A promise is definitely a promise in our book
Oliver Bliss • August 18, 2021
Ways into Work continue to support the disadvantaged in Windsor and Maidenhead
What a journey…
For the past 20 years, Ways into Work has been working with the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead (RBWM) – Changing Lives, One Job at a Time. For those that don’t know, we originated as a council run service before spinning out as a majority employee owned, Community Interest Company in 2015.
Our RBWM contract supporting people with disabilities to find paid work came to an end earlier this year - we couldn’t be more proud of everything that we, our clients and employers have achieved in RBWM over this time. This includes having one of the best employment outcomes in the country – more than 3 times the national average, for people with Learning Disabilities.
We’d like to say a huge thank you to all of those in the council who supported us to change so many lives for the better. RBWM were regularly, through our efforts, in the top 4 Local Authorities nationwide for securing employment for people with Learning Disabilities - something we worked hard to achieve.
However, this is not the end of us working in RBWM. We are delighted to be continuing to work in the borough, supporting our clients and employers on other projects such as Building Better Opportunities and our Supported Internship Programme ‘Route to Recruit’ - ever aiming to increase positive outcomes for disadvantaged jobseekers for years to come.
But … simply getting people into work is not where the story ends …
From our experience of working in Supported Employment for the past two decades, we know that continued person-centred support for people with disability leads to long term
employment. We therefore make a ‘time unlimited support promise’ to our clients and their employers to ensure that, through life’s ups and downs, support is available to maintain sustainable employment. For us it is not just a ‘get a paid job numbers game’. We re-invest our finite earnings back into positively and permanently
meeting our social mission: Changing Lives, One Job at a Time.
One initiative set up with these re-invested earnings is our new Keeping in Touch team – KIT for short. They are the expert Employment Coaches who provide essential ongoing support to clients (and their employers) who are no longer funded under Local Authority or other commissioned contracts. Providing vital support in maintaining current skills, learning new tasks, considering career development and coping with change, our Employment Coaches continue the person-centred support that helps people with disabilities to stay in employment and grow. Crucially, they also manage relationships with employers that ensure business objectives continue to be met, thus securing the best outcome for all involved.
This team supports clients like Ian, who works at a garden centre and has a learning disability. We helped him back into work after a long period of illness and to adjust to working at a different location when the garden-centre he was employed at, closed.
Ian commented – “I like the continuous support as it assures me that if anything goes wrong, there is someone there to help me understand and sort out the issue.”
The KIT teams work not only helps clients sustain employment, but benefits employers as well - reducing repetitive recruitment costs by retaining valuable workers who diversify their workforce. Not to mention all the many benefits that diversity brings to their organisation.
This is something that everyone at Ways into Work are really passionate about - permanent positive outcomes … after all ‘a promise, is a promise’.
To learn more about supported employment and what we do, click here.
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