CERT has been operating since 2021 and in this time we have had some great successes and delivered some terrific impacts. We are very excited to share these with you:
- CERT has been hugely successful in recruiting residents who are predominantly economic inactive and are not currently engaging with other employability services. In all just under 800 clients have been engaged in some way
- CERT has established a strong brand for Positive Moves and recruits predominantly from word of mouth or social media (35%) and referrals from organisations, the most important of which is from the DWP (21%)
- There has been a growth in recruitment over time as momentum has gathered
- We are successfully reaching out and engaging the target audience of those facing major barriers
- Our clients are predominantly economically inactive and face multiple barriers:
45% of those who are key worked report suffering from a long term health condition. Of these, this is dominated by mental health conditions (73% of those with a long term condition),
37% of our clients (123) are parents and in all 80 are single parents. - Our clients on average move slowly to securing full key working with an average of 70 days. We currently have a further 115 who are on the journey to key working
- Our end of November figures showed that we were currently or previously providing key working support for a substantial 323 clients
- CERT’s key working is customised to the needs of our client group, requiring slower and lighter touch support and often focused on mental health and wellbeing rather than more traditional employability support
- CERT has successfully established a unique and major training and workshop programme, delivered in Clacks offering 134 courses and attended by 1,142 clients. This has met a major gap where previously travel outwith Clacks was required or courses were not available at all. The programme is now accessed by most employability support agencies for their clients including ClacksWorks, Skills Development Scotland, DWP and many NOLB/TCPF grant holders
- Our training programme has delivered 122 qualifications
- Progression for our client group is notoriously hard to measure with only limited achievement of targets to traditional measures such as movement to employment or education/training. Further work is being undertaken to seek to establish a system to measure progression for those furthest from the labour market
- Despite not being an employability programme, 55 clients have secured employment
CERT is now at a position where we:
- Are one of only 5 key working organisations and the only third sector one in Clacks
- Have a strong established and skilled team
- Work with a large number of active clients with a current caseload of c200 clients with some level of relationship with key workers
- Have established and are running a major training and workshop programme, delivered in Clacks for clients from most employability services
- Have outstanding partnerships with other public and third sector organisations to ensure smooth transition and mutual support for clients
Here’s to a great 2025!