Fifteen Cornwall the 1000 days by Inspiring Work

The Cornwall Foundation of Promise is a charity dedicated to building a better future for young people in Cornwall.

THE FIRST THOUSAND DAYS

FIFTEEN CORNWALL

Fifteen Cornwall is our first project and is now 1000 days old. All profits generated by the restaurant go to the Cornwall Foundation of Promise, whose purpose is to create fantastic career opportunities for disadvantaged local young people and to help them achieve their full potential. Registered Charity No 1119341

Fifteen Cornwall - The first thousand days

So what’s Fifteen Cornwall all about then?

A “social enterprise?”

How does it work and where does the money come from?

The apprenticeship

The cost of exclusion

Where are they now?

The Cornish dimension

The greening of Fifteen Cornwall

So how well does the restaurant work? Really?

FAQs

The Perfect Moment report

So what’s next? And what can you do?

That’s a long time but we’ve spent virtually every one of those days asking ourselves where did those days go? Where did those apprentices go? What do you mean there’s another lot arriving next week? Are we really on Cohort 4? Already!? Where does the time go? In honesty we’re not much at Fifteen Cornwall for standing on ceremony but as we approach our fourth year we thought we should pause just for a moment to take stock, to assess where we are and to look forward to the next thousand days and the next cohort of apprentices through the door and the 200,000 diners we expect to see in that time too.

Well nothing could be simpler really. Fifteen Cornwall was simply set up to answer a few questions... Is it possible to take some of the most challenged of our young people in Cornwall and help them turn their lives around?

Get them to get up in the morning by giving them something worth getting up in the morning for. And can “high ticket” diners really fall in love with a place where the food is prepared by as unusual a mix of the passionate professional and the committed novice as you could find anywhere?! Even be inspired over dinner by how the meal got to their plate and by who put it there? Can a young man with a suspended prison sentence hanging over him or a jail term in his past really be able to dash off a risotto of aged carnaroli rice, Cornish lobster and spianata di Calabria pangratatta? (Let alone spell it?)! In short can immersion into the creative atmosphere of an inspirational training environment turn a young life struggling just to be ordinary into something extraordinary? Can a year long journey in such a place tease out talent and enthusiasm and ambition every step of the way? 04

Jamie Oliver started it all in London with that memorable TV series in 2002 and has since exported the idea to Amsterdam and Melbourne too. Cornwall was not really in his thinking in those early days but it was put there; Fifteen is in Cornwall simply because the drive to have it here grew amongst some of the brightest in our business community and their commitment and panache rang the right bells with Jamie - no business slouch himself. Cornwall was not even on his radar before the likes of Betty Hale and the Ashworths, along with others - not least the South West RDA and Objective One Partnership - got together to form a uniquely persuasive group making a seductive case for a Fifteen in the far west. This public/private partnership was supported enthusiastically by generous public sector funding which enabled the dream to become a reality - we cannot let this opportunity pass without mentioning three “public sector entrepreneurs” who helped us then and who have been our friends ever since… Carolyn Webster of the Department of Work and Pensions’ JobCentre Plus. Mark Williams of the Learning Skills Council in Cornwall and the South West. Carleen Kelemen of the Objective One Partnership. Everyone involved in those early days can walk a little taller when they look back and see what they have built in Cornwall. Without such people agreeing to say “yes,” rather than the often easier “no,” ideas never become any more than sidebar conversations.

It is that kind of support that’s enabled an ambitious Cornwall to get the drop on endless locations and communities around the world who were interested, some desperate, to get a Fifteen on their patch typically these were urban - Fifteen Cornwall remains the only rurally based Fifteen in the world. In honesty any county could be home to such a restaurant but perhaps none could do it so spectacularly and none had the drive and expertise to make it happen. As Jamie himself said at our first graduation…

“What a brilliant decision it was to open in Cornwall…well done to everyone at Fifteen Cornwall. You’re all extraordinary and I’m hugely proud of you.” The Cornwall Foundation of Promise was set up in 2005 as the charity which would oversee the training programme, look after the apprentices and own the restaurant. Fifteen Cornwall opened for business on May 18 2006 since when it has seen over 200,000 diners and generated revenue of around £3 million a year. The profits which come from that all go to the Foundation. No profits leave the Bay other than a small franchise fee to the charitable Fifteen Foundation in London; Jamie puts no money in nor takes any out.

THE FIRST THOUSAND DAYS

FIFTEEN CORNWALL

We most certainly are and we’re proud to be part of that burgeoning sector of business these days – some would say one of the leading lights within it. But there’s quite a lot of nonsense talked and written about social enterprises these days as if… a) they were something new and b) they are rooted in some remarkable new philosophy.

They are not. Nor do they have to be micro-businesses with some vague hippy ideals and a business plan that doesn’t quite stack up. We can all think of large businesses that have been around in reasonable financial security for a long time whilst quietly seeking goals beyond the rapacious pursuit of profit at all costs. The kind of companies and proprietors looking to put something back, to look after and be part of the community they find themselves in and to leave a legacy worth a tad more than the figures on some balance sheet and a few fat shareholders. The kind of companies unashamedly seeking profit but profit for a purpose. Nothing new there - the Victorians were renowned for it - and some of the biggest companies in the world operate that way today, every day; looking after their employees, looking after their suppliers, looking after the environment. Why wouldn’t you? You can grow big that way. The world of social enterprise need not be small time amateur hour operations chasing unprofitable pipedreams. And they certainly needn’t be, shouldn’t be,“not for profit.” We like profit. We spend most days at Fifteen thinking about profit – the money left over at the end of the year that quite simply funds what we do.

Without the social purpose Fifteen Cornwall would just be another fancy restaurant and without the commercial reality of the restaurant we’d be just a glorified youth centre unconnected to the market and the real demands of the restaurant business.

A social bunch, an enterprising bunch a profitable bunch.

Here for the long run.

It’s what you do with it that puts the social into social enterprise. And what we do with it is at once a pioneering, contemporary training programme but also maybe just an old fashioned apprentice scheme with some fairy dust sprinkled on it - sprinkled pretty effectively. Real training in a tough, occasionally stressful, very busy and hugely successful and profitable environment. So we’re proud of a £3 million turnover and a healthy profit of around 10% on that; it makes us who we are and allows us to do what we do. Employing nearly 100 young people, training up to 30 apprentices a year, spending a million quid a year with local suppliers, working with schools and on other outreach projects.

THE FIRST THOUSAND DAYS

Well, like we said, from the profits from our trading in the restaurant - 365 days a year breakfast, lunch and dinner. And of course from the generosity of public funding which we like to think we give good value for money for. The programme costs around half a million pounds a year; we are not cheap to run. Because what we do doesn’t, can’t, come cheap. That’s because it’s an 18 month programme - a journey deliberately built around a challenging often naïve intake of young people and deliberately aiming to produce a “work ready” output at the end of it. Others do the quicker turnaround stuff better than we feel able to and others deal with a wider age span too…good luck to them.

FIFTEEN CORNWALL

Equally we feel we deliver well on it. And bring our own hard earned cash to the party too. The Cornwall Foundation of Promise runs on virtually a 50/50 split of public and private money - including all restaurant profits - along with significant but smaller contributions from supporters in the corporate sector or from individuals who like what we do and want to help. We are grateful to them all. Just as we are grateful to every single diner who eats with us - we like to think they are making one of the most enjoyable charitable donations they can every time they dine with us! There is something hugely rewarding in watching diners on one side of “the pass” and apprentice chefs, who may never have eaten in a fancy restaurant, on the other, inextricably linked.

You’re paying, they’re training. They’re grateful to you. How sustainable is that? What would happen if one funding source dried up? Well we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it as someone probably never said! In honesty and a tad more seriously we don’t know precisely but it’s an interesting rollercoaster to be on. (The following section looks in a little more depth at what we actually save the country too by keeping kids out of the courts and out of custody and what is to be gained by nurturing this untapped talent and putting it to work.) So we feel we deserve our share of the public funding cake and we are lucky because of our location to have done so well out of Europe we would not be here today without that Objective One and Convergence, European Social Fund support.

And we are hugely grateful. 08

We need to ensure three strands of income and a fourth amount set aside for a “rainy day...”

1) Restaurant profits 2) Public funding 3) Other income streams 4) Reserves

Restaurant profits

Other income streams

So far so good. We are lucky to work in a business that can predict from advance bookings what lies in store - we know who’s coming tomorrow, a week hence or many months hence and increasingly we have data to look back on too. We do that every day and formally at a Revenue meeting every week. We never take our eyes off it. Especially with economic times like we now find ourselves in - will people still eat out? Still come to Cornwall? Go abroad less maybe? Quit drinking?

In our first 1000 days we have concentrated on consolidating the first two income streams outlined here, but increasingly we need to explore other sources of income. Private benefactors could sponsor a student, corporations could pick up the tab for essentials such as travel, knives, whites, accommodation. And some already do.

We then have a knob we can turn to take action it’s called marketing - tweaking the offer, looking at pricing, talking to our database, always fine tuning, never getting out of step with the marketplace or being repositioned by the marketing of others. Like we said - so far so good.

Public funding We are a deserving beneficiary, actually saving government money on some individuals and in the forefront of many apprentice training initiatives. So, surely we must always be on the receiving end of some every year in the future? Job Centre Plus and the LSC make for natural bedfellows. But already we are planning for the end of ESF Convergence funding in Summer 2011. And we have to plan as if ALL funding may disappear one day too. There will be an almighty row if it does of course! But we must always plan for the rainy day…the very rainy day.

You only have to look at the next section on “where the money goes” to see the wonderful opportunities for supporters big and small to get involved with and help finance what we do.

