Purpose

1. The Council have been awarded
£1,240,000 from the Department for Education to deliver the
adult numeracy programme, Multiply. This is distributed across
three years as follows: 2022-23: £400,000, 2023-24:
£408,000, 2024-25: £408,000. Funding has to be spent
within the financial year it is profiled or it will be clawed back
by the DfE. 2024-25 is an indicative figure and will depend on
delivery in year 2023-24.
2. The objective of this programme is to increase the levels of
functional numeracy in the adult population across the UK. Multiply
programme will be delivered at a South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined
Authority (SYMCA)level with South Yorkshire’s Multiply
allocation totalling £7,256,308.56 over three years.
3. The aim of Multiply is to deliver numeracy interventions e.g.
intensive flexible maths courses for those in employment or
unemployed, building on what is already delivered through
Adult
Education Budget (AEB). Crucially this delivery includes a strong
element of engagement recognising that many of the learners who
will most benefit from improved numeracy will not be known to
education settings or the Council through traditional education
data.
4. SYMCA has chosen a mix of provision based on recommendations
from local authority partners. Interventions delivered with
Multiply funding need to be additional to and differentiated from
AEB delivery and should not displace that provision.
5. The main project areas that were submitted as part of the
Investment Plan include:
• In work numeracy development
• Preparation for work – sector-based programmes
• Preparation for work – disadvantaged residents
• Numeracy life skills
• Family Learning
• In work numeracy through English for speakers of other
languages (ESOL)
• Capacity Building
6. The Council’s Education and Skills Strategy commits to use
innovative, collaborative approaches to upskilling our population,
working inside and outside of formal education settings. It
recognises the value in real world learning with an applied purpose
that brings
education to life, and it promises partnerships between, education,
business and the voluntary and public sectors.
7. A developing sub theme within the Education 2030 Ecosystem
Implementation Plan is Diversifying learning opportunities for
adults, families, and communities and includes key strands of
delivery including: Multiply, Skills Bootcamps (SYMCA), Reviewing
and Enhancing the AEB funded activity including Adult Family
Community Learning (AFCL)
8. Importantly our Education and Skills Strategy is committed to
learning for all our communities.
9. The Multiply programme is based around many of the same
principles. It aims to engage learners outside of the formal
education system, to bring them into informal learning and help
people to realise maths is easier than they remember and crucial
for life whether its budgeting, cooking or for work.
10. It asks Councils to engage the hardest to reach communities, to
find ways to bring maths to life for them. It promotes partnerships
with employers and the VCS to get maths into the places in
Doncaster City where it is needed most.
11. In our first year we commissioned education and VCS providers
to deliver to deliver on the Council’s behalf. Existing staff
were used to expedite delivery, through engagement with our
communities, particularly those vulnerable communities we most want
to support.
12. We have ultimately been unable to utilise the full
£400,000 in this financial year, with around £37,000 of
activity not having commenced before the end of the year, we have
also had £4655 removed for reporting errors, although we are
challenging this and hope to have this reversed. This means we will
receive roughly £366,500 for the coming year.
13. is proposed to grant funding to schools to develop and deliver
training aligned to the learning of their children, to parents and
carers. Support will be given to schools to also work with local
businesses to link their maths provision into family aspiration
raising sessions, linking maths to local opportunities.
14. We will engage businesses to identify any maths training needs
within their workforce, to enable them to increase productivity. We
will work with the Advance team and other employer facing partners
to engage employers.
15. We aim to align some of this delivery with our Remake Learning
Days event at the end of May, to bolster publicity and impact of
both initiatives.
16. A project team will be set up to provide management, engagement
and tutoring to most effectively achieve the learning and
engagement ambitions that the Council have committed to. The work
of this team will sit in the newly formed Skills Service to ensure
effective linkages
are made with the Council’s work on the Education and Skills
Strategy.
17. The Council will be looking at using warm spaces and community
venues as centres for training. Tutoring is to be based around real
world challenges facing the City’s communities,
for example using budgeting, cooking and horticulture as a base for
learning. There is potential to use incentives to engage learners
and overcome barriers to learning, so propose offering incentives
related to the courses.
18. We also plan use some funding to help people into work, where
they need an element of numeracy support aligned with wider
employability. We aim to target refugees and asylum seekers as well
as the general population, to reduce the level of unemployment in
particular communities.
19. We also plan to use the funding to grow talent in the Council
by recruiting an apprenticeship post focussed on communications and
social media.
20. See the table in the attached Officer Decision Record for
details regarding the planned spend for years 2 and 3.

21. It is proposed that a competitive grants award / contracting
process be used to award Multiply grant funding of up to
£15,000 for:
• local schools / academy trusts to engage their
parents/carers both from the perspective of educating their
children but also opening up job opportunities for them in local
businesses.
• local training providers with a background in supporting our
most vulnerable citizens.
• local voluntary and community groups already engaged with
our most vulnerable citizens.
22. It is proposed that a competitive grants award / contracting
process be used to award Multiply grant funding of up to
£100,000 for:
• local organisation(s) with a background in supporting people
with learning difficulties and autism into employment or closer to
employment, particularly into roles requiring specific numeracy
aptitude.
23. We have explicitly been instructed to work with DN Colleges
Group by SYMCA, so we are proposing a waiver to enable us to direct
award / grant award them to deliver on our behalf, up to
£150,000 over two years.
Provision will be delivered in localities containing buildings
already frequented by the communities we are looking to
engage.
*Could be subject to change – to approve further in project
development, potential amendments including staffing, and grant
values to be made by the Head of Service for Skills.

Content

To approve the planned framework of activities
outlined in the Officer Decision Record to enable the continuation
and successful delivery of the “Mulitiply” programme in
Doncaster.
This is in accordance with a Cabinet recommendation of the 14th
December 2022 to accept Multiply programme grant funding