Social Value in Construction

ESL have joined forces with the Council’s planning team to change the city planning rules so that all major developers have to produce a robust employment and skills plan – at construction and also end use phase. Developers also pay into a levy fund which enables us to cover the cost of our Building Bristol Co-ordinator, Donna Woodland, who oversee these plans and helps link developers with schools, training and employment support providers.

In September, Donna organised a fantastic ‘Social Value in Construction’ event in City Hall – 30 delegates were invited and 38 attended. This included employers, training providers, third sector partners and a number of BCC teams (Regeneration, Economic Development, Volunteering & Social Action).

The feedback and follow up actions from this event are so very impressive:

• 3 school career visits have been arranged – including with local primary schools
• Donna has had a follow up meeting with Sir Robert McAlpine who are building the new Bristol University building at Temple Quarter – linking them up with On Site and key employment and skills partners
• Meetings are arranged with the Restore Trust and a developer to run employment courses for local residents in January
• Reconstruct (ex offender programme) has been linked with a developer to host an employment event
• Linking up the Black South West Network with a developer that is building in St Pauls.

All this activity is helping us to link Building Bristol with core ESL services – with Bristol WORKS, On Site, Talent Pathway and the One Front Door. This includes 101 new construction apprentices this year alone. Building Bristol – such an important partnership that just keeps on giving!