European Social Fund in England

2007-2013 ESF Funding Opportunities

ESF funds are distributed through 'Co-financing Organisations' (CFOs). CFOs are public bodies which bring together ESF and domestic funding for employment and skills so that ESF complements national programmes. The Learning and Skills Council and the Department for Work and Pensions Delivery Directorate are CFOs in every region of England. In some regions, Regional Development Agencies and some local authorities are also CFOs.

CFOs contract with the providers that deliver ESF projects on the ground. Providers can be from the public, private or third sectors. CFOs make ESF available through a process of open and competitive tendering. Successful providers do not have to find their own 'match funding', as CFOs are responsible for both the ESF money and match funding.

CFOs launched their first tendering rounds in autumn 2007, and about 800 new projects have started since then. Lists of projects are available on this website.

Links to information on current and forthcoming CFOs tendering rounds are below.

Learning and Skills Council

Individual LSC regions will be issuing tenders for ESF provision to support demand in mainstream LSC provision at varying points in the coming year. All current LSC funding opportunities can be found on the Bravosolution procurement portal. Any provider can still apply to pre-qualify to be eligible for invitations to tender in subsequent tendering rounds run by the LSC, as part of the Qualified Provider Framework.

Department for Work and Pensions

The results of the first DWP ESF Co-financing funding round are available on the DWP website, including details of organisations which have been awarded contracts. 74 contracts were awarded amounting to about £265 million in total. Projects started from June 2008. On 2 March 2009, DWP published an invitation to submit Pre-Qualification Questionnaires (PQQs) for delivery of further ESF provision ("ESF Phase 2") in a number of districts. Those organisations successful at the PQQ stage were invited to a series of Invitation to Tender (ITT) events which took place during June 2009. On 28 October DWP announced the results of the successful bidders at ITT stage and on 14 December 2009 11 new ESF contracts went live. A complete timetable for the ESF Phase 2 Procurement process as well as all previous related correspondence can be found here.

South East England Development Agency

The results of the three ESF Co-financing tendering rounds are available on the South East regional ESF website and SEEDA's website.

London Development Agency

Organisations have now been selected to deliver projects under the London Development Agency (LDA) ESF Co-financing 2007 to 2010 Prospectus Two. Details of these projects can be found on the LDA website.

There are further funding rounds for the Community Grants programme under the LDA ESF Programme 2007-2010, which provides grants of up to £12,000 to third sector providers. Community Grants is being managed by Greater London Enterprise on behalf of the LDA. More information on the Community Grants programme.

The LDA has also developed a Youth Programme of £24 million which was launched in spring 2009. Project selection is taking place during autumn 2009. More information on the LDA Youth Programme.

London Councils

London Councils have run two ESF tendering rounds under the 2007-2013 programme. A list of successful projects can be found on the London Councils website.

Tenders received under the third round of London Councils funding are now being assessed. £7.3 million will be allocated to support projects targeting some of the most disadvantaged groups in London. Funding decisions will be communicated in mid-January.

Luton Borough Council

Following the award of the contract for the "VCO Training & Support" project to Voluntary Action Luton in December 2009, all of Luton Borough Council's ESF Co-financing funding has now been committed. For further information, please see the Luton Borough Council website.

Bedfordshire County Council, Central Bedfordshire Council and Bedford Borough Council

On 1 April 2009 Bedfordshire County Council ceased to exist. The ESF Team for Bedfordshire is now hosted by Central Bedfordshire Council but will be providing a shared service with Bedford Borough Council. The ESF Team currently has 16 projects running in Bedfordshire.

Slowness of delivery with some projects will result in reductions by variation to some contracts. This will happen over the last quarter of 2009, with the intention that the funding released will be re-circulated in a new prospectus to tender in the first quarter of 2010.

East of England Development Agency

The East of England Development Agency (EEDA) has tendered for all ESF projects under its Co-financing Plan for 2007-2011. Details of the seven awarded contracts to date can be found on the EEDA website.

