Adult, Community & Family Learning

Harrow Council

Prospectus Number: 5

Release date:

April 2015


An Overview of Harrow and Adult, Community & Family Learning...... 3

Mission Statement for Harrow Adult Community & Family Learning...... 4

An Overview of the Framework...... 4

The Prospectus Curriculum Types...... 5

Adult Skills Budget...... 5

Priority Learner Groups for Adult Skills Budget...... 5

Community Learning...... 7

Innovation Projects...... 9

Fees...... 9

Community Learning Fully or Co Funded...... 10

Adult Skills Budget Fully or Co Funded...... 10

Universal Access Co-Funded...... 10

Setting the Prospectus Context...... 11

What we are asking you to do...... 12

Scoring...... 12

More Help and Information...... 13

The curriculum type bidding forms :...... 13

Adult Skills Budget Curriculum Type Bidding Form...... 14

Community Learning Trust Curriculum Type Bidding Form...... 16

Universal Access Curriculum Type Bidding Form...... 18

Innovation Project Curriculum Type Bidding Form...... 20

An Overview of Harrow and Adult, Community & Family Learning (ACFL)

Harrow is an outer London Borough with an estimated population of around 243,000, a 15% growth over the last ten years. The proportion of residents aged over 65 at 14.3% is higher than the London average. The population is increasingly diverse. White British make up 42% of the population, compared to 60% for London and 82% for England as a whole. Asian or Asian British comprise around 44% of the borough’s population, primarily Indian (26.4% of the borough’s total) and Sri Lankan. Within other BME communities Black African groups, particularly the Somali community, have been fast growing over the last 6 years or so, as has the Afghan community. The White Other group, especially Romanian, has increased to 8%, largely concentrated in the south and east areas of the borough.
Harrow was one of 25 local authority areas recently identified by the Department for Communities and Local Government as an area with high levels of need for English Language provision. 28.5 % of Harrow’s residents have a foreign first language with Gujarati, Tamil and Romanian being the most commonly spoken languages. In 15.9 % of households English is not the main language of any household occupants, the 10th highest ranking nationally and much higher than the national level of 4.3 %. The 2011 census showed 1% of Harrow residents unable to speak English at all, compared to 0.6% for London and a national figure of 0.3%.
The borough overall is one of contrasts. Harrow is among the top eight most affluent boroughs in London but also ranks among the top eight for high rates of low income linked to employment. There are pockets of severe deprivation, mainly in the central and south west areas in the wards of Roxbourne, Wealdstone, Greenhill and Marlborough that are in the fifth most deprived in the country, with significant poverty, deprivation and acute housing need. Generally the highest indices for multiple deprivation co-incide with areas with a higher concentration of social housing, such as the Rayners Lane and Headstone estates.
There are, therefore, significant differences across the borough in indicators of deprivation, which have had an impact on unemployment rates, life expectancy, physical and mental health and child poverty. Part of the challenges for all services is addressing the inequality gap in the more deprived parts of the borough.

Mission Statement for Harrow Adult Community & Family Learning

Our vision is to secure the delivery of an accessible, coherent and high-quality learning programme for adults and families in Harrow. The aim is to increase and widen participation in learning, promote the wider benefits of learning, enable people to develop skills, knowledge and confidence, increase health and well-being and encourage a culture of life-long learning through progressing learners to further study or training and/or employment
The vision, aims and objectives of the Service are set out in the Harrow Community Learning Strategy 2013-15.The provision to be delivered by Harrow AFCL Service is intended to meet the national, regional and local priorities for learning through the following aims:

Widening participation in learning through targeting community learning and providing a means for learners who do not currently participate to gain access to the learning process

Enhancing individuals’ life opportunities by providing a wide range of learning contributing to employability skills; health and well-being; community cohesion and citizenship; and stronger family relationships
Developing local learning communities by enhancing the capacity of new providers, particularly community and voluntary organisations, to develop learning programmes for their immediate communities
Developing high quality teaching and learning by providing on-going professional development for those engaged in the delivery of community learning
The ACFL Service is externally funded by the Skills Funding Agency, within a policy context set by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). The government publication, New Challenges, New Chances, (BIS December 2011)set out the objectives for Community Learning and expectations of recipients of Community Learning funding.These include developing different models of delivery for Community Learning in order to focus funding on people or groups who are disadvantaged and least likely to participate and to increase fee income from those who can afford to pay. This is called the Pound Plusapproach for maximising income to support widening participation.

