Purpose

The CEC have provided funding of £397,016 for the Careers Hub Core Grant for the 2026/27 academic year. The CEC have given approval to the Career Hub team to designate these funds as they see fit, which will help to develop the South Yorkshire Careers Hub.
This includes part-fund the role of Enterprise Co-ordinators in the four local authority areas of South Yorkshire.
Permission is sought to:
1.
a)Proceed with procurement activities to enable delivery of the agreed Careers Hub plan, and
b)Delegated authority to be granted to Kieran Loftus and Rachel Crowder, to award contracts to deliver the Hub Plan, following procurement activities.
c)Issue grants to the four local authorities for up to these values:
BMBC - £15,928.08 (0.5 FTE)
CDC - £31,856.16 (1.0 FTE)
RMBC - £31,856.16 (1.0 FTE)
SCC - £47,784.24 (1.5 FTE)
 

Decision

Option 1. As the Hub Delivery Plan has been agreed internally, and has been approved by the CEC, the process would be expedited, without the need for separate Corporate Director approvals for each contract awarded.
As SYMCA has accepted the Grant for 2026/27, we do need to allocate the funding to the four local authorities, to part-cover the cost of their Enterprise Co-ordinators.
 

Alternative options considered

1.Approval for the plan and for delegated authority to award contracts. Approval of the award for each local authority, per section 3.
2.Approval for each activity separately, with separate approval sought from the Corporate Director of Growth, Business and Skills for the award of each contract.