Positive move ...every step

DOING us proud . . . Tim Mitchell

MARTYN METS... Tim Mitchell, chief executive of Positive Steps
TRYING to pin down Tim Mitchell is akin to chasing shadows or capturing smoke... he’s such a busy bloke.

I finally caught up with the guy who runs the Oldham Careers Service Partnership, now a charitable trust, after two years of trying.

He’s a lovely bloke is our Tim, everyone knows him, everyone gets on with him. He has that air of a fatherly, friendly figure. It’s a persona he cultivates, I’m sure, because he’s also a shrewd cookie — a man who has helped the careers service come through some major changes and massive funding issues and it not only survives but thrives.

I had collared this elusive Yorkshireman in the Blue Cross sale department at Debenhams, spotted him looking for a new pully, and bullied him into meeting me for coffee.

He did try to wriggle out of it, suggesting that he had “some big news” down the line that would make a great story and perhaps we should wait.

“When will this big story break?” I persisted while the big man — he’s 6ft 2in — had his back to the rows of garments and couldn’t see an escape route.

“November,” he replied with alacrity.

“No chance!” I said - and so it came to pass that we finally sat down to chronicle the life and times of man who has hightailed it from the Yorkshire Dales and is now firmly ensconced in Oldham life. Or, to be more specific, Moorside.

He will never lose his love of his home county, and nor should he, but he is one of us now and we should embrace this amiable, ambling sometime musician — he was a bass guitarist for eight years in a band called The Intervention — who has helped transform the careers and therefore life prospects of hundreds - probably many more - Oldham youngsters and more recently adults, following changes in the service to which he has dedicated all his adult life.

Tim (58) and approaching a time in life when professional people begin to think about being 60. Not that he’s contemplating retirement; he’s just aware he won’t be working forever.

In 2010, Positive Steps, as the Oldham Careers Service Partnership was branded, employed 260 staff.

Within months of the new Coalition Government arriving that number was slashed to 150 - but the same level of service was demanded.

“We had to change,” he said matter-of-factly, but with an underlying sense of the frustrations he clearly felt. “We had to become more selective, we had to prioritise. We could no longer speak to every young person looking for a job or advice on a career. We had to focus our attention, skills and expertise on those who needed the most help.”

Tim had always known he wanted to work with people, but it was all a bit blurred at the edges, there was no real structure to his ambition.

His father Eric got his son to talk to his company’s personnel office - who in turn introduced Tim to his drinking buddy, who happened to be the head of the careers service... and so was launched a career that has led to Oldham and the gratitude of thousands.

This was in 1974, the year of far-reaching local government reorganisation. Tim had a choice of working in Batley or Huddersfield and chose the latter because he could catch the same bus as his dad.

Before leaving the White Rose county he worked his way up the ranks and recalls working in what he calls the “comedy villages”, Cleckheaton, Heckmondwike and Liversidge.

Ambition kicked in when he saw an advert for a team leader working in Oldham with the legendary Tony Temple MBE.

The rest is a story of determination and progression which saw Tim play his part as the Oldham Careers Service went through a huge metamorphosis. There was a groundbreaking initiative which saw the service combine with the now defunct Oldham Training and Enterprise Council.

The Youth Justice Service was one of many that had a synergy with the aims and aspirations of Connexions, now Positive Steps and the youth of Oldham had an unrivalled service thanks to the vision of people like Tony Temple, former council chief executive Andrew Kilburn and former council officers Gwylfor Evans and Chris Berry.

But it’s all changed now. Tim and his dedicated team strive to better the lives of young people across the borough — but have to target that group of people who find it most difficult to get a job.

“We worked with schools to identify the youngsters with truancy issues, or were struggling with studies.”

All this was being attempted against a background of government policy that was based on two priorities: cuts and reductions. For years the service was heavily reliant on Oldham Council funding, but this couldn’t continue in the current climate.

Connexions, as the service had become, also began to lose external funding. In 2012 the service was in crisis.

Today, under Tim’s bold leadership and with the efforts of the staff who survived that chilling cull, the service is thriving. There is an acceptance that things will never be the same again, but that’s life in every professional sphere.

But the staff numbers are back up 180 and, who knows, when the November story breaks, what will happen then?

The Oldham service has won contracts in Tameside and Rochdale, it’s all competitive tendering these days, and Oldham is up for grabs in 2015, so watch this space.