Decisions

The WECA Adult Education Team prepared a proposal (for Chief Executive delegated approval) recommending that an additional £1,588,082 be allocated across 12 providers in support of a range of national and regional priorities including:
a. The expansion of the DWP-led sector based work academy programme.
b. The establishment of the WECA recruitment pipeline.
c. Re-establishing support for priority residents.
d. Digital demand, access and confidence.
e. The Lifetime Skills Guarantee ‘targeted Level 3 entitlement’.

Adult Education providers were asked to submit applications to secure funding in support of these specific priorities and those to whom the release of additional funds was recommended have in turn updated their Curriculum and Delivery Plans to incorporate the provision offered.
The priorities that form the basis of this growth allocation process are a combination of the following:
a. National growth priorities for which WECA has received additional ring-fenced adult education funding.
b. Provision that directly supports priorities identified by the WECA Recovery Taskforce.
c. Provision that directly addresses significant emerging issues within WECA Adult Education provision.
The Chief Executives of the WECA constituent councils were consulted on this proposal and were in agreement with the decision.

Approval given to allocate an additional £1,588,082 across 12 providers in support of a range of national and regional priorities, as follows:
Bath College - £480,007
BTC College - £56,815
Bristol City Council - £107,100
City of Bristol College - £439,351
CJI Solutions - £27,991
Learning Curve - £84,096
National Star - £10,000
South Gloucestershire Council - £61,467
SWATPRO - £61,349
WEA - £22,037
Weston College - £235,644
Wiltshire College - £2,225

There is a requirement that all Local Growth Fund (LGF) grant funds are spent by March 2021 and also a condition that the Getting Building Fund (GBF) is spent within the financial year it was awarded, that being £6.85m in 2020/21 and £6.85m in 2021/22.

Owing to the need to manage scheme changes, including any necessary funding swaps to ensure full grant spend, in advance of the next WECA / Joint Committee meeting, the following delegations to the WECA Chief Executive in consultation with the West of England Chief Executives were granted at the 29 January 2021 meeting of the WECA / Joint Committee:
- Approval of changes to funding profile and programme for schemes within the current LGF, GBF, Economic Development Fund (EDF) and Revolving Infrastructure Fund (RIF) programmes.
- Approval of the reallocation of funding for schemes in the approved LGF/GBF programme including swaps with the EDF, and exceptionally the Investment Fund.

The 29 January WECA Committee also provided the following delegation in the context of the Investment Fund programme:
- In advance of the next meeting of the WECA Committee, to delegate the approval of changes to funding profile and programme for approved schemes to the WECA Chief Executive in consultation with the Chief Executives of the constituent councils.

A number of recommended changes to schemes within the current LGF / GBF, RIF and Investment Fund programmes were subsequently identified for approval. The key changes were:

Local Growth Fund/Getting Building Fund and Revolving Infrastructure Fund:
- Funding changes to three schemes: Keynsham High Street, Weston Town Centre enhancements and MetroWest Phase 1 which are now unable to deliver full LGF spend in 2020/21 and will instead receive EDF, with the Cribbs Patchway Metrobus Extension (CPME) receiving the LGF for the spend planned in quarter 4. This forecast CPME quarter 4 spend is insufficient to meet all the requested reprofiling by £1.138m. Therefore, it is necessary to swap LGF for the Investment Fund spend by CPME earlier this year, with MetroWest Phase 1 (already in the Investment Fund programme) benefitting from this amount of Investment Fund rather than LGF.

Investment Fund
Requests for additional funding for the existing Kingswood High Street (£54k) and Bath & North East Somerset High Street Pilot (£95k) projects which it is proposed are accommodated from the Love Our High Streets allocation (balance with these requests £5.621m). Significant reprofiling forward of funding for the Quantum Technologies Innovation Centre+ project is also proposed.

The Chief Executives of the West of England unitary authorities were consulted on these proposals and were in agreement with the decision.

Approval given to recommended changes to schemes as follows:

Local Growth Fund / Getting Building Fund:
* Keynsham High Street - swap £252K of LGF for EDF due to delays, with the Cribbs Patchway MetroBus Extension receiving the LGF instead of EDF [Revised LGF/GBF total £1.248m with £230k LGF in 20/21 and £848k GBF in 21/22. EDF total £252k profiled in 21/22]

* Weston-super-Mare Town Centre Enhancement Scheme – swap of £1m of LGF with EDF, with the Cribbs Patchway MetroBus Extension receiving the LGF instead of EDF [Revised LGF total £2m with £1.185m in 20/21. Revised EDF total £1m profiled in 21/22.]

