a light on employers will show the real barriers to disabled people’s life chances in terms of employment, and would dispel many of the current myths about our lives as disabled people. This summer, we were presented with two pictures of disabled people in the media – either Paralympic superheroes or work-shy benefit scroungers. How can unionlearn and disability campaigners work together to change that? Successive governments have absolutely refused to shine a very bright light on the active discrimination that disabled people still face in the workplace, either as employees or potential employees. Shining a light on employers will show the real barriers to disabled people’s life chances in terms of employment, and that would dispel many of the current myths about our lives as disabled people.
How can organisations like ALLFIE work with the trade union movement to remove more of the barriers to education and employment that disabled people face? I think we need to find a better way of working with unions, specifically from an education perspective, and find allies within the union movement to support our call for an inclusive education system: those allies exist, and we need to find a better way to get that dialogue going. The current system of support services fails to make the obvious links between access to education and employment, even though the evidence clearly shows that disabled people who experience segregated education are less likely to be in further or higher education, or employment and training. That tells me there is much more work that needs to be done to build the capacity of mainstream schools colleges and universities so that they can welcome disabled learners. We need to keep reminding the government that it is committed to this aim as a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The reality is that what prevents disabled people from seeking the same opportunities as our non-disabled peers are those barriers that society creates in response to our impairments and health condition labels. For disabled people, the sense that our lives and aspirations are being put into reverse gear is so damaging – and that’s why we need support from other movements: the unions, the women’s movement, the Black and minority ethnic (BME) movement. This isn’t a battle we can face on our own: I think now is the time for other movements to say, ‘What’s going on is not right and we’re here to support you’.”
Tara Flood CV Disability campaigner Tara Flood began competitive swimming as a teenager, entering her first international competition in 1984, at what was then called the International Games for the Disabled, in New York. After competing in Seoul in 1988, the first time Paralympians used the same venues as the Olympic athletes, Tara won gold, silver and two bronze medals in Barcelona in 1992, establishing a world record in 50m breast stroke that was only broken earlier this year. After a decade in the financial services industry, Tara left to join the voluntary sector, working for a number of organisations before becoming director of the Alliance for Inclusive Education (Allfie) in 2006. Allfie’s We Know Inclusion Works campaign, which demonstrates the value of mainstream schools teaching disabled children, won the Sheila McKechnie Foundation Social Inclusion award in 2008.
Š Jess Hurd/reportdigital.co.uk
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Now for the jobs and skills legacy After Team GB’s success in the Paralympic Games this summer, it’s time to turn our attention to opening up more opportunities for disabled people in jobs, skills and apprenticeships. Everyone has a vital part to play in delivering a jobs, skills and apprenticeships legacy for disabled people from London 2012. That was the message from the successful unionlearn SERTUC event held in the Stephen Lawrence Centre in south-east London as the Paralympic Games built towards its climax in September. Unionlearn Director Tom Wilson quoted from Peter Little’s recent research into apprenticeships and disability, which revealed that the number of apprentices with disabilities had risen but the overall proportion had fallen from 11 per cent in 2005 to 8 per cent today. Tom argued it was vital to organise action to remove three key barriers to greater participation: z securing an apprenticeship is easier if you’ve had work experience – and work experience is more difficult to access for disabled people z succeeding in apprenticeships requires working in groups, while many employers fail to offer the kind of mentoring to help overcome the isolation familiar to most disabled people z assessment centres are not geared up for the particular needs of disabled people, and fail to make reasonable adjustments, for example, for people with access issues, visual impairments or moderate learning difficulties. “If you put those things together, it’s no surprise that young people with disabilities are not coming through the system in the way that they should,” he pointed out. He drew two lessons from the success of the Paralympic Games – funding and organisation. “Funding is absolutely crucial: none of the great medal success that Team GB achieved would have been remotely
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possible without all the funding that has gone in over the years,” he argued. Organisation was equally important, he said. “That means planning, forethought, time, and working with disabled people themselves.” Stewart Lucas, chief executive of Interactive, which promotes disability equality in sport, argued that there was no distinct jobs, skills and apprenticeships legacy from the Paralympics alone.
Changing attitudes about disability must be sustainable and permanent, argued Interactive’s Stewart Lucas
“The Paralympics is a sporting event – it’s like asking if there’s a distinct legacy from the FA Cup,” he said. “However, if you ask if there is a legacy from the whole of London 2012, the answer is Yes.” The legacy was three-fold, he argued: z the London 2012 ripple effect helped more disabled people gain jobs, skills and apprenticeships z more jobs for non-disabled people meant they would less impede disabled people z increased participation in sport would lead to more jobs for coaching and sports professionals.
“Disabled people are capable of anything – that’s the one thing I keep hearing from the Paralympics: it’s a little bit sad that it has to be sport that has to teach that,” Stewart said. “The true legacy is when you start to change attitudes: anything else is unsustainable and temporary.” Disability campaigner and former Paralympian swimmer Tara Flood said much of the media and political commentary on the Paralympic Games had missed the point. “The Paralympics are not about disabled people triumphing over tragedy or adversity: for me it was never about me somehow wanting to overcome my impairment, it was about celebrating it,” she said. Tara argued that the success of the Paralympic Games shouldn’t mask the challenges disabled people face at the moment, such as massive changes to the benefits system and cuts in education and social care. And she took issue with the new emphasis emerging in political circles on what disabled people can do instead of what they can’t. “That places responsibility on the individual to do something to remove the barriers to finding work, when the real barriers that have been identified in research over the last 20 years are that employers think disabled people won’t be able to do the job, won’t be educated enough and won’t show up for work,” she argued.
