Innovation Exchange

What is the problem you are working to solve?

Existing services are failing to deliver the outcomes vulnerable young care leavers require. It is during the transitional period from school to work that young care leavers are most vulnerable as their poor academic attainment, lack of work experience and low self-esteem puts them at a disadvantage in the labour market, meaning they struggle to get a job and are often likely to end up in long-term unemployment. KibbleWorks will help some of Scotland’s most troubled and troublesome young care leavers who have a complex and acute mix of social, emotional, educational and behavioural problems. The needs of these young people can only be met through a sustained period of intensive support.

ow are you going to do it?

KibbleWorks is the enterprise and employment hub of Kibble, Scotland’s specialist center for young people at risk. A cluster of small businesses offers real training and real employment for young care leavers where a young person works alongside an Enterprise Co-ordinator (an adult experienced and trained in their trade and in child and youth care) on a 1:1 or 1:2 adult/trainee ratio. Since 2005, KibbleWorks has grown and developed, our model has received increasing attention (nationally and internationally) and we are now ready to embark on the next phase. Four key areas have been identified for expansion which we believe will offer the most appropriate opportunities and meet the needs of the widest range of young people. These are Warehousing and Distribution (including an e-Bay activity in partnership with Auction Inn, and recycling on the New Start Highland model) Catering, Mechanics (on the FST SMaRT model) and Construction in partnership with Youthbuild International. KibbleWorks will act as a springboard to further education, further training or employment. Occasionally it may lead to permanent employment in one of the KibbleWorks enterprises. Our aim is to provide an indispensable transitions service, which will offer advice, training and employment support to young people who have left care but are finding it difficult to make the transition to independent adulthood.

Who will benefit?

This project will provide support to care leavers aged 16-18 who have left the system and find themselves unable to cope, in other words, they are out of care and nowhere. Displaying a complex range of social, emotional, educational and behavioural problems, they are among the most difficult adolescent males in Scotland and are furthest from the labour market. As care leavers, the young people supported through this project will not be financed by their respective local authorities. They will have left care and found themselves without support from family and without access to resources, training, or experience and not ready to embark on independence, and so require additional support. This project will provide a period of structure and stability through employment training with access to a range of transitional support services, allowing care leavers to make a successful transition to independence – whether they have attended Kibble or been in care elsewhere.