Helping Enfield residents get back into work

Over the last financial year, we’ve helped 39 people get back into work and a majority of these people visited our employment hub in Enfield.

Our hub is located in the once-disused Jobcentre Plus premises on Fore Street in Edmonton and is a result of a partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions and Jobcentre Plus.

Open one day each week, it houses our employment advisors, volunteer digital inclusion coaches, our colleagues from assessment and support and housing management on occasion, and other partner agencies.

We’re seeing a good flow of people into the space, with most weeks fully booked in terms of support sessions. Support sessions can cover a whole range of things to help a person find employment from interview skills to gaining digital skills to search for a job.

The large flexible space also allows us to host events such as employment fairs or recruitment days and run the Origin Business School from the space.

Co-locating with partner agencies has also led to increased partnership work. In Enfield, we are now working with other agencies in the borough to create an employment providers network - something that we saw was needed in the area, and that we knew would be beneficial through our membership of the equivalent network in Camden. The network now involves colleagues from over 15 organisations, including Enfield Council and the NHS.  We currently lead all communications for the group as well as advise others on digital outreach tools and running peer-to-peer training sessions.