2007 - 2013 Programme
The England and Gibraltar European Social Fund (ESF) programme will contribute to sustainable economic growth and social inclusion by extending employment opportunities and by developing a skilled and adaptable workforce.
The programme establishes the national priorities for spending ESF money in line with the Lisbon agenda and the Government’s employment and skills strategies. Within these priorities, each region will develop its own strategy for addressing its distinctive regional, sub-regional and local needs.
The programme covers the whole of England and Gibraltar. It includes ring-fenced funding for the ‘Convergence’ area of Cornwall and Isles of Scilly and the ‘phasing-in’ areas of Merseyside and South Yorkshire. In these areas, the programme will build on the knowledge and experience developed within the 2000-2006 Objective 1 programmes.
The labour market has performed well in recent years. The UK exceeds the EU’s Lisbon employment targets and unemployment remains historically low. There are rising attainment rates at age 16, and rising attainment and participation in Higher Education, leading to more qualified young people entering the labour force.
However, there are also significant challenges. These include low employment rates and high inactivity rates among disadvantaged groups such as people with disabilities and health conditions, lone parents, older workers, ethnic minorities and low skilled people. Pockets of worklessness exist in deprived areas, particularly in the big cities. About 11% of 16 to 18 year olds are not in education, employment or training.
The Leitch Review found that the UK must improve skills at all levels if it is to tackle its productivity gap with other nations and become a world leader in skills by 2020. In particular, it must address the large numbers of people who lack basic skills, and the seven million workers who lack level 2 qualifications. Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly face specific employment and skills challenges to achieve economic convergence
The England and Gibraltar ESF programme will support EU, national and regional strategies to tackle these challenges. It will add value to the Lisbon National Reform Programme and thereby contribute to the European Employment Strategy and to relevant EU objectives on education and training, social inclusion and equal opportunities.
The programme will contribute to policies to increase employment by helping more unemployed and economically inactive people to develop their skills and enter sustainable jobs, particularly those at a disadvantage in the labour market. It will also help to prepare young people for working life, particularly young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) or at risk of becoming NEET.
The programme will contribute to policies to develop a skilled and adaptable workforce by increasing the numbers gaining basic skills, level 2 qualifications and, where justified, level 3 qualifications. It will also help to reduce gender segregation in the workforce, and to improve the skills of managers and workers in small enterprises.
The programme will promote integrated approaches to employment and skills, and the two sets of priorities will complement each other. Provision will be demand-led and meet the needs of individuals and employers.
In the South West the Regional Skills Partnership (RSP) has worked with key stakeholders to develop frameworks which focus the requirements of the national ESF programme to meet the needs of the region. The frameworks can be viewed on the RSP website here.
For the South West, two distinct areas will exist:
Convergence – covering Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly
Regional Competitiveness and Employment – covering the rest of the region
The programme contains six priorities:
| | Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objective | Convergence Objective |
| Worklessness | Priority 1: Extending employment opportunities (€1,794 million ESF) | Priority 4: Tackling barriers to employment (€75 million ESF) |
| Workforce skills | Priority 2: Developing a skilled and adaptable workforce (€984 million ESF) | Priority 5: Improving the skills of the local workforce (€118 million ESF) |
| Technical assistance | Priority 3: Technical assistance (€116 million ESF) | Priority 6: Technical assistance (€4 million ESF) |
Priorities 1 and 4 will improve the employability and skills of unemployed and inactive people, and tackle barriers to work faced by people with disabilities or health conditions, lone parents, people aged 50 and over, ethnic minorities, people with no or low qualifications, young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) or at risk of becoming NEET, and other disadvantaged groups, including people experiencing multiple disadvantage.
Priorities 2 and 5 will improve the qualifications and skills of workers without basic skills and with no or low qualifications. They will also develop managers and workers in small enterprises. Priority 5 will also support Cornwall's Higher Education and skills strategy.
Priorities 3 and 6 will fund technical assistance activities to support the delivery of the programme.
For further information on European Social Fund, visit
www.esf.gov.uk
