Nottingham City Homes
UCATT reps and Midlands Regional Secretary Steve Murphy have been working on a ground breaking Code of Practice agreement with Nottingham City Homes (NCH). NCH manages and maintains the city council’s homes.
As part of its innovative new apprenticeships scheme, “One in a Million”, NCH promises to employ one apprentice for every million pound spent on its huge investment programme across the city.
The organisation was recently awarded two stars by the Audit Commission which helped to access £165 million of Government funding to bring Nottingham’s council’s homes up to the Decent Homes standard.
Now in its fourth year of operation as an ALMO (Arms Length Management Organisation), NCH employs around 1,100 staff, including 400 craft operatives – transferred from the local authority. NCH is responsible for the day to day to day management of 29,000 homes and 1,000 leasehold properties.
Neal Hodkinson, Joint Trade Union Works Convenor said “The total spend in Nottingham will be around £243 million, meaning that more than 200 apprentices will be taken on over the life of the project. It is a great example of what organisations can do to expand the construction workforce through apprenticeships, which are in great demand. NCH recently took on 13 apprentices, but more than 2,000 people requested application forms, over 1,000 returned and completed application forms, and 887 applications were acceptable.”
Director of Organisational Development, George Pashley explained: “Built into every contract is the requirement that for every £1 million spent contractors must take on at least 1 apprentice. This is our response to the national drive to provide greater opportunities for apprenticeship learning and encourage contractors to take more ownership of training and development.”
The initiative has not gone unnoticed at a national level. A spokesperson for DBIS said: “We commend UCATT, Nottingham City Homes and Nottingham City Council for their commitment and leadership in providing apprenticeship opportunities through their innovative “one in a million “scheme. This is a great example of what can be done in local areas by using the leverage of procurement to provide work and training opportunities to local people. We would strongly encourage more local authorities, working with local partners such as trade unions to explore how they can create apprenticeship opportunities through their procurement and planning processes.”
As well as the apprentices taken on through the One in Million scheme, NCH’s housing maintenance service is also committed to taking on 10 apprentices a year. The repairs and maintenance team - which includes 2 young women – has won the Association For Public Service Excellence (APSE) National Apprentice of Year award three times. It currently has 23 apprentices, many who come from the local area and from very diverse backgrounds, including young Black and Minority Ethnic, female and disabled workers. More than 60 current employees came through the apprenticeship scheme originally and are now fully qualified operatives.
Learning & Development Officer and Apprentice and Trainee Co-ordinator, Ian Richardson says “NCH does have a lot of outreach work with young BME and disabled people, and young women. They have access to courses run by Nottingham City Council, local colleges and organisations including schools and Remploy. With the support from ULRs, we let them know what is on offer and give advice on filling in application forms before we advertise the apprenticeships. We are about to advertise 10 craft apprenticeships and, for the first time, 10 business and administration apprenticeships.”
Neal Hodkinson explains why NCH apprenticeships are so popular:
“The National Agreement sets down reasonable terms and conditions, but NCH have improved on these. There is good support in place, with recognition for trades people involved in mentoring the apprentices and bringing them on, so they don’t lose out financially. It means that people are fully protected and the apprentices get the best possible assistance”.
