Mapping national employment and skills provision

The LGA aims to support local authorities maximise employment and skills support currently available and, in the longer term, develop a partnership between local and national government to design a system that works for all people and places (guided by the Work Local proposals). In a world that places jobs at the heart of COVID-19 recovery efforts and driving the economy forward, this work is more important than ever.

This project with Research Matters sets out to help local authorities across England build a better understanding of how employment and skills provision, which can seem a complex and fragmented, is commissioned and delivered. It examines all known current national employment and skills programmes and provision, focusing on nationally contracted programmes and how these are commissioned, but also describes other relevant provision and potential opportunities that may arise from a rapidly changing landscape. These are set out in tables below.

Firstly, this report details employment and skills programmes that are nationally contracted to external suppliers, either on a national level or sub-nationally. It describes some of the current commissioning issues and highlights the complexity of both the geographic boundaries and the landscape of employment support providers.

Secondly, it describes other employment and skills programmes, including direct Government provision of employment support, allocated funding to education and training providers and relevant grants that are available now and in the near future. An appendix gives more detail of the programmes.

Alongside the report is an interactive map which local authorities can use to look up programmes and any known relevant providers that are active in their area. This map can be found further down this page.

This work:

• provides a roadmap of current employment and skills provision, with clarity over which programmes are contracted to external suppliers and on what basis
• provides local authorities with a clear picture of what national provision is available in their area, including who provides it (where information is available)
• helps local authorities understand the spatial footprints that shape this provision and how this is changing
• highlights an evolving provider landscape of key national and local providers which might offer new opportunities for partnership and development
• aims to support local and national government to collaborate more to shape provision and maximise opportunities that arise.

The research aims of this project were to:

• identify and describe a current and reasonably comprehensive picture of key national employment and skills programmes in England
• determine where provision is contracted to external providers and detail how this is commissioned, the geographic commissioning boundaries and relevant providers at a local authority level
• where possible, map geographic boundaries of contracts to local authority (LA) areas and use as a simple tool to help LAs see the commissioning areas they sit in and the contracted providers in their area
• describe other non-contracted programmes, including how these are funded and commissioned.

Programmes described in this report are nationally commissioned and funded, for the most part by central Government departments. They cover all post-16 education, skills and training provision at all levels, employment support, work-based learning, information and advice and support for employer recruitment needs. The focus is England, but some programmes also cover other nations of the UK. For some national programmes, Mayoral Combined Authorities and the Greater London Authority have devolved responsibility and directly procure activity – these are noted but not described.

A few types of support are excluded in this research, including direct government employment support via Jobcentre Plus (JCP), including work coaches, as well as other employment support roles, for example, in the NHS; skills-focused qualifications; support that is locally funded and delivered; and third sector/charity provision (unless this receives central Government funding). While this is a reasonably comprehensive picture of national provision, this is a complicated and evolving landscape with significant current political and economic importance in part due to the response to COVID-19, so it may be that some smaller or more recent programmes are not captured.

A key objective has been to make sense of the myriad of commissioning boundaries for contracted national programmes. Where a programme is found to be contracted through national procurement, we have made our best efforts to identify the commissioning boundaries and the providers that are delivering programmes in these areas. We have mapped these by programme at LA level – this was not always straightforward, with some necessary judgement calls and a number of caveats:

• There is a lack of transparency around how contracts ‘map’ to local authority areas. This detail is often only laid out in tender documents and contracts and it has not always been easy to find this information or be confident that it is the most up-to-date version.
• National programmes are inter-related and often overlap: Job Entry Targeted Support (JETs), Restart, Work and Health Programme (WHP) and Intensive Personalised Employment Support (IPES) for example, all include sub strands of basic skills support, which cuts across Jobcentre Plus (JCP) provision and draws from other programmes such as Adult Education Budget (AEB). Some ‘programmes’ are wrappers for combinations of other programmes and funding streams. We have unpicked and acknowledged this detail as much as possible, but may have missed some connections.
• For contracts commissioned within Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas, there are complications around changing and overlapping LEP boundaries. In our work, LAs are mapped to current LEPs. If an LA was previously part of a different LEP and an associated contract, it was not always clear to us whether or not it is still included in that provision or not, or which provider now covers their LA. This project was not able to check/track all such changes.
• Some contracts commissioned at a LEP level may only be providing a programme to areas within that LEP. For this project, we have assumed that the contract covers the whole LEP area.
• We have identified where possible the relevant prime providers for each area of a contract. However, there are many instances where there are partners, consortia / groups of providers delivering provision. Equally, sub-contracting provision to smaller areas at a local level is a common practice that we are aware of but have not been able to track within this project.

