To approve the Herefordshire Council’s Adult and Community Learning Plan, Sub-contracting policy and Learner Fees policy for the period August 2019 – July 2022.

The plan identifies the key priorities for Herefordshire Council’s Adult and Community Learning Service (ACLS) to achieve its strategic and operational aims for the academic years 2019 – 2022.  The plan covers the use of the funding received annually from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) to deliver adult skills and community learning opportunities for Herefordshire residents aged 19 and over.

That:

(a)        the Adult and Community Learning Plan for 2019 – 2022 at appendix a be approved;

(b)        the sub-contracting policy 2019 – 2022 at appendix b be approved; and

(c)        the local learner fee remission policy for 2019 – 2022 at appendix c be approved.

1.          Herefordshire Council contracts out the delivery of Adult and Community Learning.  All delivery of learning is carried out through subcontracts with the council retaining funding for its management of the provision.

2.          Direct Delivery – all delivery is done in house by council staff.  The council would have to recruit tutoring staff to deliver the learning programmes. The council would be better able to shape and change the provision and direction of the service in order to respond to changing priorities and identified needs. It is also widely acknowledged that local authorities know their communities very well, and are better able to link together the identification of gaps and needs with provision and services that can respond.

3.          The main disadvantage to direct-delivery is the potential redundancy costs if external funding is reduced or withdrawn. Additionally there can be niche areas which require specialist skills and knowledge in order to create provision to meet this need, if the organisation does not have those skills within its team it would be difficult to meet the need. In this instance it would be better to contract with an organisation that already had those niche skills.

4.          Hybrid – a mixture of both direct delivery and subcontracting. This can vary greatly in the % split between direct and subcontracted provision. The hybrid model can have both the advantages and disadvantages of both direct delivery and sub-contracted models. The extent to which they manifest is largely determined by the percentage of split between direct delivery and subcontracting. We are still able to directly employ sessional tutors if needed due to market failure for example.

5.          The council could decide not to deliver adult and community learning and give notice to the Education and Skills Funding Agency and hand back the contract.  There is no guarantee that this funding would be reallocated to another provider in Herefordshire and could result in a loss of £512,345 per annum to invest in funding education and training provision in our most deprived wards and disadvantaged residents.  It would also mean a loss of funding to sub-contractors the majority of whom are local voluntary and community organisations which in turn would lead to job losses. Furthermore in addition there would be redundancy costs to the council.