Staffline wins £7m employment services contract in Suffolk
3 October 2014
Staffline’s subsidiary EOS has been awarded a two-year contract worth up to £7m with Suffolk County Council to provide an employment service for young people.
Fri, 3 Oct 2014 | By Nicola SullivanStaffline’s subsidiary EOS has been awarded a two-year contract worth up to £7m with Suffolk County Council to provide an employment service for young people.
The contract, which is entirely funded by the Department for Work and Pensions, will see EOS work in partnership with charity Tomorrow’s People to get 16-24-year-olds into employment or back into education or training.
This represents a different approach to that taken by EOS’ services in Northern Ireland and the Midlands, to which people are referred only when they have been out of work for 12 months.
Phillip Ledgard, finance director at Staffline Group, told Recruiter: “This [programme] seeks to pick young people up straight away as soon as they are identified as not having a constructive route or a constructive plan.”
Serving jobseekers in Ipswich and the surrounding areas, the project will provide employment information and advice from a newly created centre in the city centre. Outreach services across the county and EOS’ tablet application will mean youngsters can access services without needing to travel.
Ledgard said the payment by results contract was a “strategic” win for EOS as it straddles both Labour and Conservative policies on youth unemployment.
“This is bang in the middle of policy for both political parties so strategically it is a really big important win for us because it de-risks to some extent the political future for us. Hopefully it is a repeatable system and structured solution that can be used elsewhere in the UK as well,” Ledgard told Recruiter.
The contract, which is entirely funded by the Department for Work and Pensions, will see EOS work in partnership with charity Tomorrow’s People to get 16-24-year-olds into employment or back into education or training.
This represents a different approach to that taken by EOS’ services in Northern Ireland and the Midlands, to which people are referred only when they have been out of work for 12 months.
Phillip Ledgard, finance director at Staffline Group, told Recruiter: “This [programme] seeks to pick young people up straight away as soon as they are identified as not having a constructive route or a constructive plan.”
Serving jobseekers in Ipswich and the surrounding areas, the project will provide employment information and advice from a newly created centre in the city centre. Outreach services across the county and EOS’ tablet application will mean youngsters can access services without needing to travel.
Ledgard said the payment by results contract was a “strategic” win for EOS as it straddles both Labour and Conservative policies on youth unemployment.
“This is bang in the middle of policy for both political parties so strategically it is a really big important win for us because it de-risks to some extent the political future for us. Hopefully it is a repeatable system and structured solution that can be used elsewhere in the UK as well,” Ledgard told Recruiter.
