Personal Support Coach Gosia Banach has been achieving great results with an innovative approach to supporting second earners into work. Utilising the GRoW app, Gosia has been working closely with participants on the Child Action Poverty Group project (CPAG), ‘Your Work Your Way’ Luton pilot, helping them to overcome barriers and achieve their employment goals. In this article, we delve into Gosia’s methods and explore the impact she’s had on those she’s worked with and how improving the quality of engagement with participants has led to them achieving better outcomes.
Gosia said; “I started to use the GRoW App in September 2022 when Liz Sewell, Founder and Director of Belina Consulting, invited me to trial it for CPAG’s ‘Your Work Your Way (YWYW) Project. YWYW was CPAG’s first venture into employment support and the project was designed to cater for the needs of potential second earners – either mothers or fathers – in a couple on either Universal Credit (UC) or Tax Credits, who have children. YWYW commenced in early 2020, just as the pandemic and lockdown hit and was piloted in four areas – Bury in Greater Manchester, Coventry, Taunton Deane in Somerset and Luton in Bedfordshire, which was my area. The GRoW App actually came very late to the party, after Coventry and Bury pilots had closed and with Luton and Taunton due to finish in March 2023, my only regret was that we didn’t start using it sooner.
Why did you use the App and who did it support?
I had never seen anything like the GRoW app before, it was pure innovation. From the outset I saw an increase in engagement and motivation from those I was working with who used the GRoW app and I also achieved a much better understanding about what motivational tools actually worked best for different participants.
Though there were a few dads on my caseload, most of the participants on my project were mums and though they wanted to work they also felt quite lonely and, at times, helpless. They wanted to work but faced practical barriers that make successful employment support challenging. We used the App to create a community for our participants to come together and get support from one another and quite early on we realised that this was key – giving people the opportunity to see how other people in similar circumstances to themselves were progressing, doing well and moving forward, cheering them on and sharing their successes.
How did you use the App?
As well as the Luton pilot we also had the Taunton Deane pilot participants on the App and I was responsible for posting generic content that was relevant for both groups as well as personalised content just for the Luton pilot participants. The generic content consisted of posts such as interview skills, jobs applications, motivational messages, and employability tips and then specifically for Luton I posted content such as selected and relevant local jobs, half-term activities in the area and personalised posts that spoke individually to people such as “good luck to xx with your interview today”. We also held virtual Coffee Mornings and promoted them on the App – these worked really well because it was a chance for people to meet up and see each other and it complemented what we were doing on the App in between.
There were mums we were working with who had good skills but were struggling with confidence and were anxious about making active steps towards employment but once they started using the App this quickly changed and they started to apply, get interviews and get jobs. Through the App’s in-built tracking feature, we could view all the activity and see that those who were using the App often moved forward more quickly.
As well as our own content we also made good use of Belina’s own content that they developed for the participants on their GRoW Programme. They had a range of articles from interview skills and techniques, CV writing, childcare and so much more, all of which were relevant, interesting and engaging for our participants and so we often signposted to them, they were such a great resource.
Another way we used the App was for last minute reminders and to draw people’s attention to things they should do such as checking their spam folder for job application responses. I also used it as a way of keeping in contact and supporting people who I couldn’t meet up in person with, advising them to look at specific resources on the App that would help them with queries.
Was it easy to use?
Nobody working on the app, the participants included, needed any specific training to use it – it was very responsive and easy to use. We organised the content into different groups which made it easier for us to manage and we scheduled content in advance which meant we could work on posts whenever we had time. As you can login to the App from a desktop or mobile phone it makes it accessible from anywhere and quite often, I would post jobs and other information whilst on the train. Some we scheduled in advance, and some were more ‘off the cuff’, it takes no time at all.
How did it work?
