For Capacity, one of the big benefits of Social Climbers has been the opportunity to work with new organisations and reach new communities. Transform Lives Company (TLC) is one of these organisations. Established in 2013, Transform Lives are a Liverpool-based social-purpose organisation with an ambition to transform the way employment and wellbeing support is provided in the region.
A bit of background
Capacity and Transform Lives have a lot in common. Most significantly, we’re both on a mission to break down barriers and support communities in the region differently, making a bigger and bolder difference to people’s lives. We’re both keen to create fundamental change in our public services, helping everyone to understand the roles they play in making change happen and embedding new ways of working.
Throughout 2024, we worked with TLC to think through how we could transform the way local employment support is delivered, by helping them to develop a more sustainable business model that is underpinned by long-term funding and partnership working.
What we did
Building a roadmap for change
Before getting stuck into the work, we spent time with the Transform Lives team, building an understanding of where they are now, and where they want to be.
After getting to know the team and Transform Lives as an organisation, we created space for the team to think through their plans and ambitions. A couple of months into the work, we delivered a Theory of Change session with the team, identifying a vision for what employment support in the Liverpool City Region should look like.
We heard that the way employment support is currently provided is not functioning in the best interests of people seeking support. Short-term funding, strict eligibility criteria and a ‘one size fits all’ approach mean that many people can’t access the support they need when they need it and how they need it. This doesn’t just affect those who are economically inactive, but also those who are in work and looking for support and new opportunities.
The team told us that a new approach to support is needed. Key features of this new approach are sustainability, flexibility, trust, person-centredness and human connection. It needs to foster collaboration, not competition, between organisations. The overall approach needs to be equitable, relational, empowering and resourced for the long term.
Working backwards from this vision, we began to identify the steps TLC will need to take to get there. This helped to bring clarity to Transform Live’s plans and understand how they will work to create change both in the system and for communities within the Liverpool City Region.
We are also thinking about the funding and partnership model needed to make this work a reality. We’re helping with high-level financial modelling and analysis to map this out and think about how this could be secured for the region.
Underpinning all of this work is the need to develop strong relationships with other system players – providers, backers and leaders. So, we began to work with Transform Lives to engage with others across the system, getting their message of person-centred and relational support in LCR out there.
Understanding what local people need
We know that the only way to really get to grips with a problem is to understand what’s happening at a community level. So, we set about supporting TLC to deliver a community-led learning project.
TLC wanted to understand the barriers people face to accessing employment support and build a picture of how the existing support is working. With this in mind, we helped TLC to recruit a team of community researchers – people who have the experience (including lived experience) and skills to really engage with residents and gather insights – from across the city region.
The insights gathered through this learning project will help us deepen our understanding of the need for a new approach to employment support, and what needs to be different about this new approach. Importantly, these insights will be shared across the system so that the message gets out there about what needs to change.
What’s next?
This project isn’t quite finished. We’ll still be working with Transform Lives in 2025, tipping all of this thinking into refreshed service and organisational design. We are also working with the team to make sure their experience, knowledge and insights generated lead to broader change across the system.
