East Dunbartonshire employability grant programme guidance

The aim of this grant programme is to support unemployed people to move towards and into work.

To do this, we need to help local people to develop the skills and confidence employers are looking for. But to reach those people, we all need to work together at a local level to provide the best possible services to those who need them most.

The East Dunbartonshire Employability Grant Programme aims to support economic inactive, unemployed and parents on low incomes move towards and into work. We recognise that to help local people to develop the skills and confidence employers are looking for we all need to work together at a local level to provide the best possible services to those who need them most.

The partnership will decide on the local priorities and areas for action but will also ensure that local employability providers continue to have the opportunity to access funding for services through a co-commissioned process. The key Scottish Government policy framework for this approach is called No One Left Behind and this will guide the future direction and delivery of employability services in the years to come.

In East Dunbartonshire the strategic partnership is the East Dunbartonshire Local Employability Partnership (EDLEP) consisting of partner agencies from the East Dunbartonshire Community Planning Structure. The EDLEP is chaired by East Dunbartonshire Council. Its purpose is to support the implementation of local and national employability policy through collective leadership, joint planning and co-commissioning. In doing so the partnership, working closely with local delivery partners, will make the best use of resources available to deliver effective needs-led employability services that help East Dunbartonshire residents make a successful transition towards employment.  

The East Dunbartonshire Employability Grant Programme will continue to fund provision that will:

• Augment the employability provision delivered by DWP, SDS and other partners
• Add value to the funding and other resources already available locally and create opportunities for innovation and collaboration
• Support the aims and objectives outlined in the East Dunbartonshire Economic Strategy and No One Left Behind.  

This grant application round will allocate funding from the Scottish and UK Government from:

• No One Left Behind and Tackling Child Poverty funding
• Shared Prosperity Fund.

At this point in time we estimate that around £0.7 million is available to allocate through the grant programme for NOLB and Tackling Child Poverty and £250,000 through the Shared Prosperity Fund. NOTE: some of these figures are indicative until we grant offers for 24/25 are received.

This document, and the associated grant application form, outlines East Dunbartonshire Local Employability Partnership’s (EDLEP) intentions, principles and priorities to be met through the new East Dunbartonshire Employability Grant Programme supporting employability and skills provision between 2023 and 2025. 

The two key outcomes that the East Dunbartonshire Employment Grant Programme will contribute to are:

• Reducing unemployment and economic inactivity across East Dunbartonshire and for targeted geographies and groups
• Reducing child poverty through Increasing income through employment for low-income parents.

There are six NOLB principles that will underpin the delivery expectations for all provision supported via the Employability Grants Programme.

• Provide flexible and person-centred support
• Be more straightforward for people to navigate
• Be better integrated and aligned with other services, particularly with health, justice and housing provision
• Provide pathways into sustainable and fair work
• Be driven by evidence, including data and the experience of users
• Support more people – particularly those facing multiple barriers – to move into the right job, at the right time.

In addition, all provision supported through the grants programme should also comply with the following additional principles that the EDLEP feel are critical in providing the best support to people to enable progress towards sustainable outcomes.

• Services should be configured around the needs of the clients rather than delivery partners
• Travel to work’ should be considered with participants to help overcome barriers (both physical and perceived) and support access to opportunities out-with their local area and across East Dunbartonshire and the wider Glasgow City Region
• Applicants should be prepared to become an active partner, making use of the East Dunbartonshire Local Employability Partnership resources such as training and development activity and events and East Dunbartonshire Practitioners and Delivery Partners forums. In particular, applicants should be prepared to utilise a new Continuous Improvement Toolkit for employability services currently in development by the Scottish Government, links to which will be provided to successful applicants
• Ensure lived experience shapes service design and delivery as outlined in the Scottish approach to service design
• Ensure that the design of services have considered the needs of those with protected characteristics
• Provide additionality to existing provision available in East Dunbartonshire with connectivity, where permissible, to established provision and building progression routes into Further/Higher Education, Modern and Graduate Apprenticeships and other appropriate provision, as well as supporting access to employment
• Provision must not put at risk participants current eligibility for benefits or lead to a reduction in overall income.

Applicants should focus on the priority groups and priority areas outlined below and the needs of employers. EDLEP is keen that potential grant applicant partners use their expertise, local knowledge and links with other partners to develop creative and innovative proposals that they have confidence there is demand for and that meet gaps in service delivery. The grant programme will allow providers to come forward with their own ideas and suggestions for new services and provisions based on evidence of need.

This grant programme will support provision across East Dunbartonshire’s five stage employability pipeline for unemployed East Dunbartonshire Council residents, particularly those furthest from the labour market and/or for whom the current employability service provision does not fully meet their needs. It will also support provision for low-income parents to help them progress within work and increase their income.

