A4e's FND delivery

Moving back to FND, last Tuesday I visited A4e's FND delivery centres in Wolverhampton and Dudley to see how they've adapted to the new contract.

The Black Country approach

All of the FND offices in the Black Country are new, and have been designed especially for the programme. Most of A4e's staff in these offices are in fact from outside of the industry, and so have come not only into the organisation, but to FND with open minds. Regional Manager Tony strongly believes that having a fresh, invigorated team on board will help them continue to get good results for their customers. Tony has a lot of experience in the industry, involving helping run New Deal in the same area 2001-2005, and then in Yorkshire 2008-2009 before FND started in October.

A4e are finding the same as other providers, in that the expected flow of customers is around 50% down. However, this has allowed them to thoroughly test out all elements of the contract, and allow even more time for staff training than expected. Dudley's FND office is currently A4e's best performing in the country, and has actually managed to achieve this despite moving venue since FND started.

Streaming and parking

Customers are initially assessed using an online programme, which can either be done in the office during a session with their adviser, or even at home. After a more in depth assessment, individuals are then graded depended on how near to the job market they are, and Tony maintains that the key benefit from this is that internal streaming helps them to identify the best sort of approach to take with them and the length of time that people may require to be helped into work. This is very much necessary in regions like this, he says, as 42% of adults in the area have a numeracy need, and 39% a literacy need. Some people may take substantially longer to be anywhere near job ready, and so the streaming system helps highlight their needs. Tony feels that FND allows the time for providers to help people in the ways they see best fit.

Customers have to come in for the mandatory fortnightly face-to-face meeting with their adviser, and also have to partake in contractual 4 week work related activity. Nonetheless, A4e have found that people tend to come in more often than this, completely depending on what stage they are personally at. For example, if they have an interview coming up and need some extra support beforehand, then their adviser can fit them in. A more intense approach is taken with the harder to help customers. In fact, personalisation means that there are literally hundreds of different customer programmes or 'journeys'.

Interestingly, A4e's focus is on personal development as opposed to group work. This is because they don't feel that everyone gains from it equally, as the quieter customers may in fact take negatives away from being in a room with more boisterous characters. They intentionally place the focus on the individual.

Freedom and flexibility

A4e allows managers to try out different approaches in different offices, and works to learn from these trial periods. Due to the successes in this region, having already placed 28 people and currently being ahead of their job placement target, there has been interest in how A4e in this area are getting the good results they are in an attempt to learn from and replicate this elsewhere.

As with other contracts, customers on A4e's FND scheme can be helped with funding travel to interviews, hair cuts and suits, for example. Again, the list can vary, but the support is there.

The professional and appealing environment that the new offices have managed to cultivate have led to employers holding interviews there instead of at an external venue. This can also help provide a less imposing, more familiar environment for customers during their interviews. A4e work to place their customers with local companies where possible, and hold accounts with a number of local organisations.

A better deal for job seekers

This is in stark contrast with the rigid, much less appealing offices that were home to New Deal. Before, given the number of New Deal programmes running, there was some concern that people could even be started on the wrong programme, but now as tailoring is the focal point of FND, this issue has been largely resolved.

Tony believes that FND filled a much needed gap for a customer-led programme, involving tailored help for individual needs. The consistency that customers now have as they stay with the same adviser throughout helps develop a strong rapport and level of trust between them (all advisers see a whole range of customers along the job readiness spectrum). Advisers take the 'rights and responsibilities' light touch approach where possible, clearly setting out what the customer needs to do, and also what they will do for them in the meantime.

All in all, Tony sees FND as a better scheme than New Deal, which was beginning to feel as if it had run out of steam, especially when staff/customers knew FND was coming. Other positives include the increased levels of freedom that providers have, and the way that the programme now respects individuality much more than before. There is also the argument that New Deal was not always realistic about work, in that it was content to place people short term, which is not how full-time, long-term employment works for most in practice. FND is much more realistic in this sense, and focuses on sustained job outcomes, which Tony feels is a real step forward, and also encourages providers to keep improving the whole time.

Young Person's Guarantee

A question raised by some providers is whether the dividing lines will be clear as to which young people should be placed on FND, and which go onto YPG. However, Tony has found that Jobcentre Plus have been dealing with this very efficiently, and have been making full use of the different contracts, with most currently joining FJF. He also commented on the fact that A4e have a good, strong working relationship with both Jobcentre Plus and DWP locally.

Bigger picture

A particularly impressive element of Tony's guiding philosophy for the offices in his region is his focus on the bigger picture. He doesn't just see job outcomes as complete success in themselves, but as part of a larger need to help broaden people's horizons. Many of the young people Tony has worked with previously on New Deal are stuck in a cycle without many options. He hopes that the regeneration of the area will help this as the district grows.

He believes apprenticeships, and the development of key skills are vital to the encouragement of social mobility. Many people don't know about the availability of these programmes and training, and promoting them is where Jobcentre Plus, DWP, and providers have to step in.

Tony sees it as a real shame that skills may be lost as people are made redundant from slowing local and national industries, and wants to encourage people who are in this situation to help pass on these skills to others once in work. Their receptionist in Dudley worked in local glassworks for years before the industry slowed in the UK, and applied for the job with A4e after being one of their clients and wanting to share his experiences with others coming in for the first time.

The local presence that the organisation has, and the cycle that some have slipped into in the area, was further highlighted by seeing young people around Wolverhampton saying 'Hi' to Tony as he walked around because they'd already met him before with New Deal. He remains optimistic that FND will be able to help these people in a more long-lasting way.

Client base

As the customer flow has as of yet been relatively slow, there is a sense that the hardest to help have not necessarily reached the provider stage yet. Tony has seen a lot more job ready people needing help since the start of the recession, largely through redundancies, but does expect this to change back again over the next few months, as the job market improves again. Notably, he has seen that those who have been made redundant have more realistic expectations of what work and salary to expect as they re-enter employment, which can actually help make the process easier.

Star rating system

A4e are one of two providers in the area, which again raises the question of how customers will divide up after the star rating system kicks in, and providers are ranked against each other in terms of performance. As another 'choice district' it will be interesting to see how this will work in practice.