By David Robinson
Yesterday the Daily Telegraph ran a front page story suggesting that almost one million people across the UK are now working part-time because they cannot get a full-time job. The story suggested several major employers have offered staff reduced hours or extended holidays in an attempt to cut costs. The story goes on to suggest that unlike previous recessions this time there are “more dramatic changes in the labour market, with hundreds of thousands cutting their hours and pay in an attempt to hold on to their jobs. “
Today at a breakfast meeting with actual and potential partners we are introducing the National Talent Bank.
The NTB is an idea proposed by the Council on Social Action – a time limited partnership promoting and supporting volunteering amongst those with more time to share as a consequence of recession.
Today we are publishing a discussion paper to stimulate dialogue and engagement and issuing a call for partners to build the Talent Bank together.
A video accompanying this post outlines the plan.
The Council on Social Action (CoSA) has been considering the role of social action in recession and what might be done now to ensure that we emerge from this period with not only a stronger economy but also happier, healthier, stronger communities.
Strong communities benefit from the engagement of the many, not the few. They nurture a commitment to one another sharing the opportunities, the experience and the knowledge we need to shape the decisions that affect our lives, to fulfil potential individually and to live and work effectively together. These are timeless values but particularly significant today: Recession could drive division and exclusion or it could unite us, extracting greater value from all that we have, embracing new ideas and working together on common goals.
Working with The Talent and Enterprise Task Force at the DCSF, TimeBank, Business in the Community (BiTC) and CAPP we’ve developed a short list of opportunities, a framework for expansion and a call for partners to build the National Talent Bank together.
The Plan: The Bank will not be a big new bureaucracy. It will be the sum of its programmes, each run by an independent set of partners. It will offer light touch brokerage to employers, not individual employees and to NTB programmes.
NTB will have a fixed life, probably two years, and will unleash the potential from temporary circumstances. It will target those employers who are releasing employees for a fixed period or are reducing the working week.
The Need: We know that 17% of UK employers have implemented short time working programmes, with a further 13% intending to or considering the option. (CBI Employment Trends Survey: June 2009) The “under employed” includes employees working shorter hours, required to take sabbaticals, retained in the workforce but under occupied or “deferred” – new recruits with a deferred start date.
We also know that large numbers of children would benfit from extra one-to-one literacy and numeracy support, that debt enquiries at Citizens Advice Bureaux were 21% higher in the first quarter of this year compared to last and that Child Line have experienced a comparable increase in demand.
On the one hand there is need. On the other there is the capacity to help.
The Action: We intend to build three themes. Action for Young People, Action on Climate Change and Action on Money Management. Beneath each theme we are developing a set of volunteering programmes
As recession continues more people become available and more problems become more entrenched. Employees are making choices about how they use their unexpected time when it becomes available. As the economy picks up they will once again have less time available. The need and the opportunity exist now. So should our response.
Do please download the report and have a look at the video. We are developing a short list of opportunities and a framework for expansion if you have any comments or you would like to be involved please leave a comment below or contact me info@nationaltalentbank.org.uk . Website: www.nationaltalentbank.org.uk
[...] on this year include The Parliamentary launch of our Need NOT Greed Campaign in February, to the National Talent Bank in June, Chain Reaction in November, including the launch of three more Council on Social Action [...]