Healthcare Horizons to benefit from £250,000 funding from mayor to support jobseekers
The North East London Health and Care Partnership’s (NELHCP) careers programme – which includes Barts Health’s Healthcare Horizons, Care City, BHR Academy and Newham College – will receive £250,000 from the Mayor’s Academies Programme to fund a new health hub that will support jobseekers get into work.
The Mayor of London is launching a new approach to jobs and skills, focused on championing London’s skills offer and supporting north east Londoners to get into good jobs in sectors key to the capital’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Mayor’s £44m programme will support jobseekers to gain the skills that they need to enter work in the different sectors- namely health, digital, green, hospitality and creative industries – through direct employment, apprenticeships, or self‑employment.
Barts Health’s Healthcare Horizons was launched to support young people in east London to build careers within the NHS. It’s a core part of the Trust’s vision to address health inequalities in east London by developing a workforce that represents the needs of the local community.
Now, by partnering with NELHCP, Care City, BHR Academy, Newham College and north east London further education providers and job brokers, it’s aiming to develop a comprehensive bid to establish a Health Hub for our local communities.
Engage, prepare, support
The NELHCP Health Hub, which will launch in 2022, is underpinned by the following key principles:
- Engage - Stimulating demand for health roles and engaging with the NEL community through schools, colleges and Job Centre Plus
- Prepare - Building a talent pipeline for current and upcoming vacancies through pre-employment programme, vacancy-tailored courses and application development
- Support - Nurturing the NEL community in their career pathways and signposting routes to promotion through apprenticeships, coaching and mentorship programmes
As part of it, Healthcare Horizons will help with the development of work experience, careers events, online mentoring virtual work-related learning and pre-employment training programmes. During the course of the programme, the hub aims to support 750 young people (aged 16-24), in particular those from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities in building and developing new careers.
Developing the workforce of the future
In addition, agreements with NEL health employers to ring-fence job vacancies for hub users have been signed, and Newham College and other further education providers have agreed to develop vacancy-tailored courses to enable applicants to secure these jobs. The hub will also:
- Work with employers to remove barriers and blockers in recruitment to ensure all groups and communities have access to jobs, and support further education to deliver health-focussed courses
- Support development of career pathways to help fill vacancies with skilled people by nurturing talent to ensure retention and prepare individuals for higher level jobs
- Raise the profile of the variety of health careers available to NEL communities and highlight routes into career pathways
We want to provide even better access to jobs while improving outcomes for our patients
The NELHCP Health Hub will cover the five NHS hospitals, one clinical commissioning group, eight local councils and 286 GP practices and aims to serve the 1.3m employable people across the partnership, while aligning with the largest health recruiters in NEL.
Andrew Attfield, associate director of public health at Barts Health NHS Trust, said: “We are pleased that we will be part of the Mayor’s Academies Programme and hope and believe this will help to inspire our communities, particularly young people and those from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, to come forward and start a career in the NHS.
“Barts Health is already a major employer and economic player in our local boroughs, as well a healthcare provider to our local populations. But, we want to provide even better access to jobs while improving outcomes for our patients and reducing health inequalities, which this new programme will help us achieve.”
Gareth Noble, hub lead and associate director of people for NELHCP commented: “The local career opportunities are diverse, ranging from data and digital technology to patient-facing services, and the hub will support individuals in each of these areas.
“We will grant access to all health providers in NEL and will focus on reducing unemployment through connecting employers with educational institutions and other pre-employment initiatives.”
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