We identified that 22 programmes that are currently or about to be delivered as contracted provision by external suppliers. The majority are commissioned and funded by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) or the Department for Education (DfE), whilst a number are match funded with the European Social Fund (ESF) which is managed by the DWP.

In broad terms, we can describe four distinct commissioning models for the programmes seen:

Large scale, DWP-commissioned national employment support programmes, which aim to support and complement direct DWP provision through JCP networks and capacity. These can be characterised as follows:

• Contracts: centrally-designed and managed, locally tailored delivery, using a prime contractor model. Competitive tenders split across established contract package areas (CPAs).
• Providers: a mix of national players with multiple contracts and players in a single geography.
• Programmes: Work and Health Programme, New Enterprise Allowance, Intensive Personalised Support, strands of Access to Work (assessments and mental health support), Job Finding Support and, most recently, Restart. 

Smaller, targeted programmes, mostly commissioned by the DfE but also other government departments (DHSC and DCMS):

• Contract model: a national lead supplier with partners or subcontracting to cover regions. May be competitively tendered but are often re-contracted to the incumbent provider and funded 1-3 years ahead.
• Providers: including third sector organisations, typically those that devised and set up the programme in the first instance.
• Programmes: mostly focused on fast-track recruitment into teaching and social work, including Career Changers into Teaching, Teach First, Step Up to Social Work and Think Ahead, as well as the National Citizenship Service (NCS). Slightly different, but also contracted on a similar basis is the Independent Advice and Support Programme (IASP).

New contracts for key work-based training programmes, commissioned by the ESFA:

• Contract model: shift away from previous annual ESFA procurements to more contract-based provision with competitive bidding and longer terms. Bound by LA regions.
• Providers: multiple providers, including training providers (colleges, independent training providers, employers and local authorities) or local partnerships and consortia.
• Programmes: 19-24 Traineeships; Digital/Skills Bootcamps (rolling out with two competitive funding rounds). 

Ongoing (and some new) ESF programmes which are managed by the DWP or ESFA and will phase out from 2021. ESF-funded programmes focus specifically on providing preparatory, additional and alternative employment and skills support to people with disadvantages. These are centrally commissioned and funded, with some level of ESF and/or local match-funding and local delivery through LEPs:

• Contract model: multiple and variable contracts, designed and contracted at LEP level, to cover the LEP (sometimes only parts of a LEP or NUTS 2 More Developed and Transition Category of Regions). ESF programmes are devolved in London and Greater Manchester, although some of the procurement has been fulfilled by the ESFA on their behalf.
• Providers: national and local employment support and training providers. Providers often work across different geographic areas
• DWP co-funded programmes: 17 ongoing contracted projects across 12 LEPs, 6 of which are in London (originally 31 projects across 28 LEPs) 
• ESFA co-funded programmes:
  1. Skills Support for the Unemployed, Skills Support for the Workforce, Supporting NEETS – multiple ongoing projects running to 2023 across LEP areas and devolved for London.
  2. Youth Employment Initiative – some ongoing projects from first round (2014-2022) plus a new call in January 2021 for projects that will run 2021-23. 

Commissioning strategies

The DWP is the main commissioning body in this landscape and has a clear commitment to meet its employment support aims through JCP and by contracting some programme delivery to external suppliers. As a result, the DWP has a more developed approach to commissioning which is underpinned by contracting frameworks with pre-approved suppliers (first UAEHRS and now CAEHRS) and a new 2020 commissioning strategy.

Restart is the first large scale programme to be commissioned under the new Commercial Agreement for the provision of Employment and Health Related Services (CAEHRS), a five year (2020-25) framework-style agreement which aims to deliver more effective, efficient, consistent and quicker procurements. 28 organisations have been awarded a place on CAEHRS, 21 of which have multiple places and seven have single awards. CAEHRS has been divided into seven geographical lots, with one national lot:

CAEHRS is now the preferred default position for future employment provisions. One of the benefits highlighted by the DWP is consistent geographic boundaries which are expected to allow providers to build on existing footprints in an area, deliver economies of scale, foster local and specialist partnerships and increase local knowledge. However, whilst acknowledging these benefits, the large contracting areas are felt to have made integration between providers and the local services that unemployed people rely on more challenging to achieve. Whilst smaller contracting areas would be a preferred model for LAs, it is clear that the DWP is committed to the larger areas. This is underlined in the new DWP commissioning strategy which confirms the commitment to “endeavour to maintain an over-arching standard Contract Package Area (CPA) structure, sub-dividing or joining two or more together dependant on an individual project procurement strategy.”

