Agenda item

Elevate Berkshire ESF Project Update

To provide the Joint Committee with an update on the Elevate Berkshire European Social Fund Programme.

 

Key Updates:-

 

           Item 1 – Update From Central Team on Key Projects

           Item 2 – Partner Updates

           Item 3 - Performance and Funding

           Item 4 – Future Plans

Minutes:

The Joint Committee considered a report providing an update on the Thames Valley Berkshire Elevate programme since its last meeting.

 

The report included:

 

           An update from the Central Team on Key Projects

           Partner Updates

           An update on Performance and Funding

           Future Plans

 

The topics covered included

 

           Slough Project 1- A contract for £170,000 to engage and support 390 eligible young people into employment, education or training or to gain basic skills. With a particular focus of supporting those from an ethnic minority (B&ME) background.

 

           Slough Project 2- A contract for £40,000 to engage and support 40 lone parents into education, employment or training.

 

           Digital Marketing – Recruitment of a Digital Marketing Assistant, who, once in post, would provide some digital marketing training for Elevate staff so all partners could become more proactive in this area. Although only a temporary post, 40 applications had been received.

 

           Employment is Everyone’s Business Project

 

           Dynamic Purchasing System

 

Partner updates were included in the report from:

 

           Bracknell Forest

 

           The Prince’s Trust

 

           Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead

 

           Adviza - Reading

 

           Ways Into Work

 

           West Berkshire Council

 

           Wokingham Borough Council

 

           Slough Borough Council

 

The reports were supported by some case studies.  Other points made during the discussion were that:

 

·                     The Office of National Statistics’ records showed that, in Bracknell Forest, 85 young people had signed up for job seekers allowance in the 18-24 age range.

 

·                     There were 25 NEETs in Bracknell Forest.

 

·                     Capacity was an issue so Bracknell Forest was engaging virtually with its partners, but the arrangement was remaining strong.

 

·                     West Berkshire was aiming to identify those who had not gone on to college  or work.

 

·                     Wokingham was close to achieving its target and was working out how to take the work forward.

 

·                     1% were unknown in Slough.

 

·                     There were 40 plus NEETs in the looked-after cohort in Slough.

 

With regard to performance, the Joint Committee was advised that:

 

           The partnership had engaged 1624 young people since November 2015, of these 358 had been supported into employment education or training.

 

           The partnership had already delivered against the disability target for the programme, supporting 488 participants who had declared a disability against a target of 280.

 

           The partnership had supported 31 young people to gain basics skills; this was against a 3 year target of 24.

 

           Good progress was being made against the ethnic minority target, as delivery of Slough Project 1 had made a positive start this would make a considerable contribution to this target being met.

 

The Joint Committee was advised that the current priorities were:

 

           Ongoing work to ensure that evidence was collected for results where they had been achieved.

 

           Work by all partners to ensure that the lone parents target was met, although the delivery which had begun in Slough by Kennedy Scott would make a considerable contribution to this target.

 

           Continued effort to engage with eligible young people, particularly via outreach.

 

The DWP had paid seven claims covering the period from November 15 to September 17, the last since the agenda had been published, but the programme was awaiting payment of claim 8 (£296,111.27), claim 9 (£232,265.28) and claim 10 (£261,476.04).

 

The Joint Committee was concerned to learn that DWP payments were a year in arrears as this made managing the project harder.  It was noted that there was to be a consultation regarding the UK Shared Prosperity Fund which was intended to replace EUSIF funding.  This would provide an opportunity to highlight the challenges posed by the detail currently required to substantiate claims, the time lag between expenditure and payment of claims, and the implications for the project’s cash flow.  It was hoped the new fund would be more user friendly.

 

In response to a question, the Joint Committee was advised that the funds withheld by the Central Team due to under-performance by some partners, would be released in June 2019. 

 

The Joint Committee was advised that the central team was looking for opportunities for funding that would bring longevity to the Elevate Berkshire 16 to 24 project, to continue the system change and support new models and ways of working it had introduced.  The DWP was keen for ‘Berkshire’ to continue the project beyond June 2019 and had spoken positively of the way in which Elevate Berkshire had striven to knit the skills and employment system together across Berkshire.  It was noted, however, that the partners were still finalising how the work initiated as part of the project would be taken forward beyond June 2019.  In Bracknell Forest, efforts had been made to embed Elevate in its services, working with partners, to ensure its sustainability..  It was becoming more self reliant and the increased digital marketing and brand awareness should aid this process.  The Joint Committee was reminded that the authorities would continue to have a duty to support the 16-18 year-olds.  There was, however, more uncertainty over the capacity to continue the work with 18-24 year-olds.

 

The Joint Committee noted the success of the collective Elevate Berkshire programme and endorsed the actions, proposals and agreements within the briefing paper; to ensure the programme continued to be delivered in-line with ESF processes.

 

It also noted that although the project would conclude in June 2019, the Central team would remain in place until October 2019, to wrap up all outstanding matters.  At this stage, it was not clear whether a further meeting to deal with any matters would be needed beyond June 2019.  A decision on this would be taken at the next meeting in May 2019.

 

On behalf of the Joint Committee, the Chairman thanked the officers for the very good work that had and was being done across the County.

Supporting documents:

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk