2. 2-3. Introduction from the
Chief Executive
4-5. London Stansted
Cambridge Consortium
Conference
6-7. Interview with Gareth
Evans
7. Employer Accounts Team
8-9. New Offices
9. The Urban Futures Group
10-11. Interview with
Christophe Ah-Hang
11. Community Work
Programme Team
12. CWP Updates
12. Job Broker Reward
Scheme
12. Deaf Awareness Training
Event
13. New Staff
14. CSCS Training
15. Contact Us
16. Find us Online
2
Welcome to our very latest edition of
the Urban Futures Newsletter –
designed to be informative to both
customers and staff alike. It’s been a
very busy Summer for us here at
Urban Futures and we now have had a
surge of new staff supporting the
delivery of the new DWP and G4S
Community Work Placements (CWP)
Programme. A big welcome to all of
these new staff and indeed our new
look HR team situated in Parma House.
Of course we would be nothing without our customers therefore
a very big welcome to our CWP customers and I sincerely hope
that you find your service here at Urban Futures one which will
support your journey back into the world of work and eventually
into a career pathway that you find rewarding for both yourself
3. and your family. And it’s not just here at the Chocolate
Factory in Wood Green that delivers the CWP
programme. Customers access this service in our
Wembley offices and from 2 brand new offices situated
in Ilford Town Centre, Redbridge and at Blackhorse
Lane Industrial area in Walthamstow, Waltham Forest.
A big thank you to the staff that supported the opening
of these new offices, and a huge welcome to the new
staff working out of them.
The story therefore is continued growth for the
company. We are now a company of 123 staff
(including our colleagues in Haringey Education
Business Partnership) situated in 10 sites across London
and London’s 2 principal airports at Heathrow and
Stansted in Essex. Whilst some offices have only a few
staff operating from them, we have large operations
working out of the Heathrow Academy, our office at
Hammersmith & Fulham, and of course the Chocolate
Factory here in Wood Green. The challenge remains to
raise the profiles further of the other offices and
increase their service delivery and through our Business
Development we are continuing to look towards this.
We have continued to restructure to meet the
demands of the industry and to try and continue to be
at the forefront of developments, particularly in the
welfare to work arena. To this end over the past year or
so we have introduced two new internal teams
designed to support delivery across the board albeit in
different ways. Firstly, we now have our Employer
Accounts team headed by Gareth Evans (interview with
Gareth inside) which supports all frontline teams by
accessing job opportunities, looks for Apprenticeship
opportunities, and supports the delivery of in work
upskilling opportunities. The other new team is the
internal Compliance Team headed up by Victor
Henshaw-Stephenson and this team is designed to
ensure that all the paperwork related to these
programmes, whether welfare to work, ESF or training,
is to the standards required by funders and thus
ensuring we are paid for the work conducted.
And we will continue to change. Time stands still for no
person and a company like Urban Futures needs to
ensure that is relevant to the very customers who need
us to support them.
We will continue to
restructure our
training teams to
ensure that we
remain relevant to
the industry
standards (adapting
to the new LANTRA
construction
standards is a prime example) and we will look
tentatively towards new markets which may include in
the future work dedicated to ex offenders through the
National Offender Management System (NOMS) and
the new emerging youth related European Social Fund
(ESF) programme coming out later in the year. It very
much looks like the coming months will remain as busy
as ever!
Now that we are fast approaching the Autumn it won’t
be long before we are all thinking about Christmas and
the festive period. However we do have a few things to
keep us occupied before this. One such issue is the
Hammersmith & Fulham RAISE ESF Celebration and
Awards Ceremony event scheduled for December 2014
and to be held at the Town Hall in the borough. Yours
truly along with a host of other local borough
dignitaries will be attending to celebrate some of the
real achievements of the programme and to listen to
some of the recipients talk about their journey on the
programme. I look forward to this immensely.
Remember if you as a customer or staff member have
an issue you would like to raise both good or bad then
please ensure that you get your comments to our
editorial team in the marketing department and
support us to continually improve our services. We will
never be perfect all of the time but we do commit to
trying to be the best we can be at all times and we
welcome input from all of our customers, funders, and
staff alike. I continue to look forward to working with
you all for the remaining months of this year and
beyond.
Steve Delaney, Chief Executive.
