What would be different as a result of these Programme Design changes?

Partners may be starting from a situation where:

• The service delivery emphasis is on activity rather than engagement with priority groups and retention and real progression in the labour market;
• Funding reflects these priorities;
• Funding remains in silos driven by targets for one organisation rather than the region as a whole;
• Procurement reflects a largely passive tendering culture (with an emphasis on accountability and blame avoidance) rather than an active purchasing system (with an emphasis on responsibility and getting results);
• The delivery infrastructure has some poor performers who do not add value;
• Transitions between some providers for some clients are poorer than they should be; and
• Information and management systems do not readily allow for rapid identification of problems (or opportunities) making it hard for an overview to be taken and for actions to be taken to benefit the workless client.
   

Their aim may be to reach a position where:

• More resources are shifted into engagement, retention and in-work progression whilst spending relatively less on employability service activity.  If, for example, 15% is spent on engagement and 15% on retention/aftercare, with 70% on activities.  This could change to a ratio of 25/50/25 over two years;
• Funding streams are aligned so that they all contribute to the end objective of sustainable employment for the identified key client groups;
• A supply of providers has been created and managed with longer term contracts within the FPA framework in return for strong provider performance;
• Through review and evaluation reducing the number of under-performing organisations and re-investing these resources into engagement and retention;
• Using effective case management and common client tracking and reporting systems to enable clients to efficiently move through the support system towards a job; and

• Creating an information system for managing employability provision in the region that can be shared by all the partners and reduce the need to gather the same information from workless clients several times by several different providers.

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