LifeWorks Journey Week 2012 Update

Thank you to our friends who have supported the LifeWorks Journey Week 2012 and shared our features, in particular: ABF the Soldier’s Charity (@Soldierscharity), SSAFA Forces Help (@SSAFAForcesHelp), The Army Families Federation (@the_AFF), St Dunstan’s (@Stdunstansnews), Honour Our Forces (@Honourourforces), Support Our Forces (@SupportUKForces), The British Forces Foundation (@BFFtweets), Shipwrecked Mariners (@ShipwreckedSoc) and I’m Getting Out (@imgettingout) to name but a few.

To mark the end of this feature we would like to finish with RBLI coach Shaun Maloney.  With a 24-year Army career behind him, alongside his success in the training industry, Shaun has the experience and knowledge to guide veterans and service-leavers to meet their employment potential for success on Civvy Street.

For more information on RBLI’s LifeWorks courses;
call the LifeWorks specialist team free on 0800 319 6844
email lifeworks@rbli.co.uk
or view the interactive LifeWorks Brochure

LifeWorks Journey Week 2012

Lifeworks, supported by ABF the soldiers’ charity, is an innovative employment guidance service for the Armed Forces Community, enabling them to build on their existing skills beyond the Armed Forces and achieve sustainable work.

This week (13-17th Feb) is RBLI's LifeWorks Journey Week 2012, each day we have been releasing former LifeWorks delegates’ video journeys to: http://www.rbli.co.uk/rbli/companynews/131/

To round off LifeWorks Journey Week 2012 we are releasing a new interactive LifeWorks Update Brochure which will explain how LifeWorks can help, when it will be provided and how the course has developed.

Open publication - Free publishing - More aremf forces

2011 in numbers...

When reviewing RBLI’s achievements in 2011 my eye was quickly drawn towards a series of numbers:

• We have enabled 350 people to find employment through the Work Programme and have started assisting 4700 individuals who are long term unemployed.

• We have given 5224 members of the Armed Forces community, employment and training information, advice and guidance through the Civvy Street programme.

• LifeWorks, our new vocational assessment service, has worked with 45 wounded, injured and sick ex Service personnel.

•  65 members of the Armed Forces have attended the Army Recovery Courses (ARC) on our site in Aylesford, Kent.

• We have supported 3 young ex-Gurkhas, one of whom has recently started employment in our Signs Department, by providing accommodation in our village.

•  We are proud to have a workforce consisting of 88 employees with disabilities.

• 300,000 pieces K’NEX (construction toy), have been assembled by our specialist team for a range of global displays (see our monster truck).

• 36,000 road and rail signs have been produced by our Signs Department.

• 237,000 new pallets have been built by our Pallet Department. 510,000 other pallets have been inspected, maintained and returned to the system.

• Our village hosts 50 people in our high dependency care home, 38 in our assisted living home and a further 137 in our houses.

• 3 new apprentices have joined our team. We hope that this number will grow in 2012.

•  With a combined age of 153, 3 members of our Senior Management Team, successfully completed the Maidstone Half Marathon and the hope is that the number of RBLI runners will increase in 2012 thereby reducing the average age of participants!

•  54 local children with special needs and their carers attended a Christmas Party as part of our own charitable contribution to our community.

• 176 people ‘Like’ our new Facebook page

•  504 people ‘follow’ @RBLI on Twitter.

•  RBLI videos have been watched 1,047 time on YouTube.

  

A total of 300 RBLI staff made all of the above numbers happen. Of course, the numbers merely give some idea of scale of effort. What is less easy to describe is the dedication, passion and commitment that is required to deliver such high quality services that I see as I visit all of our activities. I do hope that our blog and social medias will, through articles and photographs, better illustrate the work of RBLI and all our staff.

From all at RBLI, I wish you a very happy 2012.

A Festive Update

In the run up to the festive season, I’m pleased to report that we remain very much on track with delivery of the Strategy we launched earlier this year. There have been a number of successes which demonstrate this. We have continued to support the work of the Army Recovery Capability, having just hosted a further assessment and training course. Our training team has delivered a number of LifeWorks courses and we are proud to report that delegates from these courses are now moving into employment and further vocational training.

Our training team has delivered a number of LifeWorks courses and we are proud to report that delegates from these courses are now moving into employment and further vocational training.

Social Enterprise has recently secured a contract to provide services to the MOD as well as adding a number of new customers for signs, mail house, printing and fulfilment services to its portfolio. The number of customers supported into work through Work Programme continues to grow and we have successfully implemented two Access to Work contracts for the delivery of workplace assessments across the South of England, London and the Home Counties.

Our Property Services team have been invited to tender to provide grounds maintenance work around Kent and a new and exciting project which will provide employment for ex Service, ex offenders that we will deliver in partnership with Blue Sky will now go live in Spring 2012. The Welfare and Healthcare Team continue to support an increasing number of beneficiaries with high quality care, accommodation, advice and guidance.

