Families Unlimited

A Partnership between A4e and Gill Strachan Limited

Supporting DWP Prime Contractors to deliver effective, efficient family support

A4e and Gill Strachan Limited have entered into an innovative joint venture – Families Unlimited - to deliver new services that support the United Kingdom’s most disadvantaged families. Families Unlimited brings together two market leaders, combining their expertise to create a new offer that helps families build sustainable lifestyles and move out of poverty.

How Families Unlimited can support Prime Contractors

Families Unlimited offer DWP Prime Contractors a unique opportunity to win new business and deliver outcomes for families with complex needs. DWP has advised Prime Contractors of their intention to procure new services to support families with complex needs into work through the Employment and Related Support Services Framework. These services will be funded through the European Social Fund, with procurement expected to occur in mid-2011. This represents a significant opportunity for those on the Framework to generate a new income source in an area of high priority for Government.

A4e will not bid as a Prime Contractor for these services due to a conflict of interest arising from the work of its founder and Chairman, Emma Harrison, through the Working Families Everywhere initiative. However, DWP have advised that no conflict arises where A4e is acting as a subcontractor.

Risks to Prime Contractors

Few Prime Contractors will have specialist experience in delivering services to families who present with significant levels of need. As such, the new programme is likely to contain a number of risks for Prime Contractors, particularly, as it is expected that the programme will be largely, if not entirely, outcome funded.

Complexity of family needs: it is anticipated that the families accessing this new programme will be those who are most heavily reliant on Government funded services, overlapping in many cases with those who are participating in Family Intervention Projects, or similar. For these families worklessness is just one, often small, dimension of the issues they face. E.g. Of the family’s participating in Family Intervention Projects to March 2010 the following key issues were identified:

  • Family functioning – 68% have poor parenting skills, 31% experiencing marriage, relationship or family breakdown, 29% domestic violence and 28% child protection issues
  • Crime and anti-social behaviour – 82% have engaged in anti-social behaviour, 36% have had contact with the criminal justice system
  • Health – 33% face issues associated with mental health, drug and alcohol misuse.
  • Education and employment – 65% of families have no adult member in employment, education or training, 60% had at least one child with problems at school (e.g. truancy, exclusion).

Department of Education, “Monitoring and Evaluation of Family Interventions”, May 2011

The nature of these barriers will require expertise not readily available within the existing employment related services workforce, and create particular risks around safeguarding and duty of care for vulnerable adults.

Relationships with Local Authorities: it is expected that LAs Children’s Services and Adult Social Care departments will act as the primary referral mechanism into the programme and that providers will be required to work closely with key LA services and new programmes arising from Community Budgets. The success of the programme is, for this reason, highly contingent on LAs and their staff having confidence in the Prime Contractor’s ability to support these families and the work they are already doing. Stand alone services who struggle to access local universal, targeted and specialist services are unlikely to achieve the outcomes required. Without a close involvement with local services there is also a significant risk of duplication driving up delivery costs.

Lack of direct delivery experience with families: family-based approaches to addressing worklessness are relatively new to the UK market, minimising Prime Contractors’ opportunity to develop and test relevant delivery models, or drive innovation. This makes it difficult for Prime Contractors to accurately forecast outcomes and delivery costs related to the programme.

Understanding of existing provision: given the complexity of needs these families present with, the vast majority will be engaged with a plethora of agencies and services. Typically these families have a history of contact with substance misuse treatment services, mental health services for children or their parents, safeguarding services, education welfare services, housing associations, the police and community wardens, Youth Offending Teams, PCTs and community health services. In order to deliver a truly efficient and effective service, providers of ESF funded family support will need to have an in-depth understanding of these services, and the ability and credibility to work effectively alongside them to wrap services around each family.

