Bid Manager Working Links Samantha Naumowicz Personal Employment Accounts

About Working Links 2 Established in 2000 to support unemployed and disadvantaged individuals into lasting employment. Unique mix of government, private and voluntary sector ownership. To date, we’ve worked with over 15,000 employers and helped more than 250,000 people back into work.

Official data shows underperformance with the ESA customer group across all providers. Current engagement and outcome rates suggest existing models need to work more effectively for this customer group. Funding for all employment support programmes is expected to decrease overall – even more for even less. Innovation is essential! The challenge

Evidence from the health and social care arena has shown that Personal Budgets can succeed Our data shows differing results across different conditions, and our customers show a range of different challenges Widespread political interest in the concept – but there has been relatively little testing of it. Engagement with experts suggested the concept of ownership and self sufficiency had the potential to both motivate customers and help them adjust more quickly to the world of work. Opportunity to test a true customer led model Why Personal Accounts?

The pilot will be delivered to 100 ESA customers referred to our Swansea office Each customer will be assigned a virtual budget with which they can ‘purchase’ provision Comparison data will be collected on a control group of 100 ESA customers referred to our Bridgend office The project will run for nine months, with all 100 pilot customers enrolled within the first three months The project

The customer journey Induction Assessment Approval of provision Purchase of provision One to one Personal Development workshop Access provision In work support Job entry Return to mainstream WP Fortnightly calls Monthly one to ones

Online automated system – with regular consultant contact and the opportunity to request additional one to one support. Purchasing provision

We are only one month in to the pilot so outcome results are limited but feedback from the customers signed up to the pilot so far is positive: ‘I have been motivated to do courses within Working Links and outside’ ‘I am interested in the courses because I can manage them myself, I feel like my goal isn’t so far away’ ‘I was shocked how easy it was to get on courses and start working towards a career’ To measure our pilot we are capturing a range of data including: Job entry / job outcome rates Provision requested Changes in attitudes to work / our provision The results

Looking ahead: why innovate? Context There will be less money for all employment and skills programmes So need to ensure more than ever that every £ is well used Evidence-based innovation Way to do that is through evidence-based innovation Effective use of data & constant innovation: test, learn, adapt Outward facing We don’t have all the answers, keen to hear from those with ideas