Contact details

Project details

Project name

The Dacorum Care Project

Vector

INTEGRA

Key ideas

The Dacorum Care Project is a European funded project to train long-term unemployed people, lone parents and over 50s in Care. This leads to a National Vocational Qualification - NVQ - Level 2. This is a nationally recognised vocationally based qualification, the next level, level 3, can lead onto entrance to a Nursing Diploma and management positions.

The Dacorum Care Project runs in partnership, the management committee is made up of representatives of Dacorum Borough Council, Dacorum Council for Voluntary Service, Dacorum District Social Services, West Herts Community NHS Trust, The University of Hertfordshire and Age Concern Dacorum. This team helps the Project Manager to manage the transnational partnership, the training, the monitoring, evaluation and dissemination.

Transnationally we are part of the DESPI partnership - including partners from 8 European countries. We are part of the Social Economy Association sub-group and have benefited tremendously from working with partners in similar fields to our own. Much of our bi-lateral work has included exchanging information about vocational training within health care.

Originally, the Dacorum Care Project wanted to help men re-enter the labour market - especially those over 50, due to the rise in redundancy in our area. The over 50 age group statistically find it more difficult to access new employment and often become part of the "hidden" unemployed. Often this group is not registered for state unemployment benefit, preferring to live off savings, redundancy awards or taking early retirement. However we found it difficult to access this group. Nevertheless we have been able to enrol 33 beneficiaries of whom 33% have been male - in line with our pledge to tackle gender stereotyping and related issues in the work place. We have also been able to help women over 50, the long-term unemployed, people with low basic skills and lone parents.

Of these beneficiaries 42% have found work, our aim is to achieve 75% employment by the end of the project and we seem to be on target with 7 months of the project still to run. Another 15% have moved onto further education courses and everyone has moved a step close to rejoining the labour market. Confidence and self-esteem have also risen a great deal among the group - in educational, vocational and social settings. At this time 70% of students have gained basic qualifications, including Moving and Handling, Emergency Aid, Food Hygiene, Introduction to sign language - as well as units towards the NVQ, which can be certified individually. Some 5 or 6 students are also well on the way to completing the full qualification in the early part of next year.

There have been very real benefits in other ways. The trainees of the Dacorum Care Project face social exclusion through loneliness, poverty and lack of education as well as many other factors. The Dacorum Care Project has been able to help towards alleviating some of these problems. The students have gelled into a cohesive group well, creating an informal support network, friendship group and mentoring service. Students are keen to socialise together, offer each other advice, support each other - and have even created an informal baby-sitting service to help each other.

Two examples stress the case. One lady has been unemployed for 10 years due to her agoraphobia. Now she accesses a counselling service, socialises with understanding friends and drives herself to two voluntary work placements a week. This is a long way from the lady who was unable to walk her dog around the block 14 months ago. She has worked hard and really made achievements.

The next example is a man, unemployed for ten years, low in confidence and self-esteem, few qualifications and he has basic literacy problems. He now has nearly finished his NVQ, has achieved many basic qualifications, has more work than he can handle and has a whole new way of life.

These two people have achieved a lot working with the Dacorum Care Project and are themselves helping newer trainees to achieve the same.