Applicants can focus on particular stages of the pipeline or develop provision that covers more than one stage/ end to end provision.

Examples of services under each stage of the pipeline are outlined below but this is not an exhaustive list. Providers are encouraged to use their own knowledge and outline their own approach.

Stage 1 - Engagement

• Supporting access to referrals to Services
• Engagement through targeted outreach in communities
• Identification and meeting of needs
• Active engagement with key intermediaries and agencies
• Developing relationships with referral agencies.

Stage 2 - Support to overcome barriers

• Personal development/confidence and motivation
• Basic life skills
• Specialist support e.g., debt/financial, homelessness, substance misuse etc
• Adult basic education
• English for Speakers of Other Language (ESOL)
• IT for beginners
• Developing and providing back to work action plans
• Identifying pre-employment training requirements
• Benefits advice
• Specialist services around health, well-being and disability.

Stage 3 - Vocational activity

• Employability skills training
• Skills academies
• Job searching strategies
• Pre apprenticeship training
• Core Skills
• Career Guidance
• Vocational skills training (focussing on skills demand eg hospitality, care, construction, green jobs and skills)
• Training for the social care/health sector
• Further and higher education
• IT training
• Work placements
• Enterprise awareness
• Voluntary work
• Occupational health support.

Stage 4 - Employer engagement and job matching

• Employer engagement & support
• Jobsearch activities
• Addressing employer misconceptions of target groups
• Innovative approaches in partnership with employers/employer engagement
• Mentoring
• Career advice and support
• Access to IT services for applications and job searching
• Employer recruitment incentives
• Lift Off grants
• In work benefit calculations.

Stage 5 - In work support and aftercare

• Support to help employee retention
• Client tracking to ensure sustained employment
• Intermediate labour market initiatives
• Employer engagement
• Initiatives to tackle in work poverty
• Up-skilling the work force
• Provision of business skills for social enterprise and self-employment
• Childcare support
• Tracking and aftercare for length of the programme.

This grant programme is made up of several different forms of funding, the majority of which are focussed on specific priority groups. The Scottish Governments No-One Left Behind approach supports those most disengaged from the labour market and the Young Persons Guarantee which requires a focus on 16-24 year olds.

Applications for funding through the Shared Prosperity Fund should focus where possible on those who are economically inactive although funding can still be used to support other groups to improve employability. We are also interested in receiving applications for Shared Prosperity Funding which focus on green skills and jobs. Where possible projects funded through the Shared Prosperity fund can start in late 2023 or early 2024.

Our priority groups for the East Dunbartonshire LEP and for this grants programme are listed below. Based on local labour market and demographics and the experience of delivering NOLB over the last year the LEP is looking to have a focus on:

• 16-19 year olds/school leavers without a positive destination
• Young people under 25 with a barrier to employment
• Provision for young people which addresses gender needs
• Jobless care experienced/LAAC young people (16-26)
• Those involved in the community justice system
• Those who are economically inactive
• Unemployed people with physical or learning disability able and wishing to progress/return to work
• Unemployed people with health conditions (including mental health) wishing to progress/return to work including those in recovery from addictions
• Long term unemployed residents
• Unemployed residents residing in the most deprived data zones (SIMD2020)
• Unemployed Black and minority residents including marginalised communities, refugees and asylum seekers
• Unemployed people in homeless/temporary accommodation
• Unemployed/low income parents
• Living in a jobless household
• Living in a jobless household with dependent children
• Living in a single adult household with dependent children
• No or limited work experience
• Low skilled
• Primary carer of older person
• Primary carer of a child/children (under 18) or adult
• Low income household
• Armed Forces Veteran
• From Rural Area
• Underemployed- To be confirmed by EDLEP
• At risk of becoming NEET (16–19)
• Has exited Fair Start, requires additional support.

Our Priority Areas 

Unemployment affects people across all areas of East Dunbartonshire however there are communities more impacted than others. Whilst the grant programme will support provision open to the priority groups above regardless of where they stay, there is also a need for provision targeting our most deprived communities (SIMD 2020).  For East Dunbartonshire these communities are as below.

Benefits conditionality 

We want to safeguard the benefits and entitlements of residents taking part in activity supported through this grant programme. We will expect applicants to demonstrate an understanding of the individual needs of course attendees, giving consideration to possible benefit impacts and ensuring there is no risk to entitlements by the take up of any employability initiative.

Providers should ensure they have had a recent dialogue with DWP to clarify/remove any potential benefit impacts your proposed programme.

Addressing the key challenges and gaps 

The employability services and provision being applied for should be:

• Appropriate for the age and stage of the target participant group
• Proportionate to the numbers of unemployed
• Where possible/appropriate delivered locally in facilities that are accessible to all
• Needed locally and not duplicate existing provision
• In line with current and future labour markets, skills requirements, and job vacancies. 