An Overview of the Framework

Funding of Adult, Community Learning in Harrow broadly fall into 3 types.
1)Accredited programmes that are part of the Qualifications Credit Framework and are funded through theAdult Skills Budget
2)Community Learning programmes that are targeted at a particular priority group(s)
3)Community Learning programmes intended to have universal access on a fee-paying basis.
The service will be bidding for other internal and external funding as and when it becomes available. At the time of writing this prospectus, most of the funding coming into the service is from The Skills Funding Agency.
In April 2013 Harrow Council Cabinet approved a Preferred Providers Framework. With Community Learning to be commissioned from within this framework. The lifetime of the framework is September 2013 to August 2017, with an annual opportunity for a new intake of providers. This Prospectus is for programmes to run between August 2015 and July 2016
The total budget available for commissioning out will not exceed £400,000. The amount of funding for individualbids willbe awarded based on the mix of provision, the cost of that provision and the balance between targeted Community Learning and fee-paying universal access provision. To give an indication, funding for individual bids in 2014/15 ranged from £1500 to £90,000.

The Prospectus Curriculum Types

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL LEARNERS MUST BE OVER 19 YEARS. (The only exception is inter-generational learning of parents/carers and children in a Family Learning programme) – please refer to the funding rules linked below for in-depth guidance.

Adult Skills Budget

/ Provision delivered under this funding stream includes accredited employment and employability training; functional skills; vocational skills; and personal and social development.
The Service intends to focus on delivery of up to Level 1 qualifications. Qualifications from Entry 1 to Level 1 must be listed as approved for SFA funding and appear on the Learning Aim Reference Service (LARS). Qualifications should have sufficient approval time to enable completion of delivery, verification and final certification.
Applicants for funding for the delivery of accredited courses must show evidence that they can meet Awarding Body requirements and manage the appropriate accreditation systems. They must also demonstrate that high quality information and advice is available to all learners.

Priority Learner Groups for Adult Skills Budget

  • Unemployed in receipt of state benefits
  • Underemployed or economically inactive dependents of people on benefits
  • Adults requiring English and Maths
(Please refer to Funding Rules 2015-16 for full details
-
Applicants should indicate in their application how they would manage delivery to those ineligible for fully funded provision through the Adult Skills Budget.
Providers applying for funding through the Adult Skills Budget should be aware that payments will be based on results , with on-programme instalments linked to numbers of eligible learners retained on the programme. 20% of the funding will be linked to achievement.
Allocations will be made for proposals containing the following provision:
Curriculum Type / Maximum enrolments funded per provider
Functional Skills English (Entry levels) / 50
Functional Skills Maths (Entry levels) / 50
Functional Skills ICT (Entry levels) / 120
English for Speakers of Other languages ESOL (Entry levels) / 120
Employability Skills / Personal Development (Entry levels) / 50
Personal and Social Development (Entry levels) / 30

Community Learning –targeted provision

/ This funding stream relates to the delivery of targeted Community Learning designed to widen participation and
encourage those individuals or groups with the most barriers to learning to joining a Community Learning programme. The programmes should be targeted at a particular group(s) and be learner centred, with clear progression opportunities.
Curriculum Type / Maximum enrolments funded per provider
Programmes designed to support Community Cohesion and Citizenship
Examples could include: Volunteering; Training for Community Learning Champions or Peer Mentors; Advocacy skills; ICT; ESOL; Capacity building for small organisations / 100
Programmes designed to support Learning for Health and Well-being
Examples could include:
Healthy Cooking ; Stress Management; other programmes specifically designed to meet the needs of older or disabled learners / 300
Programmes designed to support Learning for active engagement and personal developments
Examples could include:
Build Your Confidence with IT; Group reminiscence and memory mapping. / 400
Programmes designed to improve family life and life chances throughfamily learning
Examples could include:
Financial Literacy andFamily Budgeting; Share a Story; Dads Club; Family First Aid / 200
Programmes designed to improve skills for Employment
Examples could include:
craft based business training programme; non-accredited English for Speakers of Other Languages; Confidence building / 100
Programmes designed to develop Self-Organised Groups or Learning Clubs / 100
Curriculum proposals for targeted Community Learning should be packaged under one or more of these priorities with one or more of the following target groups as the primary focus
  • Older learners , particularly those in an isolated or vulnerable situation and those entering the Fourth Age, 75+ years
  • Families, particularly where parents have basic English or Maths needs or who have not reached Level 2, where there is a single parent or families with complex needs
  • Unemployed residents, with provision targeted for those before they reach the Work programme or those that have left without a job
  • Disabled learners
  • Mental Health service users or ex-users or those with learning difficulties/disabilities
  • Black and ethnic minority individuals, particularly with below Level 2 qualifications

