To approve the acceptance of grant funding from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) for the delivery of the council’s adult and community learning plan. To ensure effective spend of the ESFA grant against relevant government and Herefordshire Council priorities, the report proposes delegating authority to the Director for Children’s Wellbeing to complete the contractual arrangements needed to accept the funding and to do so in future years that this grant funding remains available. All funds received will be directed to meet the priorities in the council’s adopted Adult and Community Learning Plan, utilising providers on the council’s established framework and in accordance with any grant conditions which may be set nationally. See Annex 1 ESFA funding allocation letter.

That

(a)        the ESFA grant of £509,945 for the delivery of adult and community learning for the academic year 2017/2018 be accepted; and

(b)        the Director for Children’s Wellbeing be authorised to complete the necessary contractual arrangements in order to access the ESFA adult and community learning grant in 2017/18 and in future years.

The council could choose not to accept the funding. This option is not recommended because the use of external funding enables the council to continue to successfully deliver adult and community learning across Herefordshire as per the council’s Adult and Community Learning Plan 2015 – 2018, approved by Cabinet on 15 October 2015.

There is also no guarantee that this funding would be reallocated to another provider in Herefordshire and could result in a loss of £509k per academic year to invest in funding education and training provision in our most deprived wards and with our most 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 there would be associated redundancy costs to the council.