The first round of the East Dunbartonshire Employability Grant programme will provide funding for delivery of services.

Milestones:

• Grant opens for applications - Early September
• Application deadline - Thursday 28 September 12 noon
• Assessment panel - October
• Application outcomes notified - November
• Award letter issued - Depending on start date and funding confirmation
• Delivery Starts - April 2024 at latest
• Delivery end - 31 March 2025.

Providers can propose services throughout this period or for certain periods only (according to anticipated demand). Providers can make multiple applications if they wish to provide more than one project.

This information document and the application form will be published on the Adult learning, youth work and employment page.

Third, public, private and further/higher education sector organisations are all eligible to apply. If you are applying as a partnership, the lead partner should apply, and detail partners involved under question 3.12. The lead partner would be responsible for the overall management and delivery of the project including budget management and monitoring and reporting requirements.

• Observe the word limit of 500 words for each question
• Please do not attach appendices or documents as these will be deleted
• Please consider the scoring criteria below when writing your application
• Please write succinctly and in plain English. Use short sentences and avoid acronyms and jargon. There is no need to use formal or flowery language. What is key to a good application is being as specific as you can and assuming the reader knows nothing about your organisation, track record and project even if you have received local funding before to do similar
• Ideally you will provide a clear picture for the reader of what you intend to deliver, how you will do this, and what difference it will make to participants as well as how it contributes to the grant programme strategic outcomes detailed in section 2 above
• Please consider the six NOLB principles and our additional local principles also outlined in section 2 when designing your project and when describing/evidencing this in the application
• Please provide a strong rationale to show both the need for the services and that there will be a demand from local people to take part in the provision. Identifying, recruiting and sustaining engagement of the number of participants stated is the responsibility of the organisation receiving a grant albeit that local agencies such as the DWP, East Dunbartonshire Council and Skills Development Scotland staff will refer clients.

Funds that will contribute to the East Dunbartonshire Employment Grant programme are as follows:

At this point in time No One Left Behind budgets are still to be announced for 24/25. Applicants may be approved initially for a certain level of funding with further awards being made once next year’s funds are known. 

Providers will need to ensure that project participants are not engaged on another employability programme when participating on the programme eg be on a Fairstart programme.

Only direct delivery costs will be considered as eligible grant expenditure and a maximum of 10% of total staff costs can be included in the cost breakdown for management and administration costs.  Please note Scottish Government grant funded eligible costs exclude:

• Costs for employability not related to No One Left Behind
• Any programmes or activities which do not have the aim of assisting participants to access or progress into or towards employment
• Ongoing child care costs
• Any Value Added Tax (VAT) reclaimable by the Grantee
• Costs not directly supporting the grant purpose
• Any employment costs arising from the Grantee’s legal obligations to its employees, for example parental leave, sick leave, redundancy
• Staff relocation costs
• Insurance costs.

An Assessment Panel will manage the assessment and scoring procedures following the Council’s grant processes. Membership of the Assessment Panel will be drawn from strategic partner organisations represented on the LEP.

1. Project rationale - evidence of need including – evidence from lived experience engagement

Questions: 3.11 and 3.14
Weighting: 20%

2. Project content and delivery

Questions: 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.12
Weighting: 15%

3. Knowledge, (including local knowledge) expertise, previous experience, past performance

Questions: 3.12 and 3.13
Weighting: 15%

4. Participant engagement and accessibility and inclusivity of provision

Questions: 3.8 and 3.9
Weighting: 15%

5. Output and outcome target and fit with grant outcomes

Questions: 3.10 and 4
Weighting: 15%

6. Good and added value

Questions: 5, and all other responses
Weighting: 20%

Score: 10
Assessment Criteria: Excellent Quality that surpasses the requirements of the East Dunbartonshire LEP.  Indicates an excellent application with detailed evidence and no weaknesses.

Score: 8
Assessment Criteria: Good Quality that meets the requirements of the EDLEP with good evidence throughout and few weaknesses.

Score: 6
Assessment Criteria: Reasonable Quality that meets the requirements of the EDLEP. The response is generally good, but lacks sufficient detail in places, which highlights a number of weaknesses.

Score: 4
Assessment Criteria: Poor Quality which poses reservations for the EDLEP. Lacks convincing detail of the supporting evidence and/or has substantial weaknesses.

Score: 2
Assessment Criteria: Unacceptable Quality which poses serious reservations for the EDLEP.  Limited or no detail of the proposed approach and/or has substantial weaknesses. 

Score: 0
Assessment Criteria: No submission/submission not relevant.

