City Council Delegated Decision

Reference Number: 3795 Author: Jennifer Hardy Department: Children and Adults Contact: Jennifer Hardy (Job Title: Project Manager, Email: [email protected], Phone: 01158765629)

Subject: Approval to enter in to a contract with City Council for the release of funds associated with the Early Outcomes Fund

Total Value: £188,500 (Type: Revenue)

Decision Being Taken: 1) To accept the Department for Education (DfE) funding (through Leicester as the lead) 2) To approve spend of £138,500 to deliver the Early Outcomes Fund project 3) To approve spend of £50,000 to fund a Programme Manager for the duration of the project.

Reference Number: 3795, Page No: 1 of 5 Reasons for the Decision(s) In January 2019, (LCC) submitted a joint bid on behalf of themselves, Nottingham City Council (NCC) and City Council (DCC) to the DfE's Early Outcomes Fund Project which is part of the Social Mobility Programme. The bid was successful and £795,065 was allocated to the three cities to develop individual city wide strategies and pathways to support children with Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN). Of this fund, NCC's allocation is £188,500 to cover staffing, resources and other costs to deliver the project.

LCC are the lead Local Authority for the project so funding has initially been allocated to them and a contract is now needed between NCC and LCC to enable the transfer of funding to NCC. A contract has been written by LCC and has been checked by NCC's legal team, and will be signed after this decision is signed off.

A breakdown of how the money will be spent is below:

a. Of the £188,500, £138,500 will be allocated to delivering the Early Outcomes Fund project. This will include developing the pathway, creating new content and upgrading existing content, developing new provisions in partnership with the Strategic Systems Change Board and marketing the toolkit to parents and professionals across Nottingham City. A series of briefing and training sessions will also be developed and delivered to embed the new pathway. The Early Years budget will be overspent by no more than the available £138,500 in this process. b. £50,000 of the grant is to fund the salary of a Programme Manager for the duration of the project. The Programme Manager is already employed by Nottingham City Council and this funding will offset existing salary costs.

Other Options Considered: None - if the contract is not entered into the money will not be transferred to NCC and we will need to find the funds for some of the activity that has taken place from existing budgets.

Background Papers: Minutes of the Small Steps Big Chages Board - April 2019

Published Works: None

Affected Wards: Citywide

Colleague / Councillor Interests:

Consultations: Those not consulted are not directly affected by the decision.

Reference Number: 3795, Page No: 2 of 5 Crime and Disorder None Implications:

Equality: EIA not required. Reasons: Not applicable

Relates to staffing: Yes

Decision Type: Portfolio Holder

Subject to Call In: Yes

Call In Expiry date: 26/02/2020

Advice Sought: Legal, Finance, Human Resources

Legal Advice: This report raises no significant legal issues. The City Council will need to enter into an agreement with Leicester City Council (as lead partner) and to receive payment of the City Council's share of the funding. It is understood that the City Council has delivered the services to be funded using internal resources and so there is no risk of clawback. Advice provided by Andrew James (Team Leader Contracts and Commercial) on 29/01/2020.

Reference Number: 3795, Page No: 3 of 5 Finance Advice: This decision seeks approval to:

1) Accept grant funding from the Department of Education (DfE) as part of the Social Mobility Programme. This follows a successful bid in conjunction with Derby City and Leicester City Council. The total grant allocation for the project is £797,065. As the lead council, Leicester City Council will receive the full allocation.

2) Enter into a contract with Leicester City Council: The allocation for Nottingham City is £188,500. This funding is contingent on entering into a contract with Leicester City Council.

3) Approval to Spend: It is expected that staffing resources (excluding the project manager) and other costs necessary to deliver the project will not exceed £138,500 of the allocation.

The residual £50,000 is to fund a Project Manager. Following a recent restructure in the Education, there is capacity in the team to lead on projects, therefore it is expected this funding will offset the existing salary of a Project Manager providing a saving to the department.

The project commenced in April 2019. The grant is ring-fenced to deliver the agreed outcomes. Any underspends at the end of the project may be at risk of clawback, although this risk is unlikely as the service has developed a fully costed work plan to maximise all of the funding available.

Advice provided by Christine Green (Stragetic Finance Business Partner) on 31/01/2020.

Reference Number: 3795, Page No: 4 of 5 HR Advice: It is not yet known how the additional funding will be spent other than the commitment made for funding part of the Programme Manager post. The additional work may require posts to be established on a temporary basis and the service has confirmed that appointments to the posts will be sought via secondment arrangements from existing employees within the service area, including acting up arrangements. There will need to be a transparent ring-fenced recruitment exercise to appoint to these secondment opportunities.

Management should ensure a suitable job description and person specification which accurately reflects the work to be carried out under the trial is in-place before recruiting to these roles. Any changes to roles or any temporary roles created would be subject to formal job evaluation in order to confirm the appropriate grades.

Management should be aware that the selected candidate(s) should commence on a starting salary of Level One within the respective Grade, unless the appointed colleague is already in employment at the council and on Level two of the same grade, in which case the employee would be matched over at the rate of pay they currently receive.

Training, development and support for employees moving into the new posts should be considered, and performance managed through the internal assessment and review process.

Management should consider the need to recruit including any backfill arrangements in light of the vacancy freeze implemented by CLT with immediate effect. A business case for recruitment is required with the support of the relevant Director and all requests should be submitted through the recruitment portal. All posts will be considered for redeployment and internal resource options should be considered first. Advice provided by Leanne Sharp (Service Redesign Consultant) on 04/02/2020.

Signatures Neghat Khan (PH Early Years, Education and Employment) SIGNED and Dated: 18/02/2020 Catherine Underwood (Corporate Director for People) SIGNED and Dated: 17/02/2020

Reference Number: 3795, Page No: 5 of 5