Decision details

Adult learning in West Sussex is enabled by funding from the Department for Education which is provided to the County Council through the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). The Council has a contract with the ESFA and currently receives £3.2m funding per annum to provide Adult Education in West Sussex. The funding is split between Adult Skills and a non-formula based Community Learning budget.

The County Council has used a subcontracting model to deliver adult education since 2012, with most of the provision through a single provider. A review carried out in 2022 resulted in a widely consulted Adult Community Education (ACE) Mission Statement (see Appendix). This led to an options appraisal to consider alternative delivery models described in section 3, and further informed the soon to be published Education and Learning Strategy 2023 -2025. Following thorough consultation and review the ACE team identified that a new delivery model to commission Adult Community Education should be implemented.

The intention is to use appropriate procurement methods to enable the County Council to secure delivery of both Adult Skills courses through contracts and Community Learning with grant funding from September 2023, or earlier if that is practicable.

The Cabinet Member for Learning and Skills has approved:

(1)The commencement of an open procurement process to secure contracts with multiple providers to deliver Adult Skills courses for an initial period of three years with an option to extend for a further two years as set out in paragraph 2.1 of the report.

(2)The commencement of a process inviting organisations to submit Expressions of Interest through a rolling programme to receive grant funding for the delivery of community learning between 2023 to 2026 as described in paragraph 2.2 of the report.

(3)The delegation of authority to the Assistant Director (Education and Skills) to award the contracts to the successful providers against the Adult Community Education portfolio, for the initial 3-year period 2023 – 2026, and to extend contracts if required, subject to performance meeting the required standards and to make grant awards for community learning.

None