Universal Access

A range of programmes for personal development, cultural enrichment or intellectual and creative stimulation (formerly known as Personal and Community Development Learning). These are intended to be a universal offer open to all, with fee income from learners intended to support some or all of the delivery costs. Programme proposals can be drawn from any curriculum area.
Curriculum Type / Maximum enrolments funded per provider
Learning for personal development –any curriculum area / 2000
Learning Clubs / 500

Innovation Projects

/ Harrow, Adult, Community & Family Learning will make available some small-scale funding( £2-£3k) for innovative projects. This funding is intended to support and test new approaches to learning, engagement and delivery methods and cannot be used to cover core costs
Examples of the kind of activities which the Innovations Project will fund include:
  • Development costs for a new programme where the proposal is for a pedagogical approach which is innovative within the sector;
  • Costs involved in developing a teaching resource which will result in a substantial enhancement to the curriculum or make an identifiable difference to learning;
  • Costs of developing, trialling and implementing new technologies where this will result in a substantial enhancement to the teaching and learning process
  • Piloting a model of delivery that leads to self-sustainability eg development of a self-financing learning club

Fees

Adult, Community & Family Learning have a clear policy of fees and fee remittance to support the £+ policy of the Skills Funding Agency. This requires fee income to be raised wherever possible as part of delivery costs. We will require all providers in the framework to work within this policy. Our Supply Chain Fees and Charges Policy can be accessed here:

Income raised will be retained by the provider to help offset their delivery costs. This means that there is no set hourly fee rate across the board but is for the provider to cost as part of their costing exercise. To give some measure of comparison, the basic hourly rate for Universal Access programmes in Harrow in the past has been £4 ph but providers are expected to set a fee according to the market.
Providers should also note that concessions as set out below for particular recipients should be included as part of the costings.

Community Learning

Fully, co and Non funded

/ FullyFunded (ie costs met from funding): Individuals from target groups as set out in programme proposals
Providers should retain evidence of eligibility of learners from identified target groups where possible to assist in measurement of impact and for financial audit purposes.
Co-Funded: individuals not from target groups but who are in receipt of one of the following benefits. These learners would be eligible for 50% concession. Evidence of eligibility should be retained.:
  • Job Seekers Allowance (JSA)
  • Employment and Support Allowance in the Work Related Activity Group (ESA WRAG)
  • Council tax reduction
  • Housing benefit
  • Income support
  • Universal credit
  • Unwaged dependent of one of the above
Non-funded: individuals not from target groups or in receipt of benefits

Adult Skills Budget Fully or Co Funded

/ 100% concession for people receiving the following benefits:
  • Job Seekers Allowance (JSA)
  • Employment and Support Allowance in the Work Related Activity Group (ESA WRAG)

Universal Access Co-Funded

/ Full fee – this is at provider’s discretion. The expectation is that those who can pay more should pay more to subsidise other groups and providers may wish to have some programmes with a higher fee than others. This should be reflected in the costing toolkit for this provision
A registration and materials charge may be added at the discretion of the provider.
Concessions
50% concession of full fee for people receiving the following benefits:
  • Job Seekers Allowance (JSA)
  • Employment and Support Allowance in the Work Related Activity Group (ESA WRAG)
  • Council tax reduction
  • Housing benefit
  • Income support
  • Working or pension tax credit
  • Universal credit
  • Unwaged dependent of one of the above

