With young people in our provision, getting the correct advice quickly is important

My Life Project support young people aged 16-25 who have lived in care. They offer accommodation and life skill courses, building the independence and confidence of care leavers.

Karen, a Project Manager at the centre, explains how Peninsula helps her team deal with complex HR cases.

My Life Project is a big organisation.

With just over 100 young people living in their care, it requires 60 fulltime staff – including seven other project managers like Karen.

As the organisation grew, their previous HR provider was unable to deliver the level of support the management team needed. The old provider was just one individual, and couldn’t keep up with the amount or complexity of their queries.

Plus, they were only available during the daytime – despite staff working overnight. This meant, if a project manager ran into an HR issue during a night shift, they couldn’t reach out for support.

For My Life Project, a fast turnaround on HR advice is essential.

With young and vulnerable people in their care, it’s important that managers are able to deal with certain issues swiftly.

For example, as staff are responsible for the safety of young people, it’s important to address severe mental health issues – to avoid it impacting the care they provide.

So, My Life Project switched to Peninsula for speedy and reliable HR support.

Peninsula have a large team of employment law consultants, available 24/7 – every day of the year. That means there’s always someone ready to provide expert support, day or night.

Now, every project manager has unlimited access to Peninsula’s HR support. Karen describes how this has helped her organisation.

Karen finds Peninsula’s level of employment law expertise particularly useful.

It helps her identify areas of risk she wouldn’t otherwise know to avoid.

For example, one employee started to display harmful behaviour towards other colleagues. As this related to a mental health condition, Peninsula advised Karen to treat the case differently – as the employee had protected characteristics.

As this increases the risk of a discrimination claim, Peninsula guided Karen through a safer way to manage the issue. This involved providing workplace adjustments and looking into medical notes.

Now, Karen knows that her staff are treated fairly – while her residents are safe in their care.

It’s just one of the ways Peninsula supports My Life Project in delivering safe and risk-free management.