Hampshire County Council

Schools Forum Item 4

11 December 2014

Supporting Young People’s Participation: Use of Schools Forum funds to support an application to the Government’s Youth Engagement Fund (YEF)

Contact: Phillip Walker, Head of Service (Hampshire Futures)

Email. [email protected], tel. 07540 930270

1 Executive Summary

1.1 This paper is seeking approval to use £300,000 of the 2015/16 contribution towards services that support young people’s participation (previously referred to as NEET tracking) as a local contribution to secure a c. £4.75m project award from the Government’s Youth Engagement Fund (YEF).

1.2 An annual contribution of £333,000 is provided from the Dedicated Schools Grant to the County Council as a ‘combined budget’ under Schedule 2, Part 1, Paragraph 4 (c) of the School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations. This is an existing commitment. The County Council is not seeking additional funds or to amend the purpose for which funds are provided.

1.3 The project bid is being made by the ‘On Track’ consortium, and is led by Barnardos. If successful, the project will enhance the services currently provided using the combined budget, and support up to 1,400 14-17 year olds across Hampshire (all districts) who are NEET (or at risk of becoming so), and up to a further 700 in Southampton and Portsmouth.

1.4 The programme budget for Hampshire (all districts) is estimated at £2.1m. The project will run from April 2015 to March 2018.

1.5 As a delivery partner within the consortium, the County Council (Hampshire Futures) will deliver up to 420 of the 1,400 starts. For this it will be provided with a delivery contract of £675,000 over the project life. This will generate a total direct programme budget of £1.34m over the three years, compared with the £999,000 combined budget over the same period. 2 Youth Engagement Fund

2.1 The Youth Engagement Fund is a £16 million payment by results fund from Government. It aims to help disadvantaged young people aged 14 to 17 to participate and succeed in education or training.

2.2 The Youth Engagement Fund will be awarded through a competitive bidding process over 2 stages: the initial application form and then the invitation to tender for shortlisted bidders. The initial application stage took place over the summer. Shortlisted bidders have been asked to tender by 10am on 28 November 2014. Bid outcomes are expected in January 2015, with projects commencing on 1 April. Forum approval is required before contracts are entered into.

2.3 Hampshire County Council is participating in a consortium bid to Government for an approximate £4.75m YEF project to support 2,100 young people, aged 14-17, across Hampshire, Southampton and Portsmouth. The County Council (Hampshire Futures) is seeking a delivery provider role to enhance its capacity to support more young people in Hampshire to participation.

2.4 The programme budget for Hampshire (all districts) is estimated at £2.1m, which will support up to 1,400 young people, 420 of which will be delivered by the County Council. The project will run from April 2015 to March 2018.

2.5 The ‘On Track’ provider consortium is led by Barnardos, and partnered by Hampshire County Council, The Prince’s Trust, CfBT (the national careers service provider), The Wheatsheaf Trust, and Portsmouth EBP.

2.6 Social Finance UK, a social financing organisation, has been appointed as the project management partner, and if successful, will hold the contract with Government on behalf of the consortium.

2.7 The project will enhance capacity to deliver those services currently provided using the combined budget, including tracking young people’s participation, and support to 14-16 year olds identified as at risk of becoming NEET, and 16/17 year olds who are NEET. It will provide tailored intervention and support to individuals and priority cohorts, including those in schools. It will target a proportion of young people in every Hampshire district (and Southampton and Portsmouth). The final number of starts per district is to be determined, and will be informed by district attainment (KS4) and participation (Post 16) data. 3 Funding Model

3.1 Funding is provided through social impact bonds (SIBs) with investors funding innovative initiatives to prevent young people from becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training). The model follows the DWPs Innovation Funds projects, which piloted the use of SIBs to fund targeted social improvement programmes.

3.2 An Investor is required to provide programme funding upfront to guarantee delivery provider contract values. In addition, the funding model includes local contributions from organisations such as Schools, Health and Local Authorities. These are added to Investor funds to establish the total programme delivery budget.

3.3 Successful bids will likely feature secured local contributions, and it is for this purpose that Schools Forum agreement is sought. Delivery partners cannot act as a local contributor (or be the Investor).

3.4 The Government pays the project management partner (Social Finance) on a payment by results basis for agreed and specific outcomes, e.g. improved attendance, improved behaviours, attainment of qualifications, progression to employment. From these funds – and assuming providers deliver to profile – the Investor is paid a return. The project management partner costs are met from the total programme delivery budget. The risk is carried by the Investor, who also retains any surplus generated. The estimated return is between 4 and 6%.

4 Project Budget (Hampshire Futures)

4.1 If successful, the combined project budget (YEF and DSG) for the three years, 2015-18, will be £1.34m. Of this, YEF project income is projected at £675,000. Costs are projected at £1.34m.

4.2 The additional staff required to fulfil the delivery contract will be 3.5 FTE x D grade (Progression Coaches), 0.7 FTE x F grade (Team Co- ordinator), and 0.3 FTE Administrator.

4.3 The £333,000 annual funding agreed by Schools Forum is ongoing. Of the total £999,000 contribution over the three years, 2015/16 to 2017/18, £300,000 will be used as a local contribution in 2015/16 if the bid to Government is successful.

5 Recommendations

5.1 That Schools Forum note the intention to bid to Government for Youth Engagement Funding to support up to 1400 young people, 14-17, in Hampshire. 5.2 That Schools Forum approves the use of £300,000 of its 2015/16 committed funds as a local contribution to the project (if the bid to Government is successful) to enhance those services currently provided using the combined budget.

5.3 That Schools Forum receives a future report, subject to the outcome of the bid.