Recommendations
The Grants Committee is asked to agree:
1. That the purpose of the review should be to establish what the future of the programme should be beyond the end of the current four years of the programme in March 2017 (see Section 4)
2. That the review should work within the existing principles of the programme. Evidence on performance of the programme to date and liaison with stakeholders supports pan-London delivery on a small number of key issues and helps provide cost effective delivery at a time when councils are under continued financial pressure (see Section 4)
3. That the review should therefore focus on the priorities of the programme (see Section 4)
4. The review timetable (see Section 5)
5. The public consultation documents (see Section 6 and Annexes D and E). Committee will note that correspondence will be sent to all borough leaders and to interested organisations to notify them as soon as the consultation is open
6. That (subject to London Councils winning a new ESF programme) new funding agreements for priority 3 tackling poverty through employment should be put in place for three calendar years (2016-18), which is the new ESF funding period in London. These agreements should be drafted so that funding can be terminated at the end of 2016/17 if members decide to terminate the entire programme or priority 3 at that point following this review. The ESF could then be redeployed (see Section 7.1)
7. That the existing specifications for priority 3, with only small changes to take account of new ESF funding criteria, will be used to re-commission these ESF services to start in January 2016 (see Section 7.3).