News

Hampshire County Council is to re-tender its Supported Employment Services. The Service will be a continuation of over 20 years investment by the Council in Supported Employment, with the current contract that was awarded in 2015 expiring in January 2022. In order to tender for this, you will need to be registered with the Hampshire Procurement Framework Hampshire Accommodation and Support Options Model (HADSOM).

The Education & Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) issued revised funding rules for apprenticeship providers last month. These include substantial amendments to the section about apprentices who need access to learning support. 

Learning support funding is available to meet the costs of putting in place reasonable adjustments, as set out in section 20 of the Equality Act 2010, for apprentices who have a learning difficulty or disability as defined in Section 15ZA(6) of the Education Act 1996 (as amended by section 41 of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009):

(a) the person has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of persons of the same age, or

(b) the person has a disability which either prevents or hinders the person from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided by institutions providing education or training for persons who are over compulsory school age.

We have received the following message from DWP about the new Flexible Support Fund dynamic purchasing system (FSF DPS 2). This new system will replace the current DPS when it expires on 31 October 2021.

The online engagement events take place on August 26, September 1, 6, 9 and 14 and places can be booked through Eventbrite.

Liverpool City Council (LCC) is looking to commission an experienced supported employment provider (SEP) to deliver job coaching and oversight at two DFN Project SEARCH sites at Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation Trust and Liverpool City Council.

LCC is also looking to develop a follow-on job coaching offer to support young people who have gained employment previously through a supported internship, if they need support due to a change at work, to apply for a new job or a promotion.

Ambitious about Autism has launched a survey to gather more evidence and data about young people’s experiences of looking for work and employment – in areas such as job applications, interviews and careers advice. 

BASE is organising elections for our regional member networks and for representation on the National Executive Committee. Members will receive information and nomination forms from their current regional lead and it's also available on our website.

DWP Commercial Employment Category is conducting an exercise to analyse the effectiveness of Tender Assurance practices in its procurements. They have conducted a number of tender assurance exercises within DWP and would like to understand the employment supplier market’s views on the effectiveness of these activities. They invite you to complete a short survey to feedback your organisation’s views to help improve their commercial process. The survey will take no longer than ten minutes to complete and all responses will be anonymous.

Social Security Scotland has published its Corporate Procurement Strategy for 2021-2023 and it gives details of forthcoming contract opportunities. 

The Work and Pensions Committee has published a report on its inquiry into the Disability Employment Gap. BASE gave oral evidence to the committee and we welcome its findings.

The Government has published the long-awaited National Disability Strategy. It follows a consultation that was strongly criticised by disability campaigners. It is published on the DWP website rather than by the Cabinet Office which led development of the strategy.

The strategy contains a range of proposals covering education, employment, housing, transport, leisure and access to services.

 

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