UKSPF Herefordshire Multiply Programme Grant - Grants

Full application deadline: Midnight 28 August 2024

Multiply is a £559 million national government investment that forms part of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Multiply: funding available to improve adult numeracy skills - GOV.UK.

Applications are invited from eligible organisations interested in delivering Multiply provision that inspires and motivates adults to develop their maths skills and knowledge.

Multiply funding is primarily aimed at adults aged 19+ who have not achieved a maths GCSE grade 4/C or equivalent.

The emphasis is on changing attitudes towards maths using a variety of learning opportunities that will:

• Deliver provision that inspires and motivates adults to develop their maths skills and knowledge
• Change attitudes towards maths using a variety of learning opportunities
• Develop confidence in maths
• Improve life skills
• Develop employment opportunities
• Help parents and carers to support their children's learning

The aim of the Herefordshire Multiply Programme grant is to improve adult functional numeracy skills in the target group through two interventions:

Managing money - intervention B, to:

• Help people use numeracy to manage their money
• Improve functional numeracy

Upskilling numeracy to access a certain job/career - intervention D, to:

• Provide people with numeracy skills to apply for a job
• Encourage people to upgrade numeracy skills to improve career/employment prospects

Outputs are the measurable results that you will achieve as part of the project.

Outputs are integral in the decision-making process as they help the appraiser determine the value for money that the project will achieve.

If your application is successful the outputs will form part of the grant funding agreement which you will be required to enter into with Herefordshire Council. Therefore, it is advisable to be realistic about the outputs your project will achieve.

Outputs

Number of:

• People engaging with Multiply funded outreach focused provision
• People participating in Multiply funded substantive learning provision. Through the ILR this will be broken down by ethnicity, sex/gender, age and disability to enable Public Sector Equality Duty monitoring
• Different types of Multiply funded provision
• Initiatives developed in collaboration with employers
• Initiatives developed in collaboration with community groups
• Initiatives leading to a numeracy qualification

Outcomes

• Increased number of adults achieving maths qualifications up to, and including, Level 2.
• Increased number of adults participating in maths qualifications and courses up to, and including, Level 2.
• Increased number of adults participating, acquiring and evidencing skills through non-qualification provision, or towards a qualification, including online learning.
• Improved labour market outcomes.
• Increased adult numeracy (by supporting learners to improve their understanding and use of maths in their daily lives, at home and at work)

This grant is open to the following organisations:

• Charities
• Further Education Colleges
• Independent Training Providers
• Community interest groups
• Private limited companies

This list is not exhaustive and other organisation types may also be considered

Organisations must:

• Have a delivery base in Herefordshire or have alternative facilities to target and deliver provision to Herefordshire residents. Online provision is an accepted method of delivery. However, this must be part of a blended digital offer including virtual classroom, access to a tutor, learning and additional support.
• Have up to date policies and procedures that are relevant and adhere to the current legislative requirements for Equality and Diversity, Health and Safety and Safeguarding and Prevent.
• Be able to demonstrate experience of delivering skills support to the target groups.
• Be registered on the UK Register of Learning Providers (UKLRP) and have a UK Provider Registration Number (UKPRN).
  Register on the UKLRP - 4-step process takes about 5 minutes 

Multiply projects may be delivered by a consortium of eligible project deliverers. If there is more than one organisation applying to deliver a project, a lead organisation must be selected to become the lead applicant with the remaining organisation(s) acting as delivery partner(s).

In this situation, the applicant would be responsible and liable for the delivery partner(s) and for ensuring the project is operating as planned.

• Individuals including sole traders
• Unconstituted organisations

• All projects must complete project activity by 28 February 2025.
• Projects must also complete project financial activity, show defrayal, and claim all project costs by 25 March 2025.

Defrayal means that any agreed eligible costs must be paid in full. Items can only be declared as fully defrayed if evidence is provided that the payment for the item has left the purchaser’s account.

You can apply for a grant to fund delivery of provision in line with interventions B and D listed below for 2024/2025 financial year.