What Families Unlimited can offer Prime Contractors

Families Unlimited offer Prime Contractors significant benefits that will support them both in winning these new contracts and delivering the outcomes to make these contracts financially viable:

  • Credibility with DWP, Local Authorities and local strategic partners
  • Proven and unparalleled track record of achieving positive outcomes for families with multiple needs
  • Robust, scalable and flexible delivery models, built on a strong evidence base
  • Existing relationships with key delivery partners and more than 10,000 employers across the UK
  • An existing supply chain of more than 700 subcontractors, many relevant to the delivery of family support
  • In-depth understanding of existing provision and policy in respect of services for families, including the role of statutory Children’s Services, and how new programmes can be aligned
  • Expertise in safeguarding arrangements and associated risk assessments.

Support Options

There are two options for Prime Contractors to be supported by Families Unlimited:

  1. End-to-end delivery
  2. Specialist support services

This approach provides Prime Contractors with the flexibility to develop a tailored solution, relevant to their internal expertise and infrastructure, and the needs of local families. A4e and Gill Strachan Limited would welcome the opportunity to meet

1. End-to-end delivery

This option would see Families Unlimited take responsibility for managing each family’s journey from referral through to outcome. In this option Families Unlimited will:

  • share the financial risk with the Prime Contractor, working on an outcome-funded basis, where this is part of the contractual funding arrangements
  • operate within a defined geographical area, either the whole or part of the CPA. Note: it is preferred that this service is CPA-wide to allow Families Unlimited to achieve economies of scale
  • incorporate key family-based innovations including those outlined at 2. Specialist Support Services (below)
  • use their own supply chain to buy in complementary support services where these are needed. E.g. support for substance misuse, mental health issues etc
  • manage and coordinate the relationship with key stakeholders, including Local Authorities, engaging them in a multi-agency approach to ensure a joined-up service
  • align complementary A4e support services in the local area, where applicable. E.g. Work Programme, skills delivery, Money Advice and Community Legal Advice
  • provide access to out of hours “rapid response” services through our National Services Centre
  • maintain accurate, thorough records of each family’s progress, including identifying cost savings to Government (central and local) as a result of support, where possible
  • work with stakeholders to develop innovative pilots and services (e.g. use of personalised budgets and volunteers) that respond to local needs and priorities
  • support the Prime Contractor in its bid preparation through A4e’s Business Development function, where required.

Families Unlimited will finalise its solution on release of the Invitation to Tender incorporating the key features central to our approach:

  • “whole family” support that recognises the interconnectedness of the barriers faced by individual family members
  • holistic services that address the total needs of the family, regardless of their nature
  • multi-agency working and systemic approach to ensure services are coordinated, seamless and efficient
  • an assertive keyworker model, engaging with families in a variety of settings, including the home
  • tailored services that recognise the specific nature of each family’s needs
  • creating opportunities for workless families through targeted employer engagement and enterprise solutions
  • promoting family resilience and sustainable solutions by building on each family’s strength and capacity to make good decisions, manage stress and effectively support each other.

Importantly, Families Unlimited recognises that the needs of families will vary from location to location, and will work with Prime Contractors, Local Authorities, and our partners to develop a locally relevant solution.

2. Specialist Support Services

In this option the Prime Contractor would retain responsibility for management of the family’s journey end-to-end, buying in specialist services to support their delivery from Families Unlimited. These services have been designed by A4e and GSL to complement existing support services families are likely to be engaged in, including parenting support, FIPs and employment related services (e.g. Work Programme). This allows Prime Contractors to utilise their own expertise, while still drawing on the innovative new approaches and specialist skills of Families Unlimited. Services would generally be purchased on a “fee for service” basis, however, Families Unlimited are willing to explore alternative funding arrangements that tie services to their efficacy, particularly for higher volumes. Families Unlimited can offer a number of discreet specialist support services that complement the anticipated requirements of the new programme:

Service Type / Description
Specialist assessment and case planning / Families Unlimited have developed an integrated whole family and employment assessment and support planning tool that assesses whole family needs and supports agency delivery to meet agreed outcomes. Families Unlimited can act as a specialist assessor, using this model to identify, prioritise, deliver and coordinate the family’s support needs and make recommendations on specialist interventions using our understanding of complementary provision in the locality. This may occur at the outset of service, as part of a case review process or regularly throughout the family’s time in service. Importantly, Families Unlimited will engage other relevant agencies supporting the family in the assessment and planning process.
Motivation, work attitudes, confidence and resilience / Families Unlimited offers a flexible package of services designed to help whole families develop:
  • insight into how they collectively and individually:
  • value their ambitions and aspirations
  • increase their activities towards gaining training, education, volunteering and work placement opportunities and paid employment
  • make a positive contribution to the local community and understand how family culture influences their attitudes towards gaining economic independence
  • confidence in their ability to work and learn
  • resilience to withstand negative influences and situations.
Our package includes group workshops, activities and family coaching sessions. This package can be tailored to meet each family’s needs and ensure maximum benefit.
Goal setting and job search / Families Unlimited offer a broad range of goal setting and job search activities that can be tailored to support each family. A key focus of our family goal setting and job search activities is building aspirations and creating a positive familial support network that can help family members in their job search. E.g. we encourage younger family members to coach their parents in using the internet.
Work experience / Families Unlimited are working with our existing network of 10,000 employers to establish a new work experience programme for workless families. This programme will give families a unique and innovative opportunity to receive whole family support whilst collectively experiencing a new working lifestyle in which aspiration and work ethic is a normal feature. This provides the family with a chance to see the benefits of work whilst being supported to build capacity and develop strategies to address any issues that are likely to arise if one or more family members enter work. Throughout the process Families Unlimited will work intensively with the families to identify and trouble-shoot issues that arise, and ensure each family member builds a better understanding of the benefits of education, training, volunteering, work placement and paid employment opportunities.
Life skills support / Families Unlimited can provide a range of workshops and family or individual support sessions designed to develop the resilience and life skills most commonly needed amongst families with multiple problems including:
  • Conflict resolution
  • Effective communication
  • Effective decision making
  • Healthy lifestyles and relationships
  • Stress management and coping strategies
As part of our life skills support, Families Unlimited will identify and coordinate the provision of specialist support services addressing, for example, domestic violence, substance and alcohol misuse, offending behaviour, anti-social behaviour, and poor parenting. These can be delivered flexibly to one or multiple families over single or multiple sessions, and in a range of settings. Life skills support may also include, upon negotiation, access to a flexible, holistic “rapid response” service, through our National Services Centre.
Employment skills support / A4e has extensive experience in the provision of vocational skills support to both adults and children, including children excluded from school. Families Unlimited can offer a range of packages to build transferable skills (e.g. time management), more specific vocational skills (e.g. retail), and apprenticeships. This may be delivered via A4e’s innovative Vox Centres; purpose-built vocational training centres that provide formal training and hands-on experience in work-like environments, or through a specialist family skills team integrated into local whole family and employment services. Importantly, our delivery will fully engage the learner’s family in the process through family meetings and open days to ensure they are supported and focussed. Parents will be shown how to effectively support their children’s learning in the home, and children can support their parents to develop their skills in key areas (e.g. IT skills). This strategy has proven particularly effective in our vocational training for children excluded from school.
Family enterprise / A4e’s Enterprise division has been highly successful in supporting the unemployed to start a business, with 95% of A4e entrepreneurs successfully trading to 13 weeks, and 80% to 26 weeks. Families Unlimited are developing a new family-focussed enterprise offer that drives the creation of new Family Enterprises. These enterprises will engage the whole family in self-employment, helping to family to create their own trade, and a network of “staff” that ensure the enterprise’s ongoing success.

Families Unlimited are also willing to work with Prime Contractors to develop bespoke specialist support services that map to their existing service models, where required.

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