Newsletter & Bids 17 2017
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Newsletter & Bids 17 2017 April 23 2017 Newsletter Dear Members, This week’s newsletter bids, grants and Funds come to you in conjunction with our sponsors London Based Manley Summers Training. Well to any of you who did the Marathon and I know a couple did then congratulations to you all. Also Retained clients and RoAPT clients received a Special offer and a CODE to use please use this prior to the 2nd of May. This week going out to 3,675 organisations and people in the Industry, many people ask why this number changes - well we have people leave and join each week and of course some companies buy out other companies or people leave companies. This week’s Bids Grants and Funds has some 38 Pages. Current apprenticeship frameworks in Health and Social Care and in Care Leadership and Management will be withdrawn by Skills for Care and Development on 29 December 2017. In-line with government changes, the planned closure comes after the approval of the new employer-led apprenticeship standards at levels 2, 3, 4 and 5. Level 2 and 3 are already open for registration and level 4 and 5 are anticipated in the very near future. This means that no one will be able to start an apprenticeship on the framework after the end of this calendar year, and all apprentices starting after that date will do so through the new standards. The world of Training and Development has been turned upside down this however is sometimes a perfect time to take advantage. We have run Peer Meet Ups for some time and indeed we have our next one scheduled for Birmingham on Thursday the 25th of May. Tickets for registration at http://bit.ly/PeerMeetupBHAM I think we only have 25 Tickets left. Start at 10.30 with registration, Lunch will be provided by our Sponsors ICQ. Along with the Speakers we hope to have more clarity going forward on the Funding rules from ESFA. The event will finish at 3.30 but with lots of time for Networking. Email [email protected] Today the Education and Skills Funding Agency has written to providers regarding non-levy funding for apprenticeship from 1 May (see full ESFA letter below). Contact: Steve Lawrence Tel: 07522 386235 Email: [email protected] / [email protected] 1 Newsletter & Bids 17 2017 April 23 2017 Dear colleague, Re: Extension of existing apprenticeship contracts for delivery to non-levy employers We recently published news about the procurement exercise for apprenticeship training provision. I am writing to provide you with further details on the actions we will take to extend existing contracts held by eligible providers. A summary of actions is included at the end of the letter. Funding Allocations By 25 April we will confirm your allocations for funding starts to non-levy-paying employers through to December 2017. Your allocation will be for the full 8 months and you will have flexibility to use it over this period. We will issue separate allocations for 16-18 and adult apprenticeships. We will continue our simple approach to calculating your allocations, based on your delivery track record. All existing apprenticeship contract holders will be informed of their allocation so that once they enter RoATP they are able to deliver. We will also confirm the value of Apprenticeship Grant for Employers (AGE) available to you through to the end of July 2017. These will be calculated using our previous allocation method. Contract Variations Before 28 April we will vary your existing contract to include funding for new starts from 01 May. These starts will be funded in line with the Apprenticeship Funding and Performance Management Rules 2017 to 2018 and Apprenticeship Technical Funding Guide for starts from May 2017. This means that the rules on co-investment will apply and funding will be calculated using the new funding bands. To maintain stability through the transitional period we will continue to apply current subcontracting rules to the delivery of new starts to non-levy-paying employers through to December 2017. This is an extension of the existing subcontracting rules with the exception that all subcontractors must have entered the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers (RoATP) to deliver during this period where they are delivering in excess of £100,000 of apprenticeship delivery. We will send variations to those providers who have entered the RoATP and have an existing apprenticeship contract. We are currently assessing applications to RoATP following the recent re-opening. Results will be notified and published as early as possible in May 2017. As soon as existing providers enter RoATP they will be able to deliver to non-levy paying employers and will receive a contract variation. We will vary contracts again in June to extend the contract duration into the 2017 to 2018 funding year and fund new starts until the end of December 2017. This