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Four years ago I made a big move, following my Ingeus career 9,000 miles from my home in Melbourne to the UK. I arrived to help implement the Restart Scheme, an integral part of the government’s response to the pandemic, and its magnitude soon put moving continents into perspective. As one of the scheme’s eight prime providers, Ingeus alone was launching 25 centres and employing more than 1,000 staff to deliver the Restart Scheme, our largest ever employability programme.    

 

The Restart Scheme provides personalised support to jobseekers who have been out of work for a year or more. Together with our partners, we deliver services in Greater Manchester and Central and West London, and support Serco in the West Central. Initially commissioned for three years, the Restart Scheme has been subsequently extended and is now set to complete in 2028. It will soon be the only nationally commissioned, nationwide employability programme. 
 

Four years on from its launch and Ingeus is celebrating. We have supported over 215,000 people to date on the Restart Scheme and, in three decades working in employability, I’ve yet to see a better offer for participants. Yet we can’t rest easy – competition for job vacancies has more than trebled since the Restart Scheme launched and in our changeable economic climate it must continue to adapt. 

 

Which is why, as I celebrated its impact with sector-wide colleagues at Westminster this month, I reflected on what has built the Restart Scheme into a programme to make my move halfway around the world so worthwhile. 

 

For me, four suitably powerful words sum up the past four years: 

 

Firstly, and always most importantly, I have to start with the people. The Ingeus teams and participants involved in the Restart Scheme. It has, without doubt, been a game-changer for so many people starting, switching, and progressing in work. Our teams come together with the goal of enabling better lives and it’s their passion and commitment that makes all the difference. As one participant said to me recently, ‘I wasn’t moving forward before the Restart Scheme’. That simple line captured very simply why Ingeus does what it does and I’m immensely proud to be a part of it.  

 

Working with experienced partners and responsible employers is nothing new for Ingeus but I have yet to see an entire sector pull together in the way it does for the Restart Scheme. Lessons learnt are not just PowerPoint tick boxes but ongoing investigations via the ReAct Partnership, which Ingeus part-funds. This collaboration of providers shares insights that shape the success of the scheme as a whole and has been praised by the Department for Work and Pensions for the positive impact it’s driven for participants.   

 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but being able to quantify and analyse the passing of time takes it to a whole new level. With four years of data and ever-more sophisticated analysis of it, we gain proven insights on everything from the best interventions to support specific characteristics, to risk rating the sustainability of certain jobs. As we actively learn what works for our participants’ needs, we can target our services much more specifically. 

 

The Restart Scheme gives us flexibility to trial new things. We have access to ringfenced funding to support additional or new services – our recent RISE residential trip for 18-24 year-olds is a successful example, and one we’re about to repeat.  

Complementing our human service, AI is also adding a new dimension to how we engage and support our participants. We’ve partnered with Bodyswaps to reinforce AI and virtual reality technology into our employment services that has proven incredibly beneficial for our participants, helping them prepare for interviews and boost the likelihood of securing employment. You can read more about our partnership with Bodyswaps here. I’m excited to see where the evolution of AI takes us next.