Community-based English Language Competition

The Two-Stage Process

Thea EdwardsIntegration Division

Why a Competition?

• To encourage creative and innovative ideas

• To encourage entrants to think about the sustainability of their proposals

• This is not a traditional grant funding programme

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Why two stages?

•To attract maximum variety of entrants – large and small organisations

•To enable Stage One to be accessible to as many organisations as possible

•To enable the Department to provide feedback on outline proposals submitted

•To allow maximum time for entrants to develop their ideas, and time to set up collaborations and consortia

•But, entrants can go straight to Stage Two.

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Timescales

Key Dates:

15th January: Competition launched by the Secretary of State

7th February: Open Day

15th March: Stage One closes

Late March: feedback on Stage One submissions

Early April: payment of Development Support Grants to successful bidders

15th April: Stage Two starts – with new Prospectus

21st June: Stage Two closes

Mid-July: WINNERS ANNOUNCED

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Assessment – Stage One

What we’ll be looking for:

•How you propose to address learners’ integration, as well teaching English

•The learner groups propose to work with – are they our target learner groups?

•The areas you propose to cover – are they our priority areas?

•Have you considered collaborative working with different organisations?

•How would your proposal become sustainable, past the period of Government funding?

•Whether your proposals demonstrates its capacity to be scaled up (geographical coverage and learner numbers)

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Development Support Grants

•Purpose: To provide smaller organisations with the resource to draw-up the full business case required at Stage Two.

•Eligibility: A registered charity or incorporated body with a primarily charitable, philanthropic or benevolent purpose, and with a turnover less than £8.3 million p/a.

•Amounts: Up to £10,000. The number of grants will be determined by the quantity and quality of eligible Stage One submissions.

•Application: Submissions from eligible organisaitons will be assessed against the high-level outcomes. Those that best demonstrate ability to meet the outcomes will be offered a grant.

•Payments: DSGs will be paid under s.70 of the Charities Act. A Grant Funding Agreement will be drawn up between DCLG and organisations

•DSGs will be paid in the 2013-14 financial year

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Stage Two Requirements

Full business case:• no. of learners• geographical scope• course structure• breakdown of key costs• administrative costs – e.g. staff and other overheads• risk register

•Partnership working arrangements

•Demonstration of ability to deliver Value for Money – proposals will be benchmarked against each other and comparable community-based projects

•Demonstration of ability for project to become sustainable, and create an impact, over the longer-term

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Grant funding

•Total amount available – up to £6 million

•We envisage awarding up to four contracts

•Funds will be awarded to the successful parties across the 2013-14 and 2014-15 financial years (i.e. over 18 months)

Publicity•We do expect to publicise some of the most interesting Stage One ideas.

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Monitoring and Evaluation

Department keen to know the reach and impact of projects it supports

• Successful projects will be asked to complete a questionnaire with all learners at the start and end of courses

Pre-course interview to collect basic data:- number of learners

- age, ethnicity, country of birth, length of time in the UK- learners’ current level of English- reasons and motivations for enrolling on the course

• Post course interview includes:- tutor assessment of improvement- what learner plans to do next

• Case studies of learners – success stories

And finally …

Any questions?