Training, Employment and Enterprise Forum
Wednesday 15th April 2015, 09.30 – 12.00
Business Development Centre Whitechapel
1. Present:
2. Presentation - Madeline Williams’s director of Access Europe. Madeline is a specialist in European Union policy, funding and government relations in London and Brussels. She has managed EU funding programmes and projects including the 100 million pound ESF programme as former managing director in the GLA group and as former deputy chief executive of the ALG now London councils.
2.1 Access Europe has funding from the LEP and London Councils to help organisations access European funding. They have a website with information and advice on ESF funding. They organise seminars and application workshops. They do consultancy on reading bids but they do not write bids for people, largely on principle. Get in touch with Madeline if you are interested in receiving any support
2.2 The London Enterprise Panel (LEP) is the local enterprise partnership for London. Chaired by Mayor of London Boris Johnson, the LEP is the body through which the Mayoralty works with London’s boroughs, business and Transport for London to take a strategic view of the regeneration, employment and skills agenda for London. The London Enterprise Panel is the body that has set the strategy of ESF.
2.3 ESF has three main areas provision for young people 15-24 NEET, provision for adult employment support and adult skill support provision. The timescale is indicative but at the moment but there’s a ESF direct bidding round that’s live with a deadline for end of this month; it would be too late for consortiums now. It’s a £10m project and would need £5m match funding to draw down £5m. They are looking to fund 10 projects. Some sub-regionalpartnerships have put in bid for this including London councils.
2.4 The Big Lottery Fund programme will launch on the 2nd of June 2015, the Skills Funding Agency and DWP are likely to launch some of their programmes in June. There will be a second round of funding between October and November 2015.
2.5 What has been the process for these organisations? All of the above have had to bid for the projects; the LEP has ensured projects deliver a local approach where the needs of the community are taken into account.
2.6 Programmes for young people:
Previous ESF programmes have found where payment by results has been used for young people’s projects there has been a competition to find young people to work with; the new programme will encourage greater partnership work to avoid this.
2.7 Adult skills - 3 programmes:
- Entry level skills which will be sector based the first sector will be construction.
- The second strand is helping people progress in work to reduce ‘in work poverty’,
- The third programme will support start up and business development and provide coaching for up to 12 months after business set up. This programme will only support brand new organisations and will begin with support in developing a business plan.
2.8 Geography of ESF - a map of 4 sub regions was tabled:
The majority of the contracts cover a region. There are a few pan London contracts. Tower Hamlets will need to bid for the London north and east contracts.
2.9 Will there beconsideration of geographical spread within a region? Yes the bid will have to demonstrate coverage across the region, whoever is leading the project must provide coverage.
2.9.1 All ESF and DWP programmes will be payment by results – for example if you sustain people in work for 26 weeks minimum you will get a payment.
2.10 What is the PBR criteria for self-employment when starting a businesses? This would include payments for: engagement, recruiting staff, official business set up and payment for completion of some kind of business training such as financial planning. They are looking at granting a bonus payment if after 12 months the business is able to pay a worker minimum wage or London living wage.
2.11The Big Lottery Fund programme is a £30m contract called ‘Building Better Opportunities’ there are five themes within this including: working with unemployed BME women, working with people with mental health disabilities, projects for carers to stay related to the world of works so they are not far from the labour market when the care arrangement ends, and a programme on refugees which is not yet fully developed.
2.12 Are people looking after under 5s considered carers? No- its more for carers of adults, there are separate programs for parents to move back into work.
2.13 The BIG programme has approached LVSC and PWC to work with the third sector to support them in making applications. This is intended to even the playing field with larger providers.
2.13.1 The BIG fund procurement process is a two stage process, 1. You need to submit an outline proposal and if successful you will be invited to submit a detailed proposal. There will be a six month gap between the first and second proposal to allow for project development and partnerships to be formed. The big grant will not be tendered out it is a grant so it’s ideal for the voluntary sector to apply. You also don’t need to bring any match funding and it will not be payment by results.
2.14 What’s the maximum size for a project? Approximately £2m across a sub region, there will be one contract per region under each theme.
2.15 Employment support for disabled people and people with mental health conditions to move into employment - This will go out as a tender, applicants will have to use the gravel solution to submit a bid. This is a big contract so the voluntary sector might want to partner rather than lead.
2.16 Skills Funding Agency (SFA)procurement is two staged – It is not core, you will have to do a PQQ.
2.16.1 What does core and not core mean? Things likeentrepreneur support would be non-core.
The SFA register is an attempt to avoid having to do a PQQevery time you want to tender for an SFA contract. You will not be invited to tender unless your turnover is higher than the amount applied for. However, if you work in consortia only the lead contractor needs to be on you will need to be on the register if you received more than £100k. Contact LVSC for advice on this.
2.17 It seems a lot of programmes are targeted at large organisations, is there really any hope for small organisations? It’s best for the voluntary sector to work in a partnership to access the money.
2.18 Who are prime contractors? REED, A4E, SEETEC, CIRCO, G4S to name a few.
The group fed back to Madeline they would be interested in attending joint prime contractor and voluntary sector events and have a website space like ‘Urbacked’ to get in touch with prime contractors and voluntary sector delivery partners.
2.18.1 Gregory pointed out historically the large contractors have exploited the voluntary sector for free bid support and client base. He suggestsit would be better to work with the local authority and the voluntary sector rather than with prime contractors.
2.19 One member raised the concern that due to the size of programmes the voluntary sector are being rode out of applying when it would be more effective to fund smaller localised groups; why is there no provision for this?It’s an administrative issue as contracts have to be managed by the GLAwhich has a limit on the number of contracts it has the resources to manage; this includesstaff time and costs for administration so essentially they can’t afford to monitor a multitude of smaller contracts.
2.20 Going forward the group favoured a local partnership approach which will deliver better outcomes as the voluntary sector knows its clients. The forum ESF working group which formed last meeting agreed to set up a meeting in the next couple of weeks.
2.20.1 Action: THCVS to encourage LBTH to apply for ESF via London Councils. Kirsty to open discussions with the council - contact Nasim Ahmed.
2.20.2 Action: Kirsty and Gregory to have a pre-meet with Nasim to discuss a local authority bid and an engagement event.
2.20.3 Action: Gregory to draft a TOR for the ESF working group and call a meeting of the working group in the next 2-3 weeks.
2.21 The following forum members were added to the ESF working group:
- Asad Hussein from Osmani Trust
- Mike Wordellfrom Shadwell Basin Activity Centre
- Kirsty Cornell from THCVS
2.22 Action: Rushena to update the training employment and enterprise forum page with ESF news updates. The page can be found here:
2.23 Contact Madeline on: or GLA: for advice and support.
3. Minutes of the last meeting and matters arising:
Rushena explained the rep training was not organised due to low interest.
The minutes were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting.
- Information exchange :
THCVS - Healthwatch Community Intelligence Bursary application deadline 19th April.
Kirsty Cornell was introduced as the new CEO of THCVS.
Shadwell Basin - just started a new disabilities project around autism. They plan to develop training this into training.
Bromley by Bowfinancial inclusion project - if anyone needs money managementadvice they will be running workshops at Toynbee Hall next week.
The co-operative development agency has been funded to work with unemployed people to start-up businesses. They are offering free in-house workshops to interested groups. Please contact Gregory if you are interested.
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