ESF Community
Learning Grants
ESF Community Learning Grants in the North West 2011-13
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
– last revised October 2012
See below for answers to the following frequently asked questions:1. What is the European Social Fund (ESF)?
2. What is the purpose of ESF Community Learning Grants?
3. What kind of organisations can apply for these grants?
4. Who should benefit? Which are the target groups?
5. How much money is available?
6. How long is funding available? How many funding rounds are there?
7. What activities can be funded through these grants? What cannot?
8. Who do we apply to?
9. What is the WEA?
10. When can we apply?
11. Is there any support or advice available to help us apply?
12. How should we submit our application?
13. How will decisions be made?
14. How soon will we find out the result?
15. What can we do if we are unsuccessful?
16. What will we need to do if we are successful?
17. How will the grant be paid?
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1. What is the European Social Fund (ESF)?
ESF was set up to improve employment opportunities in the European Union (EU) and so help raise standards of living. It aims to help people fulfil their potential by giving them better skills and better job prospects.
It supports the EU's goal of increasing employment by giving unemployed and disadvantaged people the training and support they need to enter jobs. By focusing on those most in need of help, it contributes to policies to reduce inequality and build a fairer society. ESF also equips the workforce with the skills needed by business in a competitive global economy.
2. What is the purpose of ESF Community Learning Grants?
The aim is to enable small third sector organisations, which would not otherwise be able to access ESF, to apply for small grants.
These are grants up to a maximum of £12,000 per organisation per year, available to offer support to some of the hardest to reach communities and individuals, to help them access employment or further learning and training.
3. What kind of organisations can apply for these grants?
This funding can only be awarded to third sector organisations run on a not-for-profit basis, including constituted community and voluntary groups, charities & social enterprises. We may examine public information about registered charities, companies limited by guarantee and Community Interest Companies (CICs) which apply. Preference will be given to organisations with an annual turnover of less than £300,000 in their last financial year, although larger groups can still apply if their annual turnover is less than £1m.
To be eligible, your group should have been in existence for at least 12 months: we need to see an annual report covering your recent activities and achievements, and a set of accounts for your last financial year, audited or inspected as appropriate.
Who cannot apply:
• Individuals (not representing a group) • Groups that consist of one family • Statutory bodies
• Profit making organisations
• Grant making bodies applying for funding to redistribute to individuals or groups • Political groups
4. Who should benefit? Which are the target groups?
The programme is aimed at unemployed or economically inactive people aged 18 years and over who are from the hardest to reach communities and who are legally resident in the UK and able to
3 take paid employment in an EU member state. (Projects aimed at 16 and 17 year olds can only be considered if there is no local provision already.)
Within this broad target group, the named priority groups in this ESF programme are:
People with disabilities or health conditions (including those with learning difficulties, mental health issues or drug and alcohol dependency problems)
Lone parents
People aged 50 or over and seeking employment
People from black and ethnic minorities
Female participants
Please note however that applications can be considered for any group of unemployed people that can evidence need.
5. How much money is available in the final round (Round 4)?
£266,000 was available for ESF Community Learning Grants in Merseyside but this has now been fully allocated.
£1,482,000 was available for the rest of the North West until December 2013, of which £400,000
remains for allocation in the final round, Round Four.
The maximum grant payable per organisation in any one year is £12,000 and the minimum £1,000. An organisation can only receive one grant in any 12 months.
There are additional ‘capacity building’ funds available for training to support ESF grant funded organisations to become stronger and more sustainable e.g. through training and development of staff, volunteers or trustees.
6. How long is the funding available? How many funding rounds are there?
The funding runs until December 2013. There are four funding rounds over the two years, on a four monthly cycle which began in November 2011. Closing dates have been publicised on the NW WEA website: http://nw.wea.org.uk/esf_grants
7. What activities can be funded through these grants? What cannot?
ESF Community Learning Grants will support a range of activities aimed at assisting disadvantaged or excluded people who are out of work to move closer to the labour market by improving their access to employment and skills provision.
Because the focus will be on individuals who have difficulty in accessing mainstream training and support, successful outcomes may often be more about demonstrating progress than getting jobs and achieving qualifications.
4 ESF guidance is that these grants can support a wide range of activities including:
Initial help with basic skills
Taster work experience including voluntary work
Training, advice and counselling
Job search assistance
Confidence building and personal development
First contact engagement activities (e.g. to provide support to individuals to overcome barriers to learning or employment)
ESF Community Learning Grants cannot be used
For capital purchases, e.g. purchase of equipment or property, over £1,000.
