Business Background: Professor Amanda Kirby (the CEO) and Dr Ian Smythe (the COO) are the founders of Do-IT Solutions. Amanda comes from a clinical and academic perspective, as a doctor and neuroscientist. Amanda manages the company and leads on sales and communication. Ian takes the lead on technological development. With more than 25 years’ experience of working in the field of learning difficulties and with international recognition of their work, these entrepreneurs come with a wealth of experience of what the real needs are of people at the edges of education and employment who may have barriers to success including learning challenges. Amanda is especially passionate about the work as she is a parent of a neurodiverse adult and became interested in from both personal and then later as a professional. This has meant Ian and Amanda have considered practical solutions that can be delivered to make a real difference. With a growing workforce the company works across sectors including education, into employment, apprenticeships and in the Criminal Justice System.
Do-IT Profiler is a software as a service. The system developed is a modular screening and assessment system which sits on a management information platform allowing large scale assessment but delivering individualised support and guidance for the individual and those working with them. This includes help in relation to learning, socially, and with health and wellbeing, as well as providing support relating to improving education and employment outcomes. Each sector where Profiler works delivers contextualised and age appropriate tools to help. There are currently 7 staff with more recruitment planned as well as having consultants who work with the Do-IT team.
The company started by developing screening tools for neurodiversity/learning difficulties, recognising the need to support an individual as a whole in the context of their lives. They started working in challenging settings early on in their development. This included working with prisons and working in multilingual and rural settings in South Africa. The need to be adaptable and problem solve and ensures their system delivers practical help and has always been at the fore front of this. This allowed the development of solutions to meet the needs of the client and be flexible. This was crucial ensuring it met the needs of the people we were working with and generate the solutions. Do-IT until recently has been self-funded, along with ‘sweat equity’ from the founders.
Profiler is now being used in many prisons across the UK as the primary screening and support tool. In Wales it is bilingual and an additional 4 languages are available so far. It has also been used extensively supporting those into employment and by organisations such as in the apprenticeship sector and those who may be neurodiverse (have dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder and language challenges e.g. Prison Officers, fire services and in other employment and training settings. It allows a person centred approach to be delivered, especially focusing and helping those with barriers to learning and employment at an organisational level and is time and cost effective, reducing data entry and providing data informed decisions. The tools are also helping to upskill the professionals working with individuals to know how to deliver personalised solutions more confidently.
Organisations they have worked with include JP Morgan, Universities including Falmouth/Exeter/Leicester, and RehabJobFit and Remploy. In South Africa it is used in Gauteng province in schools and colleges and translated into Afrikaans, Sotho and Xhosa.
What would Do-IT Solutions do differently: Accessed help and guidance earlier on in our development. Gained investment a little earlier.
Do-IT Solutions proudest moment in business: Great feedback from clients and endorsement from organisations that what we are doing is right.
Is Welsh language used in the business? If so, how has this helped?: We have bilingual systems in the Welsh prisons. We realise accessibility is at the heart of what we do, so delivering information in a range of languages and meeting the needs of all is important to us.
Accelerated Growth Programme support: Help from Accelerated Growth mentor has helped us to consider our marketing approaches and messaging at a time of expansion. It has also assisted us through our processes relating to GDPR.
Top tips:
Be prepared to work really hard
Be passionate about what you are doing
Remain flexible and in the solutions
Get advice as you go- there are a lot of people ready to help – but also remain critical and reflective – it is your business.
Further information on the Business Wales Accelerated Growth Programme.