variation will be issued as part of our annual contract cycle. Performance Management We will update our Apprenticeship Funding and Performance Management Rules 2017 to 2018 to reflect these transitional arrangements to contract extensions. Our performance management Contact: Steve Lawrence Tel: 07522 386235 Email: [email protected] / [email protected] 2 Newsletter & Bids 17 2017 April 23 2017 approach will focus on ensuring stability over this period. The rules will set out that we will continue to reduce contracts where performance is below our expectation. More on this story at http://feweek.co.uk/2017/04/20/breaking-agency-write-to-apprenticeship- providers-with-further-details-on-non-levy-pause More than half of providers have been secretly rated by the Education and Skills Funding Agency as posing a potential risk, FE Week can exclusively reveal. Read more at http://feweek.co.uk/2017/04/20/government-secretly-grading-all-colleges-and-training-providers/ They are surreptitiously marked using a four-grade system in the ESFA’s ‘profile and assessment’ software tool, which FE Week has discovered listed 563 (55 per cent) of 1,025 private training providers, colleges and councils with agency contracts as either being watched closely by officials or receiving formal intervention, as of January 2017. The Department for Education has refused to comment on the scheme, but sector leaders who were Contact: Steve Lawrence Tel: 07522 386235 Email: [email protected] / [email protected] 3 Newsletter & Bids 17 2017 April 23 2017 shown the list of providers and grades have lambasted the ESFA’s secrecy and are now calling for urgent transparency. The four categories included in the PAT are ‘formal intervention’ (red), the most severe, ‘active engagement’ (amber), ‘close watching brief’ (light orange), and ‘standard monitoring’ (green). If a provider is placed in the first three categories, it means the government is concerned about their performance and places them under scrutiny. FE Week understands that a total of 73 providers were receiving formal interventions in January, with 299 in active engagement with the DfE, and 191 on the close-watching brief. Just 462 were in the clear in category 4. Mark Dawe, the chief executive of AELP, slammed the ESFA’s secret grading system. “As a public body there should not be any secretive processes and this should all be transparent to all providers that they fund,” he told FE Week. “This is clearly something the AELP will need to raise with the ESFA on behalf of our members.” David Hughes, the boss of the AoC, said it was “appropriate” for the ESFA to be assessing the financial and overall health of the providers it funds. However, he added that it would be “good for the agency to be more transparent about what the triggers are using to move providers into and out of each category”. Key4Life is recruiting a London Programme Manager [£30-32,000, London, full time]. Key4Life is a charity which works on the front-line with young men (18 to 26-year-olds) in prison and those at risk of going to prison, helping them to find a new path and successfully reintegrate back into society through an innovative seven-step model. Key4Life aims to reduce youth re-offending rates and not only address symptoms but rather the root causes of re-offending. The London Programme Manager will be responsible for ensuring the successful management and delivery of the innovative Key4Life programme in London, working directly with participants, volunteer mentors, corporate partners and employers. The role will involve managing between two and five staff members. The deadline for applications is 5th May http://www.key4life.org.uk/news/274/key4life_is_recruiting_a_new_london_programme_manag er_-_apply_here.html Contact: Steve Lawrence Tel: 07522 386235 Email: [email protected] / [email protected] 4 Newsletter & Bids 17 2017 April 23 2017 Webinar: RoATP and the Provider Portal - getting it right! Wednesday 26th April, 9:30 - 10:30 Whether you have just been added to the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers or you are still at application stage, this webinar will show you: - How to make the most of your findapprenticeshiptraining.sfa.bis.gov.uk listing - How to use the site to attract new business - How to use it to get the competitive edge on other apprenticeship providers - How to maximise your search results and ranking on the site - And for new applicants, how to make sure that you pass this crucial element of your RoATP application About the presenter: Carla Martinho Carla has extensive experience of the work-based learning sector supporting training providers and employers to deliver high-quality apprenticeships which comply with Government funding rules. She is currently working with The Apprenticeship Service providing services to support them with the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers application process.