How we work with you
Working with our Partners we look to develop solutions that balance a proven track record with fresh new ideas; to make a sustainable impact on communities whilst offering scale; to deliver flexible & local services that achieve consistently high outcomes; and offer value for money with fairly balanced risk & reward.
For instance, A4e currently works in partnership with over 160 organisations to deliver Welfare to Work services to disadvantaged people on behalf of DWP. We work with organisations in a range of ways including as a managing agent, prime contractor and consortia lead. Our partners are from all sectors and enable us to offer a diverse range of services that fully meet our customers’ needs.
Merlin Standards
The Merlin Principles
The Merlin Standard has been designed to recognise and promote sustainable excellence and positive partnership working within supply chains and provide guidance to those seeking to achieve it. It is built upon four fundamental and integrated principles; Supply Chain Design, Commitment, Conduct and Review. These Principles have been designed to examine key areas of the relationship between a Prime Contractor (hereafter referred to as ‘Primes’) and its Supply Chain Partners. Criteria underpinning the principles also seek to review the role of Commissioning, including the procurement process, and how supply chain behaviour is affected by the behaviour of the Commissioner. The Principles are established to validate positive behaviour of Primes and supply chain partners in line with the Code of Conduct, a key facet of the Commissioning Strategy in creating healthy and high performing supply chains.
The Elements of each Principle
Each Principle contains contributing Elements. The Elements allow managers to consider and better understand the cause and effect relationships between what their organisations do and the results that they achieve. A robust assessment can be carried out based upon the Elements to ascertain the degree of excellence of each applicant organisation’s supply chain management.
Evidence of achievement and excellence against each Element will dictate the final result of the Merlin Assessment and offer a clear indication of where an organisation needs to improve as well as highlighting and recognising excellence.
Within each Element there are a number of criteria which provide a structured approach to interrogate the overall performance of an organisation in both complying with the Code of Conduct and also exhibiting behaviours in the spirit of the Code. The criteria support the assessment process used by Merlin assessors, as well as providing guidance for each organisation’s own self assessment.
Merlin Standards Feedback
As you will be aware, in April 2010, Carley Consult on behalf of the DWP conducted a pilot assessment in the two Yorkshire CPA’s of our Supply Chain Management systems. The assessment focussed on four key areas of the supply chain: Supply Chain Design, Commitment, Conduct and Review. Our thanks to all those partners who responded to the DWP questionnaires and those that took part in interviews.
As a pilot, the assessment was not subject to a formal rating and we received positive informal feedback at the time, however we have now received the final audit report detailing the assessment findings. We are currently reviewing the feedback to see how we can improve going forward.
The report identified a number of key strengths: the strength and depth of the supply chain, including a good mix of Third, Public and Private sector organisations which had been researched to match local requirements; and the support given to small, specialist organisations enabling capacity building and employees, particularly around TUPE. It also commended the strong relationships that exist between A4e and partners facilitating effective two-way communication, particularly around performance, policy and processes and review and improvement.
However, it also highlighted some areas for improvement around a defined Quality Assurance approach and using data such as Equality and Diversity information to drive continuous improvement. It particularly highlighted the need to improve communications and support to Intervention partners to manage expectations.
Supply Chain Governance
The governance of our supply chain is overseen by a Partnership Board which meets on a quarterly basis. The partnership Board ensures that:
- Provide an open and transparent framework for the planning, direction, accountability and performance of the Supply Chain
- Ensure best value for money
- Defined escalation processes
- Contingency planning and risk management
- Partner acquisition and exit procedures
- Open performance reporting
- Promotes and uses partner feedback
