ESF Procurement

Green light from European Commission

The European Commission has given the green light to the new European Social Fund (ESF) programme for England and Gibraltar for 2007-2013. The programme will invest £4 billion, of which £2 billion will come from the European Social Fund, over seven years, for two key priorities:

• extending employment opportunities by tackling barriers to work faced by people who are unemployed or disadvantaged in the labour market;
• developing a skilled and adaptable workforce by training people who lack basic skills and good qualifications.

 You can read more about ESF here  

In August the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) hosted a series of regional briefing events about the e-procurement round for all 2008/09 LSC funding, including co-financing funding from the European Social Fund 2007-13 programme.

This PQQ (Pre Qualification Questionnaire) covers the mainstream 2008/09 funding as well as the initial funding opportunity made available through the ESF 2007-13 programme.

Providers who have an existing contract with the LSC will have an ESF schedule added to their funding agreement and complete a Provider Summary Statement of Activity to capture both their ESF work and their mainstream activity. New providers will be issued with a new contract/funding agreement and schedule for ESF work.

The first stage of the Learning Skills Council e-Tendering process, a Pre Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ), closed on the 28th September 2007.

The next step is the Invitation to Tender (ITT) which began on 12 November 2007.

Each region is launching independently and timings vary from region to region.

Some provisions within the regions such as Community Grants and the Employer Responsive elements of Train to Gain may launch separately in some regions. If you would like more information on this then please contact your regional office.

The deadline for providers to complete ITT’s has been extended from 4 to 5 weeks.