Setting the Prospectus Context

In April 2013 Harrow Council Cabinet approved a Preferred Providers Framework with Community Learning to be commissioned from within this framework. The lifetime of the framework is September 2013 to August 2017, with an annual opportunity for a new intake of providers. The most recent
Invitation To Tender (ITT) had a closing date of 27 March 2015.
The Framework represents a pool of preferred and pre-checked providers in Harrow. The process conforms to the procurement standards adopted by Harrow Council. To access any funding released through this Prospectus, the provider must be a member of this framework. Subcontracting of any elements of a bid must be clearly outlined in the bid. Subcontracting is not our preferred method of commissioning and the business case for subcontracting and the arrangements for monitoring must have prior agreement.
This Prospectus is commissioning learning for adults and families in Harrow and this provision must be delivered from premises in Harrow. The deadline for submission is mid-day on Monday 11 May 2015. Please submit proposals only on the forms provided here at end of Prospectus and on the attached Costing Tool Excel sheet and email to
It is intended to release Letters of Engagementin the week commencing 18 May 2015. Additional call for proposals may be issued as and when funding becomes available throughout the year.
There will be a Q&A briefing session on this process open to all providers proposing to submit a proposal, to be held at Harrow Art Centre, Uxbridge Road, Hatch End, Harrow HA5 4EA on:
Thursday April 30, 1.30pm -3.30pm or
Thursday April 30, 7.00-9.00pm
Representatives of potential providers are strongly encouraged to come to one of these sessions to hear more about successful projects, the year ahead and to network with other providers.
Quality requirements
Providers will be expected to have a commitment to quality assurance and should be aware that any programmes delivered may be part of an Ofsted Inspection at short notice and to an observation visit through the Harrow ACFL Service.. Requirements for quality assurance will be set out in a Quality Inspection Framework. This will be introduced at the briefing sessions mentioned above and a link will be sent out to all providers subsequently. Successful prospectus bid providers will be expected to make every effort to attend quality CPD events held regularly for both providers and tutors.
Monitoring requirements
Following acceptance of bids, successful providers will be issued with a Schedule of Agreement that sets out targets, KPIs and a funding schedule. During the year a number of monitoring meetings will take place between the ACFL service and providers to discuss progress against targets and KPIs and any subsequent actions that may be agreed
Selection
Selection of the prospectus bid will be done on a scoring basis and on the basis of fulfilling our contractual agreements with the Skills Funding Agency. Thus we cannot guarantee that bids that score above the threshold will be accepted and we may also select individual parts of a bid. We will always discuss ‘part-acceptance’ with the providers in question as this would mean a smaller amount of subsidy from the funding.
What we are asking you to do
1Outline the programme offer you would like to provide on the planning spreadsheets (In Costing Toolkit provided). Read the notes carefully on the notes sheet of the spreadsheet. Fee income and concession is outlined previously in this document and how to manage the fee data is explained in step 7 and 8 in the Notes
2Select the form appropriate to the programme type you intend to bid to deliver. If you are bidding for more than one type then you most use separate forms
3Summarise the offer on the bidding form(s). You can do this either using a narrative or in tabular data form. Use this as an opportunity to highlight the unique selling point of your bid
4Complete the remainder of your proposals. Please limit your responses to a maximum of 400 words per section.
5Programme proposals may be for one term or less or for a longer period.
NB Please note that the information given in your application will form the basis for the KPIs and targets set out in the Schedules of Agreement that will be issued for successful programmes

Scoring

Score
Excellent – a major area of strength / 5
Good – an area of some strength / 4
Competent/Acceptable / 3
Some development required / 2
Raising major concerns / 1
No information given / 0
All criteria carry equal weighting.

More Help and Information

To make the process fair and transparent we cannot answer questions specifically aimed at your bids before the award date. We can however answer general questions. These questions along with the answer will then be posted on the Learninharrow website and emailed to all providers on the framework.
Remember that we were are most interested in is:
  • Who are you targeting
  • What are you delivering and why
  • What are the intended outcomes/impact
  • Why is it good value for money
  • What the unique selling point is for your course/service/location/idea

The programme type bidding forms can be found at the end of the document:
  • Adult Skills Budget
  • Targeted Community Learning
  • Universal Access
  • Innovation Project

Adult Skills Budget ProgrammeType Bidding Form