Birmingham Anchor Network and Loconomy
The Birmingham Anchor Network was brought together by the Centre for Local Economic Studies (CLES) in 2019 with a grant from the Trust. Subsequently it has become self-funding and Anchor Network members have committed to partnership working until at least 2029. It currently has six members: Aston University, Birmingham City Council, Bourneville Village Trust, the Pioneer Group, University of Birmingham and NHS University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
The Network uses the principles of Community Wealth Building to maximise the contribution of their budgets, physical assets and employment on the local economy. One of its flagship projects, seed-funded by the Trust, is I Can. I Can inspired a radical redesign of recruitment to entry level jobs in the NHS Foundation Trust from a skills-based to a values-based approach. 550 previously unemployed people have found jobs with a further 250 in or awaiting training. The new workforce is much more diverse in terms of age, disability, geography and ethnicity and the retention rate is impressive: 97% in the second half of 2023. The I Can project has been floated off into a new entity, Loconomy, which will be looking at how the approach can be replicated in other sectors.
550 previously unemployed people have found jobs with a further 250 in or awaiting training. The new workforce is much more diverse in terms of age, disability, geography and ethnicity and the retention rate is impressive: 97% in the second half of 2023. The I Can project has been floated off into a new entity, Loconomy, which will be looking at how the approach can be replicated in other sectors.
