European Social Fund in England

2007-2013 ESF Funding Opportunities

ESF funds are distributed through 'Co-financing Organisations' (CFOs). CFOs are public bodies which bring together ESF and domestic funding for employment and skills so that ESF complements national programmes. The Learning and Skills Council and the Department for Work and Pensions Delivery Directorate are CFOs in every region of England. In some regions, Regional Development Agencies and some local authorities are also CFOs.

CFOs contract with the providers that deliver ESF projects on the ground. Providers can be from the public, private or third sectors. CFOs make ESF available through a process of open and competitive tendering. Successful providers do not have to find their own 'match funding', as CFOs are responsible for both the ESF money and match funding.

CFOs launched their first tendering rounds in autumn 2007. As a result of these tendering rounds, 750 new projects started in spring and summer 2008, funded by £770 million from the ESF. Links to information on current and forthcoming CFOs tendering rounds are below.

Learning and Skills Council

The LSC CFOs are still awarding contracts for about £500 million of ESF funding under the first LSC e-procurement process and additional expressions of interest for delivery in 2008/09.

LSC regions started awarding contracts in May/June 2008 and ESF delivery has already commenced. The contracting process is expected to continue until September and the list of successful providers will be made available after contracting is completed.

Further details can be found on the LSC website

Department for Work and Pensions

The results of the first DWP ESF Co-financing funding round are available on the DWP website, including details of organisations which have been awarded contracts. 70 contracts were awarded amounting to about £250 million in total. Projects started from June.

DWP has issued revised specifications for four tender rounds which did not result in the award of contracts. These are in London and the North East. Tendering is now complete and results will be announced on the DWP website.

South East England Development Agency

The results of the first ESF Co-financing tendering round are available on the SEEDA website.

The round 2 Invitation to Tender for SEEDA ESF Co-financing in 2007-2010 is now open. All the information and documentation in relation to this tendering opportunity is available on the SEEDA website.

The deadline for tenders to be submitted to SEEDA is Monday 15 September 2008 at noon.

London Development Agency

The results of the first London Development Agency's tendering round are available on the LDA website.

It is anticipated that a further tendering round will be launched in winter 2008. Details will be published on the LDA website.

The LDA will launch the London Community Grants Programme in mid-September; register your interest on the LDA website.

London Councils

The London Councils’ first tendering round closed on 11 January 2008. 32 contracts have been awarded and a list of successful projects can be found on the London Councils Website.

London Councils is planning to launch a second tendering round in the autumn. Details should be published on the London Councils website in October.

Luton Borough Council and Bedfordshire County Council

Luton Borough Council and Bedfordshire County Council launched a joint prospectus for Luton and Bedfordshire on 29 January 2008.

Luton Borough Council announced details of successful ESF tenders on 16 May and these can be found on its website.

Bedfordshire County Council has now let all its contracts arising from the tendering round and activity is expected to commence by September. A further tender opportunity is likely to be published in autumn 2008. For more information, please see the Bedfordshire County Council website.

East of England Development Agency

The East of England Development Agency has tendered for three ESF projects under its Co-financing Plan for 2007-2010.

The 'Inspiring Women's Enterprise' (ESF Priority 1 project) contract has been awarded to NWES, and the ‘English Language Training for Migrant workers’ contract has been awarded to The Learning Partnership Bedfordshire and Luton Ltd. Further details are on the EEDA website.

The result of the 'Improving Capabilities' (ESF Priority 2 project) tendering round will be published on the EEDA website as soon as it is available.

East Midlands Local Authority Consortium

The East Midlands Local Authority Consortium ESF tender application round has ended and successful tenderers have been informed.

The consortium is in the final stages of contract negotiations with the last few organisations. The breakdown of organisations will be posted on the consortium’s ESF website and other websites from 15 September 2008, but the following summary shows in general the numbers of projects supported.

• Lincolnshire County Council - 11 projects supported
• Derbyshire County Council - 1 project supported
• Leicester City Council - 4 projects supported
• Derby City Council - 2 projects supported

Merseyside ESF Complementary Funding Strand

In May 2008, the Government Office for the North West invited bids for a total of over £16 million of European Social Fund (ESF) money from the transitional ESF Complementary Funding Strand which operates alongside Co-financing in Merseyside until 2010.

This investment will support individuals with employability skills and help them into work providing a range of advice and guidance in areas such as pre-employment support, transition to work, outreach and engagement, employment retention and skill building, and career progression. Community Grants in Merseyside are also being coordinated outside of co-financing.

Information on successful applicants, activities targeted and funding allocated will be available on the Government Office for the North West website.

In brief the results of the tendering round.

Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly

In the Convergence Programme a Higher Education (HE) and Higher Level Skills Delivery Plan for ESF has been developed to operate alongside the co-financed activity.

The plan has been developed by Cornwall HE partners in collaboration with colleagues in the Learning and Skills Council, Regional Development Agency, Regional Skills Partnership and Government Office South West. It will support five themes: research; graduate placements; developing entrepreneurship and enterprise; employer demand led provision; and raising aspirations.

The delivery of the graduate placement theme has successfully been tendered for by Cornwall College.

Applications for the other four themes are currently being appraised and contracts will be awarded in the autumn.

More information is available on the Convergence programme website.

Innovative and transnational projects

A call for proposals for innovative and transnational projects will be launched later in autumn 2008. Information is available here.

Technical Assistance

Information about ESF technical assistance funds is available here.