Reserves We have been living hand to mouth and in honesty charities should exist a little that way anyway - they’re there to make money work hard not sit on it. But that’s a pretty precarious existence! In summer 2009 we hope to be able to set aside our first substantial sum of reserves and will look to gradually increase that over the years so that maybe one day we could weather the kind of financial year we’d all like to forget but still survive.

THE FIRST THOUSAND DAYS

Much of our funding insists that our apprentices have to be living in Cornwall; that is how we would want it to be anyway although having to turn away “up country” candidates is always a shame. To be eligible, applicants must be aged 16-24 and not in full time employment, education or training – “NEET.” And typically they come with other “issues” too, indeed we deliberately seek out young people who have factors in their lives or backgrounds which act as barriers to even getting into training or the jobs market. And we have had it all - violence, drug abuse, alcohol dependency, prison, broken homes…the lot.

Don’t listen to those who would have you believe that rural Cornwall is a million miles from inner city problems; it isn’t. And we have also had the “softer side” too - kids who have never had a run in with the law but who have never had much fun in their lives either, nor ever developed much enthusiasm for anything. Yet. Gerard Lemos the social researcher summed up our “hunting ground” admirably when looking at Fifteen London in 2008; everything he wrote applies equally to Cornwall… “Everybody knows the story; the kid from the broken home, mum and dad split up. Dad wasn’t there much or at all. Doesn’t do well at school, always in trouble. Things get worse at secondary school; hates Maths, English and Science; often absent, sometimes excluded. Courses at college don’t last long. Before long bad company and trouble with the police, maybe drugs and drink too. Then crime and a young offender institution. By now there’s a baby on the way and the whole cycle starts again. One response is “you need to talk about it”. With counselling and therapy you might move on and perhaps eventually “heal” but it’s a long shot. The second option is more practical; deal with your problems, get help to quit the drugs and booze; get some training and get a job and a flat. This approach doesn’t have a great track record either. The focus is on the problems not the person.

FIFTEEN CORNWALL

So, as well as instruction in the kitchen our purpose is to help our young apprentices to come to really believe in themselves and to know that whatever has gone on in their pasts can be left behind and that they can create very different, more positive futures for themselves. We trawl the county looking for them and are always establishing links with youth organizations, young offender institutions, schools and anyone who might be able to put the right kind of tricky customer our way. Grannies are good too! Many of our candidates get put forward by a loved one in their family who has watched them grow up and worried that they’ve never seemed that good at much or interested in much or just not happy enough - so they “volunteer” them! And we’re delighted to see them.

Sometimes interviews can seem like “anti interviewing” - deliberately not looking for the glowing list of achievements or the raft of qualifications but rather teasing out the problem areas, understanding where things went wrong along the way and maybe why. Just looking for that spark - looking for why they might need us or how much they “want it”…want us. And the selection process is wider than just an interview anyway - there are other assessments, a taste test, group exercises and a couple of days at “boot camp” - some outward bound style fun at a centre called Bishops Forum - where we get to take a look at how they work with each other and see what comes to the surface there that didn’t at interview. It is an inexact science so we get as many of the team here involved in order to get a broad sweep of opinion on what is always a very mixed bag of applicants. There is no magic formula. Nor can there be. We don’t always get it right. In fact we have never got it totally right. We have never got every apprentice through the course. And often we have to think of the “gang” as well as the individual - have we put together a group that will gel as a team and get the best out of each other as the year unfolds? Every cohort has been different in this regard and probably every group will always be that way.

All these approaches miss the point. The kids need to see themselves as people who have skills status and aspirations. They need, in other words, a brand new identity.”

The “People who do apprenticeships become ambitious, they’re doers, the kind of people who make things happen. Success is all about finding people like this - people who will help make any business grow, especially in times like these. It’s important that employers take apprenticeships seriously apprentices make things happen and can help a business grow and thrive.” Sir Alan Sugar

At the heart of the training Fifteen offers young people, is the belief that the best way to learn is to get stuck in and learn by doing. The Fifteen apprenticeship combines formal learning at Cornwall College and in our kitchen, visits to amazing food and wine producers in Cornwall, London and Italy, work experience in some of the best restaurants as well as working five shifts a week at Fifteen alongside our brigade of 20 professional full time chefs under the leadership of Executive Head Chef Neil Haydock and the constant direction of Training and Development Chef Karl Jones. We pay them £100 a week and they also get £30 a week from tips should they attend every shift - miss one and they miss out on the full £30. (Incidentally all tips at Fifteen Cornwall are shared amongst all staff apart from a small handful of management.) Crucial to the whole enterprise is the central and up-front role played by our friends at Cornwall College; the team there led by Don McKenzie - Head of Department and chef Tracy Page (ably supported by Nick Batten in the early days) get involved right at the recruitment stage to help us put every new cohort together. We are indebted to them for their hard work, time contribution and insights here without which we would be floundering in the very early stages.

Having helped us recruit over 20 a year they then take them to the Pool campus for all that basic NVQ 1 training five days a week for four months. Without that essential grounding we would have nothing to work with and would be handing our wonderful kitchen over to mayhem! More than that it was only through the college, led by the unique talents of Deputy Principal Debbie Wilshire, stepping up in the very early days that we got established at all. The newly formed Cornwall Foundation of Promise was unable to apply direct for the ESF co-financed funds that had been earmarked for Fifteen Cornwall by the LSC so College acted as the applicant and became the accountable body on our behalf - accepting responsibility for monitoring returns and meeting all the requirements attached to the funding. Day to day the immaculate services of Rebecca Isaacs and Sue McDonald were central in all this as were the student liaison capabilities of Pam Pracey. We are all the more grateful as we now experience having to do this work ourselves with the new Convergence funding! Thank you Cornwall College. The college remains involved after the first four months in getting the trainees through NVQ2 though of course we then welcome our new cohort into the kitchen at Watergate. It can be a shock to the system and it is worth taking a moment to consider the specifics of life in a busy kitchen - Gerard Lemos again… “Working in a kitchen means working co-operatively with each other to tight deadlines to achieve high quality outcomes. Without teamwork, chaos would ensue. But kitchens as well as being places of cooperation and team working, can also be angry places, full of tension, high emotion, dislikes, even hatreds. People who work in kitchens can go from being bosom buddies to being sworn enemies between lunch and dinner. These tensions are managed (though rarely resolved) partly through humour, often of a strikingly politically incorrect kind. Without a sense of humour as sharp as a kitchen knife survival is off the menu. A willingness to accept authority and hierarchy is essential – as is the capacity not to lose it completely. If you cannot cool the heat of the moment you won’t survive the heat of the kitchen.”

And alongside all that, the Foundation offers a range of social and welfare support to help the apprentices deal with the many issues that can get in the way of their learning. Matt Thomas - or “Welfare” as the trainees insist on calling him - spends his life, along with other outside agencies, being on hand to deal with the housing, debt, relationship, drug and alcohol issues that many of our young people have to deal with. The problem here of course is that old “squeaky wheel gets all the oil” thing one troubled apprentice can take up an inordinate amount of time and sometimes take our eye off the ball of all the rest who may be quietly getting on with life but always with troubles of their own. And we cannot leave this section without mentioning the entire team in the Bay who all get involved from time to time - a piece of advice here, a shoulder to cry on there - everyone is involved in this thing - Fifteen Cornwall is one organization. There is no reason why our “black hats” - the professional chefs in the kitchen - should be brilliant teachers, though naturally we try to employ them for that. It is a tribute to their patience, dedication and commitment to what Fifteen Cornwall is all about that they run such a professional and renowned kitchen with a group of, initially at least, tricky amateurs under their feet. Those who make it through and graduate will have achieved NVQ Levels 1 and 2 and have a year’s worth of experience working with us and at work placements with some of the best in the business. They will be far from the finished article when they leave us but they will have the tools and knowledge to move on and up in a competitive industry hungry for talented, passionate and hard working young chefs. The majority of our month long work placements at the end of their time with us end up as full time jobs, which says we must be doing something right with them. And let’s not forget those who ultimately decide not to continue in “cheffing,” we can live with that. We will have played some part in helping their transition from troubled adolescent to hopefully happier work ready young person; getting them up in the morning, getting them to understand what work is all about and that it has its benefits - like not living on benefits! 14

THE FIRST THOUSAND DAYS

FIFTEEN CORNWALL

Before we go on to look at how we’re doing it’s worth taking a look at the national context in which we operate; perhaps the most authoritative and certainly the most accessible recent study was that sponsored by The Prince’s Trust in 2007 and undertaken by the Centre for Economic Performance at the LSE. It is titled “The Cost of Exclusion” and explores just that - looking not at the cost of what we do but the costs that will be incurred if organisations such as ourselves don’t do what we do. As the report suggests by re-energizing young people and helping them to turn their lives around we can save the UK economy billions each year. Billions. Reducing youth unemployment by one percentage point could save over £32 million in terms of youth crime avoided. The report explains that…

“social exclusion comes with a big price tag not only for the individual young people that are affected but for their communities and the economy as well. And the costs go beyond the financial; there are also hard to quantify costs such as the loss of potential and the long term emotional toll of unfulfilled ambitions.” The key facts that emerge painting a backdrop of robust data to what we do at Fifteen are… 18

THE FIRST THOUSAND DAYS

FIFTEEN CORNWALL

The cost of youth unemployment…

The cost of youth crime…

So, how are we doing?

9% of 16-24 year olds unemployed in England in 2005 but the numbers classified as NEET (not in education, training or employment) is twice as high…the UK compares very poorly with other European countries in this respect.

Estimated total cost of youth crime in 2004 for UK - in excess of £1 billion.

What are the facts and figures on apprenticeships at Fifteen Cornwall?

The productivity cost to the economy as a result of this inactivity is £10 million every day.