* MetroWest Phase 1 - swap of £2.5m of LGF to Cribbs Patchway Metrobus Extension. Substituted funding being EDF to the value of the balance Q4 claim (allowing for the changes above) for the CPME (forecast £1.362m), with the remainder through the Investment Fund swapping with the CPME claim paid for Q1 20/21 (forecast £1.138m).

Revised LGF total £18.524m with £3.634m profiled in 20/21. EDF total £48.737m profiled £1.395m 21/22, £21.739m 22/23, £14.473m 23/24 and £11.13m 24/25. Revised Investment Fund total £6.998m profiled in 21/22.

* Cribbs Patchway Metrobus Extension – additional £3.752 LGF swapped with EDF (£2.614) and Investment Fund (£1.138m). [LGF funding £13.731m, EDF funding £22.407m and IF funding £21.013m, total £57.151m]

* OPCR – Infrastructure, Sensor Factory, CAV Access Network and KWMC Research Projects
Scope: Removal of CAV-Access Network scheme from project (including the outputs and outcomes from this scheme) owing to delays and resource issues.
Cost: Reduction in LGF funding of £511k to £2.829m.
Milestones: 4 month delay to one milestone and removal of the CAV Access Network milestone.

* Bristol Beacon
Cost: Reallocation of £511k LGF from OPCR project to meet cost pressures, with funding profiled in 20/21 [Revised LGF total £11.847m]
Milestones: 11 month delay to completion date for construction contract (to Apr 23) and opening date for the new concert hall (to Oct 23).

* Bath Quays North Development Infrastructure Works – reprofiling of LGF funds to be £725K in
16/17, £1.425m in 17/18, £986k in 18/19, £317k in 19/20 and £2.101m in 20/21, total £5.554m

Revolving Infrastructure Fund:
* Invest Bristol & Bath – Reprofile £140K from 20/21 to 21/22 [Revised RIF profile £860K in 20/21, £1.14m in 21/22, £1m in 22/23, £1m in 23/24 and £1m in 24/25, total £5m]

Investment Fund:
* High Street B&NES Pilots
Milestones: Delay to milestones for Full Business Cases for – Midsomer Norton 5 months, Bath City Centre 1 month and Local Centres 3 months.
Cost: Request for additional £95k feasibility funding in 21/22 to undertake further survey work and technical design to reduce risk and increase cost certainty on the Midsomer Norton project.
Spend: Reprofiling £53k from 20/21 to 21/22 [Revised profile £77k 20/21 and £148k 21/22 total £375k].

* Kingswood High Street
Milestones: Inclusion of new milestones for Acquisition of the Kings Chase Shopping Centre (May 21), Development of a Masterplan Delivery Strategy (Mar 22), Development of a Comprehensive Redevelopment Plan for the Kings Chase Shopping Centre (Mar 22)
Cost: Request for an additional £54k to support new milestones. Additional match funding of £25k from South Gloucestershire Council.
Spend: Reprofiling of £10k from 20/21 to 21/22 [Revised profile £118k 19/20, £140k 20/21 and £64k 21/22 total £322k].

Note: these two requested funding increases can be accommodated from within the funding for the Love Our High Streets programme, and with them the balance allocated to 22/23 stands at £5.621m.

* Quantum Technologies Innovation Centre
Milestones: 12-18 month delay to milestones for UoB Operationalisation and Preparation, and Residential and Academic buildings open, both now academic year 24/25. The delay requires amendment to the start on site deadline in the conditional grant funding agreement from 4 October 2021 to 31 March 2023.
Spend: Reprofiling £25.171m from 20/21 and 21/22 to 22/23-25/26. [Revised profile £8.501m 22/23, £16.487m 23/24, £7.986m 24/25 and £2m 25/26, total £34.974m]

* Bath River Line - Reprofiling £85k from 20/21 to 21/22 [Revised profile £65k 20/21 and £85k 21/22 total £150k]

* Temple Meads Masterplan
Milestones: Delay of 9 months for the completion of the Development Framework Report.
Spend: Reprofiling £733k from 20/21 to 21/22 [Revised profile £161k 18/19, £423k 19/20, £657k 20/21 and £733k 21/22 total £1.975m]. £590k moved from external costs to internal staff costs.
Scope: Additional scope and allowance for professional fees, such as valuation, property and planning advice.

* A420 to Bath Highway Improvements Milestones: Delay of 5 months for Options Assessment Report to February 2021 due to the number of scheme option combinations required to be assessed and modelled during sifting stages with Outline Business Case now March 2022.
Spend: Reprofiling £25k from 20/21 to 21/22 [Revised profile £10k 17/18, £76k 18/19, £18k 19/20, £71k 20/21 and £25k 21/22 total £200k].

* Walking and Cycling Infrastructure - Reprofiling £80k from 20/21 to 21/22 [Revised profile £20k 20/21 and £80k 21/22 total £100k].

