Archive
Barnardo’s is delighted to be part of the ‘All In Dundee’ Consortium. Gill Spalding, is our Employability Coordinator, on the Parental Employment Support programme, working with unemployed and employed parents (from low-income families) and their employers to enhance working parents’ skills; to help them to secure new opportunities/progress within the workplace; ultimately supporting parents and their families out of poverty, which is even more critical when we are now in a ‘cost of living’ crisis.
Employers will benefit from this programme, by being involved in upskilling their workforce, along with improving employee mental health and wellbeing. There can also be access, if needed, to an upskill fund to support any training/qualifications of value to the employee and employer if this will result in in-work progression. We also have access to unemployed parents who are work ready, so can also help to support with some of your recruitment requirements! We would love to hear from local employers to discuss your needs and how we can work together to upskill and add value to your workforce. PES Poster Aug 2026
You can read a case study highlighting a recent success of a parent moving into employment here.
We can be contacted at ann.naughton@barnardos.org.uk (Ann – 07562 436256) or gill.spalding@barnardos.org.uk (Gill – 07523803851) for more information.
Head To Work
Head To Work is a project which utilises a “youth work” approach to engaging 15–24-year-olds who are living in employment deprived areas, unemployed and at risk of offending/re-offending.
This project focuses on their:
- health and wellbeing
- building routines and confidence
- team work
- money management/financial fitness
- volunteering
- a project to suit their aspirations and interests.
Previous participants have been involved in gardening, graffiti art, dance, walking challenges, etc. and participants can also work towards a range of qualifications. e.g., SQA Money Management, Personal Development Award, etc.
by Donna Reilly; Project 2 Worker at Barnardo’s Works Tayside
Head2Work
Head2Work is a project which utilises a “youth work” approach to engaging 14-21 year-olds who are living in employment deprived areas, unemployed and at risk of offending/re-offending.
This project focuses on their:
- health and wellbeing
- building routines and confidence
- team work
- money management/financial fitness
- volunteering
- a project to suit their aspirations and interests.
Previous participants have been involved in gardening, graffiti art, dance, walking challenges, etc. and participants can also work towards a range of qualifications. e.g., SQA Money Management, Personal Development Award, etc.
For more information about Barnardo’s Works Tayside. Please visit our Dundee centre page.
Discovering Your Potential
Discovering Your Potential supports care experienced young people for up to a year to build their resilience and confidence, progress towards and successfully sustain their positive outcomes, e.g. further education, jobs or apprenticeships. Each young person is allocated a key worker who will provide ongoing support and signpost for specialist intervention as required.
Barnardo’s Works DYP Leaflet PDF
For more information about Barnardo’s Works Tayside. Please visit our Dundee, Angus and Perth & Kinross centre pages.
Introduction
Ana joined the Parental Employment Support Fund (PES) programme in March this year. She was referred to us as she had applied for an administrator role within our team but had been unsuccessful. She met with her employability coordinator discussed her circumstances.
Ana had moved 7 years ago to Scotland from Catalonia. She felt that in the 7 years she had been out of work that she had lost confidence and that her mental health had suffered during Covid-19. She also had never attended an interview in Scotland. Though Ana has a high level of English, she was very anxious about communicating at interviews.
Previously in Barcelona she had worked on many projects within children’s services with Save the Children, the Red Cross, and nurseries. Since coming to Scotland she had only worked on a self-employed freelance basis as a graphic designer and had also been volunteering in a charity shop.
Since having her children she had decided that she would like to work in an office-based role. Ana is a mum of 3 children and was looking to move back into work and regain a sense of identity out with “mum”.
Case Study
Ana built in confidence through her meetings with her employability coordinator. Through these meetings she was able to have opportunities to update her CV, discuss her skills experience and knowledge, talk through any worries, and be supported with regular job searches. Through this Ana also gained more confidence, motivation, and self-belief in herself.
When Ana felt prepared and able to start her job, she was booked on an information season at the job centre about the roles available at Social Security Scotland. After this she applied for one of these roles. She was supported through all 3 stages of the application process. This involved her being taught the STAR method and how she could use this within interviews. Ana passed Stage 1 and Stage 2, but sadly she was unsuccessful at the video interview stage. This was very disappointing to Ana. But due to the resilience and self-belief she had built due to her continuing to engage with her employability coordinator she was able to get straight back to her job search.
Ana was then informed by her employability coordinator of an open day at Embark. Ana went down to hand in her CV. Upon arriving at Embark she was informed that a candidate had not turned up for their interview so did she want an interview right now. This previously would have been something Ana would have not feel able to do. But due to all the training she had been undertaking she decided just to go for it. Ana completed the interview well, using the STAR method to formulate her answers. Later that day Ana was told that she had the job!
