West Essex Partnership

The Local Strategic Partnerships for Epping Forest, Harlow and Uttlesford exist to promote and enhance the economic, social and environmental well being of their communities. The three LSP's have come together in the West Essex Partnership (WEP) to examine new opportunities for joint working across existing boundaries that will help them enhance 'value for money' and better deliver on behalf of their communities individually and collectively.

Recent Successes

West Essex Organisations successfully bid for Government's Future Jobs Fund

Following the West Essex Partnership successfully being awarded a grant under the Future Jobs Fund, over 190 local people (across Epping Forest, Harlow and Uttlesford) have benefitted from the programme.

The aim of the Future Jobs Fund was to provide new jobs for long-term unemployed young people claiming Jobseekers Allowance and long-term claimants in areas of High Unemployment and in 2010 the Partnership was awarded further funding to deliver an additional 95 jobs under the same funding programme.

The West Essex Partnership, along with Harlow Council as Lead Accountable Body, has had great success in working with a number of different organisations in the public, voluntary and community sector to deliver the full allocation to create over 190 jobs which were available to local people across Epping Forest, Harlow and Uttlesford districts.

Following completion of the first round, 81 individuals had started a job on the programme and of those employees, in January 2011 60% were continuing to not claim benefits and after six months 63% of participants were not claiming benefits having found further employment or moved into full-time education. Our success of the Future Jobs Fund is demonstrated in the feedback from employees and employers and most importantly the outcomes of the individuals.

As well as offering work experience with six months employment, the Future Jobs Fund provided all participants with vocational, practical and professional training with many people benefitting from NVQ Level 2 training and Apprenticeships, courses in (Citizens Advice Bureau) Gateway Assessor Training, European Computer Driving License, Health and Safety, First Aid, CV and job search skills and interview techniques as well as other bespoke courses and training. Our partnership approach has ensured that individuals taking part in our programme gain the best possible opportunity to support their future endeavours towards sustainable employment.

Leader of Harlow Council Cllr Andrew Johnson said:

"We are delighted with this funding - the jobs could not have been created without it and during this difficult time it is young people that have suffered worst from the lack of employment opportunities. All of the posts are in environmental or social enterprise environments and will be supported with training to help the young people gain permanent work once the six month period comes to an end."

In a statement, the three Chairs of the Harlow, Uttlesford and Epping Forest Local Strategic Partnerships - Jackie Sully, Howard Rolfe and Diana Collins said:

"This project is all about giving young unemployed people from our area a better chance to get into local employment through a quality local programme put together by the three local partnerships coordinating their activities across West Essex. Hopefully these posts will give our young people the skills, experience and confidence they need to get into permanent employment. It will bring over £1 million of additional funding into our local economies at a time of increased need. Importantly it will also provide additional support to a network of local agencies and voluntary groups who are part of the scheme, to enable them to meet increased demands on their services."

The first of the new roles commenced in January 2010.

For more information on the Partnership’s Future Jobs Fund programme please contact David Sellings, Future Jobs Fund Co-Ordinator, by email david.sellings@harlow.gov.uk or telephone 01279 446487.

The WEP School Prize Giving Project

The WEP School Prize Giving Project during June/July has enabled the three districts to award prizes in specific categories to local students whose primary schools wished to participate in the initiative. Certificates have been awarded at school assemblies and separate celebratory events have been held within the three districts for the students, their parents and teachers to attend, whereby book tokens have been handed out as part of the award.

Role of the West Essex Partnership

The West Essex Partnership Terms of Reference can be downloaded as a PDF here.

Contact us

The West Essex Partnership has a contact in each of the three partner districts. They are:

John Houston - One Epping Forest

Email - jhouston@eppingforestdc.gov.uk
Tel - 01992 564094

Marina Sherriff - Harlow 2020

Email - marina.sherriff@harlow.gov.uk
Tel - 01279 446831

Gaynor Bradley - Uttlesford Futures

Email - gbradley@uttlesford.gov.uk
Tel - 01799 510348