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This is the Business Village People podcast. Hello, I'm David Markwell and welcome to the Barnsley Business Village People Podcast. This is episode nine of series two. In this podcast, we showcase stories from the companies, service providers and staff at the Business Village in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. In this episode of Business Village People.

The Business Village has a strong working relationship with enterprising Barnsley. They provide business support to companies looking to expand, develop, and flourish, as well as guidance and help for new businesses. Paul Johnson is a key account manager. We'll be finding out from him. How enterprising Barnsley can help companies win.

But first, I'd like to introduce you to Capstone Foster Care, an independent fostering agency that supports hundreds of carers across England. One of their officers is based here at the Business Village. I've been along to have a chat with them. My name's Allison Dixon, and um, I'm a senior practitioner, uh, social worker, and I work for Capstone North.

It's a fostering agency. We're an, um, independent foster agency who are employee, employee owned. So a lot of our, um, business and our money goes back into, um, supporting foster carers and families. Lots of events for children and families. So we'll have like a celebration day. We'll celebrate Eid. For example, we have Christmas events.

We take the children to like Gulliver's or rather valley, the water park we've done in previous years. So it's basically we're, we're a small ho in Barnsley. It's a bigger organisation, Capstone North. But, um, we've got that kind of family feel. So how did Capstone begin? Began in 2009 as an independent foster agency, and then obviously it's evolved over the years and it's quite a big organization.

Well, it's become bigger, but like I say, we've got individual hubs. And we are based here in Barnsley Business Centre, but we've also got Hobson, Bradford and Hull in Manchester and also in the south of England. How, how do you fit into the picture? So basically we work with a wide variety of local authorities from all over the borough and, um, it can be as far as far away as, as say, Bristol down south.

And sometimes children move around for whatever reason. Um, so, so we work with all the local authorities and we receive referrals for children that need to be looked after and cared for. 'cause they're in, they're very vulnerable and they've been assessed by the courts to come into care. And I don't know if you're aware, but there's a national shortage of foster carers.

So, and, and I think as well since COVID and the Pandemic, a lot of the spare rooms that people had. That they need for fostering. 'cause they need to have their own bedroom. Um, they've been used for offices, so then that's created, um, a bit of a problem. And so nationally it's very difficult, um, for children to be placed in area.

So the area, so we, we try to kinda. Manage that and recruit foster carers, which every, every fostering agency and local authority is trying to do. What do you look for in a foster carer? Someone that's empathic, that's obviously got got, they need a spare room and a bedroom for a start. They have lots of training.

Um, we like them to be holistic and [00:04:00] therapeutic in the approach. And their approach to parenting. We look for skills. It, it could be that they've maybe been, um, teachers or support workers or possibly worked in the care sector themselves. Um, a lot of our foster carers are like kinda middle aged, or they could be in their fifties.

We also have some younger ones. And, and there's, it's a wide variety. Sometime we have short break foster carers, so they might just provide care for children on a weekend basis or for a week or just like on a short term basis. And then other short term carers could be, could be up to two years.

And if the child settles, then it goes to long term. So the skills we need is, is basically to accept these children as part of your family. That's what we're looking for. They get fully assessed. It's called a Form F assessment, and it basically goes through that person's whole life and any previous relationships or so we, so we look for any kinda strengths, vulnerabilities, uh, that doesn't kinda count them out.

It just depends. Um, obviously if they've got a criminal record for violence or something, then we wouldn't consider it. It just depends on the person. So it is like a really thorough assessment because we want to get the right people there. There are so many different kinds of fostering that you are looking for.

Yeah, and we also do parent and child as well. And that could be both parents and a child or children or one parent and that's, that's a different, but they need additional training to become a parent and child foster care. So, so it's quite, it's quite wide and varied really. The foster enroll and, and every year the foster carers get like an annual review.

They're assessed on a yearly basis. And, um, there's basically the team around the child. So it's not like any other [00:06:00] employment, if you like, that the class is self-employed. Um, and they get lots of support. Like I say, lots of training. We have fostering support, uh, meetings. They have monthly supervision with the supervising social worker.

So foster carers have their own. So social worker. I've been looking at your website and there's some lovely stories on there, and one story that stood out to me, which again, is something that. I'd never thought of. Uh, it is a service that you provide to unaccompanied asylum seekers and there's a story on there, em, EM'S story.

How do you provide the support for asylum seekers, unaccompanied asylum seekers who might not even speak English? Well, that can be a challenge in itself, and obviously we work closely with. Local authorities and, uh, interpreters if it's needed. Um, it might be that some foster carers speak more than one language, so they, they might [00:07:00] have, they might have the same language as the asylum seeker, so that's helpful.