The rate of imprisonment in the UK is higher than in 12 other European countries and England and Wales also has the highest percentage of prisoners under 18 and the second highest percentage between 18 and 21.

The following graphs show what has happened across the first three years of our operation and maybe gives a pretty fair steer of how things may continue. Basically we look to interview around 100 a year and take as many as 30 into college, hoping that say 20 of them make it into the kitchen and eventually we graduate the eponymous 15. We never have but we come close.

And it costs the exchequer around £20 million per week in Job Seekers allowance. So, potentially there is something like £90 million a week to be “saved” - this makes effective interventions such as those made by our programme, aimed at helping young people become economically active, extremely good value for money. And there is evidence from both the UK and the USA that there is a “wage penalty” from youth unemployment even if the individuals avoid being unemployed again. Greg and Tolney (2004) estimate a negative impact of 12-15% on an individual’s wages by the age of 42. In the USA Mroz and Sabage (2006) estimate that a 26 week unemployment spell at age 22 results in an earnings loss of around $1,500 at age 26 and around $1,100 at age 30 - a lower but still significant percentage compared with the UK.

Prisoners are 13 times as likely to have been in care as a child, 13 times as likely to be unemployed and 10 times as likely to have been a regular truant.

This is precisely the area in which Fifteen Cornwall focuses its recruitment – such figures are no surprise to us; around half of our trainees have formally had “brushes with the law” and more specifically four of our apprentices in Cohorts 1, 2 and 3 had spent time in prison with five others staring it in the face had they not managed to knuckle down to work with us – nine youngsters seeing the kitchen as last chance saloon.

The costs involved here are colossal and so the savings we can make in our small way remarkably significant; the costs to the criminal justice system of sending a young offender to a Young Offender Institution was £47,000 at 2002 levels and a year in a Secure Training Centre a whopping £130,000 per prisoner.

Say our nine young offenders had troubled the authorities for a year rather than troubled our chefs the total costs to society could have been anywhere between £430,000 and over £1 million.

10 20 8 15 6 10

2006

2007

2008

2009

2007

2008

2009

Recruited to college

Graduated

Changed career

Recruited to kitchen

Still cheffing

Unemployed

(N.B. 2008 was a deliberately smaller intake to enable us to re-structure future recruitment)

So why do some disappear? They simply do; it’s a fact of life. Some fall by the wayside and would do so in any recruiting exercise. Some just find it all too gruelling, some find it’s not for them. For some a personal relationship and even pregnancy enters the frame, some go back to their old ways and simply can’t hack it because drugs or booze lead to too much chaos in their lives again. Naturally we work with those going through a tricky time and perhaps win through with half of them; the other half leave or are asked to leave if we really aren’t on the same wavelength and there appears no prospect of ever being so. In the first couple of years of the programme the “UA” - unauthorised absence - was much to the fore in our disciplinary process; get seven UAs and you were automatically off the programme; basically you decided you weren’t going to bother going in that day and nor were you going to bother telling anyone that.

Can’t run a kitchen that way. Can’t run a life that way. “The key to graduating is turning up” is how Lucien - one of London’s training chefs so neatly put it and he’s right but of course that simple ethic goes way beyond graduation - it’s kind of the key to life too! The UA still exists but we work much harder now on understanding what’s behind the UA. Some would say we’ve gone soft but on Cohort 3 there were two who would have been flung off in earlier years but who were persevered with and who came through with flying colours; going soft can deliver some hard results.

At last year’s graduation Ben Lindsay was one of our youngest - just 16 when he joined the programme. Interestingly one of the reasons we haven’t taken the easy route of only starting recruitment at 18 years of age is Ben - he’s a cracking example of what the kids at the younger end of the spectrum can do when they get involved with Fifteen. This is what Ben had to say in the Graduation brochure in 2008… “I’d been wasting time and doing nothing before I joined Fifteen Cornwall. I knew I needed to change, and applying to Fifteen Cornwall seemed like the perfect opportunity. My only goal at that point was to stick with the course and graduate, but now I’ve succeeded in that, I realise that I’ve learned loads more than I expected to - that I can do anything if I try, that I can help others to achieve their goals and that I can make my family and friends proud of me. It has been tough at times, with long hours and really early shifts, but being awarded Trainee of the Month made me really proud of myself. Before I came to Fifteen Cornwall, I had no self-respect or confidence, and now I have - I’m a different person. I’m hoping to have my own restaurant in the future, but right now I’d like to spend some time travelling and exploring other countries.“

A year later and Ben is back on his home turf in Falmouth pretty much running the show some nights at award winning Gylly Beach Café, another of the great restaurants springing up around the Cornish coast. “I worked here as a teenager, since then it’s become much more successful and they took me back just two days after I graduated; I’m Chef de Partie now and find myself running the place most evenings - we’re building up for the summer season now - had 107 in Thursday night. Just great!

New boss Richard Painter has this to say: “After completing his training at Camborne college and Fifteen, Ben returned to us not just a chef but a young man who had remarkably changed,the transformation has been incredible, he now has the passion and enthusiasm to produce and create great food, he hold’s his own with everyone else in the kitchen - how things change…he’s a credit to Fifteen, the college and himself.”

Going back still further to our very first graduation up at Eden in June 2007 this is what Ashley Channon had to say…sound familiar?

And coming right up to date this is what Arron Edwards had to say about his time with us:

This is what Ashley had to say then...

Before joining Fifteen Cornwall, I’d worked on and off in the restaurant industry in Falmouth, but I’d been in trouble with the police a fair bit and my life was going in the wrong direction.

“I really needed some direction in my life - I was unemployed, doing nothing and in danger of getting into trouble. Now, after Fifteen Cornwall, I’ve got a path to follow. The most surprising things I’ve learnt about myself are how hard-working I am and how much constructive criticism I can take. It’s been hard being away from my family and friends, but I’ve learned to be independent - running my own section in the kitchen on the student evenings showed me how far I’ve come in that respect. I really have turned my life around and wised up. Going to New York for a week was just amazing. I’m going back there for my work placement and again after graduation, to work at Nick and Toni’s in the Hamptons. As far as long term plans go, I’m just working towards becoming an amazing chef and proving to the world that I’ve got what it takes.”

Today Ashley speaks from the vibrant Rumours restaurant in Totnes where he is Chef de Parti… “I’ve had a great time here at Rumours; just over a year now.

On a busy weekend we can do over a hundred covers a night so the experience of handling those kind of numbers at Fifteen has stood me in good stead - it doesn’t just teach you how to cook, it shows you how to handle that kind of pressure when you’re out there in the real world. I’m not sure what I’ll do next or where that might be but it’ll definitely be in cheffing and I’m so grateful to Fifteen and the gang here at Rumours for helping me along the way; I hope I’ve delivered for them.“

The course has been brilliant for me - I’ve learned to control my temper and think before I react, so my days of getting into trouble are over. I was always quite negative about things, but Fifteen has made me a positive person, and that makes a massive difference. I’ve achieved so much with Fifteen Cornwall. I’ve got all my NVQ qualifications, and I’ve overcome some difficult personal problems - my family can see that I’m on the road to real success and they’re happy for me. Would I recommend the course to others? I already have - my friend is on the 2009/2010 course, and he’s loving it. I’d really like to come back to Fifteen Cornwall some day to help train people like me and give them the opportunities I’ve been given here.

One of our latest success stories. Arron had been on placement on Scilly for just a few days in April when the head chef at the Hell Bay hotel rang to tell us he wanted to offer him a Commis Chef position…we were delighted. Two days later he rang back to rescind the offer. Oh dear. The reason? He wanted to offer Arron the more senior and better paid position of chef de partie. What a result! Arron says: “I love it over here, I seem to fit in pretty well, I’ve found my own space.”

He’s also found himself a career. Brilliant.

We love it here!

THE FIRST THOUSAND DAYS

FIFTEEN CORNWALL

We know people who have eaten at all four Fifteens but who have no hesitation in picking us as their favourite; we are blessed with the location, spoilt by our suppliers and built around a wonderful team. By and large the county increasingly comfortable with and accepting of tourism and hospitality as a source of “real” jobs is proud to have us on its patch. And every other county or city wants a Fifteen. At the heart of our relationship with Cornwall and the people who live and work here are our local supplier networks; our first 1000 days have seen us spend nearly £3 million pounds with 27 local suppliers from household names like Rodda’s and St. Austell Brewery to one man or one woman operations who provide us with the most obscure of ingredients. 81% of our expenditure goes to local operators the rest going to Italy to source those Italian essentials that are the mainstay of our food offer, our menus and recipes.

THE FIRST THOUSAND DAYS

FIFTEEN CORNWALL

Funky leaves Responsible purchasing can sound pretty boring but local sourcing at Fifteen is an exciting and daily thrill; deliveries of produce from the best in the county dictate that day’s menu. Its arrival an exciting part of the day whilst drastically minimizing “food miles” in the process. We write the menus twice a day - one for lunch and one for dinner - once the chef has seen what has been brought to our door - what has been caught, picked or just become available locally that day. An unusual way to run a business but a fun one and an approach that shows our fundamental dedication to local sourcing and seasonal sourcing.

They call it “supply chain management”

we call it making friends… 28

“Working closely with Fifteen Cornwall since their opening day has benefited both our businesses. Weekly chats with Neil and working closely with his team of very enthusiastic and knowledgeable chefs has allowed us to build a brand based on a unique and sought after range of very tasty organically grown crops using lots of heirloom varieties that have often been lost to modern farming methods. For instance our leaves and micro leaves developed with Fifteen Cornwall have recently been used by Michelin three star holder Heston Blumenthal in his TV series Feast. A real joy has also been the visits of the students to our farms where they get to harvest and cook alfresco, learn about organic growing and try things like ploughing with horses. We think that we maybe a bit special but we know that Fifteen Cornwall are very special.” Robert Hocking & Sean O’Neill: www.funkyleaves.co.uk www.keveral.co.uk www.buttervilla.com

THE FIRST THOUSAND DAYS

FIFTEEN CORNWALL

Let’s hear it for the herd! “In 2006 my one woman business was undoubtedly just ambling along - I had a few wholesale customers and attended a couple of farmers’ markets. A chance encounter on the computer one evening resulted in an email to Neil, an immediate response to provide him with some samples of our produce and an order ready for the opening on 18th May 2006.

