Responses to questions relating to Hull and East Yorkhire Combined Authority's commissioning of the Adult Skills Fund (ASF), and Hull City Council's ASF procurement exercise for the 2025/26 academic year.
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| Question | Answer |
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What are the anticipated timelines for release/submission of the DPS opportunity? |
DPS registration is currently open for organisation to register their interest. The proposed timetable for the HEYCA opportunity via Hull City Council procurement process is as follows and intended as a guide. Although the Combined Authority does not intend to depart from the timeline, it reserves the right to do so at any time.
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| What are your timescales for commissioning ASF for 2026-27? Also, how much funding will be available? Any more detail on the commissioning arrangements e.g. will you be seeking multiple providers |
HEYCA is awaiting confirmation from the Department for Education of the funding allocation for ASF. As soon as this is known the amount available for procurement for contract for services arrangements for ASF will be made available. HEYCA will be seeking applications from providers that meet the ITT requirements. |
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Is the tender opportunity now live on Yortender? If so, please can you provide the tender reference number. When searching for Learning and Training as shown during the webinar, it shows what appears to be a previous opportunity. |
Providers can register on YorTender. The reference number will be YT100108120 and the tender will go live as per the timeline. By registering Providers will be notified immediately of HEYCA ITT opportunity. |
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Will this cover Skills Bootcamp funding from April 2026? |
Skills Bootcamps have moved to a different funding model and will transfer to HEYCA, forming part of the overall ASF allocation for 2026/27. Funding for Skills Bootcamp will move from financial year to academic year (August-July). |
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Does HEYCA intend to use the Crown Commercial DPS in the longer term for ASF procurement and has there been any consideration on Crown Commercial charging 1% of all successful ASF bids as a top slice for using the DPS? This will take a significant amount out of procured values for ITPs if CC charges 1%. Q. Both Hull and East Riding Councils have received considerable additional ASF funding in 2025-26 as a result nationally procured contracts for ITPs being terminated and their funding redirected to the two local authorities - hence Hull City Councils recent procurement exercise. The webinar says that ASF for 2026-27 will be based on 2023-24 allocations, so what happens to this ITP funding? As a local ITP that has lost its national contract, will our 2023-24 ASF allocation still be made available in HEY through the forthcoming 2026-27 procurement exercise as part of the overall funding envelope, or will it be lost to the area altogether? Q. When does HEYCA expect to be able to publish the size of non-grant ASF, i.e., the overall procured funding value that will be available for open competition in 2026-27? Q. Will grant funded bodies (local authorities and colleges) also be able to bid for contestable (procured) ASF as well as receiving their guaranteed allocation in 2026-27? |
Regarding long term procurement of ASF, at this stage no decision has been taken on future arrangements. For the 2026/27 academic year, HEYCA will use Hull City Council’s procurement process. For the 2025/26 academic year, procurement of independent training providers was undertaken by Local Authorities using funding delegated to them by the DfE. Consequently contracts previously held with the DfE transitioned to Local Authorities for the 2025/26 academic year. For the 2026/27 academic year, the amount of funding available for open procurement will be net of the amount allocated to grant funded providers, the amount of which is to be confirmed. HEYCA will issue the ITT opportunity in March 2026 where it will set out the overall procured funding values available for contract for services. Grant funded organisations are free to enter into the open and competitive procurement process. |
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It was stated ''ensure an agile commissioning approach that meets local needs'' what will this look like? 2) 26/27 Procurement of independent training providers will be conducted by the Hull City council procurement processes. Q) How will this impact on college provider funding allocation and ensure that duplication of offer doesn’t occur? 3) ASF adult allocation will be calculated based on 23/24 allocated spend/funding allocation – this will be used to calculate 26/27 allocation. Grant agreements will be provided at the start of the year. Local authority will discuss with provides who have grant allocation funding already to ensure it is meeting need and potential for collaboration. Grant allocation will be created using delivery targets – detail for this isn’t currently available – Q) will this be done with the providers so targets are sensible and measurable. 4) Underperformance/overperformance needs communication with the Authority. Where underperformance/issues of delivery or meeting allocation are not discussed with the LA, the authority will look to redistribute/change allocations – looking for clear communication and strong relationship. Over delivery up to 10%, under deliver will revert to base line delivery (actual). Q) does this mean that any under delivery will be reallocated to another provider/contract for in year spend? Or rolled over into the following year? |