But if not, we use interpreters and we work with local authority. We look at community and how we can integrate them into. Um, society with, you know, with all the trauma and everything that, that, that brings with being asylum seeker. So how did you get into working in fostering? I started off working with teenagers for 10 years, which was interesting.

I really enjoyed it actually. Doing what? Uh, working with young people that were leaving care, uh, 16 plus. So basically the age, the age group was from 16 to 21. And I worked in for, for children for, for 10 years. And then I decided to have a change of direction and looked at, um, fostering. And I've been in fostering social work since 2011 till present date basically.

And I really enjoy it. Did you ever think you'd become a social worker? No, not initially. Uh, what did [00:08:00] you want to be when you left school? I didn't really think about it actually 'cause it was, obviously I'm a woman of a certain generation. I kinda left school and um, went with some friends to work in the Channel Islands for a summer and ended up staying for about 15 years.

Um, and I worked initially in hotels 'cause there was lots of, um, restaurants and hotels and in Guernsey. And then I got into care with the elderly and did that for a while and then that sort of led me. Then I moved to England in 1992 and then I sort of was led down a different path and thinking. The quality of care for the elderly in comparison to the Channel Islands was very different, and so I, I decided to, to look in another direction and then decided to be a mature student and, and do some qualifications and got my degree and then it led me to social work.

What did you really want to be there when you left school? I knew I wanted to travel. So how did you end up in, in Guernsey [00:09:00] jersey? Well, I, I was working in a factory. I left school, I think it was three weeks before my 16th birthday. But they paid me off the books 'cause they did back then and, and then they put me on, on the books obviously as soon as I, uh, my 16th birthday.

And then there was, there was some, some friends, uh, that worked beside and they were saying, oh, we're up. We're, um, we won't belong now. We'll be off to Sey Summer's starting. And I, I was like, oh, what are you doing? And just ask some questions. Oh, we're gonna be working in the hotels. And started asking some more questions.

I'm like, oh, I could do that. And they were going, you're too young. And I'm like, I'm old enough to work. Yeah. And it was literally one of those kinda spur of the moment I'm off. And I just went with them and, um, and I've not really looked back and, and I'm glad and I sort of left Scotland and it was much, much warmer in ey.

Hang on a minute. You're from Scotland? I never spotted that. Which, which, which part of Scotland You're from? All of it. Um, Stirlingshire, a little town called Deni, [00:10:00] which is seven mile from Sterling. So, and my accents kind of diluted, obviously, 'cause I've been, I've been diluted, I've been away longer than I've mm-hmm.

Than I lived there, if that makes sense. Yes, yes, yes, yes. So what's the situation like at the moment? Within the fostering sector? It's, it's really difficult because there's lots of children still coming into care, unfortunately, just because of the situations and there's not enough foster carers to go around.

So we're desperately trying, working really hard to try and recruit new foster carers, um, and from all walks of life and, and different age groups. And, and that goes, that can be, um, they can be single foster carers, they can be same gender couple. Um, heterosexual shows. It's, you know, if they meet the criteria and they fulfill everything we need them to fulfill within the assessment, then they'll be successful.

If anybody's listening to this [00:11:00] and is interested in becoming a foster carer, what should they do? Contact, um, look on the website. Have a look and have a look at the stories. Like you say, you dread some things yourself. And, um, the numbers and everything, emails are there and contact us, um, if you're, if you're interested.

'cause we really are trying hard to recruit. And how did you end up at the Business Village? We, we were initially in, um, Kenry, an area of Barnsley, but we've kinda outgrown that really. So we just wanted, um, it was me, Amy, from business support in Barnsley, and she's local, so she knows the area really well and she tells some good reports about it.

And we love it. It's really good. And everybody comes to visit. It's just very professional. There's a lovely wee bistro and everything, reception. Everybody's really friendly. And as you know, there's all different businesses, so we, we all kinda mix in well and, and just really like being here. [00:12:00] And what about yourself?

What's, what's lined up for the future? Well, I'm, I'm getting to that age, whereas I'm slowing down a bit and getting ready to retire. Oh, shut up.

But not for a few years yet. I'm, I'm looking at maybe, um, reducing my hours next year. Um, but I'm still pretty active and I've, I've just signed up for a Cycle to work scheme, um, the government initiative and, and through Capstone as well. That must be a hell of a ride from Scotland too. You. Well, I live in Costa Roham now, Costa Roham.

Lovely. Um, Alison, thank you for your time. It's been really interesting and I've, I, I'd tell anybody to go and have a look at your website 'cause there's so much to look at on it, uh, about what, what the services that provide and the store is just gone and, and. Read some of the stories. They're lovely.