Hook, line and sinker “Its been a great three years working with Neil and the team at Fifteen Cornwall. Spending time with the students both on the market visits and working with them in the factory on a one to one basis. The farmers’ markets have been fun!!! A highlight has been working with head chef Neil on sustainability and seasonal fish something that he is passionate about.

Since that time we have expanded every aspect of the business which has included an investment of some £70K - our pig numbers have doubled to 200 or so, we have purchased new land and built two large buildings, there are now five/six employed on a full time/part time basis, our wholesale customer base has increased by over 400%, new processing rooms, walk in chiller and a new chiller van have all been purchased. This has also directly resulted in our spend within Cornwall increasing substantially - food and agricultural merchants, butchery, abattoir, packaging, advertising etc. We have also built up a network of like minded farmers/smallholders who have a guaranteed outlet for their stock at above commercial prices which is helping to preserve the rarest of our native animals.

I am looking forward to continuing being part of this fantastic concept and a small part of the students’ future training supplying my mate Jamie Oliver.”

None of this would have happened without the support and encouragement of Neil and his staff who really took a chance that we would be able to consistently provide the volume and quality of meat they wanted to use.”

Matthew Stevens: www.mstevensandson.co.uk

Sally Lugg of Primrose Herd: www.primroseherd.co.uk

And raise a pint to St. Austell Brewery “Now more so than ever companies have to be conscious of their Corporate Social Responsibilities. Fifteen Cornwall is a great example of how you can both be socially responsible and at the same time run a successful business. Not only that they are an excellent standard bearer for Cornwall and its high quality range of locally produced food and drink. A true win-win for everybody concerned with that partnership.” James Staughton – Managing Director St. Austell Breweries: www.staustellbrewery.co.uk

And a last word from the head of Cornwall Enterprise “Although it has a celebrity founder, Fifteen Cornwall is fast establishing itself as a star in its own right. Fifteen Cornwall won the Best New Business Award at our Cornwall Business Awards 2008, which is the latest in a string of awards for a young company which has, in some ways, become an emblem for the optimism and free - thinking approach that’s welling up among Cornwall’s business community.” John Berry, Cornwall Enterprise: www.cornwallenterprise.co.uk 30

THE FIRST THOUSAND DAYS

FIFTEEN CORNWALL

But Cornwall has its downside too We live every day with travel challenges and accommodation problems. Our friends at Fifteen London never quite get it when we talk about our transport challenges; they give their trainees an Oyster Card and there on the doorstep are Boris’s buses and there’s the tube - easy public transport virtually any time of day. Down here it’s slightly different and we remain hugely dependent on our local taxi services. Our apprentices arrive at eight and often don’t leave until midnight, seven days a week all year round. “Get on your bike” as that politician famously said, and some do, but Cornwall’s travel infrastructure does us no favours. We encourage our apprentices to live closer to us. Not easy. Not cheap. But we will never discriminate against the lad from Launceston nor the girl from Porthleven; we just wish we could shrink the county sometimes. But despite the downside, to work in such an environment anywhere would be a winner; to be able to do so in Cornwall, on that beach makes it one of the best places to work in the world.

And it doesn’t stop there; a business like ours naturally spends with local suppliers right across the board not just the foodie players. Transport providers and accommodation providers all feel our presence. Office supplies, IT, construction, media and marketing all benefit from our high profile presence here. This report was written, artworked, photographed and printed all in Cornwall.

So here we are smugly looking out of our windows at the sunset, staggering into the gales on the beach, kidding ourselves the water’s not really that cold today.

We wouldn’t be anywhere else and we’re grateful to the county for making us feel so welcome.

Many economic impact studies make much of somewhat spurious “multipliers” claiming endless jobs created, typically ignoring the double or even triple counting that always attends such overclaims. We will not make such claims in such difficult economic times. What we do know is that there is a world class business sitting on the top of that beach which simply wasn’t there three years ago and it is a business with 60 on the payroll at time of writing with an average age of 31. (This not including the apprentices.) That’s a wage bill of just under £1 million in the restaurant. Real, genuinely measurable economic impact, affecting 60 young lives. A performance that led to us winning Best New Business at the Cornwall Business Awards in 2008.

We are proud of what we have contributed to the county and delighted to be here. It is a location that takes some beating - the jog on the beach, the surf before or after work or even between shifts, the sunset swim. Life could be worse. 32

THE FIRST THOUSAND DAYS

So what are we doing well at Fifteen Cornwall? Well the simple things Like flushing the loos with water from a 3000ltr grey water tank. Like our super whizzy windows combining the fantastic insulation of double glazing in winter with a solar reflective capacity to keep things cool in summer. There are no radiators.

Back to those Social Enterprise credentials again - trying to square the triangle of social, financial and environmental objectives. All the foregoing has explored our social and financial impact, what of our effect on the environment?

Not bad. As a high profile social enterprise we are often being invited to expound publicly on our green credentials; we are slightly reluctant to do so, not because we have anything to hide but because there is much more we would still like to do before we go and crow about it.

FIFTEEN CORNWALL

The way we work with food is where we really make a difference though. Our aggressive local sourcing means that nothing burns up much carbon getting to us - if we can find it on our doorstep we do. And if currently it has to come from further afield - like Italy - we’re working towards the day when it won’t have to. Where possible it’s largely organic though not necessarily - life’s not that simple - and virtually all our fish is line caught now.

Like our lighting - all low energy LED or dimmable bulbs which we only run at 100% when the restaurant is being cleaned.

We try to recycle everything but still too much of our food waste is going to landfill…which is unforgiveable really. We’re working on it. Right now. And we have clever sinks which harvest the oils and fats as they wash and it is then removed and solidified overnight so it never gets into the waste water system or on to the beach.

And linked to all that there’s a heating system that isn’t really a heating system at all but an airflow system which passes outside air over all our hot pipes and then adds a 30% top up from the heat from the kitchen.

In December 2008 we had an audit of the potential for renewable energy in the Bay by our friends at EDF Energy and Mitie - we are well endowed with wind, water and sun…most days of the year. Often all on the same day!

All sorts of good things that help us tread lightly on the planet…day in, day out.

Wind power is not as easy as everybody says it is, nor as productive, but sun on that nice big roof is a seductive prospect. And the best of the bunch is the water power from that stream under the restaurant that just pours pound notes into the sea every day - tailor-made for hydo-electric power from a “reverse Archimedes screw” we’re told! So we’re on it!

That said our utility bills are still monstrous and rising…over £40,000 a year. £17,000 of that on gas for the cooking…electricity another £13,000 and water another £11,000…cooking takes a lot of water too.

Watch this space.

There was a party of schoolchildren in, which was wonderful to see - they made for a very special atmosphere! Breakfast | 04/03/09

We have never been to any restaurant other than 15 where the staff were more knowledgeable! Scallops are a sensation! We will be back. Dinner | 26/02/09

It takes a lot for my husband to be impressed by food - as he says “I object to paying for food I could produce better myself” and don’t get him started on restaurant wine prices! But even he was impressed, so it must have been good. Our youngest fell asleep just as we arrived and the staff brought us some seats to put him on so we could enjoy our meal in peace - even better! Just wish we lived close and could visit again. Lunch | 20/07/08

Great food, great view, great service. Fine dining at an affordable price. We came for a special occasion but will start to come once a month or so. Excellent! Lunch | 25/02/09

We had a fantastic time, the staff were first class as was the food. We will recommend it to everyone we know and meet. Dinner | 10/08/08

So how well does the restaurant work? Really?

Love the deals you email to us. We have taken up two so far despite living 260 miles away! The Totally Cornish lunch and the Tuscan lunch both of which were superb value. Looking forward to May more. Thanks.

We’ve just got home from our holiday and all agree that Fifteen was one of the highlights. The location is spectacular. Lunch | 03/08/08

Lunch | 02/02/09 All the foregoing seems to take for granted a restaurant second to none.

It is. Under Executive Head Chef Neil Haydock and General Manager Polly Dent the young and hugely committed team have made Fifteen Cornwall a powerhouse on the Cornish, national and even international restaurant scene. If they weren’t getting something right people wouldn’t come, they certainly wouldn’t come back and they wouldn’t recommend us to their friends.

They do. And so do the media and industry judges.

We have been named Best Italian Restaurant in the UK by the Observer and twice awarded Best Restaurant Location by the Observer Food Monthly. In 2007 we won gold in the South West Tourism Awards and went on to win the UK final in Liverpool. 36

An article in The Times in May 2008 by top food writer Jill Dupleix sums it up better than we ever could…

“Fifteen has energy, style, self confidence, great food, wine, cocktails and coffee…every staff member and student I met sparkled with pride. The place is irresistible.” We’ll settle for that! But also just see what some diners have bothered to say about us in our regular diner feedback monitor.

We’ve been raving about our visit to friends. Hope you get custom from them as a result. We liked the farewell to Tomas from Brittany, it showed genuine team spirit and concern for employees. Lunch | 10/01/09

We really enjoyed the ambience, it was so relaxed yet professional. The waiting staff were really friendly and personable. Food was lovely and we were pleasantly surprised at the prices real value for money. Please open a ‘Fifteen’ in the Midlands! Lunch | 24/08/08

And we couldn’t finish without somebody who finished with us!!!