To duplicate provision that is available through other ESF co-financing with the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP), Skills Funding Agency (SFA), or National Offender Management Service (NOMS).
The funding applied for must be for the full cost of the proposed project, which should be additional to your normal programme of work. No match funding is required.
For more details see Application Guidance section 5 and Annex 1.
8. Who do we apply to?
The Skills Funding Agency has contracted the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) to be the Community Grants Coordinating Body for the North West for 2011-2013. For more information please visit our website: http://nw.wea.org.uk/esf_grants or write to:
ESF Grants Team, WEA North West, 4th floor Crawford House, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9GH.
You can also email [email protected] or ring 0161 277 5411.
9. What is the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA)? –
The WEA is a large national voluntary adult education provider and registered charity established in 1903. It has elected and appointed trustees and a committee democratically elected by members. In 2010/11 in partnership with a wide range of voluntary and community groups the WEA ran over 10,000 courses with over 100,000 people taking part. See the national website: www.wea.org.uk The WEA North West region covers Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire, Merseyside, and Greater Manchester – with offices in Liverpool, Manchester and Workington. In 2010/11 in the North West in partnership with a wide range of voluntary and community groups we ran over 1,100 courses with over 12,000 people taking part. See the regional website: http://nw.wea.org.uk
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10. When can we apply?
There are four funding rounds in the two years ESF Community Learning Grants are available, 2011-13, on a four monthly cycle beginning November 2011. Please check our NW WEA website for the timing of these rounds and the deadlines for applications to be submitted.
11. Is there any support or advice available to help us apply?
WEA and its regional partners Community Matters and Locality will publish detailed guidance, as well as offering telephone advice and some visits to projects where possible.
12. How should we submit our application?
The application form should be submitted electronically (by email) by the deadline date AND then a signed hard copy with supporting documentation sent by recorded delivery within five working days. Both electronic and postal applications must be received by these deadlines - any received later will not be considered. You may deliver hard copy applications by hand to our office but please arrange this in advance to ensure a member of the ESF Grants Team will be available to receive and record it and give you a receipt as proof of delivery if required.
See end of the Application Form for fuller details of the process and checklist of supporting documentation required.
13. How will decisions be made about which projects to fund?
After the end of each round, the ESF grants team at WEA will check applications for eligibility, and then refer eligible applications to a number of trained community grant appraisal panels across the North West. These panels will use a systematic process to score all applications against planned outputs, track record, quality and value for money. The panels will then recommend which applications should be funded, for how much, and on what conditions. The Project Steering Group (PSG) then meets to consider these recommendations and make the final decision.
(For details of how to apply to be a panel member and information on the remit and membership of the PSG see http://nw.wea.org.uk/esf_grants/decision-making.php )
14. How soon will we find out the result?
Timescales for each round are published on our website. We are normally aiming for successful projects to be contacted within five weeks of the closing date.
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15. What can we do if we are unsuccessful?
You are welcome to apply again in the next phase of ESF Community Grants (details to be confirmed). If requested, the panel will offer brief written feedback on why your application has been unsuccessful. If you are unhappy about any aspect of the process please discuss it first with the ESF grants team at WEA. If the matter cannot be resolved in this way, the WEA has a complaints procedure, details of which are on the website.
16. What will we need to do if we are successful?
All successful applicants will be invited to a mandatory induction workshop to collect their grant offer letter. This will also be where the monitoring and grant payment processes are explained in detail, where your support needs are discussed and where any necessary additional documents can be looked at and approved. We will also need to arrange to visit you at your learning venue before you are offered a grant.
Once this has been completed, all successful applicants will be required to sign a contract with the WEA, as ESF Community Learning Grant awarding body, agreeing to the terms and conditions of grant awards. Successful applicants will be provided with a project management guidance folder and templates of documentation to be completed. Funding should be received within 8-10 weeks of the published closing date: projects should not plan to start before then.
For fuller details see our Application Guidance Annex 2.
17. How will the grant be paid?
Grants will be paid in three instalments.
The initial payment in advance of 50% of your approved total budget will be made once WEA as grant awarding body has completed a satisfactory monitoring visit and received signed acceptance of the grant offer letter.
An interim payment in advance of 25% of your approved total budget will be made after the ESF Grants Team at WEA has received satisfactory interim monitoring reports and evidence that you have spent (defrayed) the initial (50%) grant payment.
A final grant payment in arrears of 25% of your approved total budget will be made once the final monitoring report has been submitted to the WEA, complete with required financial evidence indicating that all grant monies claimed have been spent (defrayed).
18. Any other questions?
If you have any other questions please get in touch with the ESF Grants Team on 0161 277 5411 or
