Purpose

Proposed
decision
 
That the Cabinet
Member for Education and Skills agree to:
a) APPROVE the sub-contracting of
provision for vocational and specialist provision for adults.
 
b) DELEGATE
authority to the Corporate Director for Children, Young People and
Education, to take relevant actions, including but not limited to
entering into relevant contracts or other legal agreements as
required, including Service Level agreements (SLAs), to implement
this decision.
 

Reason for the decision

 
The decision is required to support a broad delivery
of education for young people and adults to meet needs, gaps in
provision and new funding priorities.
 

Background

 
Community Learning and Skills (CLS) is KCC’s
internally commissioned department to deliver Education and
Training to adults and young people over 16. KCC CLS is responsible
for delivering the Education & Skills Funding Agency (ESFA)
Adult Skills Fund (ASF), Greater London Authority (GLA) budget and
ESFA ‘Study Programme’ courses for NEET young people,
which support the goals and objectives of Framing Kent’s
Future.
 

Adults
ESFA Funding rules for Adult Education have changed
and have redefined ‘partners’ as sub-contractors. This
alteration requires a decision to sub-contract to both maintain and
potentially realise business opportunities for growth against the
delivery of previous specialist provision, for example for
Deaf/deaf learners.
 
The decision will also support delivery of vocational
courses across Kent. The focus of adult skills funding is now on
progression towards, into, and within work, in particular to meet
needs identified in the Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP). The
Department for Education (DfE) have identified new learning
‘aims’ for grant funded courses, including a large
range of vocational courses which CLS do not have the internal
organisational capacity or capability to deliver.
 

Young People
There has been a reduction in provision available to
16-19 year old NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training)
across Kent due to removal of the funding options including
traineeships, the European Social Fund (ESF) and Reconnect funding,
which largely supported delivery of alternative provision for young
people for whom School or College aren’t the best route.
This, along with the regrading of GCSE boundaries, has seen an
increase in the number of NEETs across Kent, with an estimated 725
additional places needed in the 24/25 year. The Department for
Education (DfE) has a requirement that KCC meet this demand under
its statutory requirement for provision, through CLS as its
provider.
 
Available provision for NEET young people has been
held in a deficit position for several years, and recent changes
have further impacted this deficit. At any one time, between 3 and
5 districts have no provision of this type available to the NEET
population of Kent. Some of the provision which has lost ESF
funding is very niche provision. There is little existing rolling
provision, which hinders learners needing to access education later
in the academic year, for example, from February
onwards.

 

Summary of provision needed and priority
level

District

Numbers needed 2024/25

Priority for Action

Providers operating

Countywide online Maths and English

250

High

4

Canterbury

60

High

2

Swale

50

High

4

Thanet

75

High

2

Ashford

35

Medium

1

Dover

60

High

2

Folkestone and Hythe

25

Med/Low

3

Maidstone

50

High/medium

3

Tonbridge and Malling

30

High/medium

1

Tunbridge Wells

10

Med/Low

0

Dartford

25

Medium

2

Gravesham

25

High/medium

5

Sevenoaks

30

High

0

Total

725

 

 

 
The funding received for delivering ‘Study
Programme’ courses to young people aged 16-19, is lagged by 2
years i.e. not paid until academic 2 years after the delivery takes
place, and so does not allow providers of education and training to
inwardly invest to keep up with growth of demand, thus making it
unviable financially. The DfE can agree in year growth funding, and
this would need to be assured to support any additional growth
beyond any that CLS can viably support. The funding model
and any restrictions on in-year growth funding from DfE could
compromise KCC's ability to deliver its statutory duties,
especially in relation to NEET young
people.
 
How the proposed decision supports
the
Framing Kent's Future - Our Council
Strategy 2022-2026 and Securing Kent’s Future.
 
Implementing the subcontracting proposals for
specialist provision for both adults and young people will
contribute towards the following priorities:
Framing Kent’s Future:
Priority 1: LEVELLING UP KENT:
·     
To support the Kent economy to be
resilient and successfully adapt to the challenges and
opportunities it faces over the coming years.
·     
To work with partners to develop a skills
system for Kent that delivers skills that are resilient to changing
workforce needs and opportunities and supports people to higher
level skills.
 
