latest news 

As a community construction charity, PHASES needs to keep abreast of any changes in policy which might impact our affordable housing projects. As a training organisation, we’re conscious that our courses need to reflect industry needs, so that our trainees have reelvant skills. As a social enterprise, we’re busy finding ways to share best practice and to be more effective.  Here’s what we’ve been doing lately to keep up to date in the fast-paced construction sector.

APRIL 2021 – PHASES TRAINING WORKSHOP OPEN AGAIN

We are pleased to confirm that, following the easing of lockdown restrictions, our construction training workshop in Rotherhithe is open again following a four-month closure. A bit of a backlog has built up but an initial new cohort of five trainees has now started. If you want to refer anyone who is currently or recently homeless, then drop an email to Stuart@phases.org.uk for more details.

FEBRUARY 2021 – EQUIP FUNDING FOR OUR WORKSHOP

PHASES has recently secured funding through the EQUIP Programme. This a joint European Social Fund and Employment and Skills Funding Agency programme of grants to community-based organisations to improve the employability of participants. The funding will cover the costs of our training workshop for the next 18 months and enable us to work with 30 homeless people from across London, improving their construction skills and helping them into further training and work opportunities.

NOVEMBER 2020 – CONSTRUCTION BUDDY UPDATE

It’s been a challenging year for our new recruitment project – Construction Buddy. Early on in 2020, we signed up an initial cohort of recruits for the service and since then we’ve been working hard behind the scenes: getting employers on board; finalising the infrastructure for Construction Buddy; and making our first placements. If the pandemic allows, we’ll be pushing this exciting project forward in 2021.

AUGUST 2020 – PHASES IN THE BIG ISSUE

The Big Issue magazine runs a feature this month on the Government’s plans to enable developers to convert office space into residential accommodation, without the need for planning permission. Our Chief Executive gives his views on how a large programme to build social housing would be a great boost for construction and could provide opportunities for PHASES’ trainees.

JUNE 2020 – EMPTY HOMES TOOLKIT

PHASES has been working with the national campaigning charity, Action on Empty Homes, on the design of a ‘toolkit’ for use by communities and local authorities to help tackle empty homes. PHASES is part of a small ‘reference group’ feeding in our experience, particularly in relation to the situation in London. A first draft of the toolkit has been approved for further review. For more on this see https://www.actiononemptyhomes.org/blog/developing-new-aeh-community-toolkit

APRIL 2020 – IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON OUR SERVICES

Unsurprisingly, the lockdown is having a major impact on our services. Our workshop in Rotherhithe is a compact space and we were forced to close our training activities there in March. That is likely to remain the case for some months. Our Construction Buddy recruitment project has also been affected due to the disruption faced by the construction industry. Work with candidates and employers for that project is on hold for the moment but planning for this new service continues. Meanwhile, we continue to provide maintenance and support services to our tenants; within government guidelines.

FEBRUARY 2020 – NEW RECRUITS

Over twenty candidates have now signed up for our Construction Buddy recruitment pilot. These are a combination of former trainees and new recruits. We’ll be bringing you some of their stories in the near future. Meanwhile, the next couple of months will see the launch of dedicated webpages to support Construction Buddy and we’ll be starting our drive to enlist as many construction industry employers as possible to offer opportunities to our candidates. So if you are a large, medium or small firm that might be able to offer work, apprenticeships or any other opportunity in the construction field, please contact ertan@phases.org.uk

December 2019 – LATEST ON CONSTRUCTION BUDDY

We have now spoken with over thirty homeless organisations across London to introduce our new recruitment project ‘Construction Buddy’. We’ve visited a number of these organisations and as well as discussing future referrals to the project, we’ve also received really useful feedback on the design of Construction Buddy.  The next stage of this one-year pilot will focus on the recruitment of our initial cohort of candidates. If you want to speak about any aspect of the project please contact ertan@phases.org.uk

NOVEMBER 2019 – CALLING ON CONSTRUCTION EMPLOYERS

Our recruitment project ‘Construction Buddy’ embarks on its next stage from November, focussing its efforts on employers within the construction industry. If you are a large corporate enterprise or a Small Medium Enterprise (SME) involved in any aspect of construction, and can offer an apprenticeship or a paid job to one of our candidates, please contact ertan@phases.org.uk

SEPTEMBER 2019 – PREPARING FOR CONSTRUCTION BUDDY

Preparations for our new recruit agency-type project ‘Construction Buddy’ start in earnest this month. Ertan Nazim is a new member of our team who will drive forward the pilot. He will be contacting homeless organisations across London for referrals to join our existing cohort of candidates. If you are interested in referring someone onto the Construction Buddy programme, please contact ertan@phases.org.uk

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