3
4. Urban Futures were proud to attend and be
one of the conference sponsors at the LSCC
(London Stansted Cambridge Consortium)
Conference on July 10th
2014. The conference
saw over 180 delegates through the doors of
the Wellcome Trust building in central London.
Over 40 speakers from across the region
shared their knowledge throughout the day, all
contributing to an informative and packed
programme. The speakers, from across the
region contributed to the conference including
leaders and senior Cabinet members from a
range of local authorities, as well as all three of
the corridors LEP chairs - (Greater Cambridge/
Greater Peterborough, Hertfordshire, South-
East) plus London’s Vice Chair.
Steve Delaney (Chief Executive) and Anita
Gerrard (Training and Quality Manager) both
attended the event on behalf of Urban Futures.
The conference covered topics such as
Stansted, the West Anglia line, high-tech
4
clusters and skills for business.
Andrew Harrison, MD London Stansted Airport
stated;
“I am delighted to be chairing the London
Stansted Cambridge Business Leaders’ Group,
with an impressive line up of founder members.
The group will ensure a strong business voice
making the case for investment in strategic
infrastructure, and strengthening the link
between employers and skills providers”
The conference saw the signing of the LSCC
Skills and Employment Partnership Agreement
bringing together the corridor’s Local
Authorities, Further education Colleges, Job
Centre Plus, and Chambers of Commerce. The
partnership agreement builds on the good
practice already in place in parts of the region
and works towards unlocking the specific
advantages of working at a more sub-regional
level, across administrative boundaries.
5. 5
The signing of the LSCC Employment and
Skills Partnership Agreement;
Del Goddard, Director of Urban Futures and
the Lee valley Trust.
Neville Reyner, Chair, Herts Chamber.
Cllr Whitbread, Leader, Epping Forest.
Leon Ranson, DWP.
Suzanne Jude, Essex Skills Board.
Anne Constatine, Principal Cambridge
Regional College.
A
Photo A - Del Goddard, Director of Urban Fu-
tures and John McGill, Director of LSCC.
Photo B - David Lammy, FRSA MP and Johnny
Popper, London Communications
Photo C - Attendees of the London Stansted
Cambridge Consortium Conference
Photo D - Greg Clark, LSCC chair speaking, Sir Bill
Castell, Chair Wellcome Trust, then Chair of
Medcity, Claire Ruskin - CEO Cambridge Net-
work, Clive Morris, V-P AstraZencia
B
C
D
6. 6
Q1. What is your official job title?
Head of Employer Accounts
Q2. How long have you worked at Urban
Futures?
I’ve been with Urban Futures for 7 months
now.
Q3. What are your main duties and day-to-
day tasks as the head of employer
accounts?
My main duties are to ensure that the
Employer Accounts team generates
opportunities for customers across the
business, including full & part time vacancies,
apprenticeships and work placements. I also
need to ensure that the right kind of
vacancies & opportunities are being sourced
and to fit in with the needs of the customers
to ensure we can place candidates and
ensure they sustain. The vision is to build
long lasting relationships with employers for
the future generating repeat business
through a continually high level of service
delivered to employers.
My day to day tasks vary. I manage the face
to face relationship with Hammersmith &
Fulham council on the RAISE contract, I
attend meetings with various London
councils exploring new opportunities for UF,
monitoring performance within the
Employer Accounts team, oversee the Skills
Support for the Workforce (SSW) contract
and a multitude of other tasks.
Q4. What are the current numbers within
your employer accounts team?
I have a total of 6 Employer Account
Managers.
Q5. What are your goals for you and your
employer accounts team?
To build long lasting and continually fruitful
relationships with employers across London,
building bespoke packages of recruitment
and training for employers. There are a
7. 7
multitude of welfare to work/work
programme providers offering the same
thing, and in this market it is important to
offer a more bespoke service to set Urban
Futures apart from everyone else. It’s vital
for my team to understand employer’s
needs, their business, vision and values to
be able to accurately recruit for them. It’s
not only about candidates with the right
experience, it’s also about getting the right
cultural fit for their business.
The Accounts team should be seen as a
trusted resource by employers when it
comes to recruitment and training and they
In Order from left to right—Tony Lowe, Rowena Walker, Kevin Lowe, Donna Walton. The employer
accounts team also includes: Vitaliy Zaporozhets, Johir Ahmed and Lola Aisida (not pictured)
Vitaliy is the CWP Account Manager, Johir is based at Westfield in Shepherds Bush working with Ham-
mersmith & Fulham Council on the RAISE contract and Tony is the Apprenticeship Account Manager.
