&mather owner Rachel spent 11 years working for the Luminate Education Group, a collection of passionate education providers based in the Leeds City Region.

The latter 2 years were spent working with the Colleges and its regional partner colleges within the West Yorkshire Consortium of Colleges.

Throughout the time spent working directly for Luminate Education Group she supported and led curriculum and business areas to secure close to £80m funding contribution towards capital, revenue and project costs

Rachel worked on consecutive successful Register of Training Organisations and Register of Apprenticeship Training Provider applications and 9 successful ESIF funded bids (CLLD, SSW, SSU, SSR, Flexible Fund for Unemployed).

She was integral to enabling the organisation win direct contracts and subcontracts for delivery valued at £24m+ within Local Authorities, Colleges, NHS, Police, Central Government and secure funds from other Agencies and public bodies such as the Department for Education, Local Authorities, National Lottery Heritage Fund, The National Lottery Communities Fund and Sport England.

Other sources of funding identified and won throughout this time supported the delivery of student enterprise and enrichment opportunities and curriculum growth. Achieved through identifying and securing funding and contract opportunities from WorldSkills, Serco, PwC, Greater Manchester Combined Authority and ASDA to name but a few.

Due to Rachel’s track record of success, and reputation within the organisation when four major, strategically important, high-value NHS Apprenticeship tenders were all published within 3 weeks Leeds City College reached out to Rachel in 2020.

In outsourcing additional capacity, the College felt safe in the knowledge that Rachel would be able to coordinate teams and produce compelling bids which reflect the values of the organisation and the quality of its curriculum offer. The college was successfully awarded a contract for every tender submitted.

Since 2020, Rachel has supported the Luminate Education Group, including Leeds City College, Harrogate College and Keighley College, to win over 20 competitive tenders and grant applications. This includes:

• Portable Flexi-Job Apprenticeship Pilot Scheme funding from the ESFA. Delivering digital and healthcare apprenticeships to national employers.

• Becoming one of a handful of approved suppliers to deliver a Level 3 Certificate in Bridging Skills programme for Higher Education, on behalf of Health Education England

• NHS National Healthcare Science Apprenticeships at Level 2, Level 4 & Level 6 for Health Education England

• A Leadership and Technical Training Framework valued at £6m for Cadent Gas

• SBS NHS contract for the Provision of National Apprenticeship Training and End Point Assessment to 2025/26.

Director of Apprenticeships and Business Engagement said; “Rachel is an expert in bid writing for the education sector. Her knowledge of bid writing for the FE sector is excellent. Rachel differs from other bid writers in the sector, with her in-depth knowledge and possible solutions to our requirements she is my first port of call. She is direct and precise to ensure tenders are submitted timely. I would always recommend Rachel to anyone looking for a Bid Writer/Consultant”.

Permanent Futures Ltd ‘Futures’ are a leader in professional interim and permanent recruitment services. We offer innovative resourcing models and project delivery solutions that support the public sector, education and manufacturing.

We started working with Permanent Futures in September 2018 to support their growth curve within their public sector transformation team.

Managing Director, Tom Liptrot said:

“Since engaging &mather, we’ve worked closely to target the right funding and contract opportunities in order to support sustained growth and business diversification.

We’ve been successful in securing a place on a number of major high-profile Government Crown Commercial Service Frameworks including GCloud12, Non Clinical Temporary and Fixed Term Staff RM6160, DOS 5 & DOS 6 which were major targets for us. She’s a huge asset to the company and has secured us countless business opportunities.”

The ability for the public sector to access frameworks set up by other contracting authorities, such as the Crown Commercial Service Frameworks take a lot of the preparatory work out of a procurement process.

For the buyer, procuring services through a framework is more efficient than posting and managing multiple, individual contracts. It allows public sector organisation to easily see what is on offer in the market from quality suppliers that have undergone a robust due diligence and application process to certify their credibility, suitability and economic standing.

For suppliers, it provides rich opportunity and route to market to engage and work with major employers including Central and Local Government, NHS, Police, Local Authorities, Universities and Colleges.

As such, the business took a considered approach to build and grow its presence within the public sector, and we have since established preferred supplier status across a number of strategically important education Frameworks and Dynamic Purchasing Systems and secured direct partnership arrangements with several Police Forces and Local Authorities to deliver major digital transformation and change programmes.

Another amazing effort and achievement for this small company, and great recognition of their expertise and quality offer, competing against major national primes to win significant, long-term contracts.

We’ve also supported them to access over £22,000 EU funding through ESIF programmes managed through the Leeds City Region LEP, including a large grant from the Resource efficiency fund towards the cost of implementing more energy-efficient and sustainable air conditioning unit in the workplace. This is already realising multiple health, environmental and cost-saving benefits.

Additionally, &mather has also supported the team to secure a number of other accolades and achievements achieved in recognition of their commitment to industry good practice, strong social values and approach to inclusive recruitment, including prompt payment supplier status, cybersecurity essentials and developing their carbon reduction plan, sustainable travel plan and social value model.

Futures and &mather continue to work together and have developed a truly collaborative relationship founded on trust, integrity and willingness to explore options to ensure continued business growth and success.