The VCS Alliance is excit­ed to announce that the Depart­ment for Work and Pen­sions (DWP) has agreed fund­ing for an inno­v­a­tive project to help peo­ple far­thest from the job mar­ket to start their jour­ney towards it. The project will take place across Brad­ford Dis­trict, sup­port­ed by the DWP Flex­i­ble Sup­port Fund, begin­ning August 2022.

If your organ­i­sa­tion has expe­ri­ence in rel­e­vant areas such as employ­ment sup­port, or work­ing with peo­ple fac­ing the biggest bar­ri­ers to employ­ment, please see the attached advert for more details and how to apply to become a deliv­ery partner.

Expres­sions of Inter­est must be sub­mit­ted by no lat­er than Mon­day 6th June, 5pm.

Pur­pose of the projectTo reach and sup­port around 360 of those peo­ple fur­thest from employ­ment to become engaged
and ben­e­fit from Job Cen­tre Plus (JCP) pro­vi­sion, with a view to access­ing or re-inte­grat­ing with the
job mar­ket.
Cri­te­ria for support• Indi­vid­u­als aged 16+ in receipt of Uni­ver­sal Cred­it
• Indi­vid­u­als with com­plex needs and/or fac­ing mul­ti­ple bar­ri­ers where work is not yet a
con­sid­er­a­tion and no oth­er pro­vi­sion is suit­able
• Pri­or­i­ty giv­en to those liv­ing in areas of high depri­va­tion e.g., Schole­moor, Raven­scliffe etc.
and/ or non-geo­graph­ic com­mu­ni­ties with par­tic­u­lar needs e.g., men­tal health issues,
sub­stance use etc.
• Access onto the pro­gramme will be vol­un­tary
• Refer­rals can be made from DWP Work Coach­es and Com­mu­ni­ty Net­works
• Liv­ing in the Brad­ford Dis­trict includ­ing Keighley
Dura­tion of projectEigh­teen months from August 2022 to 31st Jan­u­ary 2024.
Fund­ingThe over­all com­bined val­ue of the project is in excess of £300,000.
Deliv­ery Model
Qual­i­fy­ing indi­vid­u­als (here­after referred to as clients) will receive inten­sive 1:2:1 navigator/ coach­ing sup­port from a fund­ed work­er employed direct­ly by the deliv­ery part­ner organ­i­sa­tion on either a full or part time basis. Fund­ing will cov­er salary, on costs includ­ing nation­al insur­ance and pen­sion, and costs incurred for the man­age­ment, super­vi­sion and devel­op­ment of the worker.
Sup­port for clients will be pro­vid­ed on a ‘roll on roll off’ basis with the expec­ta­tion that they will receive sup­port for an aver­age of 6 months, based on indi­vid­ual need and progress made.
Sup­port for clients will be pro­vid­ed on a ‘roll on roll off’ basis with the expec­ta­tion that they will receive sup­port for an aver­age of 6 months, based on indi­vid­ual need and progress made.
Pri­mar­i­ly sup­port, wrap around ser­vices e.g., basic life skills and learn­ing, will be pro­vid­ed in com­mu­ni­ty loca­tions that clients know and trust. How­ev­er, sign­post­ing out­side of known com­mu­ni­ty loca­tions may be required when there is an iden­ti­fied need for spe­cial­ist sup­port e.g., sub­stance use, or learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties such as work experience.
Devel­op com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels and close work­ing rela­tion­ships with DWP/ JCP col­leagues.
Iden­ti­fy suit­able DWP and oth­er exist­ing sup­port pro­grammes and encour­age clients to access these where appro­pri­ate. Where pos­si­ble pro­vide an active pres­ence in Job­cen­tres to help main­tain work­ing relationships
Flex­i­ble and tai­lored sup­port, the major­i­ty of which will be 1:2:1, will help clients to take con­trol and be empow­ered to make the tran­si­tion to inde­pen­dent­ly engage and access Job­cen­tre Plus and main­stream pro­vi­sion to bring them clos­er to the job market.
Utilise Asset Based Com­mu­ni­ty Devel­op­ment (ABCD) approach­es with­in deliv­ery where appro­pri­ate and prac­ti­cal to do so
Data col­lec­tion, man­age­ment and pro­gres­sions — Sum­ma­ry (Full spec­i­fi­ca­tion will be avail­able to down­load at the bot­tom of the page).
This project is fund­ed by the DWP under the Flex­i­ble Sup­port Grant Fund­ing. It is a require­ment of fund­ing that deliv­ery part­ner organ­i­sa­tions col­lect the per­son­al data detailed below from peo­ple receiv­ing sup­port. Their informed con­sent must also be gained before shar­ing this data with JCP. Appro­pri­ate con­sent forms etc. will be provided.
Per­son­al data • Name
• Nation­al Insur­ance Num­ber
• Date of birth
• Gen­der
• Post­code
• Date sup­port starts and ends
Per­for­mance DataPro­vide month­ly reports on per­for­mance against agreed out­comes, tar­gets and indi­ca­tors. Grant pay­ments will be con­di­tion­al on receipt of sat­is­fac­to­ry reports.
Mon­i­tor­ing and Eval­u­a­tion DataAssist with the devel­op­ment of stan­dard­ised, robust mon­i­tor­ing and eval­u­a­tion tools and once agreed com­plete and main­tain these in order to track progress and pro­vide infor­ma­tion for future plan­ning and insight. Pro­vide ‘good news’ sto­ries to share with DWP and Job Cen­tre Plus.
Finan­cial Report­ing and PaymentsPay­ment will be made month­ly in arrears based on sat­is­fac­to­ry sub­mis­sion of agreed activ­i­ty and finan­cial mon­i­tor­ing, and a suit­able invoice
Out­comes for individualsClients will be pro­gressed from and exit the project when they achieve one or more of the out­puts list­ed below. 70% of clients who engage/start the project will achieve one or more out­puts list­ed in the full down­load­able specifications.
Deliv­er Provider Pre-requisitesAs a min­i­mum, providers sub­mit­ting an expres­sion of inter­est to deliv­er this project will need meet the essen­tial cri­te­ria list­ed in the full spec­i­fi­ca­tion. There is also a list of desir­able deliv­ery project cri­te­ria list­ed to fur­ther sup­port your application.

Down­loads
Depart­ment for Work and Pen­sions (DWP) Flex­i­ble Sup­port Grant Fund­ing Project Spec­i­fi­ca­tion (This infor­ma­tion will open in a new win­dow).https://usercontent.one/wp/www.thevcsalliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/DWP-Project-Specification-FINAL.pdf
DWP — Flex­i­ble Sup­port Fund Expres­sion of inter­est Form (This form will down­load to desk­top).https://usercontent.one/wp/www.thevcsalliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Flexible-Support-Fund-EOI-form-FINAL.docx

To be con­sid­ered as a deliv­ery part­ner, please com­plete and return this Expres­sion of Inter­est doc­u­ment by email to info@thevcsalliance.org.uk by no lat­er than 5pm on Mon­day 6th June 2022.

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