The meal was beautiful, but the Italian apricots dessert was like nothing I’d had before - absolutely awe-inspiring, with all the flavours complementing each other perfectly. Even though my girlfriend at the time and myself split up over this meal, I still went away feeling like a million bucks! 37

FAQs

THE FIRST THOUSAND DAYS

Where’s Jamie?

Why all this Italian business?

How do you fit in with Jamie’s Italian?

The short answer to that is “busy!” And pretty busy globally these days as he takes his own particular “brand” to the world; and good luck to him we say. The fact remains that Fifteen was Jamie’s idea and that it is still where his heart is - he has a genuine interest in what all four Fifteens are up to and his London office is just around the corner from them up there; sadly he’s that bit more distant, geographically, from us down here.

Anyone familiar with Jamie, his books and his TV series will be aware of his love for all things Italian; this has been carried through to the offer at all four Fifteens and the chefs get together regularly to share thinking on the food we present. Obviously it didn’t have to be this way though we share Jamie’s enthusiasm for some of the finest cooking on earth. We also love the relationships that we have been able to build with Italian suppliers some of whom host our apprentices’ trips to Puglia and Tuscany each year.

Or, rather how do they fit in with us we were here first!

He remains heavily involved as a Trustee of the Fifteen Foundation and can still influence what we do in any sphere of our operations; and of course he’s always worth listening to! His own organisation keeps us posted on all their planning and we do likewise though there are no financial links, nor any restrictive or overly - formal lines of management between us.

But surely he takes a bob or two out? No, nor has he ever; of course Jamie has a number of quite smart money making ventures but Fifteen is not one of them – as a registered charity it couldn’t be anyway. Making the best of people’s lives was at the forefront of his visionary Fifteen thinking not making money. We do pay a very reasonable “franchise” fee to the Foundation in London every year which is based on our turnover. It’s our contribution to the running of that Fifteen Club and of course for the very valuable association that we gain from Jamie’s name.

Well The Hotel must? No, though they are very much part of the Fifteen family here in the Bay and yes, we do buy some services from them, like marketing, finance, waste disposal and security which makes a lot of sense given the way that Watergate Bay works. Naturally there is a great business synergy between us too – people dine with us and stay at the hotel or dine with us during their stay at the hotel. It works for us both. And we both work at making it work. Will Ashworth - the hotel proprietor sits as a non-exec director on the Fifteen Cornwall board and doesn’t take a penny for sharing his expertise with us.

Explain this white hat / black hat thing to me again? Easy. The apprentices wear white hats and the professional chefs wear black ones. Some people think that the whole place is run by the apprentices. No! Though towards the end of their time with us we certainly put their talents to the test. It’s a balance between all that youthful enthusiasm and the steady hand on the tiller of an experienced and very talented brigade of full time professional chefs to make it all work seamlessly; typically you’ll see half a dozen of each working together in the kitchen. Sometimes white hats come back later in their career as black hats.

Haven’t you left some apprentices high and dry? This comes up occasionally, perhaps vaguely understandably, when we ask one of the apprentices to leave the course; this is never done quickly or with any relish but if we hang on to apprentices who are showing no aptitude and, more importantly, no commitment to the programme then we devalue the scheme and do them no favours either. Typically it takes a long time to be thrown off and there a trustee appeal system in place too. And then they are never left “high and dry.” Working with other agencies we try to set them up after they leave in terms of support, accommodation, counselling and so on; who would operate any other way? We have given them a chance…a unique chance… if they choose to walk away from that, and that is effectively what they are doing, then we can only work with them to make that goodbye as handleable as possible.

That relationship is developing and could lead to all sorts of interesting places in terms of work placements and opportunities later on. Right now there are four in Bath, Brighton, Kingston and Oxford and all are doing extremely well despite the problems we all know on the high street. Jamie’s vision, the strength and simplicity of the offer and the quality of the management and operations team have seen to that, as have these “sexy” locations. Originally we were a little concerned at how the public would see these vis a vis the two UK based Fifteens clearly they were led by Jamie but they had to be seen as different. So far so good. There are many examples out there of brands which can successfully co-exist under one “brand umbrella” so people see the JI’s as a different operation to Fifteen, still offering great cooking at a more “high street” price point which suits the more casual bite, whilst out shopping or going to the cinema or any other less “planned” eating experiences than a visit to Watergate would be. They have none of our specific training remit though have obviously set out be great places to work and learn. We look forward to a more formal relationship between us emerging over time.

Are we getting one down here? Not as far as we know and they keep us abreast of what plans they have; you can imagine what their shopping list of city centre sites looks like for future openings.

Why do you only do that fixed menu thing in the evenings? It’s all about showcasing the best that we can do and the variety of that gives the apprentices the repetition they need to learn (whilst lunchtime is more changeable) and gives our front of house team lots to talk about! In doing all that it adds a fine dining element to Jamie’s typically more relaxed style and offers a real night out in our wonderful surroundings.

FIFTEEN CORNWALL

And financially of course it makes sense - offering a fine dining experience at a more upmarket price than our other two offers - lunch and breakfast. An apprentice chef working a split shift will actually get to experience the whole gamut of what we do all on that one day.

Surely it’s unfair to just focus so strongly on young offenders? Well, actually we don’t, but, yes, that’s roughly where Jamie started with that TV series, so that’s the pool we fished in to start with. That’s what caught the public’s imagination…and ours. We like a challenge and if we don’t deliberately go for the trickier customers, who else will? There are endless organisations out there set up, and funded, to train the average young person (or even the smart one) from a stable background, whilst the others are left to fall by the wayside. So not all of our gang are offenders, far from it, but they all haven’t had it easy and yes, they are all young. Youth is our comfort zone if you like and some of our funding and our charitable status dictates that we concentrate on this challenging age group - we’re happy with that and would now find it odd to expand out from that age cohort . Everything we do, including our recruitment stance, is targeted that way and perhaps a major element of our “brand” personality is a youthful cheekiness. We’re comfortable, and effective, here.

Why don’t you book for breakfast? We just thought it would be nice to have a simple casual experience of eating at Fifteen that you could just walk up for; a few people would have preferred to book, but the vast majority are happy to just pop in between 8.30am and 10.00am and get a sizzling flavour of what we’re all about. And we don’t need our staff to handle reservations, nor any fancy IT back up. It works.

But don’t just take our word for it! In early 2008 an independent analysis of what we do was carried out on behalf of the European Social Fund by independent research company / management consultants Perfect Moment. Basically we gave them carte blanche to crawl all over us and talk to whoever they required in order to provide an independent analysis of what we do. Their deliberations resulted in a 38 page report in February 2008 - towards the end of Cohort 2‘s time with us.

We cannot go into too much detail here but a summary of their analysis follows. At the end of each of the following four major sections we have allowed ourselves a short response to how the world of Fifteen has moved on since their valuable deliberations of early 2008…

Outputs and outcomes Fifteen Cornwall has been one of the most publicised and ‘monitored’ of all the European projects in Cornwall over the past five years. It was launched in a blaze of publicity in early 2006 and has been in the media spotlight ever since. This frequent, informal monitoring has provided a body of evidence as to how the Project has been viewed locally, regionally and nationally - which has been very positive - and this has certainly not done the restaurant any harm in advertising its existence, location and emphasising its USP. Inevitably however media coverage has a tendency to simplify and sensationalise. We thought it worthwhile to take the headlines and look beyond them to try to ascertain quite what the Project has achieved.

“Transforming lives” The Project has changed the lives of many young people. The Fifteen Project has not only created a group of new chefs from amongst the most disaffected and needy young people in Cornwall, it has also created a general awareness that nobody is beyond help and, amongst an encouraging number of Cornwall’s NEETs, it has generated a willingness to consider learning and work as an option . What we found from our interviews and meetings with the current apprentices was a group of enthusiastic, articulate, communicative and committed individuals who all had a determination to complete the course, graduate and do something with their lives. The odds, it seems, were against them but many are likely to win through.

“A taste for learning” The Project has succeeded in getting young people back into learning We understand that the first cohort of apprentices who entered fulltime learning at Cornwall College in March 2006 met with a significant degree of scepticism and some prejudice from students and staff, - so we have been told by College representatives. The situation, we are pleased to say, was much better by the time that Cohort 2 arrived at College. Thanks to the intensive support and mentoring offered by the College and the watchful eye of the Foundation most of the first cohort demonstrated a willingness to learn, qualify and get working at Fifteen Cornwall. Their perseverance and subsequent success has attracted a lot of publicity which has generated a lot of applications and encouraged agencies to refer people to the Project.

Most interestingly it has encouraged the friends of apprentices to seek to follow their friend’s example, as we discovered was the case with several members of Cohort 2.

“Oliver’s army” The Project has increased the demand for welltrained, qualified staff in the catering and hospitality industry in Cornwall. An apprenticeship at Fifteen Cornwall is not an easy option and involves a lot of hard work in a high pressure environment. Apprentices are subject to daily assessments and have to achieve the required high standards regularly in all sections of the kitchen. They also have to record everything they’ve done on a daily basis and have it rated and commented on by their supervising chef. These daily sheets are the subject of weekly reviews between apprentice and the Training and Development Chef and contribute to their final grading. The Project has already attracted the recognition of the hospitality and catering trade in Cornwall and beyond. Most of those who have graduated from Fifteen Cornwall have had little problem in finding work locally if they have wanted it. It appears that it does no harm to your business to have a Fifteen graduate working for you. Many of the graduates however have shown an interest in working further afield to broaden their experience. Once again it appears that a graduate from Fifteen Cornwall is recognised, for positive reasons, as a worthwhile acquisition.

