We use a ‘child to career’ strategic approach joining up our employability, learning and skills, care, health and wellbeing, and children’s services to provide continuity of support, particularly at key transition points in people’s lives, from education through to careers support for older workers.

With over 3,000 employees across England, Scotland and Wales we support hundreds of thousands of people every year by delivering a diverse range of not-for-profit public services and are the DWP’s largest not-for profit provider of employment support. We support more than 100,000 people seeking jobs and new careers each year. Shaw Trust provides young people with careers education, information, advice and guidance, work placements, supported internships, traineeships and apprenticeships.

We take great pride in our ability to maximise social value through reinvesting any surplus we make in the people and communities we serve. We also advocate for the policy changes required to ensure that people and communities are protected, strengthened and able to improve their circumstances. We are very pleased to sponsor this year’s Employment and Skills Convention, providing us with a timely opportunity to come together with the employment and skills sectors to take forward this advocacy and influencing work.

We work with commissioners, employers and other partners to deliver public services of the highest quality, particularly in Birmingham and the West Midlands. Thanks to our extensive delivery footprint in the region, we are able to drive forward innovation and excellence with our local partners. For example, our Recovery to Work Individual Placement and Support Employment Service, commissioned by the Birmingham and Solihull CCG, supports adults with mental health conditions alongside NHS Secondary Care. The service was audited earlier this year and scored highly enough to be recognised as a Centre of Excellence by the Centre for Mental Health. At Fortis Academy, a secondary school based in Great Barr, Birmingham, we are working in collaboration with Shaw Education Trust to create a community learning hub, supporting family learning from a single site. Recently, we created a working group across our employment programmes to fill vacancies for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. This led to 137 jobs filled in areas such as stewarding, cleaning, security, traffic marshalling, hospitality, retail and catering.

Shaw Trust’s CEO Chris Luck and a range of colleagues, from across our organisation, will be at the Employment and Skills Convention and very much look forward to meeting delegates during the conference and at our exhibition stand.