Content: 

1.Voluntary Value Skills, Employment and Worklessness Forum

2. Region-wide Third Sector Consortium to bid for ESF funds  - how can you get involved?

3. Tendering Delays

4. National Offender Management Service (NOMS) contracts   

5. Formal channels to providers

6. Becoming a Provider

7. The Impact of ESF

Welcome to the fourteenth European Social Fund (ESF) bulletin for Voluntary and Community Organisations (VCOs) in the South West Competitiveness area.  This bulletin summarises the opportunities for VCO engagement with ESF.

1. Voluntary Value Skills, Employment and Worklessness Forum

Thursday 22 July, 9.45am - 1.30pm, The CREATE Centre, Smeaton Road, Bristol BS1 6XN
An update on the European Social Fund (ESF) and discussion on VCSE involvement in the skills, worklessness and employment agenda.
Who’s it for? VCSE organisations:
•    Wishing to increase investment in skills to maximise their potential
•    Considering tendering for ESF projects
•    Wanting to make links to local, sub-regional and regional activity.

To book and for further information click here.

 2. Region-wide Third Sector Consortium to bid for ESF funds  - how can you get involved?

A third sector consortium will bid for regional ESF Skills Funding Agency contracts.  Working with Learning Curve as the lead and accountable body, and with the Voluntary Sector Training Alliance (ViSTA) and Cornwall Learning Partnership, South West Forum will bid on behalf of a consortium of skills and learning third sector organisations in the South West (excluding Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, which has separate ESF arrangements). The consortium will be guided by a steering group, which will determine its future direction.  Within the consortium, ‘members’ will be different to ‘delivery partners’. ‘Members’ will be all third sector organisations who meet basic requirements in terms of skills and learning delivery.  ‘Delivery Partners’ will be those third sector organisations who ‘fit’ with aspects of the contract specifications, once they are published.

To become a member, please contact simon@southwestforum.org.uk  For further interest, please request a copy of the communiqué that has been written by all interested parties.

To find out more about this important initiative come  to the Voluntary Value meeting in Bristol on 22 July.  Fore more information and to  book click here

3. Tendering Delays
    
The Voluntary Value project expects the ESF tendering timeline to resume before the end of the summer.  Initially timeline for The Skills Funding Agency and the Department for Work and Pensions contracts was due to flow from the 7 events across the region in mid-June. These events signalled the launch of the each agency’s spending priorities.  But this roadshow of events was postponed at the last minute, pending a review of the Government’s welfare programme. The Voluntary Value project has been told to expect these events to be re-scheduled in late summer – and will inform readers as soon as it learns anything.

4. National Offender Management Service (NOMS) contracts

NOMS are pressing on with their ESF contract process for the South West, resisting the delays that have stalled others. One £6 million contract for the South West region (excluding Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly) will target ex-Armed Forces beneficiaries, those from BME communities, female offenders, and young offenders transitioning to adult detention centres.

VCOs who can provide to these beneficiaries can still be included as sub-contractors in the bids. The Voluntary Value project speculates that the successful bid will come from either A4E, Maximus, Tribal or Working Links. Each have submitted their ‘Initial Solutions’ to NOMS, and will be working up their full bids between mid-August and mid-September. This is the time when potential sub-contractors will be sought as they each seek to strengthen their bids.

Contact details are as follows:

All information on the NOMS contract can be found at: http://procurement.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/about/procurementinitiatives/esfprogramme200713/

5. Formal channels to providers

Each ESF provider has its own method for potential sub-contractors to register their interest. By registering your interest, you are better placed to be on the providers’ radar when they come to write their ESF (and other) bids. Below are the methods that some of the larger organisations use:

6. Becoming a Provider

Though ESF contracts are getting bigger, and will cover larger geographical areas, now is the time for organisations who wish to bid for Skills Funding Agency ESF contracts to begin the process, by completing a Pre Qualifying Questionnaire (PQQ). The following link will take you to the first page of the Skills Funding Agency website which discusses commissioning, and a step by step guide on how to register: http://skillsfundingagency.bis.gov.uk/funding/newproviders/

The PQQ opportunity is always open, but periodically the SFA ‘freezes’ it so as to process the applications that have been made. The next ‘freeze’ is anticipated in July.

7. The Impact of ESF

Further data on the success of the ESF programme highlights the government interest is in what they are buying (ie, skills and employment outputs) rather than who they are funding (public, private or third sectors). In the South West area it is reported that:

‘Overall it should be noted that nearly 70 thousand people in the South West have been helped to improve their employment and skills prospects with the support of the programme. With some 18 thousand people having either entered work, training or gained a qualification in just over 2 years of delivery.’