The acquisition increases Interserve’s delivery of front-line services, particularly in the Department of Work and Pensions’ Work Programme, and forms part of the company’s strategic development as a key public service provider.

An initial cash consideration of £17.5 million will be paid from Interserve’s existing cash and debt facilities. Deferred consideration of up to £0.75 million will be payable subject to agreement of completion accounts. BEST’s pro forma annual revenue is £17 million, generating operating profit of £3 million, and its gross assets are valued at £2 million. The transaction is expected to be accretive to headline earnings per share in the first full year of ownership. Michelle Manson and Andrea Cook, respectively Managing Director and Operations Director of BEST, will remain with the business following the acquisition.

BEST operates across South and West Yorkshire, a region which employs approximately 3 million people across 100,000 businesses and has an unemployment rate of 8.7 per cent, similar to the national average. BEST delivers services in government-sponsored programmes, the majority of its business being related to the Work Programme.

Interserve is already involved in the Work Programme through its Rehab Jobfit joint venture, which has contracts in Wales and the south-west. This acquisition expands Interserve’s participation in this area of key government policy and enables it to use BEST’s capabilities for further development in related areas.

Adrian Ringrose, Chief Executive of Interserve, comments, “The acquisition of BEST reflects our strategy of developing as a top-tier public services provider, delivering front-line services. It builds on our existing relationships with both the DWP and the community in Leeds and the surrounding area, provides a foundation for offering more broadly-based community services and enhances our role in training and skills development.”

A variety of services may be commissioned under the Framework, relating to the assessment of an individual’s health conditions or disabilities. The first contract expected to be tendered through the new Framework is the assessment service for the new Personal Independence Payment (PIP), which will replace working age Disability Living Allowance (DLA) from 2013.

The preferred bidders in each framework Lot are as follows:

It is our understanding that the Department for Education are not intending to publish a list of bidders who have qualified at the PQQ stage to bid for these contracts, although they are seeking to collate a list of organisations interested in offering subcontracted services, which they will disseminate to the potential prime contractors.

If you are interested in being included on this list, please respond as soon as possible to Edward.Woolley@Education.gsi.gov.uk with the email title ‘Youth Contract List’ and:

• Your organisation’s name
• The region(s) you are interested working in. Details of the regions are available here.
• A named contract
• A corresponding email address

As part of the Government’s announcement about the £1 billion worth of funding to deliver a new Youth Contract over the next three years, the YPLA are seeking organisations to deliver a new programme of additional support aimed at 16-17 year olds who are not in education, employment or training (NEET).

EOS is delighted to be able to tender for this provision across the West Midlands and Yorkshire & the Humber (with the exception of Leeds, Bradford Wakefield  which are subject to separate commissioning arrangements).

We are looking for additional partners to supplement our delivery supply chain for this opportunity, and we are specifically interested in hearing from organisations with experience in working with:

• Young people aged 16 and 17 who are, or are at risk of becoming, NEET.
• Local partners such as Youth Offending Teams, the police and local authorities.
• Employers and education providers delivering positive outcomes to young people.

All applicants are required to demonstrate the following:

• Organisational experience and capability to deliver similar services to those they are proposing through this application form and added value they can offer.
• Ability to meet contractual targets
• Adherence to recognised Quality Standards and Marks.

All organisations wishing to be considered as a potential delivery partner are required to complete our Expression of Interest and return it by email to gkhoury@eosworks.co.uk by the 20^th April 2012. Should you have any questions please get in touch with George Khoury, Director of Business Development on 07557 745 127.

The pilot will be split into two phases over the next two years. Phase 1 is now live with a deadline of the 26^th April for tender submission, with an initial £50m of funding available, with a further £200m expected in Phase 2. The minimum investment from the pilot will be £250,000 for collaborative proposals from SMEs, and £1m for proposals involving larger employers. All bids must be employer led with employers providing co-investment, which can include ‘in kind’ contributions.

Liz Flynn, Head of Bid Services at Carley Consult, said: “There are real opportunities for training providers to work with employers and get involved in developing proposals. The aim of this pilot is to truly deliver skills in partnership with employers. The two key words being used by BIS and UKCES are innovation and collaboration. They are looking to take a risk with some ideas if the proposal is strong and will ultimately lead to skill development.”

More information, including the application pack for Employer Ownership of Skills, is available at www.ukces.org.uk/employerownership

NCG are seeking to expand their national Business Development Team through the following vacancy:

• Bid Manager (Ref NCG04) – salary range £25-40K (dependant on experience)

The ideal candidate will preferably have previous experience of leading and supporting business development/bid opportunities and an understanding of public sector procurement. A full job description for this position can be found here. The successful candidate could be home based but will need to agree to a number of core working days per week in Skelmersdale

To apply, please forward a current CV to Jane Shelley (jshelley@carleyconsult.co.uk) as soon as possible, quoting the reference number for the vacancy you are applying for in the e-mail title. Previous applicants need not re-apply.

Business Development Manager

Circa £28,000 plus bonus / benefits (Vacancy Ref BDM)

Responsible for the Sales, Marketing and Business Development functions. This includes identifying and responding to new funding opportunities, and developing strategies to maximise learner / customer recruitment on SFA and DWP programmes. You will also represent the company at industry events and in discussions with stakeholders and partners. A level of regional / national travel may be required.

