PFD - Councillor Woodcock - 6Th April 2004 - Poole Adult Learning Financial Business Plan

BOROUGH OF POOLE

LEARNING OVERVIEW GROUP

16th March 2004

POOLE ADULT LEARNING FINANCIAL BUSINESS PLAN

1.Purpose of the Report

1.1The Learning Overview Group requested a Financial Business Plan to demonstrate how Poole Adult Learning will achieve the objectives stated in the 3 Year Development Plan presented to the Learning & Skills Council and to the Borough of Poole Cabinet in October 2003.

1.2Presentation of the budget summaries for each funding stream will support members understanding of the separate budgets and how these are used to support objectives

2.Decisions Required

2.1To consider the plan based on projected income forecasts.

2.2To endorse support for the development of Library based Community Learning Centres.

2.3To recommend that the Portfolio Holder for Learning approves the proposed concessionary fee scheme to be introduced in September 2004.

3.Background

3.1The 3 Year Development Plan agreed with the Learning skills council (LSC) is a target driven strategic plan aimed at meeting relevant national and local adult learning priorities. Should the Poole Adult Learning Service not have engaged in the production of a plan it would have been subject to a 3% funding income reduction from the LSC.

3.2The Plan outlines detailed change to the nature and scope of learning provision offered, widening participation initiatives, employer engagement activity and improvements to quality, health and safety and accommodation.

3.3Poole Adult Learning has stated within the Development Plan how it will achieve necessary increases to learner numbers through a range of capacity building initiatives to improve learner access through:

development of 5 Library based Community Learning Centres,
4 Learndirect Access Points
a team of Community Learning Officers,
trained Information and Guidance staff across all centres
employer engagement with 10 local businesses
pioneering Learning Ambassadors to work across the Community
increase Family Learning Programmes into more extended Schools
curriculum development of Leisure and Health related programmes to be offered through Leisure Services
expansion of Lifeskills programmes to meet the needs of Social Services Users

4.Funding Breakdown

(FE) Further Education Funding - Appendix 1

4.1Income. This funding stream is the greatest proportion of the budget and is performance related to the cash values generated by the numbers of learners and guided learning hours attributed to accredited programmes. PAL has re-based its targets with the LSC for the period 03-06 to a more realistic level showing a steady increase over the next 3 years. Additional agreed income in this stream are ‘Access Funds’ for distribution to learners on low income or benefits requiring support with course fees, books, equipment, travel and childcare.“Customer and client receipts” refers to the course fees paid by learners which are charged in line with LSC criteria.

4.2FE Income increases with greater numbers of learners and increased learning hours. The service aims to achieve this through increasing learning access points in Libraries and development of a more inclusive curriculum which offers tasters through to qualification Level 3 in Health, Fitness, Humanities, Languages, Media & Visual Arts, ICT and Business Studies, Basic Skills, Professional, Hairdressing & Beauty Therapy and more.

4.365% of the FE income is charged to the Administration Budget (Appendix 5) to cover the costs of employees, tutors, SLA’s, Central Support Costs, Transport related expenses etc.

4.4This funding stream closely related to performance is the at risk of budget pressure should the service not meet its learner targets and strategies have been implemented to supplement the Administration costs through the use of the other funding streams such as ALP Adult Learning Plan and projects through recharging administration and marketing costs.

4.5The FE budget supports the majority of the staffing costs. These costs have been decreased by the reduction of three full time equivalent staff in the current financial year and the transfer of the ICT and Marketing Assistant staff salaries into the ALP Adult Learning Plan Budget

4.6A small surplus has been budgeted for to cover any LSC clawback should the service not meet its targets or likewise for re-investment in capacity building, accommodation and ICT initiatives.

5.ALP Adult Learning Plan – Appendix 2

5.1Income. This main purpose of this grant is to support the services offer of leisure and non-accredited programmes (i.e. those without a formal qualification) and to fund initiatives which increase learner participation and social inclusion. These programmes should create first steps to progression onto FE accredited provision and the service has reviewed the use of this grant to ease the burden on the FE budget and encourage more progression.

5.2The service will use the ALP grant in 04/05 to offer a range of very low cost £5 and £10 programmes to encourage take up and progression onto accredited programmes. It is felt that this action will contribute towards an increase in learner numbers engaging in learning and subsequent moving onto FE provision thus support the meeting of FE targets.

5.3A separate large proportion of this fund (100k) is allocated to Family Learning activity and approximately 92k has been received for the last 2 years for investment in Minor Works and necessary adjustments for DDA compliance. These funds have covered the costs of major improvements to the Oakdale Centre and purchase of Basic Skills resources and classroom equipment. The LSC has now approved the use of these funds for 04/05 to make necessary adjustments to the Library Learning Centres offering learning opportunities. There are plans to modify toilets for disabled access in 04/05.

5.4Historically this grant has been used to fund a contribution towards the Administration Budget and generation of small projects. It is the services intention to allocate this fund differently to reduce the FE budget pressures and the Concessions pressure of the Borough of Poole Leisure programmes. The 04/05 ALP fund of £287k will be distributed as follows:

£121k Administration Budget

£ 64k Concessions for Borough of Poole Leisure courses

£ 53k ICT and Marketing staffing

£ 49k Delivery of low cost programmes

6Leisure Programmes – Appendix 3

6.1The service offers a range of non-accredited Leisure Programmes offering concessions and some free programmes for MS and Visually Impaired sufferers. This offer has historically, to maintain low fees, created budget pressure for the service which had been met by the FE budget for previous years.

6.2A change in funding methodology resulted in the services failure to meet unrealistic FE income targets, as experienced nationally and triggered the re-basing of the FE income during 03/04. This meant that the FE budget was unable to continue meeting the shortfall on income experienced by the Leisure programmes budget.

