Agenda item

R Harvey spoke to a paper which gave an update on the delivery of the Adult Education Budget (AEB).

It was noted that there were a number of factors which could have an impact on AEB over the rest of the academic year.  The factors were summarised in the paper and three accompanying papers provided greater detail on the impacts and suggested approaches.

Covid could compromise providers’ ability to deliver AEB provision.  Grant providers in non-devolved areas had the reconciliation threshold lowered to reflect the difficult delivery environment.  Currently the threshold was set at 100% by SYMCA’s Funding and Performance Management rules. It was noted that, since the paper was written, the Omicron variant of Covid and emerged leading to further uncertainties around delivery.

Members were informed that at this stage of the academic year it was too early to know if the MCA would need to change this threshold.  The accompanying paper discussed appropriate processes for ensuring that as the academic year progressed, SYMCA set an appropriate threshold and was providing an adequate level of support to the Grant Providers.

It was noted that the MCA had received reports on the first three months of devolved AEB delivery, therefore it was too early to forecast how close providers would get to delivering their full delivery plan for 2021/22.  The accompanying papers, 7ii In Year Procurement and 7iii Reallocation of AEB Funding discussed the options available to the MCA if a situation developed where collectively procured and grant providers were unable to meet their contracted delivery targets.

The Board was reminded that there would be a Mayoral election in May which would be preceded by a period of purdah which would limit some of the activities of the MCA.  This was, in part, why the papers sought to agree courses of action now.

The Board discussed clawback options, recognising that this was not an easy problem to solve considering the many current uncertainties.  It was recognised that other MCA’s had proposed different paths with different thresholds and that there may need to be more interventions to ensure the money was spent.  It was important to remember that this was public money and it was part of the MCA’s role to ensure that it was spent in-year if possible.

The Chair commented that it would be prudent to start with the highest standard of threshold, and then there would be the flexibility to amend this if there were good reasons that the threshold had not been met.

Cllr Turpin commented that a 90% threshold could cause problems in Sheffield as delays means that some courses were not due to start until January and this could put delivery organisations at financial risk.

RESOLVED – That the Board agree that (whilst recognising the position in Sheffield):

i)         AEB Grant Reconciliation relating to Covid – SYMCA would adopt any nationally set Grant threshold for reconciliation.

ii)        In Year Procurement – Should gaps emerge on the procured side of AEB due to aggregate performance issues, SYMCA would time any new AEB Procurement to bring in new provision for the start of the new academic year (2022/23).

iii)       Reallocation of AEB funding – Should gaps emerge on the grant side of AEB due to aggregate performance issues, SYMCA would time any changes made to grant arrangements for the start of the academic year (2022/23).