A timely report covered by Inside Housing again identifies the rise in unemployment among social housing tenants; you can read the article at Inside Housing website.

The HECs project is our intervention for tackling worklessness among social housing tenants. The project has gathered a head of steam through a range of meetings with providers and our partners over the last 5 months. We are on course for a launch of our approach at the start of September following a period of rapid IT development.

“Combining best practice from within the Home Connections partnership with the creative brains in our team, will deliver a transformational project” Joe McLoughlin, Business Development Manager at Home Connections.

The following is a high level view of our plans:

When a home seeker logs on through Home Connections they will complete a survey regarding their employment and training needs. HECs will act as a gateway submitting their details to local Information Advice and Guidance (IAG) organisations and Learning and Skills (LSC) providers (with their permission and within the regulations permitted by Data Protection). These agencies will then work with the individual and/or signpost them to other agencies.

More than web links are offered. HECs will be able to track the progress of individuals too, in order to monitor the effectiveness of the project. Importantly, HECs will also assemble a list of jobs by grade (entry level etc) in the locality of the homes in which the home seeker is interested.

A final project report will detail all the learning, processes and results from the project as well as producing recommendations that can be shared with other CBL providers and policy makers.

Thinking beyond the 4-5 month live pilot period, Home Connections are already in discussions with its user base within the local authority and RSL sector about how the project can continue, be adapted to their local priorities and be expanded in its scope.