Adult Skills Budget Contracting opportunity

About Adult Skills Budget

The Adult Skills Budget is the new consolidated budget for mainstream adult learning provision. It incorporates a range of funding streams that were previously separate, including what used to be Employer-Responsive Provision (NVQs and Apprenticeships) and Learner-Responsive Provision (Skills for Life, full Level 2 and 3 and short courses). Following a large uplift in contract value for 2012-13, Your Consortium is now looking to expand our existing high quality accredited training partnership to work with more voluntary sector training providers and widen our current offer.

Contracts Available
Your Consortium has a current 19+ budget for delivery during the academic year August 2012 July 2013 of 829,339. We aim to contract with up to 10 new voluntary sector training providers for a contract between 30,000 and 50,000 over 11 months (September 2012 July 2013). As an indicative example, a contract this size would support the delivery of approximately 30 50 Apprenticeship starts as well as a number of short courses / Skills for Life courses over the period. Your Consortium will review performance and quality data throughout the year, with the intention of offering comparable or increased contract values to high performing partners from August 2013. Partners will be required to deliver predominately full Apprenticeship Frameworks as 90% of the budget is currently ring-fenced for Adult Apprenticeship delivery, with at least 50% of apprenticeships delivered to young people aged 19-24. For providers not yet ready to deliver the full framework, it may be possible to offer an unbalanced profile with initial short-course delivery to December 2012 and Apprenticeship starts from January 2013 at the latest).

Key Priorities for delivery

Your Consortium is particularly interested in hearing from organisations that offer/plan to offer at least one of the following Apprenticeship frameworks:

Campaigning Outdoor Programmes Housing Volunteer Management Activity Leadership Libraries, archives and Fundraising Community Development Info management Community Development Health and Social Care Local taxation and benefits Youth Work Community Arts Management Marketing and Comms As well as any other new framework not delivered by a current delivery partner (please see below) Currently, the main focus of provision for the existing partnership has been Children and Young Peoples Workforce, Customer Service, Management, Team Leading, Business Administration and ICT. As such, these areas will not be viewed as priority subjects for new providers.

Application Process
Your Consortium is committed to ensuring that the application process is as simple and straight forward as possible in order to give organisations the opportunity to join this exciting partnership. Below is a timetable showing the dates and deadlines for the application process and the date of the mandatory training prior to contract delivery. Only organisations that can commit to attending the training and commencing accredited learning delivery in September 2012 will be considered to join the partnership as part of this tendering round. Key Date Wednesday 11 July 2012 Friday 10 August 2012 Friday 17 August 2012 Thursday 23 August 2012 Friday 31st August 2012 Monday 3 September 2012
rd rd th th th

Project Milestone / Activity Application round open for Expression of Interest Deadline for submitting Application Form All applicants notified of the outcome of their application Mandatory Training Session for successful applicants Contracts signed by Your Consortium and Delivery Partner Apprenticeship and other delivery commences

Please Note: The Application Forms will be scored against a number of categories including capacity, capability, quality, resource and business standing. Only organisations that demonstrate they adequately meet each of these areas will be selected to join the partnership. Though Your Consortium is committed to supporting VCS development by providing feedback to unsuccessful organisations, all decisions about the selection of partners for this contract are final and there is no right of appeal. If a higher number of organisations meet the requirements than there is contracts available, decisions about funding allocations will be made based on ensuring a good mix of priority sectors are delivered.

Eligibility Requirements for organisations

Organisations wishing to join this partnership will need to demonstrate that they are of the required standard to successfully delivery on this challenging contract. These aspects will be tested via the Expression of Interest and Due Diligence process. In addition to these requirements, organisations must also meet the following eligibility requirements: Must be part of the voluntary and community sector (charity, social enterprise, registered not for profit company etc) Must be an accredited centre with a recognised awarding body offering funded courses that appear in the LARA (https://gateway.imservices.org.uk/sites/LARA/Pages/aimssearch.aspx) Must have a main geographical focus for this contract within Yorkshire and the Humber. Must offer/plan to offer at least one of the priority sector subject areas stated above and/or a new Sector Subject Area not delivered by any members of the current partnership. Must be able to offer relevant full Apprenticeship frameworks by January 2013 at the latest.

