A brief outline of an exciting year in social action, research, community development and educational excellence!

1. Evaluation
Gwerthuso
Research
Ymchwil
Annual Report
2013
Unit 1 @Loudoun
Plas Iona
Butetown
Cardiff
CF10 5HW
Tel: 029 2048 8536
Email: admin@peopleandworkunit.org.uk
Website: www.peopleandworkunit.org.uk
Charity Registration No: 515211
Company Registration No: 1809654
1

2. People and Work Unit
Annual report 2013
Introduction
The People and Work Unit is an independent charity that will celebrate 30 years of
working in Wales next year. The Unit seeks to make a difference through its two
core functions:
to promote the value of education and learning (for all age groups) as a tool
for tackling inequalities and promoting employment, through a programme of
community based action research projects; and
To undertake commissioned research and evaluation work for the public and
third sectors in Wales addressing inequalities in areas such as education
(formal and informal), health and employment.
Action Research Programme
In 2007 the People and Work Unit began planning a programme of action research
work with Glyncoch Communities First. The aim was to work together to address
some of the deep seated causes and effects of poverty in Glyncoch, a community
of around 3000 people in Rhondda Cynon Taf. Together with community members
we planned an integrated approach that built on the core development work that
was being done by Communities First and focused on developing involvement in
learning. Since this work started, in 2008, the community approach to learning has
shown radical changes. There has been major investment from the local housing
mutual, RCT Homes, and real support from the local authority. School attendance
has increased, school exclusions have fallen, adult participation in learning has
increased, crime and anti-social behaviour figures have fallen. Where there were
once many vacant properties, there is now a waiting list of people wanting to move
to Glyncoch. Over the next year we plan to further explore the contribution the Unit
and its partners, including the Glyncoch Community Regeneration Ltd and the
Communities First Pontypridd Cluster and the schools have made to these
changes.
2

3. James Hall, the Unit‟s action research projects manager, has helped to develop our
programme of action research significantly over the last few years. A grant from the
Tudor Trust has enabled him to expand the boundaries of this work, by investing a
lot of time in disseminating the learning from the action research work (outlined
below) to community regeneration, education and anti-poverty activists and policy
makers, and by exploring models of partnership work.
Chance to Learn July 2012- June 2015
This project builds on earlier work funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation which
aimed to change the way that adult learning opportunities were structured in
Glyncoch. The objective was to change the approach from a supplier model, with
learning providers setting up courses and seeking learners, to a demand model,
with learners working with project staff to identify the courses that were needed and
negotiating with providers. The project both increased the number of learners, and
the impact of their learning over a three year period. In 2012 the project received
further funding from the Foundation to work with the community to develop a
sustainable, community run, structure for learners in the community which is able
to:
help in commissioning the right courses at the right time;
provide individual support to enable learners to access, and sustain,
involvement in learning; and
provide group support to enable learners to progress onto learning and
employment opportunities outside the community.
As a result of this, in this last year:
the project has worked with 209 individual learners (60 of them children) (since July
2012), representing over 7% of the entire population of Glyncoch.
Of these, 89 individual students have accessed courses in the community ranging
from psychology to food hygeine.
31 different courses have been run in the community.
community volunteers (7 parent partners) organised and ran Families and Schools
Together (FAST Families) in co-production with Save the Children. This engaged 74
3

4. people from the two newly federated schools, Craig yr Hesg Primary and Cefn
Primary, and had a 100% retention rate, with community members acting as
mentors and supporters to more isolated families. Volunteers went on to run a
regular and well attended „coffee morning‟ for a group ranging from 6 to 14 people.
a new community centre, owned by the community regeneration partnership,
opened and 8 volunteers have been supported to form a committee to run it.
a Facebook group named “Glyncoch Learners” has 59 active members
Build It Glyncoch 2009-2013
This project, funded by the Rank Foundation, has worked with young people and
adults who are not in education, employment or training, and those who the school
identify are at risk of becoming so. The project offers practical experience of
construction work, support to access training courses in local colleges and to find
work. Hywel Williams, the project worker, has worked with approximately 40 young
people and adults over the past year. In total, over the last five years, Build It has
undertaken 36 community projects, and worked with over 100 community members.
Here is a selection of the success stories which illustrate the breadth of the work
being undertaken.
two project participants have become fully qualified carpenters to NVQ 3 which
demonstrates a fantastic commitment to three years work in college and
apprenticeship
another project participant is qualified to NVQ 2 in Plastering and another has
completed NVQ 1 Bricklaying and looks set to complete level 2
one participant who had just dropped out of school when Build It started five
years ago, and lacked direction despite having gained good GCSE results is
now fully qualified to NVQ3 in Mechatronics (a fusion of mechanical, electrical,
electronic and control engineering) and is working towards a degree in electrical
engineering. This is being supported by his employers who recently selected
him, with two others, to go out to Chicago for 6 weeks to learn about a new
component. This young person has also joined the steering group of Glyncoch
Communities First and is actively contributing to the shaping of community
development.
4

