ACTOR Operation ManualSkills Funding Agency

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Approved College and Training Organisation Register (ACTOR)

Operating Manual 2010

An Agency of the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills

CONTENTS

Foreword

ACTOR Scope (In and Out)

Instructions

Due Diligence

Single Adult Skills Budget ITT

Adult and Community Learning ITT

Specialist Provision for Learners under 25 with Learning Difficulties and/or Disabilities (LLDD) ITT

Evaluation Criteria & Process (including where applicable information regarding weighting)

Foreword

Dear Colleagues

The launch of the Approved College & Training Organisation Register (ACTOR) is a significant step for the Skills Funding Agency. The creation of the register demonstrates our commitment to simplifying the process for funding educational and vocational training services, while fulfilling our responsibility for regulating the sector.

ACTOR has been developedin discussion with the Department of Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) to ensure that it meets the expectations of the Coalition Government. We have also involved the educational and vocational training sector in the development of ACTOR .

It is important that we have a robust but streamlined process to assess whether colleges and training organisations should receive funding from the Agency. The process should also be fair and transparent which is why all organisations will be required to be on ACTOR in order to be considered for Agency funding.

ACTOR will therefore replace the Qualified Provider Framework which sought to pre-qualify organisations to receive invitations to tender. Instead of organisations being required to pre-qualify and then tender for contracts this will be part of a single process under ACTOR. Organisations will provide information in order for us to carry out due diligence (although existing Agency contractors and those on the QPF will be deemed to have passedACTOR due diligence until they have to resubmit by 14 January 2012) and information on areas of provision that they wish to be considered for funding at the same time.

Providing both sets of information at once will allow the process to be simpler, quicker and less onerous for organisations, as it will reduce the need to respond to individual tenders. The structure of the questions themselves have also been simplified and streamlined, moving away from open ended questions towards information which is easier for organisations to provide and the Agency to assess.

Overall we believe that ACTOR will represent both an improvement for the sector in terms of simplicity and bureaucracy while ensuring that the Agency is able to carry out its functions of funding and regulating the sector more efficiently and effectively.

It is vitally important that all organisations understand the purposes of ACTOR and provide the necessary information. This instruction manual is designed to assist all organisations to understand the purpose of the information that we request through ACTOR and to submit their response.

Yours sincerely

Provider Services Director

ACTOR Scope (in and Out)

What is ACTOR?

ACTOR is the ‘Approved College & Training Organisation Register’. ACTOR has been developed to expand on the success of the Qualified Provider Framework (QPF). It has taken into account valuable feedback from the provider base on the operation of the QPF as well as the lessons learnt bythe Skills Funding Agency.

ACTOR will assess the criteria requiredby the Chief Executive, Skills Funding to contract with acollege or training organisation as well as testingtheircapabilities specific to the programme and provision type for which they are applying. It will also take account of wider sources of information such as, Minimum Levels of Performance (MLP), Qualification Success Rates; OFSTED and Financial Health,etc

All organisations seeking funding for providing Educational and Vocational Training Services must complete the appropriate documents on ACTOR and have them evaluated. The Agency will not place restrictions on the delivery model that organisations choose to employ, although ACTOR questions will ask for details of the proposed delivery model.

The Agency is required to comply with EU procurement directives and the procurement of Educational and Vocational Training Services falls under Part B – (Residual Services) of these directives, ACTOR has been designed and developed to take cognisance of these regulations and the requirements necessary to ensure compliance.

The ACTOR process contains aPre-qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) and Invitations to Tender (ITT). This combined process is more streamlined for the provider base and allows the Chief Executive, Skills Funding to procure activity more efficiently and effectively.

Not only is the process itself more straightforward but the questions themselves have been significantly simplified as all questions are closed and answers are provided from which they select. We expect this simplification to reduce the time it takes to evaluate the responses from organisations as the questions can be autoscored.The scoring criteria that have been developed by the Skills Funding Agencyarepublished later in this document. It should be noted that the score awarded is not definitive, inasmuch as whilst it can be used to compare one organisation with another it has no influence on the amount of funding an organisation will receive

How will the Skills Funding Agency use ACTOR?

The primary function of ACTOR will be to create a register of colleges and training organisations that have been assessed as being eligible to be consideredreceive funding from the Chief Executive, Skills Funding for provision of Educational and Vocational Training Services. The register will be used to determine which colleges and training organisations are considered for funding but will not determine the level of funding as this will be determined through a separate allocations methodology.