Including supporting the identified actions
of:
1. Develop the highly successful Employment Task
Force, so that it has the capacity to identify and tackle barriers
to high-quality employment across the county and convene action
between partners that will drive economic growth.
2. Respond to and build on the Local Skills
Improvement Plan
3. Regularly commission the Workforce Skills Evidence
Base to provide information about the Kent economy, businesses and
skills requirements and inform the Action Plan that will coordinate
interventions to improve skills levels and seize opportunities for
new jobs and skills.
4. Maximise the use of national skills funding,
including the apprenticeship levy and the lifelong learning
entitlement to create real opportunities for people to access
training opportunities throughout their lives that lead to
employment in vocational and technical fields.
6. Working with the skills sector, building on recent
models of collaboration, to develop the post-16 education system to
better meet the needs of young people as well as the local and
wider economy.
 
Sub-contracting elements which CLS do not have the
expertise or capability to deliver, will align with our Best Value
duty, as outlined in Part 1 of the Local Government Act 1999, where
Councils should “make arrangements to secure continuous
improvement in the way in which its functions are exercised, having
regard to the combination of economy, efficiency and
effectiveness”.  Any
new sub-contracts commissioned will be assessed in line with Best
Value Duty.
 
Sub-contracting will also support Securing
Kent’s Future, Objective 2 by supporting CYPE placement
strategies and preparing young people for adulthood / transition
with an outcome of greater independence in life.

Financial Implications
 
CLS is funded via a range of annually awarded
Education & Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) contracts plus fee
income when adults enrol on certain courses.
 
The funding agreements with ESFA allows CLS retain up
to a maximum of 20% of the sub-contracted delivery amount as a
management fee to support the procurement, selection, audit, and
management of the sub-contractors ensuring that they adhere to
contractual obligations and expected quality measures. We have
reviewed our requirements and believe that retention of 15% would
be appropriate.
 
The wider planned restructure of CLS delivery will
ensure CLS is fully funded from both grants and fee income when
completed (including any sub-contracted element) and
there will be no expectation of
contribution from the general fund.
 
Sub-contracting relates to the following CLS funding
streams:
 

Adults
CLS receives a Tailored learning contract of
£6,705,376 (24/25 allocation) as part of the funding line
Adult Skills Fund which totals £8,791,434. There is no
limited amount the LA may provide through subcontracting however,
the ESFA have expressed a wish to see a reduction in subcontracted
delivery in the sector. In the event of exceeding £100,000 of
subcontracted delivery, the sub-contracting standard must be
adhered to which is an additional level of rigour which includes an
external audit to be undertaken at cost to CLS. The Adult Skills
fund projected sub-contracting amount is expected to be
£600,000 of which CLS will retain £90k to oversee
service delivery.

 
Young People: 
CLS presently receives a 16-19 funding contract of
£729,444 (24/25 allocation). This funding is 2 year lagged
funding which means that delivery in 24/25 will not be paid until
26/27 academic year.

 
The DfE offer an opportunity for in-year growth
funding, and this will be utilised to support delivery of any
sub-contract opportunities, whilst ensuring viability of KCC CLS
Study Programme offer.

 

Legal Implications  
 

Adult
Learning:
Sub-contracting adult provision - KCC
does not deliver the CLS services pursuant to specific statutory
powers or duties. KCC is required to deliver the CLS services in
exchange for funding from the Education and Skills Funding Agency
(“ESFA”).
 

Young People: KCC has a duty
to secure sufficient education and training for persons in Kent
aged 16-19 (and those aged over 19 with an EHCP) under section 15ZA
of the Education Act
1996. KCC must have
regard to various matters in complying with this duty (s. 15ZA(3))
and act in a number of different ways (e.g. with a view to
encouraging diversity in the education and training available
– s. 15ZA(4)).
 
KCC has “Raising the Participation Age”-
related duties under the Education and Skills Act 2008, i.e.
to:

Make available to those aged 13 to 19 (and between
20 and 24 with SEN) services to encourage, enable or assist their
participation in education or training (s. 68).

Exercise its functions generally so as to promote
participation of young people (those aged 16-18 without a level 3
qualification) in education or training (s. 10) and to identify
young people who are not participating (s. 12).

 
Participation of young people in education,
employment or trainingstatutory
guidance which
covers these participation age related duties, was issued in April
2024 to which KCC must have regard.
 
 

Decision

As Cabinet Member for
Education and Skills, I agree to:
 

(a)   
APPROVE the sub-contracting of provision for
vocational and specialist provision for adults.
 

(b) 
DELEGATE authority to the Corporate Director
for Children, Young People and Education, to take relevant actions,
including but not limited to entering into relevant contracts or
other legal agreements as required, including Service Level
agreements (SLAs), to implement this decision.