Tag: cost benefit

Worklessness Co-Design

DWP have worked with local authorities, Jobcentre Plus and local partners in five areas to develop Co-Design Pilots, testing new solutions in tackling worklessness – in a world where local authorities are had to rethink their role, given much reduced resources and the advent of the Work Programme and Community Budgets. The pilots were in Birmingham, Bradford, Lewisham, South Tyneside and Swindon. New ways of working variously related to, eg, working with families; Jobcentre Plus outreach; key workers; personal budgets; social enterprise for employability; and employer engagement; and a youth employment campaign. On behalf of Local Government Improvement and Development – since absorbed within the Local Government Association, we supported the pilots and wider dissemination. We set out to:
  • bring together knowledge and learning from the pilots and parallel developments in other parts of the country
  • signpost relevant tools, research and evidence, eg, on customer insight, cost-benefit, and service design and innovation
  • highlighting policy developments which are shaping the future terrain
Resources from this work are available for download:
  • Customer insight and worklessness: recent contributions to knowledge, evidence and techniques relating to the needs and experiences of customers of worklessness services.
  • Cost benefit and value for money resources: materials designed to assist partners in assessing financial costs and benefits in planning and commissioning, business case preparation, evaluation, and so on. It goes beyond ‘worklessness’ in including relevant content on children and young people, health and crime reduction which matter when looking at wider social returns and potential savings to the public purse.
  • Evaluation checklist for worklessness co-design: a set of questions, developed for the  pilots to help them build in evaluation from the outset (content linked to the appendix in DWP’s interim report which provides a ‘light touch’ cost-benefit framework
  • Worklessness co-design pilots: what’s been tried elsewhere?: a briefing on local ‘pilots’ in other parts of the country that have used structured approaches to innovation. These include initiatives stemming from Total Place and programmes such as Family Intervention projects, Drug System Change and Child Poverty Pathfinders which explore similar themes and challenges.
  • Tools for worklessness co-design: signposts to tools supporting collaborative planning and commissioning, customer insight and behaviour change, and service redesign and innovation.
The final DWP Co-design report drew out achievements, lessons and next steps. It also included case studies on each of the pilots, a checklist for local authorities on working with JCP and Work Programme contractors, and an outline of what JCP bring to the partnership table.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.educe.co.uk/?p=272

Neighbourhood Management: Costs & Benefits

Project scoping work needed to analyse the impacts, financial costs and benefits of neighbourhood management initiatives in Barnsley, to provide evidence for decision makers considering the introduction of neighbourhood management approaches in other areas. The project sought to generate better shared understanding of available data and gaps in evidence, and what needs to be done to address these. It built on initial business case work undertaken by the Kendray Neighbourhood Management pathfinder, and looked to integrate current evaluation thinking with developments in pursuit of the local government efficiency agenda. (Neighbourhood Renewal Adviser assignment for Barnsley Council and the Government Office for Yorkshire and the Humber)Download:

The assignment informed the subsequent development of a new Neighbourhoods and Community Engagement Framework, which mainstreamed the work of the Kendray neighbourhood management pathfinder.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.educe.co.uk/?p=189

Value for money & neighbourhood management

This project sought to inform work in Barnsley to analyse the impacts, costs and benefits of neighbourhood management, focusing especially on financial aspects of ‘cost benefit’. It broke new ground, and contributed to related work as part of the National Neighbourhood Management Evaluation. The level of interest in the work was such that the Government Office Yorkshire and the Humber (who commissioned the original assignment with Barnsley Council and the Kendray Initiative) asked us to produce a case study and guide for wider use. The project also featured as part of the National Neighbourhood Management Network autumn conference 2008.Download:
* Neighbourhood Management Cost Benefit guide (pdficon_small 452KB)
* Kendray case study (pdficon_small 141KB)
* report to the Kendray Initiative (pdficon_small 460KB)
* presentation, with Ian Smith, Kendray Neighbourhood Manager, to the National Neighbourhood Management Network conference, October 2008 (pdficon_small 714KB)
The assignment subsequently informed the development of a new Neighbourhoods and Community Engagement Framework, which mainstreamed the work of the Kendray neighbourhood management pathfinder.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.educe.co.uk/?p=222

Kickstart development

Kickstart Norfolk: evidence of jobs and accessibility needs in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire

Project investigating needs amongst disadvantaged people for moped loan and work-based learning, service impact, and potential to develop Kickstart across Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk. This included consideration of cost benefit evidence and arguments. Kickstart is a well-established project, helping to overcome travel barriers to employment and training, especially – but not exclusively – aimed at young people in rural areas.Kickstart have since won several £m in contracts, assisting nearly 3,000 people into jobs or training in the process.

Report available for download ( 1783KB).

Permanent link to this article: https://www.educe.co.uk/?p=166