In some circumstances the information on ACTOR may not be sufficient to determine who should be funded for a specific type of activity. In these circumstances the Agency could send a more specific Invitation to Tender to those identified through ACTOR in order to make their decision. This situation is likely only to occur on ad-hoc occasions but it still needs to be offered as a consideration in this part of the manual.

How will ACTOR improve the Quality Assurance of providers?

The Chief Executive, Skills Funding has always been committed to only contracting with high quality Educational and Vocational Training providers in terms of the quality of their provision.

ACTOR will therefore take account of quality through its evaluation process. This process entails scoring of the responses provided and taking cognisance of organisations’ Minimum Level of Performance; Qualification Success Rates; OFSTED Ratings, Skills Funding Agency Financial assessments; etc. (All organisations should note that the aforementioned evaluation criteria are true at the time of going to press BUT may be subject to amendment depending on changes to requirements from Governmental or Legislative aspects. Should any changes be necessary the Skills Funding Agency will update this document and communicate changes to all organisations at the earliest opportunity)

How should organisations use this manual?

Copies of this manual are attached to the PQQ and to each of the ITTs included in the ACTOR process

As well as explaining what ACTOR is and what it will do both for organisations and the Skills Funding Agency the purpose of this manual is to explain in detail each section of ACTOR and what the Skills Funding Agency is expecting oforganisations.

Therefore, it is advised that this manual should be downloaded and referred to at regular intervals when completing the questionnaire. Any questions with regard to ACTOR or indeed this manual should be directed to the Skills Funding Agency using the appropriate message board on the Skills Funding Agency e-Tendering portal.

It is not appropriate to seek responses to questions or comments in any other way as the Skills Funding Agency has to ensure that the integrity of the process is maintained as well as the robustness of the process in order that we are able to demonstrate at all times that organisations have been treated fairly andopenly therebyenabling us to respond to any challenge that may be raised

Each subsequent sectionof the manual relates to an individual part of the questionnaire and although this may appear repetitive it is so that each section can stand alone

Organisations should note the following please:

A)The registration detailsof each organisation on the Skills Funding Agency e-tendering portal are their sole property and responsibility, therefore it is absolutely vital that these details are kept up to date and are accurate. All communication with the Agency about organisation’s submissions on ACTOR will be via the appropriate message board and these are sent to organisations to the email address with which they first register on the Skills Funding Agency portal. Therefore it is important that this email address is both relevant and ‘bona fide’ otherwise all that will happen is we will receive a “bounceback non delivery “ message and organisations will miss opportunities.

B)Organisations should note that there is no right of appeal to the decision reached on each organisation’s submission to ACTOR.However, if an organisation is not happy with the outcome they can of course make use of the Agencies complaints procedure or seek to use the EU Remedies directive as appropriate.

C)All organisations with whom the Chief Executive, Skills Funding already holds a contract for provision of Educational and vocational training services should continue to publish their latest statutory Financial Accounts as required by their contract .

D)All organisations who do not currently have a contract but are seeking consideration for funding by the Chief Executive, Skills Funding should send their latest full statutory financialstatements (not abbreviated accounts) to the following email address on or before 11March 2011 and by14 January in each subsequent year.

Organisations who are not required to submit statutory financial statements, should supply a profit and loss account, balance sheet and where available any related notes or narrative to assist the Agency’s understanding

  • Organisations who are unable to supply statutory financial statements because they have not traded for a sufficiently long period should submit a business plan consisting of a budgeted profit and loss account, balance sheet and cash-flow statement . Where available it would be helpful if management accounts incorporating a profit and loss account and balance sheet are also included

E) Any organisation seeking to respond to the Specialist Provision for Learners under 25 with Learning Difficulties and/or Disabilities (LLDD) ITT should send their latest statutory financial accounts to the following email address on or before 11 March 2011 and by14 January in each subsequent year.

F)Any organisation who was evaluated as successful on the Qualified Provider Framework in September 2010 will automatically be granted a pass through the Due Diligence section for this year only and therefore will not have to submit a response to the Due Diligence PQQ until 14 January 2012. Organisations can check if they fit into this category by looking on the Agency website at

G)Any organisation with whom the Chief Executive Skills Funding holds a contract for provisionof Educational and Vocational Training for academic year 2010/11 will automatically be granted a pass through the Due Diligence section for this year only and therefore will not have to submit a response to the Due Diligence PQQ until 14 January 2012. Organisations can check if they fit into this category by looking on the Agency website at

H)All new organisations must complete the Due Diligence section of ACTOR and publish their response on or before 17:00 for next freezing date which is 11 March 2011.

