vcs assist payment by results workshop - slides
TRANSCRIPT
Payment by Results Survival Guide
Nicky Robertson-Peek, 3SC
Steve White, VCS Assist
Introduction
Payments By Results
Work Programme
The future e.g. Transforming Rehabilitation/WorkChoice/WP2
Market share shift
End loaded contracts
The Third Sector is traditionally better at providing bespoke services and individual support that promotes sustainability with so called “disadvantaged groups”
With the right platforms, processes and planning the Third Sector will ALWAYS be better than the private sector at delivering sustainability because they PUT THE CUSTOMER FIRST!
Payment by Results Five Main Problem Areas
Areas we will cover:
Finance and Forecasting
Caseloading and RAG rating/Staff Resource
Employer Engagement
Sustainability
Quality and Compliance
Financing and ForecastingTroubleshooting
Issues:
Contract Profiles v performance
Delivery to meet Contract Compliance (not getting thrown out of supply chain)
Level of Deficit against profiles
Delivery to meet organisational financial needs (more than contract minimums)
What is realistic to achieve?
PBR Cash flow
0 Time
Cash
Financing and Forecasting
Issues:
Current Conversion Rates
Case loads too high? Too many staff?
Throwing money at problems and poor performance
Lack of accurate output forecasting for cash flow
Unable to return contract due to punitive penalties
Overgenerous resourcing
Been put on performance improvement by Prime (Breach)
Solutions: Finance and Forecasting
Cost/benefit analysis of overall contract value for next 6 months
Design Flight Path forecasting for each year.
Regular checks of unclaimed output opportunities
Cut out resource waste and duplication i.e. premises, staffing, resources
Exploit double funding opportunities i.e. with other partner courses with REDs
Viability of Contracts through overall improved performance in all areas.
Solutions: Finance and ForecastingFlight Path Diagram
Flightpath 2.xlsx
Caseloading and RAG rating
Most people can’t RAG rate properly
Which effects everything from forecasting to assignment to wrong staff
Ineffective employer engagement
Distance from Labour Market
Costs
RevenuesX
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
RED Amber Green
Profile of RAG Rated Clients
RED – extensive barriers to overcome to enter employment, lots of support needed, low self confidence, no employability skills
Areas:CV’sEmployability TrainingBasic Skills Training
AMBER - Need motivating, some employability skills, previous employment skills, some interview skills, recently gained skills qualifications
Areas:Interview TrainingCV’s
GREEN – Motivated, keen to work, self-confident, employability skills, ready for interview
Areas:Arranged InterviewsMock InterviewsMaximise Confidence
Exercise 1 : RAG Rate example Clients
RED
Amber
Green
Operational RAG Rating
Highly unlikely to find employment in the life of the contract
Core caseload Sliding scale
Likely to find employment quickly with minimal support
Employment Advisor Profile:
Team qualities/skills;• Empathy, compassion personal experience of related barriers (disability/addiction/homelessness/criminal record/debt)• Sales/target driven/bonuses• Graduate – no experience in W2W (articulate/good communication skills/creative) –some organisations have made this their model for staffing• Commercial recruitment background• Trainer/tutor• Older – diverse employment history• Volunteers (how do we use them?/could be any of the above)• Mentors - (how do we use them?/could be any of the above)• Who does In-work support calls?• Administrators (how are they used/ what are their skills? • Any of the above?)
Staff Resource
Issues:
Division of case loads does not reflect staff skills
Lack of output targeting set for staff
Unrealistic panic targeting against staff skills
Culture shift and team dynamics
Problems with TUPE staff
Lack of Accountability of poor performers.
Lack of effective supervision
Solutions: Staff Personal ActionPlanning
100% Buy-in by staff to the contract (collaborative Flight Path)
Effective Targeting. Do you have team targets or/and individual targets?
How are those targets communicated (competitions, team boards etc)
What sanctions are you prepared to impose on poor performance?
Solutions: Staff Resource
Perform team skills analysis and individual staff review
Examine Case Load and link to identified skills set
Set clear challenging realistic targets for all team members
Develop individual staff work plan and support through effective supervision.
Effect staff buy-in through accountability (wake up call)
Instigate regular staff performance meetings. (channelling what works)
Channelling whatever works with team dynamic
Put in place effective supervision structure with both rewards (incentives) and consequences for non performance within the team dynamic
Break up cliques, of poor performers and effect proper inductions of TUPE staff.
Employer Engagement
Issues:
Lack of dedicated member of staff
Lack of skills in sales and employer engagement
Wasting resource on unrealistic jobs opportunities
Lack of communication between advisors and employer engagement staff
Lack of understanding of case load potential or limitations
Organisation working in isolation within local labour market.
Solutions: Employer Engagement
Identify or recruit most suitable member of staff to dedicated post.
Examine the caseload’s skills and aspirations for unrealistic expectations within local labour market
Partner with other organisations to maximise replicable vacancies
Working with other organisations fulfil employer vacancies
Regular team meetings to discuss employer engagement and interventions re caseload
Essential investment in Employer Engagement Post or Training.
Sustainability
Issues:
Lack of resource for contract
Pressure of short term performance targets affecting long term contractual compliance resulting in job dropout etc through lack of proper job matching.
Excessive pressure on staff to perform to meet short term gains.
Organisation at high financial risk due to poor performance
Performance slippage after short term bursts of crisis management of contracts.
Solutions: Sustainability
Embed monitoring systems and tracking to ensure monthly targets are met.
Higher success will generate more income to meet resource demands.
Ongoing analysis of good practice and what works to evolve, up skill and develop competencies to meet contract targets.
Effective forecasting to ensure long term goals and targets are met.
Proper support to staff to ensure development of skills and aid delivery.
Building up a network of suppliers, employers, complementary agencies to ensure delivery of outputs.
Quality and Compliance
Issues:
Contracts in breach due failing audits/quality/compliance
Over or under resourcing of quality systems to meet compliance
Lack of staff buy-in and commitment to contract quality issues
Huge risk in terms of illegality through fraud due to lack of internal audits, and checks.
Solutions: Quality and Compliance
Designate a quality compliance champion within the organisation to monitor and ensure contract quality and compliance standards are met.
Ensure that minimum quality standards are met and reduce administrative burden on organisation.
Encourage staff peer auditing to reduce quality admin and encourage good practice and time effectiveness.
Set minimum file reviews per month to ensure that files are all reviewed ready for any contract audits.
Ensure staff buy-in by integrating into staff roles rather than it being seen as something ‘extra’.
Exercise 2 : Turning around a failing PBR contract
Exercise 2 :
Jobs-R-Us is a London-based charity with 22 staff members and a turn over of £1.5m. They have a number of W2W contracts and have a successful track record of delivering employability contracts for GLA, ESF, London Councils etc to long term unemployed. They also deliver literacy, numeracy and ESOL classes. They are tier 2 end-to-end delivery provider on Work Programme and have approx 800 customers. They initially started well and met all their targets for job entries but for the last 6 months they have had erratic performance (sometimes meeting in-month contract targets and then the next month being 60% below profile). This has resulted in them becoming significantly behind profile and having a deficit that is accumulating every month. The Prime has put them on a 3 month Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) and the Board have raised concerns about cashflow. The staff have been made away that they may have to make redundancies if this continues and this has seriously impacted on staff morale.