“Beautiful place” The Project has helped increase and broaden tourism. The success of Fifteen Cornwall has undoubtedly increased and widened Cornwall’s tourist base. Many of the restaurant’s users have travelled to Cornwall specifically to use the restaurant and there is evidence of an increase in food tourism and a demand for good quality service and food. “Our surveys show that people see coming to Cornwall for food and restaurants as important as going to the beach – it is an integral part of tourism. Food, tourism and agriculture – all of which are involved in Fifteen Cornwall – make up half of Cornwall’s economy so this project can only be a positive boost for the region.” Head of Visit Cornwall.

“New horizons”

The hospitality and catering industry is a priority sector for SWRDA, the regional development agency. The Fifteen restaurant has certainly attracted more tourists to Cornwall, many of whom are seeking a range of high grade, good quality accommodation and food experiences whilst visiting the county. The image, quality and purpose of the restaurant, which has been widely publicised and discussed in the broadsheets and lifestyle magazines, has also added to Cornwall’s “offer” and helped improve the general image of Cornwall’s hotel and catering industry and made it a more attractive sector to work in.

“All the right ingredients” The Project has developed a sustainable programme that will continue to produce results. The success of Fifteen Cornwall has demonstrated that the original model developed by the Fifteen Foundation and franchises can bring results and success elsewhere. The Cornwall Foundation of Promise was established in part to ensure that the momentum and early success achieved in Cornwall could be sustained largely through the re-investment of the restaurant’s profits in the Fifteen training scheme and also to develop alternative but similar opportunities for young people should resources allow. This process is now underway.

“Sustainable Fifteen Cornwall” The Project has pioneered a variety of environmental safeguards. Fifteen Cornwall has been committed to protecting the environment from its inception. Many of the practices it uses are innovative and it aims to promote and encourage recycling beyond the restaurant.

“Food for thought” The Project has showcased and promoted good quality local produce. Fifteen Cornwall is committed to local sourcing of ingredients. Not only does this cut down on energy use and transport, it also promotes local produce. As with its environmental policies the restaurant users are made very aware of Fifteen’s practices and their benefits and value – not least to the local economy.

The Project has helped up-grade restaurant standards and consumer demands.

“Hungry for success”

Process and innovation

Counselling

Management of unauthorised absence

The Project has created awareness of the value of qualifications.

The change the Project has effected on those who have stayed the course has been marked and remarkable - but this has come at a cost and has required much effort and special support. Many of the practices that have proven successful were learnt from the Fifteen London experience - the delivery team paid study visits to Fifteen London, but a number of additional initiatives and practices have been developed locally.

The Foundation appointed a Welfare Manager to support the Training and Development Chef. This has taken much of the burden of welfare and pastoral care responsibilities off the Training and Development Chef. It has provided immediate access for apprentices to someone with relevant experience and the qualities required to deal with the personal and social problems they may be faced with and who can offer the appropriate form of help quickly and unobtrusively to enable the apprentice to continue to meet their work obligations. The Welfare Officer has also been an important link with the kitchen and restaurant staff when sensitive matters need communicating properly.

Absenteeism has been a massive and recurring problem for the Project. This has been reduced significantly by the use of pre-booked taxis but the average number of days absent per apprentice is higher than would be tolerated by most businesses. The Project has a clear absenteeism policy that places responsibility on the apprentice to inform the Project, by telephone and in good time, if they are unable to attend work for whatever reason. Failing to do so results in them recorded as being unauthorised absent. The Project, quite leniently, tolerates seven such occurrences. Any further failures results in dismissal.

There is clear evidence that the apprentices themselves value the worth of qualifications. Many of them had no qualifications at all when they enrolled on the scheme. There is a palpable sense of pride amongst the apprentices in acquiring an NVQ level 1 certificate and a collective determination to succeed in acquiring the NVQ level 2 qualification as well as “graduating” from Fifteen Cornwall. A number of apprentices stated that they wished to continue to work towards NVQ level 3 and had ideas about other qualifications they could pursue.

“Recipe for success”

We discussed the current practices and policies with the apprentices who were at the restaurant in January 2008. We also undertook a series of interviews with members of the delivery team to understand how they have gone about their job and how they have adopted and adapted practices to suit the situation.

The Project has had a significant impact on the immediate locality and beyond.

We have been able to identify a number of critical factors in the success that is Fifteen Cornwall.

The demand and value of property in the Watergate Bay area has changed dramatically since the news of the opening of the Fifteen Cornwall restaurant first broke. This trend has continued. It has met with mixed reactions however and there are fears expressed in some quarters that the Bay will become just too exclusive. The impact of Fifteen Cornwall on nearby Newquay is also being felt and generally this has been well received. There is much anecdotal evidence around that Fifteen has contributed to a change in the image of Newquay and helped accelerate its economic regeneration and transformation. “Newquay is becoming hipper, trendier, livelier and more exciting than it has ever been before.” Arguably Newquay’s revitalisation began with the opening of the Eden Project at the Millennium. However Fifteen continues to be bracketed with the Eden Project as a major driver of change. “Fifteen Cornwall and the Eden Project and a variety of businesses, for example food businesses, have raised our profile both nationally and internationally and provide tangible evidence of the emergence of a forward looking economic agenda for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.”

Attitude of staff and tutors

“Chance of a lifetime” The Project has helped re-establish the concept and value of “apprenticeships” in the minds of policy makers, funders and the private sector. It has likely increased the interest and demand for apprentices.

We are in no doubt that the relationship between the delivery team and the participants is the most critical factor. The attitude, understanding and accessibility of staff and tutors have been of immense value to the apprentices. It was important that staff had clear roles and responsibilities that were understood by the apprentices. It was important too that the holders of these key posts had the appropriate experiences and an understanding of the type of background and issues facing apprentices. The close working together of staff and tutors and a consistency of approach has also been significant.

Strong working relationship between Foundation and College The College and the Foundation have maintained a close working relationship at both management level as well as operational level. The College is a member of the Cornwall Foundation of Promise, which has served as the Project Steering Group. The two bodies have shared the targets and outputs and met regularly to discuss progress, issues etc via Operational Team meetings and an Advisory Funding Group. These sub-groups have ensured key members of the delivery team meet regularly together with a shared agenda. The staff of Fifteen have also spent regular time in College working alongside tutors and supporting students. Mutual respect and understanding has developed through close working practices. This close working relationship has enabled the Fifteen programme to develop and evolve.

Access to specialist advisers The Project has developed a network of specialist advisors who can be called on when required to deal with the more specialised advice, counselling and support that is required on occasions. The Project has organised the counselling largely through Freshfields counselling services, which specialises in drug and alcohol abuse. The Project has also made good use of counsellors who specialise in anger management.

Transport help The ability to ensure apprentices get to their place of work on time and ready to start work is vital. It was thought at the beginning that a mini-bus might provide the solution, but the home location and spread of the apprentices around the county negated this option. The chosen solution was to pre-book and hire taxis to collect all apprentices from their home town/village and deliver them to work on time. This has been a very expensive solution but the most practical and expedient one. The Project has been lucky over the past two years to access additional funds to cover the cost of taxis. This funding source (the Extended Learner Fund) is coming to an end. Whether the Project can sustain travel costs at the current level is currently being debated. We have no doubt however that the Project taking on the cost and responsibility for getting apprentices to work has made a big difference to performance and achievement. To try to reduce the costs the Project established the Fifteen House in Newquay. Five apprentices, without dependents, have been able to live closer to the restaurant and able to share taxis to work when shift patterns dictate. This has helped reduce travel costs but it has brought its own problems.

Recruitment process Fifteen Cornwall has now (January 2008) gone through the recruitment process for a third time. Evidence is beginning to suggest that around two thirds of the final 20 candidates can be expected to complete the course and graduate. The recruitment process follows the guidelines established in London and explores the candidates’ interest, understanding of food and catering, and looks for a “spark” of interest and enthusiasm. The apprentices themselves report that the recruitment process seemed very fair and participant-friendly to them (though, of course, they were the successful candidates). They all thought the application form an easy one to complete; most found the interview nervewracking but ultimately enjoyable; and all report the “outward bound” phase of recruitment to be good fun and rewarding. Selection to date has tended to place priority on the candidate’s background and problems even though the Project’s recruiters have developed more of an understanding of who is most likely to benefit and hopefully succeed as well as an ability to spot such candidates. The Project does face a dichotomy between taking the neediest of candidates and maximising its outputs. This we feel can only be resolved through discussion with future funders.

Sourcing trips The sourcing trips have brought a number of benefits to the Project. It has been a valuable learning experience for the apprentices and helped develop an interest and awareness of the variety and quality of local food produce; an awareness of foodstuffs and practices elsewhere; an appreciation of seasonality; a respect for those who produce the food stuffs they are using; and an understanding of the food supply chain. The trips have also helped promote Fifteen Cornwall and forge working and trading links. 43

The Puglia trip was paid for by sponsors and has demonstrated the potential there is for Fifteen Cornwall to establish valuable links with the private sector.

Qualifications & certificates Most apprentices are so proud of the qualifications they have achieved and the certificates they now possess. There seems to have been little resistance amongst recruits to attending College full-time for a term and, indeed, many report their time as a college student to be most enjoyable as well as rewarding.

Help with job search The Project has established a system that aims to get graduates straight into meaningful work as soon as they graduate. Links have been established with restaurants across Cornwall many of whom have attended one or more of the open evenings at which the work of the apprentices has been showcased. The Project reports getting a number of enquiries from potential employers just before graduation to register their willingness to take a Fifteen graduate. The continued monitoring and availability of Fifteen staff to listen and advise graduates who have gone on into work has helped ease/settle some of the apprentices into permanent work positions. The continued worth and employability of the first graduates is so important in creating opportunities for those who follow. Also important to the Project and its reputation is the work that is done to help re-focus those who leave the Fifteen programme early, for whatever reason. The College has invested significant time to try and keep the participants at College and help them find another work placement.

