Public Sector Case Studies

Public Sector Case Studies

Turning Tees Valley Connexions into a social purpose company

The challenge

In 2006, Connexions Tees Valley was a successful not-for-profit business owned by the five Local Authorities of the Tees Valley. The Connexions service was a diverse business which had successfully built its portfolio to deliver a number of other contracts as well as the core funded £8.5m Department for Education and Skills contract. In line with the changes made by central Government in 2006, a decision was made to disaggregate the company back into the five local authorities.

The team managing the contracts were passionate about delivering a quality and innovative service to young people and enjoyed the freedoms and flexibilities that being in an arms length company afforded them. For this reason the senior management team decided that they would find a new way forward. As a first step, they worked with the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and gained agreement to novate the LSC contracts to a new host.

What we did

A4e offered the team the opportunity to continue and grow its work as part of a social purpose company. Through word of mouth, existing contacts and a local advert the team ran a formal process to find a new host, one that would support the aims they had of supporting young people and offering new and innovative solutions to young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs). After a careful selection process which involved the staff, Connexions Board and the LSC, A4e was chosen as the preferred new host. A4e stood out for the management team because of its social purpose ethos. In October 2006, Connexions transferred over 50 staff via TUPE into A4e and in January 2007 a further contract for the Education Business Partnership (EBP) followed with an additional ten staff. This remains the only EBP to sit in a private company.

Today, the former Connexions team is at the heart of a thriving and growing A4e Education and Enterprise division. The partnership between the management team’s passion and hard work, and A4e’s commitment to innovation has led to the creation and growth of a new division that offers a range of solutions which support young people. The focus of A4e Education and Enterprise is to improve young people’s lives. For example, A4e has established a number of Vox Centres across the country which provide alternative education opportunities for young people who are at risk of exclusion.

Since launching the new division with contracts valued at £2m per annum, A4e has invested in resources and people and today it has a turnover of over £5m and is still growing strongly.

Advising the FSA and Treasury on the design of a money guidance service

The challenge

The Thoresen Review of generic financial advice set out recommendations on designing a national approach to deliver "Money Guidance", formerly described as generic financial advice (GFA). The aim is to help people tackle their money worries and make informed financial decisions, whether to avoid debt problems, cope with a change in circumstances, or prepare for the future. The challenge was to evaluate the effectiveness of the concept and models proposed before committing to either large scale pilots or a national roll-out.

What we did

A4e designed and implemented an initial pilot programme to help the review team to understand what a national Money Guidance service might look like and how it could be delivered. This meant testing a range of ideas and hypotheses in order to produce an evidence base from which a national advice service could be designed.

The pilot was successful in providing a proof of concept and the Moneymadeclear service was launched on 14 April 2009. The service can be accessed online, by calling a helpline and, in the North West and North East of England, people can also get face-to-face advice through regional partner organisations and charities.

Moneymadeclear will test the blueprint for the national 'money guidance' service and A4e is taking forward the work it did to prove the concept in the initial pilot through its involvement with the North West pathfinder.

The £12m pathfinder aims to reach up to 750,000 people in the North West and the North East of England by spring 2010 and is being delivered by the FSA in partnership with the Treasury.

Designing a new marketing strategy for the Learning and Skills Council

The challenge

The Learning and Skills Council introduced the Invest in Skills initiative in 2002. The objective was to encourage employers to raise the skill levels of their employees by providing both subsidies and access to relevant training providers. Take up amongst the target audience was low (in its first year of operation only around 1% of the £40m training fund was spent) and the programme was at risk of failure. The challenge was to raise the profile of Invest in Skills and encourage active participation in the scheme by eligible employers.

What we did

When A4e assumed management of the programme it designed and implemented a new marketing strategy designed to raise the profile of the scheme with two key audiences: training providers and employers. We also made it easier for employers to identify the training that was right for them, by setting up a back office administration service capable of handling enquiries, and streamlined the procurement and contracting process, to make it as straightforward as possible for employers to engage training providers.

The success with the Invest in Skills programme led the Learning and Skills Council to ask A4e also to manage the Train to Gain budget on its behalf.

Over five years, A4e engaged 6,500 employers in skills training; engaged 68,000 learners in training and workforce development; and enabled 24,000 learners to gain a new qualification.