Health & Social Care Assessors x 2

Circa £21,000 plus bonus / benefits (Vacancy Ref HSCA)

Assessing and supporting learners to achieve work-based learning qualifications in Health & Social Care, contributing to the achievement and maintenance of contractual targets and Direct Claims Status. You will contribute to company-wide continuous improvement through self assessment and shared best practice. You will hold appropriate qualifications, including an A1 (or equivalent) assessing qualification, and have appropriate CRB clearance. A level of regional travel may be required.

To receive a full job description, and to apply by CV, please e-mail Jane Shelley (jshelley@carleyconsult.co.uk) quoting the appropriate vacancy reference. Early applications are encouraged, preferably before Friday 6^th April.

One of the major Budget announcements, that the Government will increase the personal allowance to £9,205 by April 2013, may help strengthen the case that the unemployed are better off in work, where greater numbers of lower paid jobs will be fully exempt from Income Tax. In a similar respect, the Budget also confirmed the Government’s acceptance of the Low Pay Commission’s recommendation to increase the National Minimum Wage, including that for Apprenticeships, from this October.

One potential new announcement of note was a commitment for a pilot to commence later this year introducing a programme of enterprise loans to help young people set up and grow their own business, complementing the New Enterprise Allowance. This perhaps reflects a recognition that self-employment will play an important role in tackling Britain’s youth unemployment crisis. The Budget also announced an increase to the Growing Places Fund by £270 million, empowering local communities and businesses to lead development in their own areas, including £70 million for the Greater London Authority.

DWP will receive additional funding of up to £325 million across the Spending Review period to implement its strategy for tackling fraud and error in the benefit system. The Budget also placed a cap on the additional costs of Universal Credit of up to £2.5 billion a year in the next spending review.

With the Budget is out of the way, the YPLA and SFA are both expected to issue their final funding allocations for 2012/13, though some funding, such as that allocated to the Youth Contract and Employer Ownership pilots, may depend on the outcome of price based tender competitions.

Responding to the Budget, Kirsty McHugh, Chief Executive of ERSA, said: “Whilst today’s figures show there has been some stabilisation in the labour market, unemployment is still higher than was predicted by the OBR only a year ago. Despite this challenge, welfare to work providers are playing an important role in getting jobseekers into sustainable work. We hope the measures announced today such as the Growing Places Fund will help alleviate some of the regional variations in the availability of jobs.”

Our Employment and Skills Bid Writing training day will be led by Jim Carley (Managing Director) and Liz Flynn (Head of Bid Services). Jim and Liz collectively have almost 20 years of bid writing and grant application experience in the employment and skills sector, and have been involved in every major DWP and LSC/SFA tender round in recent years.

As experts with direct industry knowledge, the focus of this workshop is directly tailored to opportunities and developments within the employability and skills sector. As such, it is ideally geared for training providers, FE colleges, charities, housing associations, social enterprises, and similar organisations active in this industry.

The workshop involves a combination of practical and participative exercises, combined with group discussion and lively presentations.

• Understanding public sector procurement procedures
• Sourcing tender opportunities and making informed bid / no bid decisions
• Effectively selling to prime contractors and other providers
• Project managing the bid process and response timeline
• Developing a comprehensive and competitive proposition
• Storyboarding the response and answering each question in full
• Applying case modelling to inform financial submissions and pricing
• Effectively proof reading, critiquing and mock scoring draft bids

The workshop is aimed at anybody with a direct or indirect role in contributing to tender responses. This may include Bid Writers, Business Development Managers, Partnerships / Subcontracting Managers, Fundraising Managers, and Owner / Managers of SME providers.

The workshop is competitively priced at just £199.00 plus VAT per delegate. Carley Consult are also Associate Members of ERSA and we are therefore delighted to be able to offer ERSA  members a 5% discount (£189.00 plus VAT).

For more details, including details of how to book, please click on the links below:

Employment & Skills Bid Writing Workshop Information

Employment & Skills Bid Writing Booking Form

If you have any further questions, please contact Jane Shelley at jshelley@carleyconsult.co.uk or on 01777 712670.

The role of the NCCESB is to engage local employers, articulate labour market needs, scrutinise local services and inform how best to integrate training support with the Nottinghamshire local labour market. Its membership includes representatives from across the public, private and voluntary sector, with participation from Jobcentre Plus, the Skills Funding Agency and both Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County Councils.

The FSB is the UK’s largest campaigning pressure group promoting and protecting the interests of the self-employed and owners of small firms, with over 200,000 members nationally. The FSB have reported that a growing number of policy makers and shapers in the East Midlands have been getting in touch with them to ask what they can do to help small businesses thrive.

Karl Sirrel, FSB Regional Chairman said “As a campaigning organisation, the FSB’s greatest strength in the region is it 6,000 members. Small businesses are the backbone of the economy and our members’ experience of the issues that affect them on a day-to-day basis allows us to build a coherent and evidence-based case to put to local authorities and the policy-making community.”

Jim Carley said: “I am very proud to have been given the opportunity to represent the FSB, and the views and perspectives of small businesses, on the Employment & Skills Board. As a small business, Carley Consult has a first-hand appreciation of the challenges facing smaller firms in creating jobs and up-skilling their workforces. I’m looking forward to working with other NCCESB members in tackling these issues in Nottinghamshire.”

David Kirkham, Strategic Manager of NCCESB, said: “We are delighted to welcome Jim onto the Employment & Skills Board. We welcome the participation of small employers in the county in helping to shape and inform employment and skills strategy, and especially appreciate the approach of the FSB to involve their members more directly in the NCCESB.”

These links take you to the websites of the NCCESB and of the FSB.