5. A video of over five years‟ worth of practical projects (36 in total) in the Glyncoch
area and beyond with approximately 100 volunteers can be found on the Unit‟s
YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuN97EtcHqCCsKqpC95sa3g
Hywel himself has, over the course of the project, studied for a degree in Informal
Learning and, having succeeding in gaining a 2:1 this year is now progressing to do
a postgraduate certificate of education in Design Technology with the aim of
becoming a secondary school teacher. A volunteer with Build It over the past year,
David Quinn, is taking up the reins of this project, with James Hall‟s support, and
developing a social enterprise that will offer community based construction skills in
partnership with the local school (which has committed to employing David one day
a week) and with local training providers.
School Focused Communities 2009-2015
This project works with 44 young people and their families, following them as they
progress through secondary school and make the transition to adulthood. The
project objectives were to improve attendance and behaviour in schools, attainment
and promote family involvement in learning. The first group of young people
completed compulsory education in June 2013, and the second group will complete
compulsory education in June 2014.
With continuing support from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the objectives have
developed to encourage continued involvement in learning and an effective
transition to post-16 education and employment. An annual survey, begun in 2008,
is following the cohort and their peers to measure changes in attitudes to learning
and behaviour as they progress through education. Key outcomes of the project to
date are summarised below.
Behaviour in school
School behaviour has improved. There have been no permanent exclusions
amongst the young people in the cohort and although the survey shows that pupils
from Glyncoch are still more likely to self report that they get in trouble in school
than their peers, the school now report there are far fewer incidents of poor
5

6. behaviour. Both the school and the Communities First cluster have adopted some
of the project‟s methodology when dealing with areas beyond Glyncoch, including
employing a community based school-family liaison worker.
Attendance at school
When the project started school attendance levels of pupils from Glyncoch were a
cause for concern. Termly attendance across both the year groups the project is
working with is now almost exactly the same level as the full year group each term.
In addition to required attendance, there has been an excellent take up of revision
support both in the school and at additional sessions arranged by the project in
Glyncoch. Many of the young people re-sat their maths GCSE three times during
this academic year, demonstrating high resilience and improved ability to cope with
disappointment (not evident from previous year groups).
Family involvement in learning
The Project Leader has text or Facebook contact with over two thirds of the
parents/carers and uses such contact to remind families about parents‟ evenings,
exams, results and revision sessions. This has created a much stronger awareness
of what needs to happen and has developed support for learning. Many informal
conversations have demonstrated an increased support for educational progress
(e.g. one mother who was nervous about her son attending a local solicitor‟s for
work experience wrote a very positive letter of thanks following the placement). Six
young people from the Year 12 group are in sixth form (none were there when the
Unit arrived in 2007), 13 are in further education college (being supported by the
Project Leaders of SFC and Build It).Six of the current Year 12 group of young
people have expressed a clear desire to attend university (there were none at the
school looking to attend university from this area when the Unit started work in
Glyncoch in 2008), indicating a broader acceptance in families of the idea of
continuing in learning past compulsory school age.
Dynamic Communities April 2012 - March 2015
Mark Hutton works in five communities with a focus on using sports and physical
activities as a way of stimulating community action. With funding from Comic Relief
6

7. and support from Communities First groups in each of the five areas, the objective
is to develop sustainable structures for running community groups. Much of his
focus in the first part of his project has been in developing the capacity of local
people to set up and run their own activities. In the project‟s first year, to March
2013 over 400 people were involved as participants in project activities which over
79 volunteers helped to run including:
a health reps group created in Glyncoch to receive training in health matters
and to monitor health and wellbeing issues in the community. 12 volunteers met
monthly and have received six weeks of training. Each volunteer specialises in
a particular aspect of health to be a point of contact for community members
Ynyshir & Wattstown Sports group formed to organise a bid for renewal and
change of use of a sports facility.15 volunteers have joined the group and a
range of community groups that did not previously work together have now
found a new focus and purpose which will lead to a wide range of volunteering
and active citizenship opportunities. The group are seeking finance to take
forward their proposals
Glyncoch Festival mini Olympics – this summer family games event was part of
a community festival celebrating the Olympic ideal of healthy living and
exercise. 20 local volunteer residents organised the event. 60 young people,
children and adults participated in the three hour event in August 2012
two inter-primary school sports events for children between the ages of 8 and
11 involving approximately 60 different children each time (spring and autumn
terms) were held. Teachers (c.7), Communities First staff (c.6) and family
members (c.15 each time) also participated. These were team events with
opportunities for schools to win best sports team and best literacy team prizes
(children were asked to write journals on sport, fitness, well-being and health
which were judged on the day)
cycling proficiency training in partnership with Porth Cluster Communities First
and the local authority involved 100 Year 6 pupils across four schools for one
theory and one practical session before the test – encouraging healthy
exercise, road safety and local volunteering (2 local volunteers who are now
engaged in supporting local activities)
7

