CARDIFF COUNCIL CYNGOR CAERDYDD CABINET MEETING: 6 DECEMBER 2012 DELIVERY OF ESOL AND BASIC SKILLS – OFFER FROM CARDIFF AND VALE COLLEGE. REPORT OF CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER AGENDA ITEM: 6 PORTFOLIO: EDUCATION AND LIFE LONG LEARNING Reason for this Report 1. To consider in detail the offer from the Cardiff and Vale College for it to manage and deliver the ESOL and Basic Skills Programmes in Cardiff. 2. The College has offered to take back the franchised ESOL and Basic Skills programme from January 2013 this report provides a detailed analysis of how that transfer would take place and identifies the implications. Background 3. In 1992, following the incorporation of FE Colleges, Post 16 funding was transferred from Local Authorities (LAs) back to the then Welsh Office. The Welsh Office distributed this funding to FE Colleges who in turn entered franchise arrangements with LAs for the delivery of Basic Skills and Essential Skills, including English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Learning. At the time, this franchise arrangement involved separate agreements with Barry College and Coleg Glan Hafren. 4. Basic Skills and ESOL funding has continued to be delivered by the Council via a franchise agreement with the new Cardiff and Vale College with a current annual value of £1.9m. 5. In September 2012, the Cardiff and Vale College (CAVC) formally wrote to the Council offering to deliver the ESOL and Adult Basic Skills programmes in partnership with the Council. In October 2012, the Cabinet received a report examining the initial offer and agreed that officers would continue to work with the college to formulate a final business case for these programmes for consideration in December 2012. 7. This report has been written to make Cabinet aware of the final business case, a copy of which is attached at Appendix 1, for the delivery of the ESOL and Basic Skills programmes by the College. Page 1 of 7 Business Case - Issues Provision 8. The franchise funded ESOL/ Basic Skills provision would be transferred with no change to the current mode of, or place of delivery. The only implications for these programmes will come through any expansion following the release of additional funding from the College. 9. The current Service provision also includes in addition to Franchise programmes grant funded projects • Through the Welsh Government (WG) funded Families Learning Together programme. This programme offers courses to parents and their children in targeted schools across the City. It aims to break the cycle of under achievement in families and raise literacy and numeracy standards. • Through a WG/European Social Fund (ESF) funded project support for teacher training in Adult Basic Skills. • As part of the Coleg Morgannwg Consortium arrangement delivering Basic Skills in the workplace. • A Health Board funded project to deliver an English for Pregnancy programme offering the opportunity for expectant mums to develop their English Language capacity. 10. Whilst these projects and the staff would not be included in the Franchise transfer, retaining them within a reduced Council Service would not enable their efficient sustainability and would reduce the impact of each of the programmes. The College have registered their willingness to take on the management of these projects on behalf of the Council. Staff Consultation 11. Staff have been afforded the opportunity to meet with the Principal of the College and to respond in writing to the TUPE proposal. A summary of the responses received and answers provided is contained within Appendix 2. 12. Council staff raised a number of issues regarding the College proposal in addition to those relating specifically to the TUPE transfer. In addition, a number of issues were identified by the Council Scrutiny Committee, Council officers and external community groups. Whilst many of these were addressed in the original proposal and cabinet paper officers considered it would be helpful to inform their recommendation for the College to provide further clarification or confirmation. These are set out below: • There will be no redundancies as a result of the transfer of the provision to the College; • Under TUPE staff will retain their same salaries and terms and conditions including pension and holiday entitlements as they current have with the Council; Page 2 of 7 • The College will undertake a three month review of the provision including consultation with staff, students and communities as the basis for a detailed action plan; • Until the review is completed the College is not able to confirm the number of additional staff that will need to be recruited or the number of full time / fractional tutor posts that will be required. The College has an internal benchmark of 2/3 of teaching staff to be full time or fractional full time staff. Any curriculum areas with ratios above or below this benchmark would need to explain the impact on quality / efficiency of higher or lower ratios. The current Council tutor cohort indicates of 87 tutors (equivalent to 25 FTEs) only 65 are permanent members of staff, of those only one tutor is full time and only a further 9 have fractional contracts over 50%. During the three month review period the College would wish to discuss with these staff their aspirations and if any would wish to become full time or to secure a larger fractional (over 50%) full time contract; • The College has an established CPD programme for all staff. The three month review will identify any specific training that might be required to support the development of the provision. Where any training is considered mandatory then hourly paid staff will be paid for their attendance at training sessions; • The provision will continue to be offered to the same range of learners from the same Council locations as are currently used; • There is no time limitation to the commitment to use the same Council locations (subject to the Council itself continuing to use and make those locations available); • Any future changes to locations of delivery would be discussed with staff, learners and communities • Creche facilities at the Parade and Friary will continue to be operated by the College as they are currently. The Council has agreed to continue to make other Creche facilities available to ESOL and Adult Basic Skills learners; • There will be no increase in fees and charges as a result of the transfer; and • The College will provide an additional £400k of funding for ESOL courses to address the current waiting list issue Equalities Impact Assessment 13. An Equalities Impact Assessment has been carried out, a copy of which is attached as Appendix 3. No adverse impacts have been identified. Governance 14. As this transfer is of a franchised provision back to the College the Council would not have any statutory right of governance or of scrutiny of these programmes. However, the Cabinet Member for Education and Lifelong Learning, is a member of the Governing Board of the College so has a role in contributing to the overall strategy and performance of the College. The Cabinet Member is also a member of their Curriculum, Page 3 of 7 Quality and Student Affairs Committee which oversees the quality and performance of curriculum areas and the College’s social engagement agenda which will include these programmes. 15. Officers are also working with the College to examine the feasibility and benefits of having a separate Community and Social Engagement Committee which would draw its membership from the wider community and then be used to oversee these programmes more directly. Premises 16. The degree to which each building is used for activities covered in this report varies significantly. There are two major buildings from which programmes are delivered and the proposed arrangements with the College are as follows: - • The Parade. This building is used for the majority of the ESOL provision and courses. It is owned by Cardiff Further Education Trust (Registered Charity No 525512), and the Council is the current occupier. The building is in a poor state of repair with a recent property condition survey showing works in the region of £350,000 are required to bring it up to a reasonable condition. Staff within the consultation events made specific reference to the poor state of the building and to the lack of I.T and learning resources as being a major challenge to the effective delivery of courses. The College has adjoining premises to this building and have agreed to facilitate an immediate joint analysis of the use of the premises situated in the Parade. Following discussions the College have also agreed the Council could release £172,000 of franchise revenue resources to facilitate some immediate works to the premises. The building at the Parade will remain in the ownership of the Cardiff Further Education Trust (CFET) and it is proposed the Trustees would enter into a lease agreement with the College as the buildings administration for ESOL at The Parade would then fall within one organisation. The Trustees will need to be satisfied that the lease terms comply with the terms of the CFET. As the CFET is a Registered Charity it is therefore possible the Charity Commissioners may also need to approve the lease terms. • The Friary. The Council has a long leasehold ownership of The Friary (99 years from 6th December 1991) and at this current time the building has a significant use as the home of the Cardiff and Vale Music Service. It is proposed that the Council, subject to landlord’s agreement, would enter into a lease agreement to be negotiated with the College for the continued use of the premises for ESOL. • Other Premises. There are currently no other financial arrangements for the use of any other premises for ESOL and Basic Skills programmes.