I)All organisations whether automatically granted a pass through Due Diligence or having submitted a completed response must complete an appropriate ACTOR ITT section for which they wish to be considered for funding.

J)Organisations granted an automatic pass through the Due Diligence section of ACTOR for January 2011 must complete the Due Diligence section of ACTOR on or before 17:00 on 14 January 2012 (Two thousand and twelve) and by this date for every subsequent year.If there is a material change to the organisations circumstances before this date we would expect them to complete a Due Diligence PQQ and publish it for our attention at the earliest opportunity and advise us that they have done this via an appropriate message on the Due Diligence PQQ Message Board.

K)All organisations must refresh their entire ACTOR submission on an annual basis by 17:00 on 14 January each year from 2012until 2014 by which time (as a minimum) under EU Procurement regulations ACTOR will have to be reissued.

L)The Agency is anticipating the possibility of having three “freeze dates” for ACTOR each year. The next freezing date is 11 March 2011 with the others still to be decided. The Agency will give a minimum of 30 days notice of each freeze date on its website and via a message through the Due Diligence message board.

M)Organisations should also note that as required and necessary the Agency will seek corroborative evidence to support their submission which will be taken into account during the evaluation, moderation or consideration for funding processes as appropriate.

N)Organisations should note that we have made some typographical and cosmetic changes to the re-launched ACTOR PQQ and ITTs. These amendments are included as an attachment to each appropriate ITT and PQQ. However this should not have any affect on your previous submission.

O)Organisations should also note that that the Agency has now closed the ACTOR PQQ- 28727 and ITT codes 29025,29026 and 29027. The online message boards for these closed ACTOR documents will no longer be monitored but will be used to inform organisations of the results of the Evaluation & Moderation process. There-launched Due Diligence PQQ code is 28734 and ITT codes are 29071 for the Specialist Providers for LLDD on behalf of YPLA,29072 Single Adult Skills Budget and 29074 for Adult & Community Learning. Please ensure that you use the new codes to post any messages for enquiries as these are the ones that will be monitored.

INSTRUCTIONS

Organisations should note that,although there is a selection of answers and drop down options from which you can choose your answers,completion of these documents will still take time and you should not leave your submission to the last minute. The first freeze date of ACTOR was14th January 2011 at 17:00.The next freeze date will be 11th March 2011 after which no submissions will be accepted for consideration for funding until the next freeze date.

Organisations should also note that availability of the system is monitored on behalf of buyingsolutions by an independent third party. Therefore, if at any time an organisation believes that it has not been available and delayedtheir submission,the Skills Funding Agency can access the ACTOR availability data and based on the timing of organisations attempts to submit, a judgement can be made as to whether any delay affected their ability to submit by the stated deadline.

The purpose of this document is to ensure that all organisations are treated fairly and are given consistent advice across this whole process.

ACTOR sits on the Skills Funding Agency e-Tendering portal which is a service managed by Bravo Solution as part of the buyingsolutions Framework Agreement supplying e-Tendering solutions across government.

Access to the Skills Funding Agency e-Tendering portal is free to all organisations butinorder to access it they first have to register at

The registration process includes entering your United Kingdom Provider Registration Number (UKPRN) number which you will obtain from the United Kingdom Register of Learning Providers (UKRLP). This will be required for the registration process ,the first question on ACTOR’s Due Diligence PQQ that you will be expected to answer and it is a pre-requisite for any organisation with whom we will contract. We have also incorporated the UKPRN into each of the ITTs but once you have entered it into one document it is automatically pre-populated into subsequent documents

ACTOR is open to any organisation wishing to be considered for funding for provision of Educational and Vocational Training Services.

Once you have registered you will be given an automatically generated numerical password which can be changed to something more suitable by you and then you are free to sign in to the system.

You log on and then look for PQQs and ITTs open to all – you click on these and you will see a list of all of our procurements that are running – you select the ones you are interested in ie those beginning with the word ACTOR and you are given the opportunity to “Express an Interest” which you do by clicking on a button.