In addition to my content to the two groups, my colleague posted to her pilot area in Taunton Deane and we also had a Welfare Rights colleague posting information relevant to our participants on benefits and entitlements e.g. Universal Credit and Household Support Fund, social tariffs for broadband and phone, energy saving tips or debt advice which was incredibly useful and engaging for our audience. If participants ‘liked’ specific posts we could then follow up with questions, advice or information which we knew they would be interested in based on the content they were engaging with. Sometimes participants followed up at a meeting with me or by email asking if we could cover more on a particular topic.
We used Canva, (which is free to use), to create the content and it’s quite a lot of fun as well as being very easy to use. It has a plethora of templates you can adapt so you don’t have to start designs from scratch. We even made videos – there was one I made of myself sitting on a little train on the way to Luton saying ‘Hi Guys, see you soon!’ everyone loved it!
What we found, when speaking with clients, is that even if people didn’t comment on posts, they were still reading them. We would often get feedback such as ‘I saw it on the App’, ‘thanks for posting xx on the App’ etc. and now that the project has finished we still get people asking what is happening with the GRoW App and if they can continue to use it – it has become an important way for them to stay connected and informed and also to feel part of a community of like-minded people.
Would you say the App contributed to the success of the project pilot?
Our evaluators at Sheffield Hallam University will be producing a final report later this year that will provide details but the project has had fantastic feedback from clients, many of whom feel it has transformed their family’s life as well as their own.
There were several elements that played an important role in our success. The personalised approach – valuing mothers as individuals – and supporting them to realise their aspirations without judgement or threat has been key. Help with costs through participants’ individual budgets allocated for each client was also important as it enabled participants to gain job-relevant training or certification, equipment needed for work or learn to drive. Specialised welfare rights advice provided on YWYW meant that participants got help with benefit issues, debt etc. which improved their financial stability and meant that they could concentrate on getting a job. And the use of the App in the Luton pilot especially played an important part too as it helped to facilitate a supportive community, motivated participants and helped them to act on their dreams.
Are you still using the App and would you use it in the future?
Even though the project has now finished participants who remain on the App are still receiving content from the GRoW Team such as Daily Lessons, which they say they find really helpful. The App is such a great tool and the fact that people can access it from their phone 24 hours a day means that they always have advice at their fingertips whenever they need it and at a time that suits them.
I wouldn’t hesitate to make use of the GRoW app for future projects, I know it made such a difference to the participants, especially those on the Luton pilot. It is not expensive to use and it offers participants a chance to access relevant, tailored support even when they can’t access one to one support. They can make use of templates for creating their own CVs, get interview advice and, through Belina’s own resources, access information in different languages too, which is just brilliant. It empowers participants by giving them the tools they need to make progress and at times to suit them, whether they want to fit it around studies, part time work or caring responsibilities. For employability professionals it enables us to extend support beyond traditional working hours, improve the range of support we offer and provide a personalised, supportive environment that really works in helping them achieve their goals.
About CPAG:
Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) is a charity with a vision for a society free of child poverty, where all children can enjoy a childhood free of financial hardship and have an equal chance in life to reach their full potential. The main focus of our work has been improving the safety net of social security for families, but with 75% of children in poverty living in a household where at least one adult works access to well-paid quality work is a key issue that can help end child poverty.
Whilst child poverty is highest in single parent families, it is also too high in couple families. Where one parent in a couple works:
• 40% of children are in poverty when the single earner is full-time
• 54% are in poverty when the single earner is part-time
Child poverty is far lower when both parents work:
• 15% are in poverty with one full-time and one part-time earner
• 6% are in poverty with two full-time earners
Child poverty significantly reduces when a family is earning between them the equivalent of 1.5 salaries. Employment support can make a crucial difference to individual families and to child poverty by supporting potential second earners in couples into sustainable work.
The Your Work Your Way project was supported with funding from Barclays Lifeskills. A process and impact evaluation of the programme is being undertaken by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam University to collect evidence on what worked well for clients and project workers. Full findings will be available on completion of the study later this year (2023).
More information about the Your Work Your Way project can be found here https://www.myiep.uk/blogpost/1865348/486316/The-IEP-Journal?hhSearchTerms=%22cpag%22&terms=