This blog is based on an article in Social Policy and Society by Annie Irvine, Joe McKenzie, Christine Brass and Alex Kelley. Click here to access the article.
The third sector is taking on an increasingly important role in providing across a range of public services, including employment and skills support. Yet there are barriers to third sector organisations evaluating their services and promoting the effectiveness of their provision (Bach-Mortensen & Montgomery, 2018). Our research into the experiences of employability keyworkers supporting people furthest from the labour market offers an example of a successful collaboration between an academic research centre and a locally-based voluntary sector organisation, which shed light on both strengths and challenges for those providing at the frontline.
The collaboration between the team at Better Connect, a voluntary sector organisation managing employability programmes, and Dr Annie Irvine, researcher at the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health, has yielded fascinating and valuable results. Over a period of more than two years, Annie has helped Better Connect understand the experiences of keyworkers on the frontline of programmes. Here we provide a snapshot of the work outlined in this article, and the exciting developments which have resulted from this research more recently.
Annie and Better Connect were introduced by a mutual acquaintance in the voluntary sector in 2021, at a time when Annie was looking to develop new collaborations for the recently launched ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health – particularly its programme addressing work, welfare reform and mental health. Better Connect’s flagship employability support programme Action Towards Inclusion (ATI) sat very much in this area. A large portion of programme participants accessed various forms of welfare benefits and experienced mental health issues. From this starting point, the scope of the research evolved beyond looking at experiences of mental health and accessing benefits. Instead, it ended up as an independent evaluation of how the programme was delivered to participants by a diverse range of community-based partners, who each had their own unique approaches and methods.
Over a series of meetings, we worked together to agree a feasible research design that would inform our interests – covering practice, policy and theory. We settled on a qualitative approach, in which Annie conducted individual semi-structured interviews with keyworkers on the ATI project. She asked a range of questions, looking at what made this model of support work well, what the big challenges were and what exactly it was that comprised the unique ATI keyworker role. As lead partner on the ATI programme, Better Connect build and manage delivery partnerships comprising networks of local charities, helping them access funding and overseeing the programmes. However, unlike the partners, Better Connect do not work directly with programme participants. The results of this research gave an honest insight into the views of keyworkers, which otherwise may not have been shared so candidly. Better Connect gained a powerful evidence base for running programmes, with the results helping demonstrate why the programmes work so well.
In the article, we single out three main factors which keyworkers stated as crucial for the success of the ATI programme. Firstly, the holistic and incremental nature of support to better address multiple barriers to work. Secondly, the consistent relationship of trust and support between keyworkers and participants. And thirdly, keyworkers building up confidence and self-belief in their participants.
The holistic aspect of ATI proved to be invaluable for delivery partners, because the target cohort was those furthest from work with complex barriers and needs. For instance, a programme participant may be facing challenges with insecure housing, debt and enduring mental health issues, and needs a support structure which can address these fundamental concerns before they can begin to think about looking for jobs. ATI was able to provide this through its holistic approach and diverse partnership network.
The consistency and trust built between keyworkers and programme participants over time was equally vital. ATI ran for six years from 2017-2023, so participants could access support from the same keyworker for months or even years. This allowed time to slowly develop trust, which is crucial for people who felt let down or threatened by services in the past.
Lastly, developing participants’ own self-belief was critical too, as this enabled them to be self-sufficient to independently enter the world of work at the end of their support.
Equally, the research shed light on some of the challenges inherent in a holistic person-centred approach, particularly around boundaries and balance for the keyworkers themselves. The keyworker role was extremely broad and difficult to define on account of how inclusive ATI was. Often it encompassed a huge range of support areas, from advocacy and debt advice, emotional wellbeing support, crisis intervention, budgeting and skills training. With a large and diverse partnership, some staff had experience and specialisms that helped them comfortably wear different hats depending on the support needs of participants. Others, however, found themselves dealing with complex, unexpected situations and at times felt unqualified to offer certain types of help. Some participants were in crisis, with needs beyond the remit of an employability programme, which took an emotional toll on the staff delivering this support.
Many keyworkers said that having support from peers was a good way to address challenges. Whilst delivery partners who had several staff members on their ATI team could organically provide this, we also had many smaller partners with only one or two project keyworkers, making this difficult. Acting on one of the recommendations of the research, Better Connect took up the suggestion to build peer support into the programme. The research findings conveyed how challenging the job role was, in keyworkers’ own words, and Better Connect felt a duty to support them. This led to consultation with partners about what they would like from a peer support network, which was then put into action.
Since September 2023, Better Connect has been having regular peer network meetings with delivery staff, where they have had an open forum to discuss shared issues and challenges. It’s also enabled them to get to know one another better, forming a more well-connected partnership. Sessions have also included wellbeing activities for the staff, including art therapy and a day of mindfulness coaching.
This was a wonderful research collaboration which has improved how Better Connect works as a voluntary sector leader, led to a valuable ongoing partnership with Annie and her academic colleagues, and helped give the fantastic keyworkers a seldom-heard voice.
About the authors
Annie Irvine is Research Fellow at King’s College London.
Joe McKenzie is RISE Programme Manager at Better Connect.
Christine Brass is Multiply Programme Manager at Better Connect.
Alex Kelley is Head of Programmes at Better Connect.
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