International health employment specialist, APM, is celebrating a momentous year which has seen the company rise to the top of government performance tables in both the UK and Australia.
Latest figures published by the Department for Work and Pensions, show APM UK as the top performing prime contractor for delivery of Work Programme, the government's flagship back-to-work provision.
With almost 2,000 job outcomes secured within just twelve months, APM UK's current performance is some 31% above the national average.
The feat is mirrored by APM UK's Australian-based sister company, awarded its highest ever Disability Employment Service (DES) star ratings by the Australian government.
"We're hugely proud of these figures and of our current position as the leading Work Programme provider in the UK," said APM UK Chief Executive, Alan Cave.
"Last summer we inherited a contract that quite frankly was failing and it has taken a huge collective effort to turn it around in just twelve months. To be the number one performer means that we're helping more people into work than ever before and that is a very special achievement."
APM recorded the best performance figures for all Work Programme payment groups in the period March to July 2016.
It is the culmination of a sustained and dramatic rise in performance since APM's acquisition of Pertemps People Development Group, a little over a year ago.
The company posted the second highest performance figures for the period August 2015 - July 2016, rising from a previous position of 38th out of 40 Work Programme contracts delivered nationally.
And it is not just in Work Programme that APM is recording eye catching results.
The company is currently recognized as one of the UK's leading providers of National Citizen Service provision to 16 and 17 year-olds, delivering services to almost 3,000 young people in the Midlands this summer; a figure that represents a 51% growth rate since APM was awarded the contract.
Alan Cave explained: "Our success is really based on strong regional partnerships and in having a great team, with employees that understand our ethos of continually striving to be the best.
"Our values are coupled with the industry-leading knowledge and experience we leverage from our Australian sister-company."
From the home of its UK operations in Birmingham, APM UK has established a series of knowledge sharing hubs that provide platforms for its employees to compare data, share ideas and find solutions to problems at all levels.
Applying learning from a host of contracts in the UK, Australia and its growing New Zealand-based operation, is allowing the organisation to move quickly and embed a culture of winning that has seen it grow from just four occupational therapists in 1994, to a workforce of more than 1,200 people.
In Australia, APM is consistently recognised as the leading Disability Employment Service provider.
Some 53% of APM Australia DES contracts are currently operating at four stars or above - the government's barometer of quality and performance - a figure 23% higher than the national industry average.
Impressive Work Programme results and a firm footing within the health employment arena, give APM UK every reason to look forward to tendering for new business, particularly the government's new Work and Health Programme contracts later this month.
"We're now a hugely diverse and agile business, that continues to establish and successfully deliver within the employability, skills, youth and justice arenas," adds Alan.
"However this is fundamentally an organization steeped in vocational rehabilitation. It is one with a culture of success, achieved through listening to the needs of local people, partners and commissioners and of and ultimately being focused on delivering high performance.
"We're excited about Work and Health and of the perfect opportunity it brings for us to apply our innovative thinking from here in the UK and in Australia, giving some of the most disadvantaged people in our communities the very best chance of getting back into work."
- Notes to editors: Founded by four female occupational therapists in 1994, APM is an international employment and training business with more than 1,200 staff at 500 sites in UK, Australia & New Zealand.
- A private company still wholly owned by its founders, APM UK delivers a diverse portfolio of employability, skills, youth and justice contracts, most notably Work Programme, Working Capital, National Citizen Service and National Offender Management Service.
- Australia's leading Disability Employment Service provider, the business has a mission to improve the lives of one million people by 2020.