After PES
Since then, Ana has been receiving in work support from her employability coordinator to support her with the move in to work. She is doing amazingly. She says her journey with PES “felt very supportive” and that “Someone was with me; it wasn’t just me alone”
Jenny Stewart
Introduction
Young person’s event on the 6th of May 12-4 at Dudhope Park.
The aim of this event was to gather young people’s views on the Young Person’s Guarantee (YPG), what it means to them, and what their understanding is of it. We were keen as we come out of Covid and were able to work face to face to have an exciting and empowering day for our young people. The day was organised to show them that their views and opinions matter and that they can shape the future of how the Scottish government supports young people.
Activities
We wanted to create an event that gathers young people’s views and opinions ensuring inclusivity and full participation. We decided to ensure inclusivity that we will gather data in several ways to suit all our different learners:
Kinaesthetic
We organised activities to get our young people active and moving. We gathered data through a game of Rounders. During the game we asked young people questions at each base before they move on to next. We also organised a game of Corners. Young people were encouraged to go to the red corner if they feel the current YPG supports their aspirations.
Visual
We organised a large-scale art activity where we made a mural with the question “What does your future look like”. Young people were encouraged to use different materials to create images and words of what they want to achieve from the support of YPG.
Auditory
We planned a nail stall. It was planned that a young person would be doing nails along with the help of a young person and having informal conversations with young people around YPG to gather data.
For the young people that do not want to get their nails done but that would also like to give auditory data we planned a song writing workshop and a focus group.
Reading and Writing
For reading and writing we created an online survey that our young people could use anonymously in the run up to the event to share their views on YPG. This was easy read and made in such a way that we really allow for a depth of data from the young people and without leading their opinions or creating bias. We also offered sessions for young people who needed support to complete a form in the lead up to the event. We additionally had staff available to support with forms on the day and an anonymised suggestion box.
Other Activities
Most importantly we wanted this event to be fun for our young people! Our kickstart project worker took a lead on this and planned several activities. These included a scavenger hunt and a dance off. A photo booth with props was also planned to be used to film young people answering questions about YPG. We also played music throughout the day too. Additionally we ordered food for all staff and young people to enjoy together.
In terms of paperwork, we tried to keep this to an absolute minimum. We did this as it can be a barrier to participation for many of our young people. Additionally, to get a rich level of qualitative data, we required this event to be fully inclusive of all young people. We advertised this event by having informal conversations with our young people about what the YPG is and how they would like it to look.
Data Gathering and Common Themes
Overall we felt we had a fantastic event with lots of our young people participating. We managed to gather a wide variety of data. From analysing the data, we identified some common themes:
- Many young people felt supported by their Barnardo’s project worker’s. Young people would like more support with mental and physical health and/or disability. They would also like support from schools especially during 4th year. Other young people felt they would benefit from support from employers and the job centre
- Many young people were unaware of YPG other than through conversations with their project workers. They feel that schools and the job centre did not make them aware of YPG, what this is and how it affects them. They felt there was not advertising and information about YPG that they had seen.
- The main barriers identified by young people were Mental Health, Disability and Physical health. Also identified as barriers were living rurally and age. Many young people felt a barrier for themselves was not being supported by school when transitioning from school to post school activity.
- Young people would like more opportunities in “things they like” and “interesting” careers. Such as construction and childcare, more volunteering and work placement opportunities and practical experience.
We have then used this data to feed back to the Scottish government. We have also used the data gathered to inform our practise in terms of how we support our young people into positive destinations.
Jenny Stewart
🌟 GOOD NEWS STORY 🌟
Who doesn’t love a good news story and seeing our young people shine?! 🥰
MEET LEAH…
Leah began working with Barnardo’s at the end of 2019. She was struggling with her anxiety and lacked a lot of confidence and self-belief. Leah and I started to build a good relationship and I started to notice a positive change in her confidence. Then by March 2020 we were in lockdown.
Leah and I started to work virtually carrying out weekly sessions via zoom covering a variety of topics looking at building her confidence and working on her employability skills. Leah had applied for college and had been given a place on the waiting list, so this was good to have in place, but we did not know if a place would come up for college so continued to do some work looking for jobs too.
During this time, we applied for different jobs but often did not hear back. Leah continued to persevere with job searching and applications and her confidence continued to grow and grow. We completed lots interview prep, and I really believed Leah was ready to go and smash it! In August 2020, Leah attended an interview for Balgillo Nursery via zoom, which she felt had gone well.
Leah received a phone call the next day to be told she had been successful and that she had secured a Modern Apprenticeship!! All her hard work had paid off and I was so proud of how far she had come!
