Good Practice

The primary aim of this work is to identify those activities delivered by partners that represent good practice, which can be disseminated and promoted both within and beyond the Employment and Skills Board membership.

Consultants were appointed in August 2007 and were asked to develop an outline evaluation framework that could be used to assess the activities of Employment and Skills Board members and their delivery partners, in order to identify robust examples of good practice.

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The aim is to define clearly how good practice in employability services is to be measured and the evidence required to demonstrate the effectiveness and impact of such services.

Many organisations claim that the services they offer represent good practice in the field of employability and hold a genuine belief that this is the case. However, such assertions are often based on a feeling that a service is particularly effective or different and some organisations find it difficult to provide hard evidence to support the case.

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• Clarity of purpose - The activity has clear and specific aims and objectives that are linked directly to the objectives of the Employment Consortium and to the achievement of LAA employability outcome targets.
• It works! - It actually achieves in practice what it claims to do and is effective in achieving its stated objectives. It doesn’t need to be unique or different, it just needs to work.
• Causality - There is a clear causal link between the activity delivered and the achievement of employability outcomes.
• Addressing real need - The activity meets a real need that is not currently being met by other services and achieves outcomes that would not otherwise occur.
• Take-up - There is strong take-up of the activity among target clients, demonstrating that it gives clients something they want.
• Client ratings - The activity is rated highly by its clients (individuals, employers, others) who say it has been a major factor in helping them achieve employment objectives.
• Comparative performance - It achieves higher outputs and outcomes than other activities with the same objectives and target clients.
• Value for money - It provides good value for money when compared with other services that are trying to meet a similar need. The level of outputs and outcomes achieved per £ spent represents a good return on the investment of public funds.
• Scale - It is currently or is capable of being delivered on a scale sufficiently great to make a large impact on the need it is trying to address.
• Transferability - The activity could realistically be replicated by other organisations in other areas, with similar results.

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