When I decided to go for my licence nearly 3 years ago I used one of these companies. I had no idea at the time that they were not a training school themselves but after signing up and paying the money I thought I may have been scammed.
I was wrong though, I had a dedicated person at the company looking after me and they dealt with everything apart from the physical driving training (this they set up with one of the local driving schools registered with them)
They guided me through the whole process at every stage. Set me up with an online theory course, booked my theory tests and medical and set up my physical training.
I probably got lucky, that I passed first time as I never took out pass protection which was 500 and was also encouraged to take ADR which I refused, but for me personally paying £1700 to be guided through the whole confusing process as someone who did not know where to start was a god send.
I didnt know the difference between physical driving schools and the company I went with at the time and I am sure the direct training schools direct you and support you the same.