HEYCA is keen to ensure residents in Hull and East Yorkshire receive high quality adult skills provision that is aligned to the Strategic Skills Plan which includes meeting local economic needs. HEYCA’s procurement of ITPs will be conducted through Hull City Council procurement process. However, the decision regarding awards of contracts be HEYCA. HEYCA will review delivery of provision to HEY residents across the region aligned to the HEY Local Skills Improvement Plan and HEYCA’s Strategic Skills Plan. HEYCA will also consider approaches to delivery and how ITP settings can enhance outcomes. HEYCA Performance Management Framework will be available which incorporates under/over performance and addresses any issues relating to delivery of provision that will apply to all providers. HEYCA will look to redistribute the funding of providers who under-perform in-year. |
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On reflection as a potential new provider, and a small organisation (charity) it's quite daunting to know that investment is only for 1 year without knowing what the risk level of not getting funding beyond that point. It's not enough time to add to our offer and be sustainable. Is the hope that once the initial year of transition is over, that longer term procurements might be available? And/Or if you're a partner who delivers well in Year 1 does that make it easier to apply the following year, or does it make no difference in practise? However, I do like that only having 1-year grants for 26/27 (applying winter 2025) means we could decide were not ready yet but can work towards being in a better position for next year. I assume the hope is agencies will be able to apply for 27/28 in 2026. |
HEYCA appreciates that for charitable /small organisations funding on an annual basis is a challenge. Once the initial year of transition, HEYCA will consider the option/benefits relating to long term procurement process. It is expected that annually new organisations will be able to apply through the procurement process. Grant Agreements will be issued for one year (August 2026 – July 2027) with the option to extend for a further year (to July 2028), subject to provider performance and funding availability. Contract for Services will be issued for one year (August 2026 – July 2027) with the option to extend for further year(s). The extension will be subject to learning organisations performance, skills policy and funding availability. |
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A useful update so far. Keen to hear how it continues to develop. |
Future stakeholder engagement events will be organised to share ideas and get feedback on ASF developments in the region to benefit the Hull and East Yorkshire residents and local economic needs. |
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Will this fund be applicable to companies with immigrant staff |
Access to ASF funded learning is open to all residents in Hull and East Yorkshire providing they meet the eligibility criteria for Adult Skills Fund. The HEYCA Funding and Management Rules 2026-2027 will soon be available on the website providing full details. |
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At bidding stage, you seem to require a vast amount of information (much more than other combined authorities procuring ASF or Skills Bootcamps) and within a 2-week bidding timescale - do you have any plans to streamline the process? For example, SYMCA have a detailed due diligence process at contract award stage. |
As part of the Procurement Process, it is expected that all due diligence checks will be carried out at ITT stage. This is to ensure that any potential risks are identified and removed from the process at the initial stage and prevents the need to repeat the procurement process. |
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The webinar covered what Hull City Council is doing re: procurement of the additional ASF in 2025-26, but it was silent on East Riding of Yorkshire Council's intentions. As ERYC has also benefited from significant additional funding as part of the 2025-26 ASF devolution pilot, could you please clarify if ERYC will be undertaking a similar open procurement exercise as Hull City Council has done in 2025-26 (and what this will involve), or whether the authority intends to keep the the additional ASF it has been given and deliver it in-house? |
East Riding and Yorkshire Council followed the exact same process as Hull City Council for the additional ASF funding in 2025-26 and commissioned contract of services externally. |