East Midlands Local Authority

The East Midlands Local Authority Consortium's first ESF tendering round has been completed and successful tenderers have been informed. More information is available on the consortium's ESF website which also includes a breakdown of successful tenders.

The local authority consortium launched a tender round in Lincolnshire around provision for Apprenticeships 25+ in December 2009. The tender papers are currently being scored and contracts will be awarded in the near future. More information is available on the consortium's ESF website.

Merseyside ESF Complementary Funding Strand

In May 2008, the Government Office for the North West invited bids for a total of over £16 million from the transitional ESF Complementary Funding Strand which operates alongside Co-financing in Merseyside until 2010. ESF funding was provided from Priority 1 (extending employment opportunities) including an allocation for Community Grants co-ordination.

Six projects, totalling £13 million were selected to provide support to individuals with employability skills and help them into work.

In addition £3 million was awarded to Community Foundation Merseyside to run the Community Grants Scheme 'Employable Communities' designed to help third sector organisations deliver employment and skills activities to the hardest to reach communities and individuals.

Information on successful applicants, activities targeted and funding allocated is available on the Government Office for the North West website.

Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly

In the Convergence area, a Higher Education (HE) and Higher Level Skills Delivery Plan for ESF has been developed to operate alongside the co-financed activity.

The plan has been developed by Cornwall HE partners in collaboration with colleagues in the Learning and Skills Council, Regional Development Agency, Regional Skills Partnership and Government Office South West. It supports five themes: research; graduate placements; developing entrepreneurship and enterprise; employer demand led provision; and raising aspirations.

The organisations that have been or will shortly be contracted to deliver the five themes awarded so far are:

• the University of Exeter-led 'Combined Universities in Cornwall research programme' will deliver the theme 1 research project
• Cornwall College will deliver the theme 2 'Graduate Placement' project, theme 3 'Developing Entrepreneurship & Enterprise' project and theme 5 'Raising Aspirations' project
• Truro College will deliver the theme 4 'Higher Education for business' project (once contractual issues are resolved).

No further tendering will be undertaken until the second half of the programme.

More information is available on the Convergence website.

National Offender Management Service

The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) was awarded ESF Co-financing Organisation (CFO) status in February 2009 under the England ESF programme. NOMS is an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice. It will co-finance ESF activities in all nine English regions to enhance offenders' employability and increase their opportunities to access mainstream provision. Delivery will be built around a case management model and will operate across both custody and the community. As well as a prescribed case management model, NOMS will be requiring providers to use a nationally networked case management ICT system (CATS - Case Assessment Tracking System), integrate peer mentoring into delivery, support capacity building of sub-contractors and share good practice across providers.

On 13 March 2009, NOMS launched its first tendering rounds for projects under ESF priorities 1 and 4 in England. Providers were asked to sign up as potential suppliers and submit a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ). Providers successful at PQQ stage were invited to respond to a first Invitation to Tender (ITT Initial Solution). Between four and six providers per region were successful at this stage and were invited to open dialogue sessions with national and regional NOMS. The purpose of the open dialogue was to give providers the opportunity to expand upon their original submissions and seek points of clarification to strengthen their final submissions. The final specification and ITT was offered to those successful at the initial phase. The procurement round has now closed and has resulted in the following contract awards:

Region	Prime Provider
East of England	Serco
East Midlands	Leicestershire & Rutland Probation Trust
London	London Probation Board
North East	Pertemps People Development Group
North West (including Merseyside)	Merseyside Probation Trust
South East	Serco
South West	A4e Ltd
West Midlands	The Manchester College
Yorkshire & Humberside (including South Yorkshire)	SOVA

Timescales have not yet been agreed, but the expectation is for a procurement round very similar to the current one to commence in spring 2010, following a period of central and regional consultation with stakeholders. The second round contracts are likely to be at least two years in length with project start dates from January 2011.

Innovative and transnational projects

A call for proposals for innovative and transnational projects was launched on 31 October 2008 and closed on 16 January 2009. 32 projects were selected for funding.

Technical Assistance

Information about ESF technical assistance funds is available here.