Replies
No one has replied to this post.
Yeah, there's no exception for devolved learners in England as slightly daft as that seems when there is one for the other nations.
Depending on who the devolved authority is, might be worth getting in touch with them to see if they've got any spare funding knocking about, if it's going to be a reasonable number of learners and it's a major employer...
Thanks Steve - I thought that was the case but wanted to check. We did ask the question at the time of devolution and got a firm no - it might be worth asking again I suppose, though the additional administrative requirements would not be welcome.
On a broader question: as in a few years we will be in a situation where everywhere is devolved, what thinking has there been about how 'cross-border' work is enabled? I haven't seen any discussion of this, but it will be a major issue. My own area (Warwickshire) is bordered by not just the WMCA but also six other counties: if they, like Warwickshire, were to end up with single-authority devolution deals, it would be ridiculous for us either to hold 8 different funding contracts or to have to turn learners away at the county border. But without some kind of nationally coordinated approach, I don't see another alternative.
Yeah, can't see us ending up with *every* council having their own pot, makes sense for, eg Cornwall, but most of the others are multiples/"historic" borders, eg Lancs and Lincs. I *just about* remember Out Of County learners on Local Authority contracts (not quite old enough to remember pre-FEFC days!!!)...
It will all be politics though (Warks should be in WMCA if there was any sense to it!)...
Richard Heath I've had the same thoughts. We're currently not devolved, and our recruitment areas doesn't even border any devolved areas. One of our recruitment areas is devolving soon, and I assume we'll be approaching them to continue to get funding for "their" students (above my job role). It is going to severely limit choice for some adults and employers when areas don't want to pass funding into other areas. Even assuming you can get agreements between areas, each of them has different data collection requirements over and above the ILR, meaning we'll all be working with multiple sets of rules, purely based on home postcode of the students. I know some private training providers already deal with this, but it's deeply inefficient, and a GDPR concern.
Ruth Canham-James indeed. Give it ten years and someone might decide it makes sense to have a single set of rules...
I mean, in general, they've not been as bad as I feared in terms of *outside* the ILR collections for mainstream stuff [puts bootcamps into a special little corner on their own], it's the different DAM codes to flag exceptions that's the real pain, along with minor tweaks to eligibility and which L3 aims they'll fund (full funding becoming less of an issue with the expansions in ASF)...
Richard Heath
ASF eligibility: working in non-devolved area
Created
Hi. We are (currently) in an ESFA-funded (i.e. non-devolved) area, but on the border of a combined authority. We have the opportunity to work with a major employer to provide English and Maths Functional Skills learning to their staff. Where those staff are resident in a devolved area, we would normally not be funded to work with them, but I had thought it might be permitted where the workplace was non-devolved. Looking at the rules document, I can see this wording:
"We will fund individuals who live in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland who require and are eligible for ASF, and work for a UK-based employer. Delivery must take place in England."
but nothing in relation to English devolved areas. Can anyone clarify?
Thanks