Tag: city council

Following up employability in Forth

The lack of employment opportunities remains a problem in North Edinburgh, where unemployment figures remain stubbornly high. A conference held in North Edinburgh Arts Centre last week looked at what is being done to improve the life chances of people struggling to gain employment in Forth.

The city council recently introduced a new Integrated Employability Service (IES). The IES is set out in the Council’s new employability commissioning strategy and refocuses council investment on four priority areas: young people, early intervention to prevent future long-term unemployment, support for regeneration areas and action to reduce low pay.

There’s a lot of jargon and strange language used – hubs, strategic skills pipelines, sustained outcomes and gateways – but put simply IES will establish a clear local service framework to better align services and make it easier for those seeking information about work to get the appropriate support and advice. The IES will evolve over the next three years.

City council Employability Service official Brian Martin (pictured above)told around thirty delegates: “What we had before was a lot of money scattered around hither and thither, with no one department having overall responsibility for employability money. That’s changed, and we’re starting to work better together; aligning better with the national agencies and improving our communications. There’s a recognition that we need to be much more pro-active but we are also realistic – we can work with agencies to supply training opportunities but if there are no jobs it becomes meaningless for participants. What we need is early warnings from potential employers – what they are planning and what skills their workforce will need. The sooner we have this information, the more likely it is we ca have people ‘job ready’ when these opportunities arise”.

The forthcoming 21st Century Homes redevelopment in Pennywell and a possible hotel and leisure complex at Crewe Toll have been identified as two potential employment opportunities for local people, and others have been earmarked. 

Along with WEACT, Forth Sector and Volunteer Centre Edinburgh, local employment agency Community Renewal was part of the Stevenson Consortium which successfully bid for the citywide Employment Services Contract. The new service started on 1 May and is delivered from ‘hubs’ in Sighthill, the Community Renewal office in Muirhouse and Haywired in Craigmillar with an additional outreach service in Gilmerton.

Community Renewal’s Nigel Green (pictured above) explained how the new consortium works and went on to outline the various ways the partnership supports local people in their search for work – through referrals to the hubs and also through outreach work at a wide range of locations.

“It is early days for the consortium but we are pleased with how things have progressed so far”, he said. “Community Renewal is already quite well-known in North Edinburgh but we are now covering a much wider area with a much bigger client base. That presents new challenges, but the important thing for all of us is to make sure that the support for the client is there when they need it.”

Closing the meeting, Forth Neighbourhood Partnership convener Councillor Cammy Day said: “It’s clear that there is a lot of work going on to improve the employability chances of local people, and the challenge for us is just how to get that word out into the wider community. People need to know what support is available and we may try to do this through a wider, community conference type event.”

 

It’s official – Edinburgh’s blooming beautiful!

It’s official – Edinburgh is Scotland’s most beutiful city! The capital secured the top spot at the Beautiful Scotland awards yesterday (11 September) and will now go on to represent Scotland in the national Britain in Bloom competition.

 Environment Convener Councillor Lesley Hinds (pictured below) said: “It’s fantastic news that Edinburgh has been recognised as the top city in Scotland for its green spaces. I was thrilled to meet the judges when they visited Edinburgh last month and I’m delighted we can now add another Beautiful Scotland City Award to the capital’s impressive record of accolades for parks and green spaces.

“The award positively reflects on all the excellent work staff do to keep the city looking attractive all year round. My deepest thanks must also go to all the volunteers and local community groups who have worked hard to successfully transform their local environments. However this is not a time to be complacent as we’ll now be looking ahead to next summer’s Britain in Bloom competition where Edinburgh will be representing Scotland in the national awards. Here’s hoping we can add a gold medal next year to our collection!”

 

It's official – Edinburgh's blooming beautiful!

It’s official – Edinburgh is Scotland’s most beutiful city! The capital secured the top spot at the Beautiful Scotland awards yesterday (11 September) and will now go on to represent Scotland in the national Britain in Bloom competition.

 Environment Convener Councillor Lesley Hinds (pictured below) said: “It’s fantastic news that Edinburgh has been recognised as the top city in Scotland for its green spaces. I was thrilled to meet the judges when they visited Edinburgh last month and I’m delighted we can now add another Beautiful Scotland City Award to the capital’s impressive record of accolades for parks and green spaces.

“The award positively reflects on all the excellent work staff do to keep the city looking attractive all year round. My deepest thanks must also go to all the volunteers and local community groups who have worked hard to successfully transform their local environments. However this is not a time to be complacent as we’ll now be looking ahead to next summer’s Britain in Bloom competition where Edinburgh will be representing Scotland in the national awards. Here’s hoping we can add a gold medal next year to our collection!”

 

Council spearheads drive to create 20,000 jobs

The city council is calling on its public sector partners and Edinburgh’s businesses to help support the creation of 20,000 new jobs in the city. An ambitious five-year economic strategy for Edinburgh will be launched at a conference being hosted by the City of Edinburgh Council and the Edinburgh Business Forum this morning.

Businesses and other partners are being encouraged to join the Edinburgh Guarantee programme to give young people the apprenticeships and work opportunities they need to boost their job prospects. They are also being asked to get more involved in the city’s communities by investing in its social and community enterprises, act as ambassadors for Edinburgh and mentor new entrepreneurs.

City businesses are also being asked to share their knowledge and international connections with the Council to help attract vital new inward investment. Delegates at today’s event will be invited to contribute their ideas to help drive the strategy forward. The conference will be split into two sessions. The first will focus on outlining the national / local context and the second session will seek an endorsement from partners and will outline their role in taking forward delivery of the Strategy.