Furthermore, as well as contracting future DWP provision through CAEHRS, the DWP has indicated (in a CAEHRS market presentation) that it would like to see other contracting authorities – devolved governments, devolved authorities, local authorities and other government departments and arm’s length bodies – also make use of CAEHRS for their procurement, however many local commissioners are likely to want to use providers with a proven track record working with local partners. The DWP commissioning strategy also highlights the importance of working with partners at the sub-national level through JCP with local authorities and other local partners.

The DfE has less of a strategic focus on developing commissioning in this way, maintaining some relatively small national contacts with lead providers or partners. Most skills and work-based learning is managed locally, but funded through annual allocations from the ESFA. Funding is ‘allocated’ to local authorities and education and training settings based on funding formulas and is ‘procured’ from Independent Training Providers. Most provision for work-based training programmes has been covered by the ‘procured’ element of the funding.

However, two recent/current competitive contracts, including a large scale £233.5 million contract for 215 training providers to deliver 19-24 Traineeships, may indicate a shift to more contracting going forward. The ESFA 2019-20 annual report does reflect a focus on increased scrutiny of commercial agreements and building capability to manage contracts. However, the need for multiple providers to meet the myriad of different and specialist training needs would appear to be a less natural fit to large scale national contracts.

Local authorities' employment and support teams face a complex picture of contracting and geographic boundaries when trying to understand the national contracted provision that covers their local area. This is made considerably more difficult by the lack of upfront information about how contracts ‘map’ to local authorities, as the detail is often only laid out within the tender documents and contracts, rather than published separately. Detailed comparisons of the different contracted programmes give some sense of the various geographic footprints that teams have to contend with:

• National: Programmes are delivered via one national contract with one, occasionally two, providers covering the whole of the country.
• Regional/Contracted Package Areas (CPAs): For these contracts the country is divided into regions with a different provider covering each area, although in some cases a provider can win multiple ‘lots’ and so cover more than one region. In others, regions are split into two. There are several different regional boundaries seen across the programmes, including:
  1. Nine standard local authority administrative regions: North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, South West, South East, London.
  2. Jobcentre Plus regions: North Central, North East, North West, South West, South East, London and Essex, West Midlands, North and East Midlands.
  3. CPA areas defined in the Umbrella Agreement for Employment & Health Related Services (UEAHRS) and CAEHRS frameworks: Central England, North East England, North West England, Southern England, London and Home Counties, Wales, Scotland.
  4. Bespoke/adjusted regions for the needs of the contract: For example, National Careers Service areas were informed by the ESFA analysis that included, among other factors, Combined Authorities’ boundaries, LEP areas, Opportunity Areas and travel to work patterns. As a result, East of England and East Midlands were combined, Cumbria was combined with North East and Oxfordshire combined with South West.
• Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas: most of the contracts that include some European Social Fund funding are awarded via LEP areas. However shifting and overlapping LEP boundaries often add complications.

As well as the fluid geographic boundaries, the range of contracted programmes introduces multiple provider relationships. In the snapshot provided below of selected local authorities, we can see they are dealing with 15+ different employment support providers, as well as an array of local training providers. For some contracts, there is an additional layer of sub-contracted providers, voluntary providers or local partners, which adds to the complexity of provision, and is not captured here.

It also shows evidence of some national players and regional providers which could serve as potential relationships and partners for local authority employment and support teams. This existing contracted provision of employment support and the increased certainty created by the new CAEHRS framework is helping establish a landscape of provision which definitely highlights some key providers, as well as some potential new suppliers that have been awarded a place on CAEHRS.

Bexley, a London Borough, sits in six differently defined regions: London, Home Counties, London and the Home Counties 2, South and East London, East Local London, South London (LEP).  In addition, some provision is devolved to the GLA.  Including national contracts, this covers 21 different contracted programmes and at least 17 provider relationships as well as multiple training providers and local providers.

Hartlepool, a Borough Council in County Durham, similarly sits in seven different regions: North East, North East 1, North East England, North East and Cumbria, North East and Humberside, Tees Valley (LEP), Tees Valley and Durham.  Hartlepool has a similar number of contracted programmes and provider relationships to Bexley.

Preston, a city in Lancashire, is much simpler, with four distinct areas:  North West, North West 1, North West England, and Lancashire (LEP).  Preston has fewer supplier relationships because of the success of one local, LA-backed supplier, The Growth Company, which has won several regional lots for national contracts as well as local ESF-funded projects, is a stand-alone social enterprise which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the Greater Manchester LEP.  This may be an interesting model for other authorities.