I have kept in touch with Leah since this time and she has gone from strength to strength. The feedback from the employer has always been excellent and Leah really is an asset to their team! Leah has just finished her qualification and is just totally thriving! I am so proud of her and all she has achieved!
We asked Leah how working with Barnardo’s had changed her life?
Leah said – “My time with Barnardo’s helped me so much with building my confidence. I feel being given the support I was given helped me to change my point of view and gave me the drive to believe I could achieve the things I has always wanted too. With Sarah’s friendly and encouraging support behind me I felt I could search and find the right path for me and I knew she was with me every step of the way believing in me. I am very thankful for the support I was given as I don’t think I would be where I am today without it. Thank you so much to Sarah and Barnardo’s for everything! “
WELL DONE LEAH 🥰🌟
Introduction
Duncan is a young person who was supported on our Fit For Work programme. They are non-Binary so I will refer to them as they/them throughout this case study.
Case Study
Duncan had worked with Barnardo’s previously. They disengaged from Education due to Covid-19 as they were struggling with the online learning of their college course they got back in touch with Barnardo’s. We felt that they were most suited for our Fit For Work programme where they attended 12 weeks of activities which included:
- Online sessions which gave them an opportunity to try out different online platforms such as Zoom. They even made a film entitled “zoom hell” online with the help of a local filmmaker. For the project, they wrote the script, filmed their individual parts of their phone and filmed online in a group session
- A mybank sessions, these sessions gave life skills in how to budget, different types of interest and the costs of running a home themselves. It also gave good advice of debt and who the young people could turn too. This was a certified qualification
- Walking sessions. Duncan took part in a walking challenge where the young people collectively walked the distance from Dundee to Aberdeen over several sessions. This helped to improve mental health and wellbeing and overall fitness as some of the young people in this group including Duncan were rarely leaving their house due to the lockdown the summer before.
After FFW
After Duncan had completed this programme, they were keen to still stay on with Barnardo’s. Duncan was interested in a career in CLD or social work. As such we decided he would come and volunteer with the next FFW group as he could share his lived experience with the new group. Duncan did amazingly in this group. We used a strength-based approach and incorporated creative art-based activities into this group which Duncan could lead on. This helped them grow in confidence and self-belief. Duncan also started to gain valuable skills that they could use on their personal statement for college.
At the end of the 12 weeks Duncan still required some support from Barnardo’s. During this time Duncan was successful with our support In getting a part time job in retail, this was amazing as it really helped to grow their confidence even more. As Duncan was care experience and was currently living in kinship care with his sister, we then registered Duncan with our Discover Your Potential programme which gave us the flexibility to give Duncan long term support, while on this programme, Duncan met with myself regularly. We applied for several college courses and Duncan received several offers before deciding on NC health and social care at Perth UHI.
Duncan has sustained college and is near the end of his course now, they even reached out and asked to do some of his college placement with Barnardo’s to help support other young people. They have now been given a conditional offer to study at university in London which Duncan is thrilled with.
Jenny Stewart
Explore & B’Leave
The Explore & B’Leave programme was developed in response to the covid-19 pandemic. It focuses on supporting young people aged 15-18 to make the transition from school to post-school activity; working on areas such as:
- self-esteem and confidence
- communication skills
- life skills, budgeting
- digital skills
and vocational activity such as:
- career mapping
- employer talks and visits
- college visits
- CV building
For more information about Barnardo’s Works Tayside. Please visit our Dundee, Angus and Perth & Kinross centre pages.
All In Dundee – Young Persons Employment Support
New programme, providing support to young people aged 15-24; focusing on an “end to end” delivery model with an all-stage approach to ensure streamlined and focused support.
Target Groups – Young People most at risk of leaving school and not participating / needing support to transition from school to post school activity; 16-19 year olds not in employment, education or training; 16-24 year olds requiring tailored and intensive support due to the following barriers: care experienced, caring responsibilities, mental health, low-level criminal record/offending history; long-term unemployed 16-24, inactive and most at risk of not progressing into a positive destination
All In Dundee – Dundee Employability Pathway
Barnardo’s Works supports young people 15-29 with mental health and physical health barriers/issues to enhance their employability and wellbeing to be ready to progress into a positive destination; focusing on an “end to end” delivery model with an all-stage approach to ensure streamlined and focused support.
All In Dundee – Parental Employment Support
Barnardo’s Works supports young unemployed and underemployed parents to enhance their skills and secure opportunities / progress within the workplace; ultimately supporting parents to lift their families out of poverty. We have access to a £900 upskill fund per parent to support achievement of training and qualifications.
AiD Leaflet
For more information on Barnardo’s Works Tayside, please visit our centre page.
