The Committee received a report that provided details of the Council’s performance against Strategic Measures during quarter one (April-June 2017).

The questions and comments from Members on the report may be summarised as follows:

The Committee:

Noted that:

·         The Council’s Strategic Plan and Strategic Measures are focused upon meeting the needs of the diverse communities living in Tower Hamlets and supporting delivery of One Tower Hamlets. In particular, strategic priorities include the reduction of inequalities and the fostering of community cohesion;

·         The Strategic Measure set contains the measures “Proportion of people with mental health problems in employment”; “Employment gap for women: reducing the gap between the Borough employment rate and employment rate for women”; and “Employment gap for BME residents: reducing the gap between the Borough employment rate and employment rate for BME residents”;

·         The data for Quarter 1 2017/18 shows that 5.8% of those aged 18-69 years old with an open CPA (care pathway approach) were in employment, just below the Council’s stretch target of 5.9% of people with mental health problems in employment;

·         On the measures of the employment gap for women and BME residents, performance did not meet the Council’s minimum expectation for the quarter, however the Council’s WorkPath service and wider WorkPath partnership continue to support residents into employment and has seen an 87% increase of 93 more jobs recorded compared to this time last year. 133 (85.3%) of the 156 Job Starts recorded by the WorkPath service were for BME residents, 150 of which delivered employment in excess of 16 hours per week. 361 (86%) of the 420  residents engaging with WorkPath were from the BME community. 67 out of the 156 (42.9%) Job Starts recorded by the WorkPath service were for female residents, 50 of which delivered employment of more than 16 hours per week;

·         The Council was also successful in supporting 199 local people into employment during the quarter through the WorkPath Partnership. This is an increase of 93 residents that have been helped into employment compared to the same period last year. The WorkPath service has seen 27 more reported Job Starts for BME residents, 15 more reported for female residents, 18 more for BME female and 9 more Lone Parents compared to the same period in 2016/17; and

·         The WorkPath Service works with key Council services and external partners including the Supporting Stronger Families, Job Centre Plus, Poplar HARCA, Housing Options, the Careers Service, Drug and Alcohol Team, Integrated Offender Management project (Probation service) and Ideas Stores to identify those residents who would benefit most from support, maximising engagement of women, disabled and BAME residents. WorkPath focuses on supporting economically inactive and long-term unemployed groups of residents (Residents furthest from the Labour Market, potentially with multiple barriers to employment), those that require extensive support over a longer period of time to get them job ready and into employment.