Whilst the primary focus of this report is to highlight the range of contracted provision, we have also set out to describe the range of other nationally funded provision to give a more complete picture of available support for employment and skills. This includes the key relevant allocated education budgets overseen by the ESFA, as well as other DfE managed funds, direct DWP provision through the JCP network and a range of large national funds sponsored by different government departments or funding bodies. 

We have described around 27 national programmes or funds that are not contracted:

DfE managed funds cover the key relevant allocated education budgets (16-19, adult education, high needs), bursaries, apprenticeships and careers education. These are mostly channelled through the ESFA and relevant higher education funding councils. Specific programmes included are:

• 16-19 Traineeships and Sector-Based Work Academies are employer led programmes which include funded training provision which is drawn from 16-19 and AEB allocated and procured funding. However, as described earlier, 19-24 traineeships were funded in this way for 2020-21, but this is now being contracted from 2021-22. In addition, training provision for non-levy apprenticeships will no longer be funded through allocated education budgets after March 2021 (see below).
• Funding for all apprenticeship training provision is managed through the National Apprenticeship Service (April 2021) where provision can be sourced and funded directly from the employer-funded apprenticeship levy. The ESFA will have an ongoing role in administering reimbursements to training providers.
• Loans and bursaries that are distributed by training providers directly to learners are included in the allocated AEB.
• Also included within the 16-19, AEB and High Needs budgets is funding that can be used by training providers to create Supported Internships, along with Access to Work funds and some other JCP services.
• Outside the remit of the ESFA, careers education is a combination of a nationally contracted National Careers Service and direct funding to the Careers and Enterprise Company, which in turn distributes some funding to local Careers Hubs.

DWP non-contracted provision mainly covers direct DWP services offered through the Jobcentre Plus (JCP) network:

• JCP support is delivered through a network of 637 jobcentres, which employ work coaches, specialist advisers and work psychologists, provides facilities and delivers outreach activities. This has been bolstered as a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with 13,500 additional work coaches and 80 new temporary JCP sites in an effort to engage more people through frontline, local services. The DWP also uses a Dynamic Purchasing System to help JCP teams buy work-focused activities to help people move into work, with providers able to bid for the opportunity to supply these activities.
• Some specific funding pots that JCP can use to purchase additional, targeted individual and local support and provision, such as Access to Work and the Flexible Support Fund.
• In addition, employers are funded directly by the DWP for providing job placements through the short-term Kickstart programme. 

Distributed grants are from a range of government departments, sometimes in combination with additional funding and support from the National Lottery, the ESF and also the TUC. We have identified a range of funds that deliver different types of employment support, including:

• Direct employment support to workers or disadvantaged individuals and groups, including: Building Better Opportunities (National Lottery/ESF); Community Grants (ESFA/ESF); Life Chances Fund (DCMS); Union Learning Fund (TUC/DfE – until 2021); Troubled Families (Supporting Families) Programme (MHLCG now the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities – DLUHC).
• Stimulus for job creation, including the Green Recovery Challenge Fund (DEFRA)
• Stimulus for place-based economic recovery and regeneration aimed at selected local authorities, including the Levelling Up Fund (cross departmental), Towns Fund (DLUHC), UK Community Renewal Fund (DLUHC)
• System-focused capital funding, including the Strategic Development Fund to help FE providers set up College Business Centres
• UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which is expected to replace EU Structural Funds in 2023, including ESF

As described, some programmes are covered by parts of the Adult Education Budget (AEB). Since August 2019, a proportion of the AEB has been devolved to mayoral combined authorities (MCAs) and the Greater Local Authority (GLA), which means that certain adult education functions that support apprenticeship, traineeships and sector-based work academies are delegated to the relevant MCA or the GLA.

The picture of provision for this wide-ranging group of programmes is much more disparate covering local and national training providers, employment support providers, local voluntary/third sector organisations and local authorities themselves. The table of other programmes at the bottom of this page provides links to further information and in many cases lists of providers, where available for the programmes included in this project.

The key provider type for ESFA funded programmes is training providers - these can be colleges and other post-16 providers, LAs or ITPs which includes commercial providers, employers and third sector organisations. The 2020-21 ESFA funding allocations to training providers distributed funding to almost 1,000 organisations, about 600 of which were ITPs. From this, we can get a sense of scale in terms of numbers of providers nationally, though providers are frequently delivering multiple strands of the provision noted here.