Housing assistance The Fifteen House was an attempt to make it easier for some of the apprentices to get to work regularly and on time whilst reducing travel costs. It has received mixed reviews from the Fifteen staff; although most apprentices who live there seem happy enough. The House is located in Newquay where there are so many leisuretime distractions (good and bad). The House has needed a concierge system that has had to be carried out by the Foundation’s Administrator from afar. The “experiment” is not yet over and will need a thorough review in due course.

Links with local small business sector The Project has been successful in establishing good working links with a number of local businesses that has brought mutual benefits. The working arrangements with, as well as the juxtaposition of, the Watergate Hotel has helped both establishments for instance. The Project currently works with some 70, mainly, local suppliers, a number of whom have helped with the organisation and hosting of sourcing trips.

That’s what they said... We say… A very fair summary of some of the issues we face and some of the things we do. A brief note on specifics as we see them a year later in…

Transport Still tricky, still expensive, taxis still the most practical solution and the most expedient and the most expensive! We will always continue to review this.

The Fifteen House It was a good idea - it was in the wrong place! The “experiment” is over - we closed it in November 2008 - actually on the advice of the students living there! We then had to work long hours re-housing them and this remains a challenge for Cohort 4 and beyond; some landlords run a mile, others like the idea of dealing on a regular basis with the financial security that comes with a reputable business charity. Buying and running our own properties is not out of the question.

The “UA” Still in place, still important but managed with greater flexibility - absences with Cohort 3 have been much much better than with Cohort 2. Cohort 3 have managed 60 days between them not great, still an average of eight each - but our best ever attendance record. By far.

Sourcing trip sponsorship especially Puglia. A constant challenge. Puglia is a highlight of the students’ year but is expensive – flights, accommodation etc – not far short of £1,000 a head when all is totalled up and the state of the Pound versus the Euro has not helped.

We have a superb set up now when we get there but are locked into having to do business with one particular low-fare(!) carrier unfortunately.

Work placements We are good at this and it is not just Cornwall; we have developed a fine bunch of supporters at home and abroad – placements and jobs in 2008/9 have included – Guernsey, Antigua, St. Lucia, Amsterdam, Totnes, Salcombe, Porthleven, St. Enodoc, The Hamptons New York and Redruth. We are grateful to them all but are always looking to add new faces and places. (For full list of the friends who have stepped up for us see page 52)

The report concludes The main aim of the Fifteen Cornwall project is to give disadvantaged young people the chance to gain a vocational qualifications and intensive work experience in a high-quality establishment. We are pleased to record that the Project has achieved its main aim so far. This has been done with a great deal of revenue grant support particularly from the European Social Fund. The costs per qualification and per apprentice are considerably higher than many ESF projects. Most aspects of the Project can be regarded as successful. The publicity drive and the recruitment process attracted large numbers of young people, even if many weren’t eligible and some weren’t properly recorded in the monitoring figures. The College course was surprisingly popular and enjoyable amongst apprentices – given that many of them had previously “dropped out” of education at an early age. The work placement at a high profile, as well as high quality venue, like Fifteen Cornwall was a very rewarding and life changing experience for many apprentices. The only under-achieving element of the Project has been the recruitment of women participants. We do recognise what the College says about the industry’s traditions but suggest that more could be done to recruit women and perhaps elements of the programme could be adjusted to make it more accessible to young women. Perhaps discussions with voluntary groups that work directly with young women might result in new ideas about publicity, recruitment, support needs and adjusted training schedules. As for the successes, then the individual stories we’ve heard from the apprentices and the

progression they’ve made as people as well as chefs are testimony to the many successes of the Project. If we were to single any particular aspect of the Project out as being noticeably successful we would cite the working relationship between the Foundation and the College. Clearly there has been a mutual interest in making the programme work, as both bodies were contractually committed to the Project. However we have witnessed a real enthusiasm for the Project and its goals on both sides and at all levels which has certainly been felt by the apprentices and has been instrumental in so many of them achieving despite the odds being stacked against them. As for the less successful aspects? – There is nothing that we feel we need to single out. It is perhaps tempting to cite those apprentices who fail to complete the course but we have seen evidence that all those who “fall-out” of the Fifteen programme are still offered and given considerable help and encouragement to find an alternative career path. The Project’s key strengths are undoubtedly its brand image provided by the Fifteen Foundation and the USP that is provided by the young participants. It is a potent combination that can run and run in Cornwall. It may also be able to spawn other similar projects in different trades if the key aspects are elements are replicated and/or adapted. The weakness however is the cost. It has been a high cost venture but the quality and level of support the funds have bought have been necessary. To reduce either could result in poorer performance and failure. The Project is fortunate that it has achieved a substantial income and profit from the restaurant. At present we believe that the total cost of the venture is met 50/50 by restaurant income and revenue grants. This is unlikely to be sustainable in the longer term and there needs to be a development and growth strategy in place to ensure an increase in income and a reduction of grant dependency. A commitment to reducing the proportion that revenue grants contributes would also help reassure potential grant funders that there is an exit route in place. We have examined the Project’s performance against the key objectives set out in the original applications to the LSC. Our findings and conclusions show that the Project has achieved all its key objectives and offer evidence as follows: 45

Fifteen Cornwall Performance against initial key objectives

That’s what they said... We say…

Objectives:

Evidence:

What a fair assessment! Our only specific comments which have been covered in more detail elsewhere in this report would be…

Promoting social inclusion, economic development and community collaboration.

Working partnership with key agencies to help with recruitment, training, counselling and support. Briefing meetings for potential referral bodies prior to recruitment drive.

Providing focused social inclusion delivery.

Inclusion was embedded in the delivery of the Fifteen programme.

Removing traditional barriers for the proposed client group to participate in training.

Agreeing personal development plans; providing mentoring and direct support to participants; ongoing reviews and counselling. Key skills support workers where needed.

Helping jobless 16 plus, within targeted wards, back to work by removing barriers that prevent people from starting work.

Recruiting in priority wards and providing extensive support at commencement and throughout the Project by both Fifteen and College support staff.

Working with individuals to overcome the difficulties they face.

Support structures, counselling, links with specialist advisers.

Help move individuals from joblessness to work.

Priority in recruitment to long-term unemployed and on-going support in the workplace. Help with travel to work arrangements.

Provide support for those for whom moving straight into work / training is too big a step.

One to one workplace support and mentoring. Regular reviews.

Provide another pathway to employment or training.

Help to those who “fall-out” to find an alternative suitable work placement and support to complete qualification.

Positively promoting the mainstream provider as an institution.

College full-time course mandatory at beginning of programme. Encouragement and support given to participants at College.

Positively promoting the training and resources available through the provider.

Positive relationship between College and students and attendance at College.

Actively recruiting apprentices to participate in the providers training.

College full-time course mandatory at beginning of programme. Value of College and accredited qualifications promoted through recruitment.

We do not, though, naturally, a chance at Fifteen Cornwall is a pretty good chance of a first class ticket through life. We promise much and can deliver on that promise if our young charges will look to deliver for us; if they are not prepared to step up they will not last the course and that is how it will have to be.

Cost As we have said previously in this report – we are not cheap…a fact that section above goes on to address. The good news for the exchequer is that while we go for any funding we can, we put our own money where our programme is too; arguably few can match our “private” contribution. We now find ourselves with seven other partners in the Cornwall Works for Social Enterprise strand of Cornwall’s Convergence funding programme and feel that our demands on public funding and what we deliver for that money can stand comparison with the best of them. The duration and depth of our training means that we will never be cheap, it also means that we should always be able to deliver to the high standards we have set ourselves and which have been consistently lauded throughout Perfect Moment’s report.

Women on the programme Guilty. And in honesty progress remains tricky here despite us taking on board many of the recommendations outlined. The kitchen remains a “man’s world” and no matter how hard we try our recruitment is still dominated by male applicants; doubtless Jamie, Gordon et al on TV only serve to fuel this male domination of kitchen life whilst Delia and Nigella are hardly accessible role models for the young ladies of Cornwall! Or anywhere else for that matter. We will continue to try to positively discriminate in this area but will have to keep our ambitions realistic. Plans for a more structured approach to Front of House training where 80% of the team are women will help but candidates will never really be easily found within the NEET pool. We have worked with some of our permanent female kitchen staff on special “female hours”.

The handling of “fallout.” As ever the report is fair in its analysis here. We take this area of welfare extremely seriously - we simply cannot say “that’s it…bye.” Occasionally both we and London have been sniped at by a mischievous media in this area looking for the easy negative headline. In early 2009 we were accused by a young reporter locally of over-promising to our recruits.

Recommendations for the future programme The Foundation has a stated aim “to get 400 young people through the Project over 20 years.” It is now entering a very important phase in its development. It has established a successful programme that is delivering the hoped for results; but now some of the sources of grant funding, on which it has been so dependent, are coming to an end. It would help the sustainability of the Project if it was to become less grant dependent in the longer term. The following recommendations, based on our evaluation, are made with this view in mind.

Aim to keep the numbers of apprentices working at the restaurant the same The Project needs to remain true to the “Fifteen” label. Whilst a lesser number of apprentices may reduce costs, it may make the employment of key support staff unviable. Furthermore, the Project may prove less attractive to potential sponsors and grant funders if it operates at a smaller level.

