The LCS Impact Awards

Ingeus Team Award – Continuous Improvement Academy Team Impact

Summary: Launching a CI Academy drives increased capability, better decisions, effects change
and boosts customer service.
Ingeus is a leading people services provider, delivering long-term, impactful projects to enable better
lives across the employability, health, youth, and justice sectors. It employs 2,300 people, based
remotely and across 100+ office locations. In our mission to harness the talents of our contrasting
teams, and to continuously improve, we launched our three-year Continuous Improvement Strategy
in October 2021.
A 2021 skills audit on CI capability identified a lack of enterprise level awareness around CI Lean Six
Sigma Methodology, with only 7 employees experienced in Continuous Improvement practices and
accredited in Lean Six Sigma.
Without CI awareness and capability, employees were not equipped to identify improvement
opportunities within non-performing workflows and processes. Furthermore, a lack of capability and
knowledge of key tools was affecting the ability to apply root cause analysis techniques to business
problems and make evidence-based decisions on performance improvements.
The Transformation Director and CI team identified this was impeding Ingeus in its goal to improve
the service excellence delivered to customers and commissioners of our services. It also put Ingeus
at a disadvantage as direct competitors had CI capability. It posed a potential business risk as service
commissioners expect providers to invest in continuous improvement.
It was agreed that Investment in an Academy would help employees recognise the role they play in
contributing to CI to achieve service excellence, and to apply its methods day-to-day to become
more efficient, effective and achieve the best outcomes. Flexible Academy pathways would equip
employees in key roles to make better decisions and drive effective change that balances business
risk.
Activity
Fully supported and sponsored by Ingeus Executive team, Transformation Director Lisa Jasper
developed a CI strategy which included an Accredited internal CI Academy to drive up capability.
One of several projects undertaken as part of an ambitious three-year plan, the Academy was
launched in May 22 to support the implementation of our strategy to increase CI awareness and
capability, and a create a culture of continuous improvement.
To ensure the successful achievement of future CI ambitions, which included increased company-
wide CI capability to a minimum of 5% of the Ingeus employee population. Across all divisional
contracts and supporting services that would amount to a CI capability of over 100 people.
Offering a flexible and blended Lean Six Sigma accredited training programme, the first three cohorts
were delivered August 22 – June 2023. Ingeus has achieved a significant increase in CI capability
leading to 141 Change Agents by June 2023.

• Impact
  Investment in a CI Academy has helped employees recognise the role they play in contributing to
  service excellence for our customers and Ingeus is now achieving a 7% Change Agent capability at
  organisation level. Just a few of the impact outcomes are outlined below:
  Quantifiable Outcomes
• More than 1700 people have completed White Belt training so far creating significant awareness
  around CI and Lean Six Sigma.
• 51 employees have completed a full programme (36 Yellow Belts and 14 Green Belts) with 1 in
  progression towards practitioner accreditation.
• Three rounds of refresher training for existing Change Agents have supported the completion of 30
  improvement projects, with a further 14 complete by June 2023.
• 80 per cent of surveyed Academy completers stated that their CI knowledge at the start of the
  process was one out of five, and on completion 90% stated their awareness was four or above.
  Qualitative outcomes
• White Belt Induction training provides early understanding of our vision for continuous
  improvement and the role it plays in team efficiency and effectiveness, and customer excellence.
• Academy has created a supportive and collaborative environment, enabling interaction and the
  sharing of CI improvement insights from around the business.
• Employees have a greater understanding of CI and are keen to get involved – 185 expressions of
  interest received for Lean Six Sigma training.
• Teams now look for the most efficient and effective ways of doing things and appear more aware
  of wasteful process activity.

Adam Hart, Chief Operating Officer, Ingeus UK
“By implementing a continuous improvement methodology across the entire UK business, Ingeus
has successfully and significantly reduced the very real risks of reputational damage and competitive
disadvantage, whilst simultaneously increasing service efficiency and effectiveness. Establishing a
talented team, able to effect real change – at scale and at speed – was paramount.
From a standing start, our Transformation Director supported by a small CI Team, along with central
marketing support, has more than surpassed the Executive Team’s expectations.
Working tirelessly to educate, motivate and enable Ingeus colleagues to refine and improve their
performance has been a real labour of love – and the results speak for themselves.
Change is positive when it’s owned and driven by the people at its heart – not imposed on them but
developed by them. Our CI Team is expertly making that happen and the excitement around the
business is palpable.”