Kevin, Rowena and Donna focus on all vacancies and the Skills Support for the Workforce (SSW)
contract.
keep in touch with employers on a regular
basis to check on recruitment
requirements and vacancies.
The vision is to be a one stop shop for
employers to use when vacancies arise in
their business. We also actively seek to be
included on a company PSL (Preferred
Supplier List) which mean that the
company will make Urban Futures their
first point of call when looking to recruit.
But to get to that stage lots of work has to
be done to build trust and reputation in the
market.
8. Our Wembley office has moved to…
4th Floor Suite 1
Wembley Point
1 Harrow Road
Wembley
Middlesex
HA9 6DE
Our new Ilford office is located at...
Suite 2, Cranbrook House
61 Cranbrook Road
Ilford
Essex
IG1 4PG
8
9. Our new Walthamstow office is located
at…
Unit 41
Uplands Park
Blackhorse Lane
Walthamstow
London
E17 5QN
10. Q1. What is your official job title?
I am the CPA3 Business Manager on the G4S
Community Work Placement (CWP).
Q2. How long have you worked at Urban Futures
and how do you find working here?
I started my career with Urban Futures London
Ltd as a Business Manager on 2nd June 2014. I
cover the Job Centre Plus Contract Package Area 3
(CPA3) of London via G4S (G4S CWP prime
contractor).
Working here at Head Office, Urban Futures
Wood Green office is a breath of fresh air as I am
working alongside well experienced and skilled
Operations Management Teams. I am able to
express new ways of working and influence
internal processes to ensure the CWP contract
works well and performs to meet the contractual
objectives.
Q3. Have you worked in the Welfare to Work
sector before?
I have over 7 years of Welfare to Work sector
experience from delivering the New Deal contract
and the Work Programme contract, helping the
unemployed across London. My past experience
in this sector has given me various skills set in
management and in managing performance to
meet the contract needs. I am able to read the
DWP Provider Guidance of a Welfare to Work
contract and implement an internal delivery
model/ working processes.
Q4. What are your main duties and day-to-day
tasks as a business manager for CWP?
My main duties and the day to day tasks as a
Business Manager is to lead and manage teams of
Senior Employment Advisors and Work
Placement coordinators to ensure the CWP CPA3
performs well. To ensure quality assurance of
CWP documents and working practice are
delivered to our service users. I liaised with the
CPA3 & CPA4 Job Centre Plus offices networks to
maintain a working relationship.
A key part of my role which I am passionate about
as a Business Manager is to fully understand the
CWP contract and the internal processes
requirements, therefore I am able to train and
coach staff members on those elements to
empower them into their roles to perform.
In June / July 2014 I have taken the lead on
supporting the running of our new Ilford office in
East London (CPA4), to ensure our service users
would benefit appropriately from the CWP
contract.
Q5. How is the Community Work Programme
currently doing?
10
11. 11
Head Office - Wood Green Office
Charlene Greenaway – Director of Operations
Soji Olukunle – CWP Operations Manager
Victor Stephenson-Henshaw - Data Quality & Compli-
ance Manager
Derek Wheeler - CWP Liaison Manager
Christophe Ah-Hang – CWP Business Manager
Jamie Nicolas – Work Placement Coordinator
Nedret Husseyin – Work Placement Coordinator
We are currently into the 5th month of the Com-
munity Work Placement contract. We have en-
gaged well with the long term unemployed who
have been referred by the Job Centre Plus offices.
The Senior Employment Advisors and the Work
Placement Coordinators are working closely with
the unemployed adults supporting them into a
culture of a work. This includes our service users
attending a 5 day Preparation 4 Work training
course with the Skills & Training Team, to arrang-
ing a work placement 30 hours per week includ-
ing 4 hours job search and supporting them into
paid employment 16 hours or more. Many of our
service users have found the CWP contract deliv-
ery by Urban Futures beneficial in gaining new
skills and work experience.
Q6. What are your future goals for you and your
team?
The plans for my area is to become the number
one performing team in the district. This is to be
achieved by supporting many of the long term un-
employed into a work placement or into paid em-
ployment and will result in the outcomes needed
on the CWP contract.
