END PROJECT REPORT
Project Title:Project Reference:
RIEP Work stream
Report Author:
Date:
End project Report Purpose
The purpose of this report is to:
· Review the Project using the PID as a baseline comparing the planned project to the actual, delivered project, and determine what has not gone to plan and the impact of this.
· Ensure that the lessons learnt from the project have been captured, reviewed and disseminated.
· Provide assurance that all risks, issues have been closed or transferred.
· Confirm that hand over actions have been agreed.
· Articulate the position with regard to draw down of RIEP funding.
· Confirm that the project is on track to meet the desired outcomes and set a post project implementation review date.
How to Use this Document
This document contains a series of different questions which are designed to compare what the project actually achieved against what was originally planned. The questions will also capture what went well and how this learning can be shared more widely.
Any text in italics provides further guidance to help answer questions.
Please answer questions as fully as possible. Most sections will be relevant to all projects but there might be some exceptions. If you are in doubt, please contact your Programme Manager to discuss.
Table of Contents
Page
1 End Project Report History 3
1.1 Revision History
1.2 Approvals
2 Background 3
3 Reasons for closure 4
4 Project Performance 4
5 Risk analysis 5
6 Lessons Learnt 5
7 Post-Project Review 6
1 End Project Report History
1.1 Revision History
Revision date / Previous revision date / Summary of Changes / Changes markedFirst issue
1.2 Approvals
This document requires the following approvals.
Internal (Local Authority) Approval
Name / Signature / Title / Date of Issue / VersionLisa Smart / Project Manager
Angela Ashdown / Project Sponsor
SW RIEP Approval (Sign off to be managed by RIEP Programme Manager)
Name / Signature / Title / Date of Issue / VersionProgramme Manager
Programme Board
SMT
2 Background
· What were the original goals, objectives, and success criteria? (Your original PID should help with this information).
Listening and responding to the business community in Swindon to deliver a responsive service which at the same time makes a real impact on reducing numbers of unemployed young people in Swindon.
The Plan 500 objective was to create 500 opportunities for young people (aged 16-24) in Swindon which included these specific aims:
· 150 work experience opportunities
· 150 Apprenticeship opportunities
· 100 opportunities to receive business mentor support
· 50 work based qualifications
· 50 school Diploma links to business
Ultimately, the project has sought to enhance capacity and expertise within Forward Swindon Ltd’s Economic Development team, Jobcentre Plus, NAS, Colleges and other local public sector agencies to lead the skills and Worklessness agenda.
3 Reasons for closure
The project is being closed as it has achieved the project objectives and deliverables as evidenced by the outcomes in the table below:
Employers EOI / Opportunities createdMentoring (100) / 67 / 82
Apprenticeships (150) / 43 / 149
Work Experience (150) / 67 / 181
Work Based Qualifications (50) / 8 / 44
Diploma support to schools (50) / 10 / 47
Total / 195 / 503
4 Project Performance
· State the original aim of the project:
The Plan 500 objective was to create 500 opportunities for young people (aged 16-24) in Swindon which included these specific aims:
· 150 work experience opportunities
· 150 Apprenticeship opportunities
· 100 opportunities to receive business mentor support
· 50 work based qualifications
· 50 school Diploma links to business
· Did the project achieve what it set out to? Was it successful? If not, why and what elements weren’t successful? What is the impact of this?
Yes, this project has set out to do what it was intended to do as measured by the achievement of the targets. However, as can be identified in the above table where some specific targets over achieved, the elements of work based qualifications and Diploma support to schools did not reach their indicative target aim.
Work based qualifications – this target was originally included in the overall project objective when Train to Gain funding was available and when Business Link advisers would have been able to promote this aspect to employers. The aim was to encourage employers to understand the benefits of continuing to train their young staff to improve productivity and for young people to improve their career prospects in the longer term.
As a primary consequence of the demise of Train to Gain funding, trying to encourage employers to engage in continuing to educate their young staff has been difficult. However, in the longer term an opportunity has arisen with the fact that Swindon is a pilot area for the Raising the Participation Age (RPA) trials and therefore employers that would have previously been targeted for Train to Gain funding are through this activity being identified to provide information on the employer responsibilities (when employing young people up to the age of 18) as and when the new legislation is introduced in 2013.
Diploma – As of September 2011 the Diploma in schools is no longer an entitlement. Therefore, in preparation for this change a large majority of schools will no longer be delivering it as a qualification and so engagement has been limited.
Milestones Performance
How did the project perform against its forecast timescales. Complete the following table to illustrate how the milestones were delivered.
Key Milestone / Forecast date / Actual date / ImpactSSEP Conference / Feb 2011 / 10/02/11 / Creation of 60 opportunities
Business mentor training sessions / March 11
May 11
June 11 / 30/03/11
03/05/11
20/06/11 / 14 mentors trained
6 mentors trained
14 mentors trained
Collation of 30 individuals for the talent pool / 06/07/11 / 06/07/11 / 30 collated and 3 placed in jobs due to their HE qualification
Mid term review / 31/03/11 / 11/05/11 / 240 opportunities created
Employer and stakeholder event / 29/06/11 / 29/06/11 / 200+ opportunities created, due to pre and post event publicity
Project Closure and evaluation / 31/07/11 / 30/09/11 / Opportunity to fully evaluate results
Financial Performance
Overall Project Budget: £31,000
RIEP Allocation: £31,000
Actual Spend to date: £36,316
Reasons for variance: Additional funding received from a third party to cover actual spend.