6.3The budget pressure was met in 03/04 by the Cabinet agreeing in November 2003 to provide additional revenue funding for 2003/04 only.

6.4Poole Adult Learning has reviewed the Leisure programme offer and wishes to increase the level of concessions as an incentive to generate more learners and consequent progression onto FE. Re-allocation of the Adult Learning Plan budget to cover the shortfall, as stated in 5.4 will cover this cost and enable fees for September 2004 to July 2005 to rise at the level of inflation.

6.5A new LSC funding methodology is planned to be applied to Leisure programmes in Sept 05 which will remove the Adult Learning Plan grant and replace the programme funding with a similar methodology to that of the FE. As this is based on number of learners and guided learning hours and clearly performance led, it is unclear at this stage exactly how PAL’s profile will be effected. Safety netting will apply if a provider drops below 90% of the income previously allocated by the ALP grant and learners are expected to benefit from concessions within the funding as with FE.

7Projects - Appendix 4

7.1 Income. Although less certain the amount of funds available for additional projects outside the main FE and ALP grant for the period 04-08, the service has experienced income and outcomes from the successful bidding of the following funds this year:

ESF - European Social Fund (Community Learning Officers in Alderney)

Basic Skills Capacity Building (Basic Skills Teaching Resources)

Level 2 Attainment Initiative (Media and Visual Arts equipment)

NLDC - Neighbourhood Learning in Deprived Communities (Hamworthy Library Learning Centre and Community Learning Officer)

Learning Champions (Information, Advice and GuidanceTraining)

LIDF - Local Development Initiative Funding (Quality Development and Staff Development in Teaching Qualifications and appointment of Business Development staff)

ICT Capital Funding (Multi-media provision and hardware, Curriculum Network, New MIS Database, Music Technology programmes)

Connect2Learning Advice Contract Funding (Information, Advice and Guidance)

These funds have financed several initiatives during this academic year and will continue. The recurrent funding bids are already underway to continue ESF, Learning Champions, NLDC, Basic Skills activity for the next period.

7.2The service plans to meet several of the objectives stated within the 3 Year Development Plan through project funding. Capacity building initiatives are usually met by FE institutions through additional project funds as the costs of delivering the curriculum usually only generates sufficient surplus to cover accommodation improvements and ICT upgrades.

8Administration Budget - Appendix 5

8.1This budget is generated from the recharge and allocation of funds from the FE, ALP, Leisure Programmes and additional Projects budgets.

8.2Previously most project income was costed out on learning activities as stated in the projects with little account for the time allocation used by management, finance and marketing staff.

8.3The service has reviewed the management of project funds and will be using a management, administration and marketing re-charge policy to generate the necessary income to enable the Administration budget to break even.

8.4The service will continue to seek opportunities to reduce the cost of administration and create surplus for re-investment where possible from additional project funding, full cost business programme provision, sponsorship, partnership and the increased offer of high income programmes.

9Summary Breakdown of Costs - Appendix 6

9.1Poole Adult Learning has a projected total income of £2,440,000 in 03/04 increasing through project income for the period 03-08. The service has reviewed its approach to budget management for effective monitoring against targets.

9.2The service has experienced a period of fixed cost reduction in 03/04 which will stabilise the service and reduce budget pressures experienced by Leisure Programmes.

9.3The 3 Year Development Plan has focussed the service resource to engage in capacity building and initiatives to generate more learners and meet LSC income targets and learner numbers.

9.4The current staffing cohort is minimal and additional administration support will be required but is intended to be funded through additional projects.

9.5A summary of the actions implemented to achieve the objectives stated in the plan are outlined:

Fixed costs reduced in 03/04 – reduction of 3 FTE staff members
Adult Learning Plan grant allocated differently to cover Leisure Course Concessions
Recurrent 03-08 DDA and Minor Works Funds to be used for Library Learning Centres
Recurrent NLDC Funding to be allocated to Library Learning Centres (Rossmore & Hamworthy)
Community Learning Officers to be funded by ESF and NLDC and Learning Champions Project Funds
ICT upgrades to be funded by budget surpluses, ICT Projects and full-cost Business Programmes
Basic Skills Curriculum development to be funded by Recurrent Basic Skills Capacity Building Funds

10Concessions

10.1Previously the service had not identified a clear funding stream to support concessions offered on Leisure programmes. This had been covered by Borough of Poole funding to Year 2000 and was then absorbed by the FE budget, creating a budget pressure since.

10.2Current Leisure programme concession policy is offered as follows:

30% discount for learners over 60 and not in full time employment

50% discount is offered to learners who are on a means tested benefit

up to 100% fee reduction is offered when a learner’s income falls below the national salary threshold

10.3The planned proposal for Sept 04, using ALP funds, would increase the Senior Citizens discount of 30% to 50% as follows:

50% discount to Senior Citizens not in full-time employment

50% discount to learners who are on means tested benefit

up to 100% fee reduction for learners when their income falls below the national salary threshold

10.4In relation to the FE accredited programmes for the period September 2004 a wider range of low cost and free programmes will be offered and funded from the Adult Learning Plan grant.

11Assumptions and Risks

11.1The financial business plan is based on a number of variable factors which may influence the budgets:

Learner numbers generate income to meet the 3 Year Further Education funding targets

Staffing levels are maintained at current levels as a minimum

The New Adult Learning Plan Funding Methodology results in similar funding income

Project activity is maintained on a similar level to current activity

The Service is able to carry forward surpluses for re-investment in ICT and accommodation upgrades

Lesley Spain

Adult Learning Manager

Poole Adult Learning

Background Papers

Poole Adult Learning 3 Year Development Plan September 2003