Youth Contract
Date change - ITT event now Monday 26 March 2012
The ITT bidder event for the Youth Contract for 16 and 17 year olds, has changed. The event was due to be held on Thursday 22 March. It will now be held on Monday 26th March at the Jury’s Inn Hotel, Broad Street, Birmingham.
We will contact you on Tuesday 20 March with the outcome of the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) evaluation. This email will let you know if you have been successful and moved forward to the ITT stage. It will also give you more details of the ITT bidder event.
Updates to the Pre Qualification Questionnaire document
An error has been brought to our attention in the Pre Qualification Questionnaire document for the Youth Contract for 16 and 17 year olds, published on Contracts Finder on 21 February. In the table which provides the details of the sub regional ‘lots’, paragraph 37, Wigan has been incorrectly listed as being with Merseyside, Lancashire and Cumbria instead of Manchester and Cheshire. This is also reflected in the number of NEETS and the indicative contract amount associated with those lots. The table has now been amended to reflect the correct location of Wigan with the Manchester and Cheshire ‘lot.’ The NEET figures/indicative contract amounts for the Manchester/Cheshire and Merseyside/Lancashire/Cumbria lots have also been amended.
We have also added a direct link to the Merlin Standards website in paragraph 49.
We have updated the PQQ at paragraph 67 to provide a link to the Question and Answer website.
Support for 16 – 17 Year Olds Not in Education, Employment or Training
In November 2011, the Government announced almost £1 billion of funding over the next three years to support the participation of 16 to 24 year olds in education, training and work – the Youth Contract. This includes Wage Incentives and Work Experience places for unemployed 18 to 24 year olds, as well as incentives for employers to offer young people an Apprenticeship.
Through the Youth Contract, the Government is investing £126 million in England over the next three years to support disengaged 16 to 17 year olds to move into education, training or employment with training. This will help to support the Government’s overall commitment to full participation for this age group as we raise the participation age to 17 in 2013 and 18 in 2015.
This programme of additional support will be focused on young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), have low levels of attainment and a range of factors that put them at greater risk of long-term disengagement.
Providers will be given complete freedom to design and tailor a programme of support to help them move into full-time education, an Apprenticeship or a job with training. They will receive payment by results depending on how successful they are at helping young people to make a sustainable move into a positive outcome.
Local authorities have a statutory duty to support young people to participate and will have a key role in helping to deliver this programme, working with providers to target those young people who most need support and ensure that this provision fits closely with the wider local offer.
The Young People’s Learning Agency (YPLA) is running an open competition for providers to lead this programme on a regional or sub-regional basis. This competition will be run in two stages, through a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire and Invitation to Tender. We aim to award contracts in June 2012.
The Specification and information for bidders are available on Contracts Finder