RIEP Funding Outstanding to be Claimed: £16,000
Date any outstanding RIEP Funding will be Claimed: 26/08/2011
Outputs
Was the output deliveredOn time / To agreed quality / Within budget
List each output delivered
e.g. new finance system / √ / √ / X
Enhanced capacity and support for the Swindon Backing Young Swindon Board / ü / ü / ü
Report on the effectiveness of Plan 500 / To be completed: 30/09/11 / ü / ü
Collation of case studies / ü / ü / ü
Outcomes
· List the outcomes that can be assessed at this stage. (Others will be assessed at the Post Project Implementation Review).
· What benefits have been achieved?
1. Single Employer Gateway: To date 2 meetings have been held with partners and stakeholders (21/03/11 and 10/08/11) to discuss the concept of developing Plan 500 to a Jobcentre Plus led all age service for employers including co-location arrangements where appropriate. Discussions are still ongoing.
2. Alignment of resources: Discussions are taking place with Forward Swindon and Swindon Borough Council linked to the recent Swindon and Wiltshire LEP announcement on utilising the knowledge and experience of the Plan 500 activity to maximise how reduced schools funding for work experience and leading on employment and skills issues can be effectively combined for value for money.
3. Coordinated engagement amongst public sector partners and with businesses: Strongly linked to the above, discussions are taking place as to the succession planning of the Backing Young Swindon Board to extend the performance improvements. It has been noted by the Forward Swindon Board that the Plan 500 activity has achieved value for money, identified by the achievement of targets, support from the local media and growing recognition from both public sector partners and the Swindon Strategic Economic Partnership that Plan 500 achieves own and partner results (i.e. through business mentoring activity).
· Is the project on track to deliver the remaining planned outcomes? If not, why not? What is the impact of this to the RIEP priorities?
Utilising the processes that have been successfully established and improving the areas that were not so successful as identified in the final evaluation report will act as a foundation towards delivering the employment and skills agenda of the LEP.
5 Risk Analysis
Closing Project Risk Register / Handing over open risks
· Are all the Risks identified on the Risk Register/Log/Template closed? Y/N
· For those that are not, have owners been identified actions to manage into the future? Y/N NA
· Have those risks that may affect the operational use of the outputs been articulated? Y/N NA
Assessment of risk capture
· Did any risks arise that had not been captured? If yes, why? What was the impact?
A high risk that was originally identified included the loss of continuity within the project due to SBC service restructure. However, the seconded SBC staff members’ contract was extended until the end of September which has ensured continuity until the project close. Although the Backing Young Swindon Board will retain an understanding of the whole of the project activity, the ‘project memory’ will be lost when the project manager leaves the organisation at the end of September. This may pose a high risk to drawing on the project knowledge and experience when establishing the LEP structure and processes.
6 Lessons Learnt
· What went well?
Establishing a Board that was firmly led by the private sector and hiding the wiring of the involvement of the public sector. This made the concept easy to sell to employers as an idea developed by the private sector to meet the business needs of the private sector. Equally, for public sector officers that were tasked to deliver, it enabled a private sector mentality i.e. task identified by the Board, report back to next Board meeting with the result required. This cut out the sometimes overwhelming amount of meetings for meetings sake that the public sector can suffer from and demonstrated through actions the credibility of the Board as a results focused group.
· What did not go so well?
At the beginning of the activity there was a pressure to get the project going and to achieve targets as quickly as possible. This meant that each of the processes for the 5 stands were not tested and trialled as they should have been (and would have been if a commercial product). This, combined with the original project manager then leaving the project, meant that all aspects of the project did not operate, progress could not be reported and a general impression permeated various meetings that Plan 500 was a failure. In December the new project manager was appointed, who took a fresh look at each of the 5 outcome strand processes in detail and adjusted them to make them fit for purpose. This included cancelling the original mentoring contract (as it had not delivered any of the targets to date) and engaging a new provider that designed the mentoring training activity to meet the needs of business personnel.
· What was lacking?
Initially and through the medium term of the project activity it was apparent that active support from the National Apprenticeship Service was difficult to integrate behind the Plan 500 logo event through they were a core member of the Board. This was identified as due to the fact that NAS being a national organisation had national branding that they were unwilling to give up. However, intervention was sought from the then Regional Director for NAS, who attended meetings with Forward Swindon to understand the partnership concept of all partners ‘hiding’ behind the one brand of Plan 500 – all partners still retained their targets. What was being offered was in reality additional opportunity for them to increase and improve their targets through a coordinated, cross – selling approach. For example, if NAS received a referral from Plan 500 and went to talk to an employer about Apprenticeships they could also utilise the time to talk to the employer about other work based qualifications, mentoring, or even work experience opportunities as well. Towards the end of the project activity, NAS fully participated with this concept.
· How have these been shared for the benefit of future or other projects or pieces of work within your Authority/Partnership?
Lessons learnt will be included in the final evaluation of Plan 500 at project closure. In addition, interim lessons learned have been included in the report on Worklessness for the DWP that was published on their website on the 9th June, as the Plan 500 activity has been used as a positive example of partnership working. This report can also be found on the Plan 500 section of the Forward Swindon website, and it is anticipated that the final evaluation report will also be posted there: www.forwardswindon.co.uk/Plan500