The sessions will be attended by business leaders including Lord Smith Chair of the UK Green Investment Bank, senior staff from Harvey Nichols in Edinburgh, Scottish Enterprise, Marketing Edinburgh, the Financial Times, Edinburgh BioQuarter, and Mama Tea. The Leader of the Council Andrew Burns and Chief Executive Sue Bruce are both speakers as well as Nicola Sturgeon, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities. Robert Carr, past Chairman of the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce will compère the event.

Speaking before the conference, Council Leader Andrew Burns said: “Scotland’s cities and their regions are key drivers of economic growth for the nation’s economy as a whole, so it’s really important that Edinburgh’s Economic Strategy is not just owned by the council, but by the whole of Team Scotland. Edinburgh was resilient during the banking crisis and has bounced back well, but in tough economic times the last thing we want to do is get complacent. With huge pressure on council resources, we need to invest where we will have the most impact and closing the jobs gap is absolutely our number one priority. Joblessness creates major social costs for the whole city, and tackling this issue head on now will help us lay the foundations for a new phase of growth in Edinburgh over the next ten to 20 years.”

Sue Bruce, Chief Executive of the City of Edinburgh Council said: “The new strategy will help us to invest in people and in places, to provide an excellent joined-up service to businesses and to pool our efforts with partners.  We believe this is the best route to help create the right conditions for new jobs. The vision of the Edinburgh Guarantee, that all sectors of the city work together to ensure that every school leaver in Edinburgh will leave school with the choice of a job, training or further education opportunity open to them, is of vital importance to the future economic health of the city. Focusing on jobs, engaging the whole Council in economic development and increasing collaboration with our partners in the city are all central to delivering our bold targets to ensure that we play a major role in boosting Edinburgh’s economy.”

Hugh Rutherford, Chair of Edinburgh Business Forum and a partner at National Property and Planning Consultants, Montagu Evans said: “No one partner or organisation in the city has sufficient influence to drive development of the economy alone, so it is critically important that we pool our knowledge, expertise and resources to ensure Edinburgh remains an attractive place to do business. We want businesses to work with us to get people in the city back to work and that means engaging with the Economic Strategy to ensure sustainable economic growth.”

Further information on the Economic Strategy

Forged in the wake of the banking crisis, the Council’s new Economic Strategy is the first to focus on the Scottish capital and the part it plays in the wider regional and Scottish economy. It follows the largest and most wide-ranging economic analysis ever undertaken in the city.

The ‘Strategy for Jobs’ responds to a widening jobs gap – rapid growth in the working age population means that by 2018 there could be up to 37,000 more people looking for work in the city than jobs available – and sets out a pioneering ‘Whole Council’ approach to address this.

The Economic Strategy sets out three key targets for 2012-17: to support the creation and safeguarding of 20,000 jobs; to support £1.3 billion of infrastructure investment in the city and to help 10,000 people into work or learning.

These objectives will be achieved through four programmes of activity with detailed action plans: investing in the city’s physical development; supporting inward investment; supporting businesses and helping unemployed people into work or learning.

Key highlights include the completion of Edinburgh’s tram project; maximising low-carbon opportunities with the arrival in Edinburgh of the £1 billion UK Green Investment Bank; engaging with a target list of potential inward investors in key city regions of the Middle East, China, North America and London; the further development of the ‘Edinburgh Guarantee’, a collaborative initiative with businesses to secure training, education or employment for every school leaver in Edinburgh; the creation of a dedicated new hub for business customers at the City of Edinburgh Council’s headquarters; and the creation of ‘Integrated Employability Service’ that will work with national agencies to provide a ‘no wrong door’ approach for job seekers across Edinburgh. Extensive public consultation was carried out from July to September last year on a comprehensive analysis of Edinburgh’s economy – The Edinburgh City Region Economic Review. This was the largest and most wide-ranging consultation on the economy ever undertaken in the Capital. Its findings underpin the key areas of action in the new Economic Strategy.

Bin Collection changes

Just a reminder that the changes to household bin collections come into force from today.

Your green household bin, brown garden waste bin and grey food bin collections will now be on the same day of the week – you will have been notified of what day that is in a new calendar provided by the council.

Grey food bins will still be collected every week, but your green and brown bins will now be collected once a fortnight – the green bin one week and the brown bin the following week.

The red and blue recycling box schedules are not changing – you will continue to receive a separate calendar as usual.

If you use a communal bin, it will be collected as normal.

 

Council seeks to bridge flood funding gap

The city council is to continue talks with the Government and local government umbrella body COSLA over a funding shortfall for the second and third phases of flood prevention works on the Water of Leith. The Council made an unsuccesful bid for goverment support last December but a decision is expected later this year on funding for flooding projects.

Transport convener Councillor Lesley Hinds (pictured above) said: “The total cost of building existing and future flood defences for Edinburgh  is at least £144m, which is well beyond our own means. While the completed scheme on Braidburn and the finished parts of the Water of Leith are providing protection, other parts of the city continue to be at risk. Recent events have shown again how important it is that we have these defences in place and I very much hope COSLA and the Scottish Government can be persuaded of the capital’s case.”

The current funding arrangements are detailed in a report to the Transport, Infrastructure and Environment committee next week. The report also describes the lessons learned from recent flooding, especially on 7 July 2012 at the Stockbridge Colonies and in Warriston. As a result, various improvements are to be made in how the Council works with other organisations to plan for and respond to major flooding incidents.

Councillor Hinds added: “Flooding can be a devastating experience for those who are affected. While our staff worked very hard to deal with the consequences of the exceptionally heavy rainfall there are always lessons to be learned for the Council, our contractors and our partners I’d also urge every household tosign-up for alerts from SEPA and follow their guidance on being prepared for flooding.”