Guidance to complete the Application Form

A. Details Of Organisation Please provide the requested details about your organisation. If you do not currently have a UKPRN, you must register for one at the following address http://www.ukrlp.co.uk/ in order to apply to join this partnership. Similarly, all organisations delivering accredited learning and processing learners personal data must be registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO). If you have not already done this, you can register at http://www.ico.gov.uk/. B. Compliance Please read all of the statements carefully and honestly complete the Yes/No questions. A negative response under these questions will not necessarily prevent you from joining the partnership; however Your Consortium reserves the right to seek request further information before processing your application further. C. Business Standing Please provide details from your 3 most recent full years company accounts. This information is requested to gauge the stability of your organisation and to make judgements about future viability and sustainability. If you have experienced significant fluctuations in annual turnover and wish to submit further information relating to this question, please attach a separate sheet. D. Technical Capacity This section explores the technical capacity of your organisation to deliver on the contract. It includes a section to state whether your organisation has ever had a public contract removed and if so, give details of the circumstances under which this occurred. We also ask you to indicate what types of training you will be able to deliver both initially and by January 2013. Though we are looking for providers able to deliver a mix of provision, it is essential that any successful applicants are able to deliver the full Apprenticeship framework but January 2013 at the latest. We also request information about which Awarding Bodies your organisation holds Approved Status and ask if you have Direct Claim Status for any of your courses. This is because organisations with DCS are able to offer more flexible end dates and can there are not delays in learners achieving their qualifications. Though it is not mandatory for partners to hold DCS on any of their courses, this is something we would strongly recommend for new providers joining the partnership. The final part of this question requests the details and qualifications of the main staff that will deliver on this contract. If you are chosen to join the partnership, you will be required to provide further information in relation to staff qualifications, CRB reference numbers and CPD summaries. E. Proposed Delivery In this section you should provide details of the courses you would wish to deliver as part of an Adult Skills Budget contract. Please give details of the Sector Subject Area and course title as well as providing the LAD codes (https://gateway.imservices.org.uk/sites/LARA/Pages/aimssearch.aspx) for any Level 2 and 3 courses you currently deliver. This section should be used for full qualifications and should not include details of individual units. You can also include any courses you are currently developing that you would wish to deliver in the course of the year. Finally, although the budget is currently only for 19+ delivery, please indicate any areas you may wish to deliver to 16-18 year olds if funding could be secured to enable this.

F. Quality of Teaching and Learning This sections aims to seek a basic overview of your organisations approach to ensuring quality in teaching and learning. Under each sections you should include: Information, Advice and Guidance Please outline the integration of IAG throughout the learner journey including arrangement you have in place to ensure learners are enrolled on appropriate courses and fully understand progression routes within and outside of your provision. Initial Assessment - Please give details of your organisations approach to Initial Assessment, including any recognised tools you use to assess Skills for Life (e.g. Smart Move Skills Check). You should also provide a brief overview of the other areas you cover as part of Initial Assessment. Induction Please provide an overview of your learner induction, including the areas that are covered (health and safety, equality and diversity etc) as well as further information about how your inductions are structured to ensure learners are aware of their rights and responsibilities. Teaching and Learning Please give an overview of how teaching and learning is planned within your organisation to ensure that learners make good progress through their qualifications, taking account of initial assessment results, regular review meetings and assessments. Learner Feedback Please provide a summary of your arrangement for seeking learner feedback and the process you have in place for ensuring that feedback is acted upon. Additional Learner Support Please provide information about any additional learner support that you can offer learners who are identified as having additional learner support needs. G. Other information Please provide the requested information about the relevant insurances you hold and attach copies to the application. Also, provide a brief summary of the current Employer links you will utilise to ensure you can commence delivery on this contract by 03 September 2012 and tick to confirm you have relevant Policies in place in relation to Health and Safety, Safeguarding and Equality & Diversity. H. Declaration Please read and sign the declaration to confirm the accuracy of your responses. If you are submitting the application form and attachments electronically, please just type your name and date. Checklist Please read the checklist carefully and ensure you have met all requirements.

Please return your completed application, along with the specified attachments to Sam Alexander on salexander@yourconsortium.org or post to Your Consortium, Chain Lane Community Centre, Chain Lane, Knaresborough, HG5 0AS no later than 5pm on Friday 10th August 2012.