You can apply for funding to deliver one or both of the interventions. If applying for both you will need to complete a grant application for each one.

Managing money - intervention B - courses aim to:

• Help people use numeracy to manage their money
• Improve functional numeracy

Courses may:

• Focus on people in serious debt and include liaising with debt agencies
• Be part of a broader course on numeracy, but should not duplicate existing courses

Upskilling numeracy to access a certain job/career - intervention D - courses aim to:

• Provide people with numeracy skills to apply for a job
• Encourage people to upgrade numeracy skills to improve career/employment prospects

Engagement should prioritise those from priority communities and identified hard to reach groups such as long-term unemployed, those without qualifications, care leavers and those who are economically inactive.

• Adults need to be provided with impartial mentoring/guidance before and after accessing activities to improve their numeracy confidence and wider softer skills so that each person is positively supported and can move forward to the next stage of their journey. 
• Adults engaged should meet the eligibility requirements for Multiply Programme such as being aged 19+, meeting residency requirements, and currently living within Herefordshire.
• Organisations should link with specialist agencies to provide wrap around support for adults and their families such as Citizens Advice Bureau, Financial/Debt Advice, Childcare, Drug & Alcohol Support and Mental Health Support.
• Adults should be actively supported to progress after completing the Outreach Focused/Bitesize Provision including progressing onto the substantial learning element of the Multiply Programme or the wider Adult Education Budget/Adult Skills Fund courses.
• A key element is the impact and difference being made to adults or their community through this provision and we want organisations to capture this important evidence using any suitable mechanism such as videos, recordings, creative writing, photographs and good news stories.

Interventions or activities should not displace, replace, or duplicate any existing adult numeracy provision, such as activity funded through the existing Adult Education Budget (AEB) statutory entitlement for maths qualifications.

Project activity can include two types of learning provision:

• Non-substantive learning or outreach-focused provision is targeted at those in the local area who would benefit from Multiply funded learning. This is likely to be more informal and innovative activity and not typically classroom based. Examples are:
  • Using outreach with key partners for example, money advice, community, or housing services
  • Running a taster session or event
• Substantive learning provision is a formal or informal learning opportunity through which learners will measurably improve their functional numeracy. Substantive learning provision will typically be at a minimum of two hours long. You must provide completed enrolment forms for the learners who participate in substantive learning provision. We will then record their learning in the individualised learner record (ILR), which is submitted to the Department for Education.

Learner eligibility

The age criteria for Multiply is the same as the Adult Education Budget (AEB). Learners must be aged 19 or older at the start of the Multiply intervention. 16–18- year-olds not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) are currently not eligible for Multiply but there is opportunity to address this group through wider UKSPF people and skills funding.

Multiply will be subject to the same residency eligibility criteria as the Adult Skills Fund (ASF) Adult skills fund: funding rules 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) In line with these rules, individuals will usually be eligible for Multiply funding if they have been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least the previous three years on the first day of learning.

Providers have the discretion to fund learners who have already achieved a Level 2 qualification in maths whose a skills assessment has determined they have functional maths skills below Level 2, and where Multiply provision will help them to get a job, progress in their career or progress to higher levels of training.

Learners should not be allowed to retake qualifications they already possess. Multiply should continue to be primarily aimed at those without a L2 numeracy qualification.

Participant evidence

Providers must hold and retain evidence to assure us that they are using the funding appropriately. Most evidence will occur naturally from normal business process.

Providers must make sure enrolment evidence for Multiply funding supports the provider’s decision to claim funding and supports the individual’s case for consideration as resident in Herefordshire.

In line with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), Providers must record in the evidence pack what appropriate documentation they have seen, rather than take photocopies to prove eligibility.

Providers must retain a pack of evidence to support the funding claimed and this must be available to us if we need it.

Evidence in the evidence pack must assure us that the participant exists. The participant must confirm information they provide is correct when it is collected. If the time spent in learning or activity is short, the level of evidence in the evidence pack would reflect this.