8. Rhondda Fach Winter Skills programme: an introduction to exercise – one day
course for adults
The project has succeeded in securing a grant from the Lloyds TSB Trust to train
local 6th formers as sports leaders. A group of 14 secured a leadership qualification
in the summer of 2013 and are now volunteering across their community running
school and community based sports activity. Their school studies will also benefit
as the work they are doing will help with the physical education qualifications and
Welsh Bac. These young people have formed their own organising committee and
successfully applied to Street Games UK for support and facilities to organise and
run local informal sporting opportunities for young people in the Rhondda area.
Development work
The People and Work Unit has been working for over six years in Glyncoch. This
community is one of over 160 across Wales that have benefited from funding
through the Welsh Government‟s Communities First programme. In Glyncoch the
programme has provided community development workers, youth workers and a
range of project workers. In March 2015 the Communities First programme is due
to end and, by the summer of 2015, the People and Work Unit‟s work in Glyncoch
will end.
Our current focus, therefore, is on looking at how the considerable changes and
benefits of the work that has been done in Glyncoch can be sustained. We are
working with Glyncoch Community Regeneration Ltd. – a community owned and
run company set up to take control of community development work – to think about
what needs to be in place to ensure that work continues to develop. We have had
regular away days involving Unit and Regen staff to reflect on progress and to plan
for the future.
As already mentioned, we are also pulling together the learning from our work in
Glyncoch in order to help us plan our next area of focus. Ten years ago the trustees
agreed a focus on young people and learning and on poverty as being the core
themes underlying our work. In the next six months we mean to re-visit our themes,
reflect on our work over the last decade, and plan how we want to go forward.
8

9. As part of this process our director, Sarah Lloyd-Jones, is currently consulting a
range of key people working in the voluntary sector in Wales to explore the needs
of the sector and what role the People and Work Unit should take in its
development.
Research and evaluation
The People and Work Unit‟s research and evaluation contracts provide
opportunities for the Unit to inform policy and practice and inform our action
research. They have provided nearly half of the Unit‟s income this year. The Unit
has secured a high profile and potentially influential set of contracts for the public
and third sectors this year including:
Programme of Action Research to Inform the Evaluation of the Additional
Learning Needs pilot: Robust Trialling Phase; Research on the pilot‟s
expanded testing phase; and evaluation of children and young peoples‟ right
to make appeals and claims to The Special Educational Needs Tribunal for
Wales. These three linked contracts involve working with the Welsh
Government and nine local authorities developing and trialling approaches to
better meet the needs of children and young people with additional needs.
(for the Welsh Government)
An evaluation of the Autism Spectrum Disorders Strategic Action Plan for
Wales (for the Welsh Government)
Research into poverty and ethnicity in Wales, undertaken in partnership with
Continyou Cymru, the Wales Refugee Council, Community Development
Cymru and Riverside Community Development (for the Joseph Rowntree
Foundation)
Research into Adult Community Learning Provision in Cardiff (for the Cardiff
Community Learning Network)
Examples Of Recent Contracts – timelines.
Title/Details
Dates
Outcome evaluation of the Autistic Spectrum Disorders Strategic
Nov 12 – Oct 14
9

10. Plan for Wales
Pilot study to inform and evaluate SENTW, for the Welsh
Government
Research into Poverty and Ethnicity in Wales, for the Joseph
Rowntree Foundation
Evaluation of the Get on with Science pilot, for Chwarae Teg and
ContinYou Cymru
Rapid Evidence Assessment, for Heads of the Valleys Strategy
May 12 –Aug 13
March – Nov 12
June – Dec 12
May – Oct 12
Sep 11 – Sep
Evaluation of the SEE Change, for Interlink
12
Evaluation of the Building a Better Future together project, for
RCT CBC
Oct 11-Feb 12
Structure and Governance
The People and Work Unit is a charity with eight Trustees and nine members of
staff. The Unit‟s Trustees receive written reports on all aspects of our work at their
monthly meetings and meet with all staff at least twice a year. Budgets are set at
the beginning of the year (January) and monitored as the year progresses with
monthly cashflows updating financial predictions for the coming 12 months. Income
and expenditure is checked monthly by the Treasurer who reports to the
Chairperson.
2013 Trustees
Judith Jones – Chairperson
Catryn Grundy
Archie McCaffer – Vice-Chairperson
Hugh Edney
Philip Watkins – Treasurer
Gordon Davies
Denzil Jones
Lee McPherson
10

11. Finances
Accounts examined by Dorrell Oliver Ltd show in the 12 months to December 2012
the People and Work Unit had:
Income:
£385,278
Expenditure:
£346,729
Fund Balance:
£161,747
Charity number 515211
Company number 1809654
Unit 1 @Loudon
54 Garth Avenue
Plas Iona
Glyncoch
Cardiff
RCT
CF10 5HW
CF37 3AA
Tel: 029 2048 8536
Email:admin@peopleandworkunit.org.uk
Website: peopleandworkunit.org.uk
Facebook: pawu1984
Twitter: @PWUnit
11