“Disabled people are capable of anything – that’s the one thing I keep hearing from the Paralympics: it’s a little bit sad that it has to be sport that has to teach that.”
medals
Unionlearn SERTUC Manager Barry Francis (centre) opens up the debate, flanked by Director Tom Wilson and disability campaigner Tara Flood
Delivering the future
“Just to give someone a job and walk away is not enough: there are times when you need somebody to talk to and part of the work we do is to make sure that support is there on an on-going basis,” Paul said. “These are people who kept going to the Jobcentre and thought they’d never get another job, and all employers could benefit from the message that some things take a little bit of extra effort but in the end we
have realised that that little bit of extra effort really pays off.” BeOnsite had trained more than 350 people since its launch in 2007, and was currently looking after 100 trainees, the largest number in its five-year history. Paolo Nistri explained how the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), the landowner and owner of the permanent venues on the Olympic Park, was determined to work with its contractors to deliver jobs, skills and apprenticeships. “Effectively, if you want to come and do business with us on the park, that’s great, but in return we are going to look to those companies to deliver on the jobs, the skills, the apprenticeships, through our procurement processes,” he explained.
All photos © Jess Hurd/reportdigital.co.uk
BeOnsite, the not-for-profit company launched by construction firm Lend Lease to coordinate delivery of sustainable jobs and training, had helped disabled people and members of other excluded groups such as ex-offenders, explained Training and Safety Manager Paul Warren.
Disabled people should be offered support to develop at work, argued BeOnsite’s Paul Warren
“We evaluate bids, we use dialogue processes to help shape bidders’ proposals and make it very clear what we want from them, and we look to embed those requirements contractually – to make sure companies put in place action plans and really follow through with the contractually embedded commitments.”
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Contacts Unionlearn Southern and Eastern Region Congress House Great Russell Street London WC1B 3LS
020 7467 1251
Regional education office
020 7467 1284
Growing a new approach to green skills
@unionlearnsertu Regional Manager Barry Francis
bfrancis@tuc.org.uk The Green Skills Partnership for London is helping to pass on useful eco-skills, such as making solar panels
Regional Coordinator Jon Tennison
jtennison@tuc.org.uk
Community and Trade Union Learning Centre Manager Phil Spry
pspry@tuc.org.uk
Senior Union Support Officers Mick Hadgraft Stuart Barber
mhadgraft@tuc.org.uk sbarber@tuc.org.uk
Union Support Officers Adrian Ryan Oreleo Du Cran Joanna Lucyszyn
aryan@tuc.org.uk oducran@tuc.org.uk jlucyszyn@tuc.org.uk
Field Worker Jane Warwick
jwarwick@tuc.org.uk
Regional Education Officers Rob Hancock Theresa Daly
rhancock@tuc.org.uk tdaly@tuc.org.uk
Administration Sonia Dawson Johanna Garcia Jaspal Ghtoray Alex Jenkins Tanya Nelson
sdawson@tuc.org.uk jgarcia@tuc.org.uk jghtoray@tuc.org.uk ajenkins@tuc.org.uk tnelson@tuc.org.uk
Cover photo of Tara Flood © Jess Hurd/reportdigital.co.uk
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Unionlearn SERTUC has helped create a new partnership of unions, employers, councils, education providers, community groups and state agencies to deliver green skills in construction, retrofit, horticulture and waste management. The Green Skills Partnership for London (GSPL) aims to help create local jobs, apprenticeships, work experience and work placements in environmental sustainability, climate change and low carbon initiatives, all with decent pay, conditions and safety standards. It is also keen to work at the grassroots with local communities, both to help pensioners, unemployed people and other disadvantaged groups tackle fuel poverty and to build the capacity of community groups so they can better promote local green initiatives. “The project’s unique partnership between unionlearn and local trade unions, employers, education providers, councils and community groups enables a ‘joined-up’ approach to share information and resources, particularly around bid applications, jobs, work placements and training needs,” explains unionlearn Senior Union Support Officer Stuart Barber. So far, GPSL has: z trained 40 community-based discussion leaders in OCNaccredited environmental awareness and eco-skills courses in two south London boroughs, with more planned in east London z trained 12 people on two community awareness courses in partnership with construction company Wilmot Dixon z placed six people in part-time paid training as green ambassadors to help roll out the project z helped create six paid jobs at a new white goods recycling centre in south London z secured opportunities for jobs, work placements and apprenticeships at four employers (Lakehouse, Carillion, BeOnsite, Wilmot Dixon) through progression routes from the project. The partnership launched with the support of unionlearn SERTUC, construction union UCATT and lecturers’ union UCU, four south London colleges (Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and South Thames), not-for-profit company BeOnsite (part of property giant Lend Lease) and Jobcentre Plus. Since then, the sector skills councils Asset Skills and SummitSkills and the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) have also come onboard. Unionlearn SERTUC convenes the meetings of the organising committee, which meets when necessary to ensure the programme continues to meet its objectives.