Voluntary Action Leeds, together with the Leeds Community Anchor Network (LCAN) and Leeds Anchor Network have released a report exploring what could be done to improve access to meaningful employment in the city.

The report, titled ‘Leeds Community Anchor Network Listening Exercise – report and key findings’, involved three members of the Leeds Community Anchor Network in Armley, Harehills and Seacroft. These organisations have been working together as part of a Health Foundation funded project within Leeds City Council entitled Good Jobs Better Health Fairer Futures (GJBHFF) to actively listen to their local communities, through an asset-based ‘listening exercise’ to identify solutions to the barriers faced when finding meaningful employment.

The project saw We Are Seacroft, New Wortley Community Centre and Give a Gift act as the first community organisations to run the new ‘listening exercise’ that has been developed.

“We believe that our communities have the solutions to the barriers that they face,” said Howard Bradley, representative of We Are Seacroft, “therefore, we feel that taking this asset-based approach going forward will provide communities with the platform to express these solutions have a clear say on decisions that directly affect them.”

Some of the recommendations gathered from this process in the report included:

• That employers, including Leeds Anchor Network, work with community-based organisations to design and deliver local recruitment activities (i.e. job fairs) within locally trusted and accessible spaces, including additional related support such as interview techniques and CV writing.

• That employers, including Leeds Anchor Network, design recruitment processes that are appropriate / proportionate to the role in question, rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

• That Anchors seek to recognise experience / qualifications gained in other countries and support people into roles where they can gain experience and undertake recognised qualifications in order to progress.

GJBHFF board are representative of The Leeds Anchor Network, a group of 14 major employers in the city including:

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds City College, Leeds and York Partnership Foundation NHS Trust, University of Leeds, Leeds College of Building, Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust, Leeds Trinity University, Leeds City Council, NHS England, Yorkshire Water, British Library, Northern Gas Networks and Northern Powergrid.

“Building stronger relationships with local communities is a priority for all members of Leeds Anchor Network”, said Peter Slee, Vice Chancellor of Leeds Beckett University and Chair of Leeds Anchor Network. “As the largest employers and education providers in Leeds, this report provides us with powerful insight about what matters to local people. We look forward to working with local groups and community organisations to respond to the recommendations”. 

Voluntary Action Leeds has worked closely with both networks, facilitating discussions and putting together the final report with the key recommendations.

“This is just the start rather than the end of the Listening Process”, said Hannah Bailey, Chief Officer of Voluntary Action Leeds, “we will continue to promote collaboration between different sectors to explore the recommendations and insights in the report to ensure that communities are able to access more meaningful employment opportunities

 The full report is available on Doing Good Leeds, containing full recommendations from communities along with more information about the Listening Process and all who have been involved.

Voluntary Action Leeds