Community Fridges, Flexible Starts & Numeracy Support- How Blue Dolphin are Supporting Their Team Through Multiply

As part of the Multiply scheme, our Multiply partners are keen to engage with a range of businesses, big and small, to recalibrate how employers are thinking about recruitment, upskilling, and workplace support through a numerical lens.

In line with this employee/employer focus, one of our partners, Autism Plus, have been dropping into workplaces and leaving information on support available through the multiply programme with Keyworker, Charlotte Witty. Sessions include tips, tricks, and discussions of support surrounding budgeting, money management, improving energy efficiencies, debt management, household planning, running a home, support with the cost-of-living crisis, and help understanding those rising energy bills.

Following a conversation with Haven’s Blue Dolphin Caravan Park (situated on the cliffs of Filey), a couple of our team were invited along to the Blue Dolphin premises with Charlotte to discuss our Multiply Initiative, employer engagement, and how the Blue Dolphin team can support their employees through numeracy.

Charlotte first met and began working with Blue Dolphin several years ago on our former Thriving at Work (TAW) programme, a scheme supporting those with disabilities, mental health difficulties & neuro-differences to sustain employment and thrive in the workplace. Inducting two new members of the team, Soren & Georgia at the time, (both with a diagnosis of Autism), Blue Dolphin’s Heather Wilkinson & Angela Bland were keen to bring Charlotte in for advice on how to best support their new colleagues navigate their roles. (You can learn more about how Blue Dolphin supported Soren & Georgia on TAW here.)

[From left to right, Dawn, Georgia, Angela, Charlotte, Soren]

A couple of years down the line, and whilst Soren has since moved on and returned to her pharmaceutical roots, Georgia is still thriving at Blue Dolphin, and the team are doing an increasingly fantastic job at supporting their team and embedding workplace inclusivity into everything they do.

Being flexible with shift patterns to suit individual team’s needs (whether that’s starting later or finishing early for a school run), to working start times around public transport, to senior leadership mucking in with the caravan cleaning whenever the need arises- the Blue Dolphin team are already a proactive, supportive employer. In recent months,  even introducing a £1 raffle, where proceeds go towards filling the employee fridge and pantry- a real help for those struggling to juggle their finances.

Looking to find new and practical ways to support their team, (and having maintained a strong relationship following the end of TAW), Charlotte and Heather are now working together to embed Multiply into the support on offer at Blue Dolphin.

Charlotte’s aim is to build upon these person-centred practices and the strong sense of community already in place, but from a different perspective- introducing maths into the mix. She’ll be working with individual members of Heather’s team to support them in their daily lives with development opportunities, money mastery, and practical numeracy, whether that’s reducing the need to access paycheques early via pay-stream (for some members of the team), or simply shifting the fear surrounding numeracy.

A big thank you to the Blue Dolphin team for inviting us along for the day, and best of luck for the season ahead!

Are you an employer looking for innovative ways to support your staff team? Contact Christine Brass, Multiply Manager for more information:

cbrass@betterconnect.org.uk // 01423 795306 or ext 2014