‘An Amazing Journey’

Lisa Earl never thought she would go back to work. Leaving school at 16, she trained as a hairdresser. Then ill health, depression and lack of confidence meant that she spent most of the next 19 years unemployed. But this week she became a wage earner again after completing a training programme that takes people out of the dole queue and into a social care career.

Earl, 35, says: “I never thought I’d end up with any kind of career, let alone a career in social care. I always thought if I ever did go back to work it would be to stack shelves or some other dead-end job. I feel I have been through an amazing journey in the last year – I’m Lisa again, not a nobody who just exists.”

She was recruited to the Future Carers scheme, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire – a joint initiative run by Barnsley council, the training arm of the charity Age Concern and Carter & Carter, a private firm whose services include back-to-work support and training for the unemployed. The scheme was established two years ago to help meet the shortage of skilled social care staff in the area and reduce local unemployment. The council estimates it needs around 5,000 social care staff to maintain statutory and voluntary sector provision in Barnsley.

Trevor Hewitt, Barnsley council’s workforce development manager for social services, says social care wasn’t seen as a real career opportunity for people who were unemployed. “The other issue we had was that there is a number of large local call centres that recruit from the same pool of people we would recruit from for social care workers.”

The £269,000 Future Carers project was funded with 70% European Union money with the local authority meeting the balance. Its first priority was to raise the profile of social care as a career. Two job brokers visited jobcentres to explain to staff that there is a career pathway in social care. Recruitment stalls were set up at local supermarkets to help get the career message across to shoppers.

The 72 unemployed people recruited on to the programme were enrolled on a 14-week training course run by Age Concern Training which gave them the core skills needed to work in social care: food hygiene; skills to handle and move people correctly and how to administer medicines safely.

Vickie Morphett, the training instructor at Age Concern, says the course transformed the trainees. “When they first arrived they were in awe. For me as a tutor it’s been wonderful to see the difference as their confidence developed over the weeks – it soared by 110% easily.”

Throughout training the job brokers are at hand to offer the trainees support. Once training is completed the trainees are found work placements in the statutory or voluntary sectors. Last month the scheme was named overall winner in the annual Skills for Care Accolades awards.

Helen Richardson, managing director for employability and skills at Carter & Carter says the programme works because everybody has something to gain. “We win because we get people into work, Age Concern wins because it is involved in something innovative and can provide the training, and the local authority is able to fill its social care vacancies.”

Earl, who had just started work as a care worker for Barnsley social services, says: “A year ago I had no life but now I can tell my story and people can see that Future Carers works. You don’t have to sit at home and think: ‘I’m not somebody,’ – you can be somebody for someone who needs you.”