16-19 Funding & Commissioning Team

The 16-19 Funding and Commissioning team leads on strategic commissioning of education and training provision for all young people over compulsory school age under 19, or aged 19-25 and subject to a learning difficulty assessment.  The team has a number of statutory duties and responsibilities to carry out under the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009, including:

• A duty to secure sufficient, suitable, education and training opportunities to meet the reasonable needs of all 16-19 young people (19-25, LLDD) in Dudley.

• A duty to secure sufficient, suitable, education and training for young people (10-18 years old) subject to youth detention.

• Have regard to, amongst other things, the quality and other factors of the education and training and challenge where this is poor or inadequate.

Furthermore, there are now new statutory duties following legislation effective in 2013 for Raising the Participation Age (RPA).  From this point, young people will be under a duty to participate in education or training to age 17 and rising to age 18 in 2015.  The new duties will include:

• Promoting the effective participation of young people in education or training, in accordance with the RPA requirements and

• Making arrangements to ensure suitable provision is available for those young people not participating.

These actions are further supplemented by the Dudley Strategic Overview of Education and Learning that outline priorities for 16-19 education and training:

• To increase and widen participation, improve achievement and ensure that all our young people have equal opportunities to progress into learning or skilled employment. 

• To provide a system and structure that removes barriers to success so that all young people in Dudley succeed whatever their ability, socioeconomic background, ethnicity, gender, disability or learning difficulty.

• That all young people are entitled to a broad, relevant and coherent range of programmes of learning that meets their needs and offers them the opportunity for successful progression to employment or further study.

• The team work very closely with the funding agencies – YPLA / Department of Education for the funding of young people up to the age of 19 (25 LLDD) and Skills Funding Agency / National Apprenticeship Service for ESF funding and Apprenticeships.

To carry out this work the team needs to build, develop and maintain high quality relationships with local colleges and learning providers to share strategic planning for all 16-19 learning provision and those to 25 for young people with Learning Difficulties and/or Disabilities.