Prove your worth Our financial appraisal has shown that the Fifteen Cornwall project is a high cost initiative with levels of ESF grant funding that are not going to be sustainable just to keep the Project operating at the same level. There is some evidence to suggest that the Project has achieved a far higher rate of success than most other schemes working with disaffected young people and, even though the costs are high, the positive results and long-term savings for the Exchequer is also high. So there is a case to be made that Fifteen has got it right and that many other schemes are relatively under-resourced. The only way to establish whether this is so is to monitor what happens over a longer period of time. We would recommend that a full, proper study is undertaken of the cost benefit of the Fifteen approach over a three year period.

This would not just help make Fifteen’s case for continued support, it may also show that if you want real results with these young people you need to make a ‘reasonable’ investment in terms of support and resources.

Strive to keep the team together At Fifteen Cornwall the support and other resources are delivered by a team of experienced persons dedicated to the task of providing continuous monitoring and help to the young participants. We have witnessed a well focussed, co-ordinated team work in practice. Actual personnel may have changed but the roles and responsibilities and the liaison and connection between them is well established. It has produced excellent results. Integral to this team effort is the encouragement, advice and support provided by partner organisations. The Funding Advisory Group, for instance, has been a very important forum for the Project and we would encourage it to keep meeting regularly and for the existing partners to continue to be represented at a high level. The continued support and active participation in project development by the key agencies is vital.

We share the belief that it may be possible to apply the model to other social enterprise ventures in Cornwall with careful thought and planning. We understand that discussions have already been held as to how the model can be applied to possibilities such as a bakery or a market garden or other food related ventures.

That said, the restaurant team have stayed very stable, particularly at the top and there is a very strong team feel to the whole operation; this is given even greater stability by the scores of partners and stakeholders we enjoy – trustees, funders, suppliers and customers – all contribute massively to the family feel of Fifteen Cornwall.

We would encourage the Foundation in conjunction with its partners to commission a scoping study to look at how this could work for the benefit of young apprentices and the Fifteen Cornwall project. We would also encourage consideration of the Fifteen model in non-related, but priority work sectors, that would appeal to young people and where similar apprenticeships could be developed.

Transport

Seek more sponsorship opportunities We note that the Project has benefited from some sponsorship but feel that it could secure so much more. The time is now right to develop a sponsorship strategy on the back of a favourable evaluation and in conjunction with a new business and development strategy.

Seek to reduce transport costs There is no easy answer to this. We are persuaded that it is important that the Project takes most of the responsibility to get the apprentices to work, at least for the first few months. We would encourage the partners to explore ways in which transport costs can be reduced.

Prepare and agree a Business Plan We are concerned that there is no current business plan in place for the Fifteen Cornwall project. We understand that it is not easy to prepare one whilst there is some uncertainty about the future levels of grant funding. On the other hand we would expect grant funders to require sight of a reasoned financial strategy and some certainty about how any revenue grants fit into the overall budget and development strategy. It is imperative that a business plan is put in place which will show how important revenue grant support is, how it will be used and how the level of revenue grant dependency will reduce over time.

Explore other development opportunities The Fifteen Cornwall restaurant is a successful initiative and the scope for direct change and development is probably limited. The Fifteen model however is a different thing.

That’s what they said... We say… Numbers Agree. Or grow them. We owe it to our funders and to the Fifteen idea and to the young people of Cornwall that we get more through our programme but it is not easy. Our strength is in our depth and that demands one on one teaching rather than a shallow mass transmission of information. A constant challenge.

Prove our worth That’s why we have written this report. All we can do is to continue to do what we do roughly in the way that we do it now and quantify our successes in the hope of shoring up future funding.

Keeping the team together Essential and, fingers crossed, going well currently. Both London and ourselves (and the others) have suffered with changes in staff in the early days – particularly in the Foundation side of things. This not only disrupts the programme but unsettles the trainees who, more than anything, demand and need structure in their lives.

As will be seen from all of the foregoing – we agree!

Business plan Agree up to a point, though Perfect Moment’s snapshot here implies a degree of “seat of the pants” business management which couldn’t be further from the truth; we wouldn’t have survived let alone thrived had this been the case. At the time of Perfect Moment’s writing there was indeed some uncertainty on the funding front – there wasn’t any! So we ran on well predicted and well managed restaurant funding to get us through those times; so there was a business plan, it simply didn’t have a sizeable and predictable public funding element to it. Management had decided though that that funding would come through eventually and dedicated the lion’s share of their time to ensuring that as the major co-financing element alongside hard earned restaurant profit. It can be all too easy to write up alleged income streams from sexy sponsorship opportunities which are harder and more time consuming to set up than anyone ever thinks and which always come with strings attached. There is now a far greater predictability in what we do and how we might finance its doing; given the nature of Convergence funding we now have a three year plan running to summer 2011 built around the two roughly equal income strands of that Cornwall Works for Social Enterprise income and continuing restaurant profits. Naturally uncertainty remains given the current economic climate and the questionmarks which always hang over output related public funding but we are clearer than we have ever been in terms of business planning.

The 2009 financial year has started very well in the restaurant.

THE FIRST THOUSAND DAYS

FIFTEEN CORNWALL

So what’s next? We feel that we have only just scratched the surface with the Fifteen model and need to be in a more expansive mood; certainly our public sector friends and many involved with training in the county would always encourage us to do more. But the very strength of the programme - its depth and rigour - flies in the face of stretching it further too easily. The kitchen limits us in terms of how many we can handle properly at any one time and we feel that a course of any less than a year will lead us onto the slippery slope of a quick fix that is no fix at all. But the Cornwall Foundation of Promise was set up to be an umbrella organisation of “promise” not just a charity with one trading arm and one business; we have an ambition to do more and not necessarily in our comfort zone of catering though our first step away from the kitchen may not be too far. In essence and within reason we could consider various expansions, not necessarily extensions of, or even close to, restaurant life. All they need is the ability to make money and generate some level of public funding and the ability to catch the imagination of young people in the way that the phenomenon of the “TV chef” has – car mechanics? construction? sport?…the list could be endless. And could get us to the position whereby maybe 100 get to experience our promise rather than just the 15 or so who do now.

And what can you do? If you’ve stayed with us this far we hope you now have a pretty good idea of what we’re about, where we might go and what it might take to help us get there. As an individual you might have skills we could use or experience we could draw on. You might have a business that could help us with training or work placements. You might be able to help us take our promise further – optimising what it can bring to the young people of Cornwall. And yes, you might have money! We don’t stand on street corners waving a tin in front of your nose but our financial position is always as much “on a knife edge” as all those good people that do. You could sponsor a student, pick up the tab for part of the programme, sponsor the Puglia trip, help us with transport or accommodation. Not having to pay for something is a great feeling! And helps what we do hugely. Or just come for dinner. There’s no better way to make a charitable donation!

Contact the CEO – Dave Meneer on dave@fifteencornwall.co.uk 50

So, after 51 pages we get to the toughest one, who to thank! Forgive us for this desperate dump of the deserving. Along the way we have mentioned some of our most important friends, here are the rest – they include our trustees and our apprentices, our chefs and our waitresses, our kitchen porters and our reservations team – the entire gang of current staff…they ALL contribute every day to the training programme. They make the place tick. And our placement providers and the suppliers who give us of their time and facilities and energy and experience for sourcing trips. And Will and the rest of the Ashworth family, and the gang at The Hotel without whom life in the Bay just wouldn’t be the same.

Our generous partners are:

HSBC Barclays Gauntlet Insurance White Stuff The Hotel & Extreme Academy St. Austell Brewery Liberty Wines Cornwall College

The Cornwall Foundation of Promise Board of Trustees Henry Ashworth - Chair Debbie Wilshire - Deputy Chair David Pennington - Hon Treasurer Malcolm Bell Stephen Bohane Lyndsey Hall Sophie Hosking Paul Inman Angie Rowe John Stewart (Helen Mathieson - Resigned 2008) Company Secretary Coodes and Co. (Jonathan Wilde) Registered Charity No 1119341 Reg. Company. No 5541800

Fifteen Cornwall Board of Directors Roger Furniss - Chair Dave Meneer - CEO Judi Blakeburn - Marketing Polly Dent - General Manager Chris Hugo - Finance Will Ashworth - Non Exec Lyndsey Hall - Non Exec / Trustee rep. Paul Inman - Non Exec / Trustee rep. Company Secretary Coodes and Co (Jonathan Wilde) Registered Company No. 05653435

And the generous public funders who we simply couldn’t do without are...

About this report Words

Dave Meneer

Design

Nick Wylie

Photography Ben Rowe Bob Berry David Griffen David Loftus Simon Burt Wayne Johns

The gang Adam Banks Adam Stock Adrian Pelowski Alfonsas Jaselskis Amanda Hepburn Amber Hoult Ami Phillips Andrea Polaczek Andy Appleton Andy Chown Andy Piper Anna Greenland Becky Harrison Beci Rothnan Ben Mudditt Carl Paparone Charlotte Watkins Chris Hugo Clare Mansfield Damon Murray Dan Kewley Elly Silburn Gemma Davies George Bennett Gintaras Meska (Amber) Gordon Lawrence Haley Sugden Hannah Croft Harry Abbott Helen Dane Jen Platt Jess Morgan Jo Davey Jon Harvey Judi Blakeburn Karina Marshall Karl Jones Katy Thompson Kayleigh Cooper Kelly Riddle Ken Rankin Kirsty Lymburn Kirsty Spencer Lisa Wilkinson Louis Edgington Lyndsey Marshall Marie Allen Matt Thomas Natasha Arnold Neil Haydock Nick Wylie Nicola Stopforth Oliver Gibson Oliver Gould Pauline Tune Peter Heaton Peter Margarson Polly Dent Rafal Komuda Rich Green Ricky Davies Ricky Stewart Samantha Ensor Sarah Kerr Sophie Wilkins Steve Wright Tanya Atkins Vickie Roberts Virginia Taylor Vygantas Skyrius Will Bennett Xavia Smith

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