Specialist Provision

The West of England Works Project plans to enhance the range of support available to support our participants through establishing a comprehensive network of organisations offering Specialist Provision.

The West of England Works Project is jointly funded by the Big Lottery Fund and the European Social Fund and is intended to support unemployed and economically inactive individuals to progress towards and into employment.  We seek to engage individuals with multiple and complex barriers who are not effectively catered for by other employability programmes and offer an individualised and holistic programme of support to increase their employability and confidence to secure work.  The project operates across the West of England Area, is supported by a budget of c.5.8m and runs until 31st December 2019.

Within the project, each participant is supported by an ‘Anchor Partner’ with responsibility for either a specific geographic or thematic area.  The Anchor Partner will deliver most of the participants individualised programme of support directly but we anticipate that some participants may present with specific rare or complicated issues that go beyond the expertise or capacity of the Anchor Partner to effectively address.  In such circumstances we plan to draw upon the expertise and experience of the wider voluntary and community sector through creating a network of organisations able to offer specialist provision that compliments the programme of support offered by the Anchor Partner.

Specialist Provision may include (but is not limited to):

  • Employability Support;
  • Careers Advice and Guidance;
  • Job-search Support;
  • Skills Development;
  • Disability Support;
  • Mental Health Support;
  • Dependency Support;
  • Support for Carers / Care Leavers;
  • Financial Advice;
  • Housing Advice;
  • Business Development / Self Employment Support;
  • Counselling and Therapy;
  • Mentoring;
  • Personal Development Opportunities;
  • Work Experience Placements / Tasters;
  • Literacy and Numeracy Support / Qualifications;
  • Language Support / ESOL / Translation;
  • Appropriate Vocational Qualifications;

If you are a public or voluntary and community sector organisation who is able to offer such support to West of England Works participants we invite you to tender to become a Specialist Provider.  All successful applications will be included on the West of England Works Directory of Services and Anchor Partners will seek to engage your support should the need arise.  We anticipate that much of the provision offered will already be funded from statutory or charitable sources but the project is able to release additional funding if we are able to demonstrate that such an investment offers value for money and provides additionality.

The opportunity to submit a tender will remain open for the duration of the project.

The West of England Works Project is jointly funded by the Big Lottery Fund and the European Social Fund.

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