New 8M West Yorkshire initiative poised to Champion the forgotten unemployed

A three-year project promoting equality and diversity within large business has announced the first 5, out of its projected 25 major employers, are signed up to go through this process to recruit more from underrepresented groups.

The 18-month Diversity Champions Programme is run by The Fair Play Partnership, the not-for-profit organisation, exclusively for West Yorkshire. The Wakefield Metropolitan District Council is co-ordinating the Project, and it is co-financed by Yorkshire Forward.

The first companies to sign up to The Programme are: Accent Housing, East North East Homes Leeds, Frank Haslam Milan, Leeds City Council and Northern Rail, all based in the region.

The Fair Play Partnership has an established reputation of successfully working with UK companies in order to achieve employment goals, most recently to head up a European Commission project, ahead of the launch of the Age Diversity laws, to ensure employers and employees were fully on board with the new legislation.

The Diversity Champion Programme aims to provide employers with the support needed to improve performance in diversity management, and increase their businesses ability to engage with the identified underrepresented groups in the workforce. These include the long term unemployed, lone parents, people with disabilities, economic migrants and refugees.

Research carried out as part of the West Yorkshire sub regional investment planning process showed that while the overall unemployment level is low in historical terms, certain groups of individuals are still subject to labour market disadvantages. Many factors impact on an individual's level of involvement in the labour market, including ethnicity, class, gender, generation, education and geographical location. Those currently at the highest risk of labour market exclusion are:

ï Adults without partners (particularly lone parents)
ï People with disabilities
ï People with few or no relevant skills or qualifications
ï Older people, particularly men over 50
ï People living in areas with few jobs
ï Ethnic minority groups

With the expected continuation of growth in employment opportunities projected at 2 million over the next 10 years, it is becoming of increasing importance for employers to recruit from all sectors of society, particularly from these identified groups.


Liz Bavidge of The Fair Play Partnership says: ìThis is a really satisfying project for us as we will be working with some of the regionís premier companies, who are committed to diversity but want to use the eighteen month support package to make even further improvement in this area.î

The project concentrates on helping companies to develop diversity action plans which identify areas for improvement, and managers are supported through a range of interventions to further their understanding of diversity and the impact it has on their roles.

Dave Welham, HR and Change Director, Northern Rail said: As the UK's largest train operator, Northern is committed to delivering local railway services that really work for everyone. To enable us to deliver this we recognise we need a workforce, which resembles our customer base. Northern's partnership with the Fair Play project is of great assistance in developing our Diversity policy. We are delighted to be one of the first in West Yorkshire to take it up and look forward to 'making a difference' in our business.

Liz Bavidge continues: ìThe overall aim of the project is to promote equality and diversity, shaping the companies involved into 'Champions of Diversity' within their respective industry sectorsî.

The Accent Group, which works across the key areas of the Government's communities agenda of health, housing, and regeneration, is committed to supporting the creation of vibrant and sustainable communities and will use the new Diversity project as part of its ongoing work within these varied communities.

Steve Hunt, Chief Executive, East North East Leeds Homes said: Our Diversity programme will greatly benefit from working with the Fair Play project, and we will apply the workshop criteria to it. Its wide ranging coverage of the diversity agenda including long term unemployed problems and solutions will really establish our region at the forefront of government policy and in particular, help these people. We envisage implementing some of the policies and look forward to reaping the benefits.

Helen Thomson, Head of Economic Inclusion for Yorkshire Forward said: ìYorkshire Forward is delighted that five of the regionís largest employers have joined the Diversity Champions Programme. It demonstrates their commitment to diversity in the workplace, corporate social responsibility and equal opportunities.î

Recruitment opportunities are to be expanded through the development of links to local job brokerage services and both managers and recruiters will be trained in staff development and progression and helped to improve their workforce development practice with particular reference to people from under represented groups.