Employment

MS 1579/2/10

Employment

1976 - 2000

See also MS 1579/1/5/5 for records of the Fund Employment Panel.

Copyright: Barrow Cadbury Trust and others

Partially Closed (Data Protection Act)

Organisations involved: Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust, Paul S. Cadbury Trust, Barrow Cadbury Fund Ltd.

Previous titles and/or title variations: n/a.

Related grant categories: neighbourhood development; equal opportunities.

Dates of use: 1982/1983 to 1992/1993.

Cadbury Trusts grant subject filing reference number(s): 7.

The employment category was created out of the existing 'housing, land and community planning' heading in 1982/1983. This decision was taken in response to growing unemployment in the West Midlands. Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trustees felt that the problem was of such severity that an independent category was required to emphasise the importance of the subject. Employment grants were initially directed to agencies promoting employment in the region.

Ongoing employment grants that had previously formed part of the housing, land and community planning category were reassigned to 'employment'. A number of race relations grants with an employment focus were similarly reassigned. New employment projects were also included under this heading. The vast majority of employment grants were administered by the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust with non-charitable organisations paid through the Fund. By 1985/1986 all Paul S. Cadbury Trust employment grants had been transferred to the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust.

Employment projects were of great interest to Assistant Secretary Joe Montgomery. He was a strong advocate of expanding Trust activities in this area. A small loans scheme established early in the employment category's existence was expanded under Montgomery's leadership to support black entrepreneurs in the Birmingham area through the underwriting of small loans. Birmingham Loans Guarantee Consortium applications were considered by Fund Directors after being forwarded by mediating development agencies. The programme met with mixed success and by 1990/1991 the Trust began to shift its resources from underwriting loans to promoting training opportunities.

In addition to promoting black entrepreneurship in the Midlands employment grants also sought to advance international peace through the development of alternative technologies and products. The Trust viewed investment in this area as critical to reducing regional dependence on the defence industry for employment. In both of these areas the employment category evinces a degree of overlap between its activities and allied work in race relations and peace and international relations.

Most employment files were administered by Joe Montgomery or Eric Adams and are labelled using their respective filing reference systems. The preponderance of Montgomery's grant files are labelled in the following pattern: 'JM/I/1' to denote Joe Montgomery/the letter 'I'/the first of Montgomery's files from an organisation with a name beginning in 'I'. For Eric Adams a representative grant file label might read 'EA/7/89' to denote Eric Adams/Employment/Women's Equality Network, Coventry. It is worth noting that the number '7' continued to serve the dual purpose of denoting grants relating to town planning and urban development, the category that employment was created out of.

Expenditure on employment grants remained at a high level throughout the late 1980s until the category was eliminated as part of a general reorganisation of grant classifications prior to the merger of the Paul S. Cadbury Trust with the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust in 1994. It last appears as a separate category in the 1992/1993 annual report of the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust and the Barrow Cadbury Fund Ltd. Though commitment to this category was being heavily reduced by 1992/1993 it received the third highest expenditure of any grant category during 1991/1992. Following the merger of the trusts all remaining employment grants were allowed to run their course.