Case Study

Change in action

27 Feb 2025

Working to help people has always taken a blended mix of empathy, expertise, and encouragement. Yet now more than ever it’s about reaching out and genuinely connecting with people sitting outside of the working world.

This is a huge priority for policy makers, keen to support not just people attending the Jobcentre and receiving state benefits, but those back at home, commonly believing there’s no ‘right’ job out there for them. Programmes, and their funding, are rising to the challenge; their make-up directly responding to the task of finding, coaxing, and empowering people to think differently about their own futures. It’s a challenge Ingeus is keen to overcome.      

One such example is the People & Skills South London Partnership Programme, delivered by Ingeus in partnership with Belina Consulting and Beam across the five London Boroughs which form The South London Partnership: Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames and Sutton. So far, the programme has supported over 700 unemployed people from across its five London boroughs, utilising a strong network of local partners to provide community outreach and offer local knowledge and expertise.

Belina specialises in supporting women with differing barriers preventing them from working. Over the course of the People & Skills South London Partnership Programme, Belina supported 80 women from Croydon and Kingston to get ready for or start work.

“Just like moving house, or having a baby, finding work is something most people don’t do very often – you need someone to help you prepare, who understands how it all works,” explains Belina’s Director, Liz Sewell. “Yet often, people don’t know there’s friendly, free help and support available, so it’s our job to find them.

“This People & Skills South London Partnership Programme is trailblazing in that it’s voluntary and open to everyone, rather than being reliant on what benefits people receive. It’s about finding non-working people who would probably never know of, or proactively seek help, and addressing their very individual skills and employability needs. It is heavily reliant on local partners reaching deep into communities and is a blueprint for future employability programmes. I believe we’ll see much more mixed-funding, community-level programming to address the country’s economically inactive population. This is the future.”

Flexibility sits at its heart. Its voluntary nature, specialist local partners, and focus on distinct communities allows for innovative and different approaches, as Liz explains:  

“Our experience is that voluntary programmes have a very different rhythm to compulsory ones. People are giving up their time, so we like to show it’s worthwhile quickly – to give them a great first day that they’ll want to build on.

“We try a mixture of approaches, including asking women to draw a picture of where they want to be in 10 years’ time. Many draw a house, or car, or holiday, so we can then talk about the steps to achieve that. We also ask mums to plot their age against their children’s ages, then track them forward five years, 10 years and so on, to start visualising the future, thinking about their own lives, not just as a parent.

“We have employability themed coffee mornings, a Belina App that sends gentle tips and motivation, and celebrate forward steps at every opportunity. Working with Ingeus on a contract like the People & Skills South London Partnership Programme gives us the freedom to deliver in this way, to do what we do best – and it works.”  

Ingeus has long understood the value of working with like-minded partners to extend our reach and offer specialist expertise when and where its needed. For Belina, working with Ingeus for the first time, its an opportunity to play their part in important and pioneering programmes.

“When you’re a small company it can be hard to find bidding capacity and then tick all the boxes in terms of compliance and reporting. We want to get into the community and expand what we do. Having Ingeus at our back is hugely reassuring, we’re learning from each other and giving The South London Partnership a solution that’s working.”

Funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), the People & Skills South London Partnership Programme runs until 31st March 2025.