Multiply grant funding is a Section 31 of the Local Government Act ring-fenced grant for delivery of the Multiply programme only. This is a revenue-based grant scheme.

Eligible costs are as follows:

• Multiply project staff salary costs (including employer National Insurance and pension contributions)
• Costs of business travel and subsistence
• Training costs including trainer salary, training materials
• Hardship support for community participation, or support for participants, staff or volunteers with special needs
• Training participant costs, for example, allowances and travel expenses
• Hiring of equipment
• Marketing and publicity costs
• Printing costs
• Rental costs, for example venue or room hire
• Insurance costs specifically linked to staff costs – salaries, National Insurance, and superannuation (pension) contributions
• Contractors and consultants procured to:
  • deliver project activity
  • undertake evaluation work
  • undertake audit work if requested by the Secretary of State
  • undertake feasibility studies and/or market research to inform potential future projects
• Small items of equipment (below £2000) – clear evidence of need will be required with approval from the DfE
• Overheads – ongoing costs to support project delivery and can include utilities, stationary, office equipment, and supplies – is calculated at maximum of 15% of the direct salary costs for the project

If you are unsure if a cost is eligible, please contact the programme team who will be happy to help. Email clande@herefordshire.gov.uk

Multiply grant funding is a S31 ring-fenced grant for delivery of the Multiply programme only. We will not fund interventions that displace, replace and / or duplicate any existing adult numeracy provision, such as activity funded through the existing Adult Education Budget (AEB) statutory entitlement for maths qualification.

The following costs are considered ineligible and must not be included in applications:

• Contributions in kind
• Capital expenditures and spending on the purchase of assets, for example buildings, furniture, fittings. This includes the purchase of information technology that is treated as capital expenditure for accounting purposes
• Depreciation, amortisation or impairment of fixed assets owned by the Supplier
• Input VAT reclaimable by the Supplier from HM Revenue and Customs
• Interest payments or service charge payments for finance leases
• Gifts
• Entertaining (which for this purpose means anything that would be a taxable benefit to the person being entertained, according to current UK tax regulations
• Statutory fines, criminal fines entertaining (which for this purpose means anything that would be a taxable benefit to the person being entertained, according to current UK tax regulations)
• Statutory fines, criminal fines or penalties
• Any activities that are not related to the provision of basic numeracy skills provision; and/or
• Any activities that the grant recipient would otherwise be able to access free of charge
• Items valued below £2,500 are not counted as capital assets, even where they have a productive life of more than one year. IT expenditure, for example software, that can be appropriately accounted for as revenue spend is permitted but must demonstrate good value for money and be agreed by the Department for Education in advance
• Paid for lobbying, entertaining, petitioning or challenging decisions, which means using the fund to lobby (via an external firm or in-house staff) in order to undertake activities intended to influence or attempt to influence Parliament, government or political activity including the receipt of Multiply funding; or attempting to influence legislative or regulatory action
• Payments for activities of a party political or exclusively religious nature
• Payments for works or activities which the lead local authority, project deliverer, end beneficiary, or any member of their partnership has a statutory duty to undertake, or that are fully funded by other sources
• Contingencies and contingent liabilities
• Dividends
• Shares or bonuses
• Bad debts, costs resulting from the deferral of payments to creditors, or winding up a company
• Expenses in respect of litigation, unfair dismissal or other compensation
• Costs incurred by individuals in setting up and contributing towards private pension schemes
• Alcohol

You must not make compulsory charges relating to the direct costs of delivering a learning aim or activities to participants we fully fund through Multiply. Direct costs include any essential activities or materials without which the participant could not complete and, for learning delivery, achieve their learning aim.

You can apply for a grant to fund 100% of the eligible costs of delivering provision in line with the two interventions:

• Managing money - intervention B and/or
• Upskilling numeracy to access a particular job/career - intervention D

Funding is for the 2024/2025 financial year.