Alison, thank you for your time. Thank you.[00:13:00]

Wherever your business is on its journey, enterprising Barnsley are here to provide guidance, help, and direction to achieve all the aims of your company. Paul Johnson is a key account manager. I spoke to him about how enterprising Barnsley can help companies win. It's the economic development arm of Barnsley Council, and it's our job to work with businesses that are looking to grow, expand, relocate, or invest in the borough of Barnsley.

We support businesses of all sizes from someone who is initially thinking of starting up a business. Right through to multinational global corporations and everyone in between. As a key account manager, what, what do you have to do? Yeah, so part of my role is working with businesses, as the name suggests.

We've identified some of the most strategically [00:14:00] important account management companies within the borough. So it's our job to work with them and to make sure everything's okay and to make sure they're here to stay within Barnes in the long term. So those companies have been identified as those ones.

That might be major employers or have a significant impact upon what the council's economic strategy is. So they might have a sectorial focus towards them. So my job is basically going out to see them, finding out what issues or challenges they have and to help keep them informed about what projects, grants, or initiatives that are available to make sure they on anything.

So how did you end up doing this job? Uh, if I'm being honest, by accident, I've always had a passion for businesses and economic development in general. I initially started off years and years ago, probably about 20 odd years ago as a project officer, and from now I've worked my way through at various levels of different parts of economic development, from project management and policy developments to researching.

And as time's gone on, I've slowly migrated into the [00:15:00] fact of thinking, well, actually, I know what the offer is to businesses. And some of the business development managers in the past have quite kindly said, you know, if you are interested, come out and have a look at them and see what the business is and see what it's like.

Get a bit more understanding about what businesses do. And from there, the spark really came and I thought, actually this will be a good career. You know, you get to meet people on a daily basis. You understand the companies a lot better, you understand their needs, and more importantly, what I benefit from it is to try and flip on its head.

So as a council, we've been very good in looking at developing programs and support over the years, but by working with the businesses, you get a fresh perspective. So whilst you, instead of being, I hate to use the word top down approach. You also must take a bottom up approach this time so you can quickly get to work with companies and identify what the trends and issues they have.

And we largely report that mostly before it comes out in the local or regional press. So, you know, we were picking things up about national insurance issues, how it's affecting confidence and how it'll [00:16:00] affect companies productivity. Way before it was in the b BBC news or anything like that. And we're seeing it on the ground level, which is good.

So having that personal touch and links with the companies. It's really one of the key things that really attracted me to it, if I'm being honest. You know, to get a bit more of a broader feeling and understanding behind the role. Have you got an example of a a, a business that you work with and what you've done for them?

Yeah, of course. Yeah, so my remit is key account management, but also having a slight focus on with investment as well. I'd say one of the best examples of that covers all of those activities altogether is a company called and Dell. They're based up at Dodo. So they relocated into Barnsley probably about three years ago, I'd say originally based in Huddersfield.

They do flood detections, uh, systems for the likes of houses of parliaments, water companies and individual local authorities up and down the country. They were constrained for growth where they were, they were looking at new [00:17:00] sites. Met their md uh, at the Fairway Pub of all places. 'cause that's what he wanted to be.

'cause he was viewing properties around there and it was his lunchtime and we got like a house on fire. It was brilliant. We just somehow, we just clicked altogether, even though there was a whacking great age difference between us. I'm not that young by the way, for people out there. And we just clicked.

And it was, it was 'cause they, they had been in a local authority where they haven't had this resource. So they didn't know what account management was and how it could benefit their business. So from the go set, we very quickly identified. What the business was, why it was moving, what it needed, and what support was available.

And obviously when you haven't had that type of interaction in the past, it's kind of like kids in a sweet shop and you're thinking, wow, there's quite a lot here. And like everything I, I'm on the assumption of, well, I was taught actually by previous account managers to say, give a company what they think they need to start with and then give them what they actually need after.

And that's a classic example of, [00:18:00] so obviously the incentives say you come into Barnsley, one of the best things we'd like to do is see if there's any grant support for you. You know, people, people's eyes light up at the thought of money, symbols, et cetera. And we talked about the grant support at the time through the business productivity grants that we've run within the council, the digitalization grants that we did previously, and that obviously was great, that ticked that box to start with.

Then once they were established here, set up, we then started looking at other support for them. So one of the key things that made them move across was part of the bottleneck issues that they had, didn't have enough production space or the storage system was right. So we said, right. One of the key things we can do is we can link you in with, at the time that we had some enterprise coaching support, but we linked him in with a lean manufacturing consultant that could look at their processes, procedures, their factory flows, look at support that was available.