* Somer Valley Enterprise Zone - Reprofiling £147k from 20/21 to 21/22 [Revised profile £879k to 20/21 and £147k 21/22 total £1.062m]. £212k of public sector match funding to be reprofiled from 20/21 to 21/22.

* Cribbs Patchway Cycle Links
Milestones: 1-4 months delay to a number of milestones.
Spend: Reprofiling of £358k from 20/21 [Revised profile £345k 19/20, £1.656m 20/21 and £1.124m 21/22, total £3.125m]

* Spatial Development Strategy - Additional scope with inclusion of decarbonisation evidence base for transport to support the SDS programme and its transport interventions planning to ensure these are in line with climate change targets. Inclusion of related milestones including the production of the Option Development Report (Jun 21).

* Cultural Strategy - Additional match funding of £20k provided by Arts Council England.

* Whitfield Tabernacle Stabilisation – Reprofiling £602k from 19/20 and 20/21 to 21/22 [Revised profile £80k 20/21 & £602k 21/22 total £682k]. Additional match funding of £138k from Historic England.

In approving the £9.4m Regional Recovery Fund on 9 October 2020, the WECA Committee agreed officer delegations to ensure that decisions on business cases / detailed specific proposals for the agreed schemes can be progressed at pace.

One of the proposals was the Digital Skills Investment Programme, a £2 million investment to design and commission a programme of digital skills support.
A full business case was subsequently produced by WECA officers confirming the £2m
requirement from the Investment Fund which will be match funded by £400k of Adult Education
Budget and £279k from training providers.

Digital skills are recognised as becoming ever more important in today’s economy and are a near universal requirement for employment. At least 82% of jobs require digital skills with employers indicating that about one-third of vacancies they find difficult to fill are, to some degree, attributable to a lack of digital skills amongst applicants.
The impact of COVID-19 has placed even greater emphasis on digital skills requirements.
The Digital Skills Programme will seek to maximise the value of any national programmes, such as
the Lifetime Skills Guarantee and the Department for Education’s Bootcamps. It will also highlight
links to other WECA programmes and funded provision, such as Workforce for the Future, thus
encouraging a skills eco-system and referral pathways.

The Digital Skills Investment Programme will administer a portfolio of calls, aligned to the region’s
digital pathway, to address digital skills gaps at both the lower/baseline and medium to higher
level. The programme will target priority groups including:
- young people.
- unemployed people.
- people who have lost employment / income / education due to COVID-19.
- groups underrepresented in digital roles e.g. women, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people,
people with a health condition /disability.
- people aged over 50.
- people that need additional support to secure a digital role e.g. career changers, returners to
work, returners to the tech industry, graduates under-utilising their skills, residents currently in
lower paid and/or insecure work.

The responses to each call for applications will be formally assessed against pre-determined
criteria, with funding recommendations presented to the WECA Chief Executive for delegated
approval in consultation with the Chief Executives of the constituent councils.

The Chief Executives of the WECA constituent councils were consulted on this proposal and were in agreement with the decision.

Approval given to the Digital Skills Investment Programme full business case and an award of £2m, noting that specific grant giving will be authorised by the WECA Chief Executive in consultation with the Chief Executives of the constituent councils.

In approving the £9.4m Regional Recovery Fund on 9 October 2020, the WECA Committee agreed officer delegations to ensure that decisions on business cases / detailed specific proposals for the agreed schemes can be progressed at pace.

One of the proposals was the Culture and Creative Economic Recovery Fund.

A Full Business Case was subsequently prepared by WECA officers seeking £1m from the Investment Fund which will be match funded by £300k of DCMS funding. The project will deliver a £800k business support programme (including continuation of the Creative Scale Up programme) and a £500k grant fund to SMEs across the WECA geographical area. The programme is aimed at SMEs working in the creative industries, including creative freelancers (sole traders and directors of limited companies) that require support as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The business support programme will support 120 creative businesses to reformulate their operating and financial models, explore new business opportunities and review business plans in response to Covid-19. The grant programme will support 25 SMEs and 150 freelancers in the sector.

Based upon 90% of supported businesses surviving and 30% of these growing by 1 FTE, it is estimated that 39 gross new jobs will be created. Applying GVA of £51,389 per employee based upon the sector and scale presents annual GVA of £2.012m. Converting this to a net figure by applying additionality factors and a multiplier presents net GVA of £1.014m.
The Chief Executives of the WECA constituent councils were consulted on this proposal and were in agreement with the decision.

Approval given to the Culture and Creative Recovery Fund full business case and an award of £1m, and to note that specific grant giving will be authorised by the WECA Chief Executive in consultation with the Chief Executives of the constituent councils.