You can apply for funding to deliver one or both of the interventions. If applying for both you will need to complete a grant application for each one.

You can apply for a:

• Minimum grant of £5,000
• Maximum grant of £24,500

 If applying for both interventions you will need to complete a grant application for each one.

The closing date for applications was midnight on 28 August 2024.

The grant application is a competitive process. We have limited funds available and even high quality applications may not receive funding.

It is important that you do not start work, incur costs, or place any orders before your grant agreement has been signed. This will potentially make your whole project ineligible.

What happens after the submission of a full application

Once received, we will acknowledge receipt of your grant application. The programme team will carry out initial checks for eligibility and an assessment against the criteria before forwarding the applications to the appraisal panel.

The grant application will be assessed by a Multiply project panel who will make recommendations either for the application to be approved or rejected, or the panel may ask for further information before a decision can be made. This will require approval.

Grant applications are assessed on their individual merit against the grant funding eligibility criteria, the impact of the project and that it demonstrates value for money. All applications are subject to funding availability.

Based on your application and any further information you may have been asked to provide, we will advise you of the decision to either:

• Offer a grant; or
• Offer a grant with some specific conditions; or
• Reject the application detailing the reasons why the application was not accepted.

There is no appeals process.

When to start your project

If your application meets the eligibility criteria and you are offered a grant, you will receive an offer letter setting out how much grant has been approved and detailing any specific terms and conditions. If you are happy to accept the grant offer and associated conditions, you will need to return a signed copy within 10 working days.

You should not start your project or incur any expenditure until you have signed the acceptance of grant and returned it to clande@herefordshire.gov.uk

If you have any questions on the grant scheme, please email clande@herefordshire.gov.uk

Further information can be found in the Multiply Investment Prospectus (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Preparing an application

• We are looking for evidence of a sound business case and for projects that deliver value for money and meet our priorities for funding.

You won’t automatically get a grant

• When you apply for a grant, you are competing with other applicants in the eligible area. We are looking for projects that best meet the priorities for funding, and that are good value for taxpayers’ money. If you can show this clearly in your application, you are more likely to receive a grant.
• Multiply funding is limited and will be prioritised to applications that best contribute to the programme’s aim and themes, as set out above.

The application process is competitive

• This means that even those who submit a quality application may not be funded, as this scheme aims to support a range of projects, to cover a variety of needs, geographies and demographics.
• We aim to support projects within those wards and places within the county whose residents have traditionally had the lowest skills achievement.
• Herefordshire Council reserves the right not to make any awards if it is considered that the proposals are not sufficiently innovative, are not scalable, or practical.
• All applications are assessed and moderated who have the final decision on whether a project is approved or declined for funding.
• Do not start work, incur costs, or place any orders before your grant agreement has been signed. This will potentially make your whole project ineligible.
• Check you have included all necessary supporting documents with your emailed application form which you should send to: clande@herefordshire.gov.uk from the address you give us in Section 1 of the application form, by the deadline of Midnight 28 August 2024

Paying for the project

• Grants will be paid in arrears and normally in stages depending on your timescales and outputs or milestones. We expect you to make a maximum of four claims over the course of the project.
• You must show that you have sufficient funds to pay for the project costs until you receive the grant payments.
• In some circumstances you may need to apply for a percentage of the costs upfront, this is an exception rather than the rule.

Following the assessment process, successful applicants will be required to submit additional supporting documents including copies of insurance, polices and quotes where applicable, copy of organisation's constitution, evidence of financial standing, for example recent bank statements, evidence of match funding, equality and diversity policy.

Branding and publicity

It is a Department for Education requirement that all project deliverers must ensure that the appropriate Multiply logos are used prominently in all communications materials and public facing documents relating to funded activity – including print and publications, through to digital and electronic materials. A toolkit will be provided to support delivery of local communications and engagement at the implementation meeting.

UK subsidy control regime

Applicants must ensure that any project or programme put forward is compliant with the UK subsidy control regime. You are asked to confirm this within the application form.