Notification of outcomes will be communicated by end of October 2023, followed by grant award letters.  Full details of the payment process and terms and conditions of grant, including monitoring and reporting requirements will be included. The grant offer may be indicative or “subject to” an award of government funding as we are still awaiting confirmation of budgets for that period.

The Provider shall provide employability services in the volumes, outputs of services and financial profiles set out in each award of grant, which could be different from the application submitted.

Any other changes to the programme including a change in what was specified in grant applications will require approval in advance.

Public Sector Funding dictates that grant payments require to be accounted for in the financial year of delivery.

A maximum of 25% of project costs may be paid up front at the project start date but a payment schedule will be discussed with the applicant and will be reflected in the award of grant letter.

Applicants will be required to submit quarterly claims, or more frequently, as appropriate.  All claims must be supported by the required proof of spend.  Applicants will be required to invoice East Dunbartonshire Council after the claim has been approved.  Payments will be processed through East Dunbartonshire Council’s normal accounting system and payment to applicants will be by BACS.  

Prior to final claims being paid, a monitoring visit will be made to all projects.  The final monitoring visit will be made by a Compliance Officer from East Dunbartonshire Council.  This visit will check that the project has been implemented as described, that financial records associated with the project are in order, that publicity arrangements and equality and sustainability policies have been complied with.     

Where the applicant is unable to demonstrate sufficient progress towards achieving agreed outputs and targets, future funding may be withheld or reduced. Further details will be outlined in the terms and conditions.

The key performance indicators for the programme (below) are outlined in the application form and replicate the current Scottish Government outcomes for current grant funds. They also contribute to the grant programme outcomes:

• To reduce unemployment  
• To increase income from employment for low-income families. 

All participants must meet all of the following eligibility conditions:

• Reside in East Dunbartonshire
• Have the right to live and work in the UK
• Of working age (16-67) with the exception of 15 year olds who are within 6 months of the school leaving age and who are identified as being at risk of not moving into a positive destination.

• How many people will start in your service?
• How many will attain a qualification?
• How many will complete the programme of support?
• How many will undertake a work placement?

• Participants entered FE/HE/Training
• Participants commenced employment / self -employment
• Participants sustained employment at 13, 26 and 52 weeks
• Participants commenced a Modern/Graduate Apprenticeship
• Participants commenced on a formal Volunteering programme
• Improved employment (low- income parents)
• None of the above – to be detailed.

Successful projects may have additional outputs and outcomes which they will also monitor and report on.

Personal information will be gathered and recorded by the grant recipient for the following purposes:

• To provide quantitative performance data on registrations, progressions and positive outcomes to inform service delivery adjustments and improvements
• To provide qualitative performance data in the form of case studies
• To contribute to the national No One Left Behind Shared Measurement Framework once published.

Providers will be expected to keep (and to share with East Dunbartonshire Council) key data on the employability participants journey and outcomes and record this on our Hanlon MIS system. Equalities data will also be required. A data sharing agreement  will be issued as part of the grant offer letter conditions. More information on this will be made available to successful applicants alongside the grant paperwork and full training will be provided where required.

Throughout the grant funding period monitoring visits will be scheduled with all providers to check the project has been implemented as described, that financial records are in order and to discuss performance.

As well as providing quantitative and qualitative measures, monitoring of projects serves a number of purposes. It helps identify successful elements of projects, but conversely can help to identify potential problems and make suggestions as to how these might be overcome.  Monitoring is vital in enabling the LEP to gain greater insight into individual projects, but also to ensure and verify that the funds have been spent as envisaged and acknowledged correctly.

It is likely that an independent evaluation will be commissioned which will include evaluations of each of the projects supported via the programme alongside an evaluation of the process and collective impact. Grant recipients will be required to provide information and staff /management time to engage with the appointed contractor/s. Information on the process will be shared to recipients when available.

In addition, grant recipients will be required to establish their own evaluative processes to drive continuous improvement and monitoring processes will include grant recipients evidencing how they do this and to what effect. This will be discussed both individually at review meetings and collectively at East Dunbartonshire Employability Delivery Partners Forum meetings and development sessions.

The Scottish Government are developing a  Continuous Improvement tool-kit for use by LEPs and individual employability delivery organisations and grant recipients will be advised when this becomes available for use. Any materials or resources will be published on the documents section of adult learning, youth work and employment page.

Data on employment and unemployment is available from a number of sources.

Unemployment and Claimant Figures for East Dunbartonshire.

The figures below are the most recent taken from NOMIS. Many indicators are updated monthly, click on the link below for any further updates.

Labour Market Profile - Nomis - Official Labour Market Statistics

SDS provide a range of information relating to the labour market, including data on school leaver destinations and the participation measure.

Publications Skills Development Scotland