Through the experience of the CWP contract one
of my goals will be to become a contract’s manag-
er leading on a major DWP Welfare to Work con-
tract across London.
Natasha Wilson - Senior Employment Advisor
Sherene McDonald-Graham - Senior Employment Advisor
Gilleen White - Senior Employment Advisor
Ilford and Walthamstow Office
Bilan Jama – CWP Business Manager
Jade Gargan – Work Placement Coordinator
Outhman Peerbocus - Senior Employment Advisor
Marc Pritchard - Senior Employment Advisor
Wembley Office
Bally Singh – CWP Business Manager
Neil Tannk - Work Placement Coordinator
Dee Pindoria - Senior Employment Advisor
12. 12
JOB BROKER REWARD SCHEME
Urban Futures were recently featured in the
‘G4S Community Work placement
newsletter’.
Natasha Wilson
was nominated by
Soji Olukunle,
Interim Operations
Manager at Urban
Futures for her
focus and ability to
support clients.
Natasha has been
supporting clients
in Wood Green, Ilford, Waltham Forest,
Hackney and Enfield. She has been assisting
them with inductions, diagnostics and job
searches as well as updating ISET the G4S
Monitoring system.
Soji said that by remaining focused Natasha
“has achieved all her objectives and
competently balances the task of involving
others and being sensitive to time pressures.”
Urban Futures are currently in the 5th
month of delivering under contract to G4S
the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP)
Community Work Placement (CWP) pro-
gramme. We deliver over a significant part
of London and encompass the boroughs of
Haringey; Enfield; Waltham Forest; Red-
bridge, Havering; Hackney; Harrow; Barnet;
Brent; Tower Hamlets; & Hillingdon.
Deaf and Interpreter
Awareness
Training Event
Nedret Husseyin, Work Place-
ment Coordinator for the CWP
programme attended a train-
ing event designed to help employees better under-
stand deaf culture. The deaf and interpreter aware-
ness training event, which was held at Stratford Li-
brary in The Grove, was organised by the Deafroots
Association. Those who attended learnt basic sign
language and how to work with interpreters using
British Sign Language.
Angie Joseph, employment project coordinator with
the association, said: “The whole purpose of this
event was to give employers an insight into the Deaf
Culture and to enable them to give our deaf custom-
ers an opportunity of employment and work place-
ments. The training also aimed to help them gain
confidence when interacting with deaf people. “The
Trainers were invited by Deafroots from Commu-
nityid who provided a superb training event.”
Soji Olukunle
Interim
Operations
Manager of G4S
Community
Work
Programme
13. Claire Kennedy—HR Manager
Scott Price – Trainer
Kevin Lowe – Employer Accounts Manager
Neil Tannk – Work Placement Co-ordinator
Namita Paul – Employment Advisor
Cheryl Dawe – Employment Advisor
Shrooq Memar – Employment Advisor
Clive Merrifield – Trainer
Mark Philips – Trainer
Gilleen White – Senior Employment
Advisor
Bilan Jama – Business Manager
Jayde Small – Data Quality and Compliance
Apprentice
Outhman Peerbocus – Senior Employment
Advisor
Omar Shibley – Data Quality and Compliance
Apprentice
Donna Walton –Employer Account Manager
Ali Rauf – Employability Skills Trainer
Marc Pitchard – Senior Employment Advisor
Dee Pindoria – Senior Employment Advisor
Harley Hall – Trainee Data Quality and
Compliance Officer
Jade Gargen – Employment and Placement Co-
ordinator
Nedret Husseyin –Employment and Placement Co
-ordinator
Faith Balogun – Receptionist
14.
15. 13
Contact:
aaron.sands@urbanfutures.org.uk
joseph.andrews@urbanfutures.org.uk
info@urbanfutures.org.uk
Alternatively, you can contact by
telephone on 020 8352 5900 or via the
website and other electronic connections
Here at Urban Futures we welcome
input and ideas from all staff and
customers. If you have any ideas for
articles of interest then please forward
these to the marketing department.
What to expect from our next edition
Newsletter coming soon…
RAISE Conference
The Annual Urban Futures Conference
Interview with Victor Henshaw
Stephenson
The Compliance Team
Community Work Placement Updates
Latest Projects
