European Social Fund in England

Future - Looking forward

Work is well under way setting up the new ESF programme so that the first funding rounds can be launched in the autumn. Central to the process is how the programme will be delivered.

The new England ESF programme for 2007–2013 will be launched in the autumn. Over the next seven years it will invest £4 billion, of which £2 billion will come from the ESF, in projects to extend employment opportunities and develop workforce skills. In this article we look at how the programme will be delivered.

Roles and responsibilities

At national level, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has overall responsibility for ESF in England. Within the DWP, its ESF Division acts as the ‘Managing Authority’ for ESF in England and liaises with the European Commission in Brussels.

Most of the delivery of the programme takes place in the regions, with ESF Division being assisted by a small number of staff working in Government Offices.

Regional Skills Partnerships play a leading role in developing regional ESF frameworks to identify how ESF will address regional jobs and skills needs within the framework of the national programme. In London, this role is played by the Mayor.

At regional level, 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 (LSC) and DWP Delivery Directorate are CFOs in every region of England. In some regions, Regional Development Agencies, and some local authorities, are also CFOs.

Providers

CFOs contract with 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 receive a single stream of funding from the CFO and do not need to find their own ‘match funding’.

Committees

There are committees at national level and in each English region to monitor the performance of the programme. They comprise a range of ESF partners including representatives from employers, trade unions, Regional Development Agencies, local authorities, equality agencies and the third sector.

Setting up

Work is well under way setting up the new ESF programme so that the first funding rounds can be launched in the autumn.

All the Regional Skills Partnerships (and the Mayor in London) have now developed and consulted on regional ESF frameworks for the first half of the programme. The frameworks are being used by CFOs to inform their Co-financing Plans for 2007–2010. The Co-financing Plans describe the activities, outputs and results that CFOs will procure to contribute to the national programme and regional frameworks.

When Co-financing Plans have been endorsed by regional committees, CFOs will hold tendering rounds and contract with successful providers. Tendering will begin during the autumn and it is expected that the first projects will start in early 2008.

Benefits of Co-financing

Since it was introduced in 2002 Co-financing has improved the delivery of ESF by enabling public bodies to manage ESF and domestic match funding together.

Benefits of Co-financing include:

• Greater strategic coherence with domestic employment and skills funding streams. CFOs use ESF to procure additional activities and outcomes that complement their domestic provision – for example, by helping more clients or by providing more intensive support to disadvantaged groups.
• More added value to EU and national employment and skills strategies. Co-financing has strengthened the links, which are required by EU regulations, between ESF, the European Employment Strategy and the UK Lisbon National Reform Programme.
• A sharper focus on the disadvantaged groups at the heart of the Government’s strategy to extend employment opportunities. Since the mid-term review of the 2000–2006 ESF programme in 2004, CFOs have increasingly focused on tackling barriers to work among people who are hardest to help in the labour market.
• Easier access to ESF by removing the requirement on providers to supply their own match funding. CFOs now provide and account for match funding, which has given many more providers, including voluntary and community organisations, the opportunity to access ESF.
• More systematic management and monitoring of ESF funds, and a greater emphasis on quality. Most Co-financing provision is now subject to formal inspection by Ofsted and the findings to date have been very encouraging.
• A significant reduction in the amount of expenditure declared ineligible by auditors compared with the old direct bidding system.

In Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Merseyside and South Yorkshire, a small amount of funding is distributed outside the Co-financing system. This is because there are some additional activities in these areas which cannot be delivered by CFOs such as Higher Education projects in Cornwall.

Sourcing alternative funding

Although the 2007–2013 programme will start to fund projects in early 2008, some projects under the 2000–2006 programme will continue until mid-2008. The two programmes will therefore overlap.

As there will be significantly less ESF funding available under the new programme, current projects should continue to make plans for when their ESF contracts finish.

A Readiness Assessment Tool is available to help projects prepare succession or exit strategies, for example by investigating alternative sources of funding. The tool is at www.gos.gov.uk/gol/European_funding/

Want to know more? For further information on the 2007-2013 programme visit www.esf.gov.uk