And that was probably, that really opened their eyes to say, actually, you know, the support here in Barnsley, it is good [00:19:00] and it delivers with what they say and it's what the business needed at the time. Then on from there, you know, it was a general conversation. We meet probably three times a year just to review what the latest challenges are.

The support has been everything from looking at skills bank application for their existing workforce. So they have the right level of leadership and qualifications in there. Looking at innovation support. One of the project was an r and d project. They were looking to do, uh, whether they actually use this business center as a trial for one of their antennas, uh, where they triangulated out various points around the borough.

Really lovely business. It's great to see them grow and expand. What, what economic benefit does. Enterprising, but honestly brilliant to the town. You can, you can see it from many angles, really. One, one of the key things is obviously the mantra of if you bring businesses to the borough or you support businesses, the long-term benefits is improves their sustainability, their profitability, which means that they [00:20:00] can, uh, as an end result, potentially create new jobs.

Now, that's great for the residents of Barnsley because what that does is it means there is that opportunity for work, which obviously hasn't been the case over the years when there's been. The town's been affected numerous times by deindustrialization having a mono industry, and the fact that we're in a position now where we have such a much more broad and varied economy than we we've ever done, it really does allow the route to market for local residents the opportunity to look for jobs.

What it also does as well for this kind of like support programs that we have offered, it's allowed a lot more collaboration. So for instance, on Inwood investment side, when we are looking at attracting companies and bringing them into the borough. One of the questions is, is could we have a discussion with your purchasing manager or your supply chain person mainly to see, to say, well, the first thing you're gonna have to look at if you're looking at a new facility, might be racking, or it might be, what's your forklifts or who's your software provider?

That type of stuff. Or, what are you looking to do? [00:21:00] And to give those companies information on those companies in the local area that can provide that service. So they have a route to market to see who is available in the local area. Some support that we provided has been really beneficial, uh, through the likes of things like the business productivity group.

So that group, as a name suggests, it's all about improving productivity within businesses. There's probably a cohort of around about 30 to 40 businesses that meet once a month. They discuss various issues on productivity. They go to each other's, uh, facilities to learn best practice on implementing a type of productivity aspect that that one company's done that others are learning to do and vice versa.

So it's saving companies time and effort through kind of cutting the corners what others would've lost. Um, we add value also in terms of being that single point of contact 'cause we work for the council that comes with everything. It could be complaints about the traveling community when they pitch up [00:22:00] on site.

It could be support for planning applications. It could be when companies are in distress and might need a bit of help financially in terms of what can we do with the business rates as an incentive for them to help support them. Um, or it could be, um, what could we need to do in terms of looking at how the skill levels of what businesses have today and will need in the next five years, how it aligns with the education system, for instance.

So it's a mixture of, I guess, direct support and guidance to businesses, but at the same time being a critical helping friend. That supports a lot of other initiatives as well at the same time. So it really is kind of like a hybrid role. So that's one of the best things about this role. You never know what's gonna be in the inbox.

Paul, how can people get in contact with you if it, if they think that you are the man to sort their business out? First way would be through our enterprise advance websites. We do have links there to all of our key account managers and wider support. So any business that is [00:23:00] looking to overgrow, expand, invest.

What we do say is, before you even spend. Any money or think about spending any money, give us a call, drop us an email, target us on LinkedIn, whatever medium is best for you, have a word of us. We'll get back to you as quickly as possible and try and support you as quickly, quickly as we can. Um, our doors are always open, like I said earlier on.

We do work with companies at various stages. There is no wrong question a company can ask us. Um, we have the same conversations with someone who has just started the business. Um. Exactly for someone who has been trading for 30 years or is part of a group of companies, uh, that's a sub subary of a company from a, a global company from around the world.

Um, all that's different is the type of support that's available, and we will tell you what is available at that time to help you grow your business.[00:24:00]

Good morning, the Business Village, Holly speaking. How can I help upgrade your workspace and boost productivity at the Business Village? Our modern offices are designed to meet your needs from solo entrepreneurs to growing startups. You'll have access to high speed internet conference rooms. A bistro and a thriving business community with networking events, workshops, and collaboration opportunities.

Contact us today to schedule a talk call oh 1226249590. That's oh 1 2 2 6 2 4 9 5 9 0, and start your success story at the Business Village.

That's it for this edition of The Business Village People Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. If you want to find out more about the office rentals or the services available at the Business Village, please call oh one two two six [00:25:00] two four nine. Five nine. Oh. I'm David Markwell, and this is a Pod One creative audio production for the Bosley Business Village.

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