Download Item 4 - Hampshire County Council

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 Coordinator), 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
5.1
Recommendations
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.