Haringey Council reduces barriers to work with data led employment campaigns

Haringey Council delivered two data led campaigns that helped young people and families with young children into work. 

Using Policy in Practice’s Low Income Family Tracker (LIFT) platform a record 70% of eligible parents with two year old children, nearly three quarters of eligible families, now take up the free childcare entitlement for two year olds.

For young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs) more than one fifth of those who were identified as eligible for employment programmes using LIFT are now participating. Almost 100 young people not in education, employment or training were helped on their journey into work, 22 of whom got a job.

These are fantastic results that show when we work collaboratively with a strong communications brief, some clear insights about our residents and appropriate methods of targeting with the right messages and support, we can make a massive difference.

Margaret Gallagher, Head of Performance and Business Intelligence, Haringey Council

Challenge: Reducing barriers to work for young people and families with children

In June 2023, almost one in five Haringey residents between 16 and 65 claimed Universal Credit. Nearly 7% of Haringey residents over 16 were claiming unemployment related benefits, a figure above the London average of 4.7% and the 3rd highest rate of all UK councils.

Haringey is home to a young, ethnically diverse population, over a fifth of whom are under 17 and likely to face barriers to accessing advice, support or employment.

Research shows that one in ten young people out of work never intended to start, whilst three in ten thought they would never be able to reach their dream careers. 

For parents, high childcare costs still stop them from getting work or increasing working hours. 

These studies, coupled with ongoing trends in the borough, prompted Haringey Council to find ways to overcome barriers to employment for young people and families with children. 

The council’s Children’s Commissioning Service wanted to increase take up of free childcare for eligible residents with children aged two because they recognised that a lack of childcare is a barrier faced by families with children who want to enter work or increase their hours. 

Haringey’s Connected Communities Programme, funded via the European Social Fund and Central London Forward programme, offers work focused support. 

It aimed to support Haringey’s young people not in education, employment or training between 18 to 24 years old (NEETs) by offering them direct support for training, employment and upskilling.

One way to help households in work is to enable them to get childcare. 

Using the Low Income Family Tracker (LIFT) you can identify households with children below the poverty line and engage with them to let them know that they’re eligible for support.

Paul Garlick, Policy in Practice

Solution: Proactive data led campaign removes barriers to applying for free childcare and raises awareness of employment support programmes 

Haringey Council has a strong track record of using its administrative data to unlock insights from its data using Policy in Practice’s LIFT platform. Combined datasets, together with LIFT’s built in expert policy engine, painted a clearer picture of employment status, household composition and benefit entitlements across wards.

Identifying and overcoming barriers to childcare take up

To address the low take up of free childcare for two year olds the Children’s Commissioning Service used LIFT to identify families who were eligible for the support. They then engaged with them via proactive, targeted outreach.

Families were sent information via text message about their childcare entitlement. In some cases LIFT data allowed the application process to be bypassed, giving the families ‘golden tickets’ to nurseries. 

LIFT also identified a ward with a high concentration of Orthodox Jewish families, a significant proportion of whom were potentially eligible for the entitlement. This ward has one of the lowest take up rates because many families use their childcare entitlement in the neighbouring borough of Hackney where there are more Orthodox Jewish childcare providers. 

This insight, revealed by LIFT, has evidenced a need for an Orthodox Jewish nursery provider within the ward.

Identifying and overcoming the barriers to work for NEETs

To tackle the barriers to work faced by NEETs the Connected Communities Programme used LIFT to identify over 460 NEET households. They were then sent a leaflet detailing the services and financial support they were missing out on, which was followed by phone calls and emails encouraging the eligible person to register for support. 

At the same time, the team raised awareness of the help available by placing posters in local youth centres and DWP offices. 

LIFT insights also identified wards with high numbers of NEETs for targeted awareness campaigns run via Instagram and Snapchat. The social media was especially effective for capturing people who weren’t in receipt of benefits and therefore not present in LIFT.

Eligible people were encouraged to complete a registration form for more details. Follow up calls were then made to encourage registration for employment support and training.

Haringey Works, the local employment service, proactively supported people with training in finding work and meeting career goals. Each participant got a tailored two week programme to upskill, improve their job readiness and build their knowledge of how to look for a job. 

Impact: Nearly three quarters of families now use the free childcare entitlement for two year olds

The LIFT childcare campaign has increased the take up of the entitlement from 48% in February 2021 to 70% by June 2023. This has resulted in nearly three quarters of eligible families taking up the free childcare entitlement for two year olds in Haringey.

New insights from LIFT are now being used to create a bid for an Orthodox Jewish nursery provider in the borough. If successful, this should increase the take up of the entitlement within Haringey for families looking for an Orthodox Jewish provider. 

These are fantastic results that show when we work collaboratively with a strong communications brief, some clear insights about our residents and appropriate methods of targeting with the right messages and support, we can make a massive difference.

Margaret Gallagher, Haringey Council

Impact: Over one fifth of NEETs are helped on their journey into work

Since the NEETs campaign targeting 460 people that LIFT identified was launched in February 2023 over 95 NEETs have registered and taken part in employment and upskilling training. 

By July 2023 22 started work, 16 were in education, three began traineeships and one has started a basic skills start programme. 

Participants in the two week training programme shared that the training “was very easy to digest and understand.” Another shared that “It’s the best CV and cover letter training I’ve had!”

By using LIFT to implement its NEET programme, Haringey Council was able to meet its contractual obligations to the European Social Fund, avoiding clawback from the funders and contributing positively to improved outcomes for young people in the borough.  

Haringey now has potential future software engineers, a mental wellbeing blogger, owner of a pub, social workers, a potential big record label executive and a few people running their own business.

I am really excited about the power of translating insight into improvement which genuinely impacts residents in a positive way. These are fantastic results that show when we work collaboratively with a strong communications brief, some clear insights about our residents and appropriate methods of targeting with the right messages and support, we can make a massive difference. 

In Haringey, we are on a journey to re-establish, re-define and strengthen our relationships with our many and diverse communities. Initiatives like these show that we are on the side of our residents.”

Margaret Gallagher, Haringey Council

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