Skills Funding Agency (SFA) Co-financing

The ‘New' Skills Funding Agency Workshop

Tuesday 1 November 2011
9:45am – 12:15pm 
@ The Doughnut Factory, 10 Warple Mews, Warple Way, Acton, London W3 0RF

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has restructured to establish a much simpler, self-sustaining funding system.  This workshop will introduce the new structure with speakers from the SFA who will talk about plans for funding for the future.  There will also be a voluntary sector training provider who will talk about their experiences of working with the SFA and a section on partnership opportunities and tools such as the LVSTC Partnership Portal.

Any voluntary sector organisations who are interested in working with the SFA should attend this free workshop which will provide a networking opportunity for those looking for partners.

To book a place please visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NEWSFA or contact LVSTC on 0845 262 2006 or email info@lvstc.org.uk

The ‘New’ Skills Funding Agency Staff

The Skills Funding Agency has recently gone through a reorganisation under their new ways of working. They have two new Relationship Directors for London:

Jill Lowery, Director Area Relationship Team – London (LN&E). Jill can be contacted on
Jill.lowery@skillsfundingagency.bis.gov.uk or 020 7904 0700 and will cover Barking & Dagenham, Barnet, Camden, City of London, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Havering, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea, Newham, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and Westminster.

Clare Arnold is the local Relationship Director for London (LS&W). Clare can be contacted on
Clare.arnold@skillsfundingagency.bis.gov.uk or 020 7904 0781 and will cover Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Croydon, Ealing Greenwich, Hammersmith & Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond, Southwark, Sutton and Wandsworth.

Registering on ACTOR

The Approved College and Training Organisation Register (ACTOR) is the Skills Funding Agency's on-line e-tendering application for the procurement of education and vocational training services. ACTOR replaces the Qualified Provider Framework (QPF) and is intended to be a single and simplified approach to the procurement of all education and training

To be registered on ACTOR, organisations must have passed a due diligence Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) and have submitted at least one ACTOR on-line Invitation to Tender (ITT) for all of the programmes/areas for which they want to obtain a contract/funding for 2011/12.

ACTOR is a register of colleges and training organisations that are eligible to be considered for funding from the Agency to deliver education and vocational training. (Please note though, being registered on ACTOR does not guarantee that an organisation will receive Agency funding.)

All organisations must be registered on ACTOR in order to be considered for funding. Once on the register, organisations may be considered in the procurement exercises that the Agency carries out, without having to submit additional lengthy, onerous bids. The Agency can do this because the information required is already recorded in ACTOR.

This enables a more streamlined approach, so that the procurement process is simpler and reduces the need for organisations to respond to multiple individual tenders. This change represents an improvement for the sector in terms of simplicity and reduced bureaucracy. At the same time it will ensure that the Agency is able to carry out its functions of funding and regulating the sector more efficiently and effectively

ACTOR is available for organisations to complete at any time other than for short periods at pre-notified intervals when access to ACTOR is withdrawn (frozen) to allow responses that have been submitted since the last freeze to be collected for evaluation.

The first freeze of ACTOR data was at 17:00 on 14 January 2011. Access to ACTOR on the e-Tendering Portal was restored on 1 February 2011.

Following the July freeze date, ACTOR will be frozen and users will be unable to make PQQ or ITT submissions until early September 2011. This will enable the Agency to assess the first year of ACTOR and review questions and associated communication processes. Users will, however, be able to view their most recent PQQ and ITT submissions.

To register on ACTOR please follow the link below and follow the instructions given:

https://skillsfundingagency.bravosolution.co.uk/web/login.shtml

For more information on the SFA, please visit www.skillsfundingagency.bis.gov.uk