We’re better together
WeConnect is a collaborative community open to all individuals and organisations looking to partner with Fedcap in delivering person-centred excellence to customers across the Health, Employability, Education and Learning, and Economic Development spheres.
Membership of the community gives you access to:
- Collaborative approaches to upcoming commissioning, bringing together local knowledge and expertise to co-design propositions that deliver for commissioners and customers
- Community-produced and expert-led training and development on key knowledge/skills including insights from our international group
- Hyper-local networking and good practice sharing to build community capacity, promote services and join up the dots of local provision
- Access to local labour market information and other relevant data
- Employer engagement coordination to maximise impact for the whole community to benefit from job vacancies suited to customers’ preferences
- Policy and practice updates keeping the community informed about current and future trends on national and local government thinking
Our offer to partners
As a transformative partner we are keen to ensure the community is accessible to specialist hyper-local organisations who will bring essential knowledge and experience but can be limited by scale. Our community is driven by a commitment to collaboration over duplication, supporting the membership to unlock new partnerships both with us and each other.
Our future pipeline
We recognise that transparency makes for better partnerships and commit to keeping our membership aware of new opportunities that are important to us. This page will be regularly updated below to highlight these opportunities.
Connect to Work
Connect to Work is a voluntary programme designed to tackle economic inactivity by providing targeted support to individuals based on their specific circumstances. It focuses on helping disabled people, those with health conditions, and individuals facing complex barriers to employment. It uses two key Supported Employment models: the Supported Employment Quality Framework (SEQF) and Individual Placement and Support (IPS). SEQF follows the ‘place, train, and maintain’ approach, ensuring participants are placed in suitable jobs, trained, and supported to maintain employment. IPS integrates supported employment within health services/settings, particularly for those with severe mental illness or substance dependence.
Connect to Work builds on existing Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) funded programmes and aims to support around 81,000 participants annually in England, with additional places funded in Greater Manchester, West Midlands and Wales. Funding is being devolved through grants to Lead Accountable Bodies across the UK who will be responsible for designing locally needed solutions that align with model fidelity with a projected 75% of places for IPS and 25% for SEQF.
Eligibility
Designed for individuals who are economically inactive within priority groups and wish to work, the programme also supports those at risk of losing their jobs who would struggle to re-enter the workforce without assistance. Participants must be disabled, have a work-limiting health condition and/or belong to specified disadvantaged groups such as offenders, carers, homeless individuals, former armed forces members, and victims of domestic abuse.
Ministry of Justice Rehabilitative Services
The Ministry of Justice is launching rehabilitative services for men in prison or the community across various regions in England and Wales. These services aim to address rehabilitative needs, helping prevent individuals from re-offending, and providing a combined, whole-person, individualised service. The service will comprise building supportive relationships; connecting to community activities such as volunteering, sports and leisure; assisting with recovery from drug, alcohol, and gambling issues; and achieving sustainable outcomes in housing, employment, and financial management.
Emphasis will be placed on partnerships with criminal justice services, health and addiction services, local authorities, housing providers, employment services, and third-sector organisations. The services will replace existing separate pathway services and aim to support a diverse range of individual needs and characteristics, encouraging involvement from SMEs and VCSE organisations through consortia or supply chains.
Designed to support men both in prison and as they transition back into the community, these services ensure continuous and seamless support. The project will launch in August 2025, with contracts awarded in October 2026 and services going live in March 2027.
Coming soon – Communities of Practice
We understand that our community members cross a broad spectrum of specialists and experts who want to drive excellence. We’re keen to develop Communities of Practice within our membership to facilitate knowledge sharing and bring together like-minded organisations to discuss current and future policy in their discipline. We are currently looking to start with:
- Supported Employment
- Employer Engagement
- Innovation in Tech
However, we know that our WeConnect membership will have some great ideas about what’s needed and so will be consulting with them to finalise and initiate this community offer.
Ready to work with us?
We’re looking to connect with strategic partners, suppliers and providers of specialist services who share our values.
Please provide us with your contact details and a member of our team will be in touch.