Serco's alliance with charities Turning Point and Catch 22 (formerly Rainer) provides a welfare to work service for ex-offenders in the East of England.

Securing a job is known to significantly reduce re-offending rates. Launched in October 2006, Path2Work is run from a number of sites: their own offices in Luton, probation area offices in Southend-on- Sea and Basildon, Job Centre Plus offices and out-reaching to sites where offenders are undertaking unpaid work in Norfolk, Suffolk and Hertfordshire. In the last 12 months, 175 ex-offenders have secured jobs. "This is a great result for a small contract," says Stephen Hornby, Serco's Contract Director. "We are performing better than New Deal in the region with a candidate group that are further away from the labour market." The Serco-led partnership has learnt much since beginning work together.

For example, when the service was launched the intention was to employ a third of staff from each organisation at each site, in order to ensure a blend of expertise and cultures. In practice, however, this meant three sets of employment contracts, three sets of processes and so on. "If we bid for the contract again we would probably recommend that we employ operational staff from one of the three organisations," Hornby explains. Staff currently operate according to their employer's contract, although in certain areas the partnership has adopted the best practice available. For example, Turning Point has a rigorous risk assessment policy, while Catch 22 provides excellent training and staff development. Hornby meets regularly with his counterparts, Turning Point's Steve Worobec and Catch 22's Trevor Winnicki, and, to date, they have not been in a position where a vote has been required to agree a decision.

So what's the secret to successful compatibility? According to Hornby, you must first choose the right partners – organisations that share a similar sense of ethos and the ability to deliver.

Second, current operational knowledge is vital as this prevents managers being too far removed from the reality of what's happening within the service Deloitte evaluated the service during 2008 and reported that, "Project outcomes are good for this challenging client group and are being achieved at a much lower than average cost." The contract has been extended until 31 May 2009.

Anna Ronay is Editor of Ethos