The latest K’nex ‘Big Build’ project, which has generated much interest and intrigue over the last few weeks will be unveiled early in the New Year when it finally reaches its destination in Houston, Texas. We look forward to providing more detail on this project in January, including information and video footage relating to the build process.

We look forward to providing more detail on this project in January, including information and video footage relating to the build process.

I’d like to wish all our customers, partners and friends a very Happy Christmas and New Year. Thank you for your ongoing support; I look forward to working with all of you to continue our Strategy delivery in 2012.

Christmas Baubles Image by Petr Kratochvil

Iain Duncan Smith Visit

Last Friday we welcomed The Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Tracey Crouch MP for Chatham and Aylesford.  The Minister met many RBLI employees as we explained how our model of a Social Enterprise fits neatly into the Big Society Agenda.    The Minister also had an opportunity to meet some of the Armed Forces personnel who had sustained life changing injuries or illness attending our LifeWorks course.   They explained to him how the vocational assessment and employability training they had received during the week would help them to understand their employment options and compete more effectively for civilian work opportunities.   

We were able to feedback to the Minister some suggestions to enable us all to offer the widest range of services to former Armed Forces personnel

At the same time we hosted a meeting of representatives from KCC, Jobcentre Plus, G4S and Service Charities; including the Poppy Factory and Royal British Legion to explore how organisations could work together more effectively to improve access to services for former Armed Forces personnel seeking work.  We were able to feedback to the Minister some suggestions for quick and easy wins that would ensure better data capture and integration of services to enable us all to offer the widest range of services to former Armed Forces personnel.  Thus ensuring we can work together to help meet the principles of the Military Covenant.

The Secretary of State displayed a genuine feel and understanding of the work of RBLI.  He interacted positively with everyone he met and the visit was a most positive stimulus for all.  

LifeWorks Taster Day

We were recently visited by 14 guests from various organisations including TRBL, SSAFA and Regimental Associations.  Some had travelled to Aylesford from as far afield as York to take part in the LifeWorks Taster Day (Vocational Assessment) which was organised and delivered by Sharon Patmore and her team.

‘an important opportunity to spread the word about the importance of vocational assessment’

The day began with an opportunity for the guests to mingle and get to know one another before the hard work began.  All were put through their paces, participating in a number of tests and sitting the same assessments as our beneficiaries.  Sharon tells me that there were no dramatic surprises and our guests all left comfortable with their career choices!

This was meant to be a fun day and I am sure that everyone that attended enjoyed themselves.  However, it was also an important opportunity to spread the word about the importance of vocational assessment in the overall mix of support to our veterans.

Well done to everyone involved in the planning, preparation and delivery of the day.

RAF Visit

I was delighted to welcome to our village site Garry McCormack from the RAF Benevolent Fund and John Hickman from the Personnel Holding Flight, the unit that supports wounded, injured or sick airmen and women.

LifeWorks & Social Enterprise

Our visitors were very keen to understand a little more about the work we do and were particularly interested in the LifeWorks programme and the work of Social Enterprises.  They were extremely impressed by what they saw and commented on the professionalism and dedication of our teams.

Increasing our LifeWorks Referrals

It was very important to me that we were able to engage with the RAF as RBLI is a tri-service organisation and we need to ensure that our support services resonant with the whole of the Armed Forces Community.  As a consequence of this visit we can now expect to see more referrals to LifeWorks from the RAFBF, which is wonderful news and ensures that we can now reach more people in need.

LifeWorks Plus

Well, it seems that the first residential course of LifeWorks Plus went off without a hitch last week.  We had a team of 5 from the Parachute Regiment staying with us and taking part in our specially developed Vocational assessment held in Capel Morris.

We have spent a long time develop LifeWorks and the feedback we’ve had so far has been extremely positive.  People have enjoyed the surroundings and atmosphere of the Village and the newly refurbished Capel Morris centre has been particularly well received.  In return, we were impressed by its diligence, determination and application shown by all 5 soldiers.  Most impressive!

Obviously I am delighted that we have started this process as it is particularly close to my heart.  Many of the Service men and women that I served with would have really benefited from this type of assessment, which can ultimately make a huge different to an individual’s chances of finding and, most importantly, keeping a job.  We need to keep working together to develop new initiatives to help our colleagues in the armed forces, particularly in these times of austerity, with increasing cuts to MOD budgets and greater demands made of the individuals in the services.

A big thank you our Condition Management Practitioners (CMP) team who delivered the course and to Sharon Patmore for her work in designing and developing the programme.  Further thanks to the ABF Soldiers Charity and to the Parachute Regiment Welfare organisation who combined to make this inaugural LifeWorks Plus course possible. Let’s keep up this good work!