In May, the Restart Scheme’s Partnership team held three dynamic Jobcentre Plus SPOC (Single Point of Contact) conferences across West Central England (CPA1a). The conferences were a way to bring together key Restart Scheme stakeholders to discuss issues, best practices, and solutions, with the aim of creating better communication channels and working as one team to help support more people into work.

The event included:

• An introduction to the Partnership team and the support given across the region.
• Specialist provision and the benefits to participants.
• Eligibility and suitability, followed by a round table event, feedback, and discussions
• Restart Scheme successes so far, including good news stories.
• The Participant Engagement team delivered a WHO (Warm Hand Over) presentation, which was followed by a lively discussion on improving ways of working.
• The Supply Chain Managers delivered a presentation on performance, customer service standards, and performance management.

The final part of the event was a joint Jobcentre Plus and provider workshop to establish how and when attendance and communication would happen and, if not, how it could be changed going forward. There were some fantastic ideas and feedback discussed which will help to improve all communication and attendance to support participants.

Overall, the events were a success with 90 people in attendance, lots of great feedback, and new connections formed. Feedback included:

“This has been a very useful event. It has brought greater clarity not only to the relationship between Serco, Jobcentre Plus, and supply chain partners but also to how we can better support each other to achieve improved results and help more people return to work.”

“Really well-planned event, very positive and constructive discussions. Every attendee got something positive from the day, and it was great to see the other side of the process with the provider.”

The Serco partnership team are planning to host more events like this and are currently planning the next events in September 2025.

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