MD2262 Expansion of London Enterprise Adviser Network

The Enterprise Adviser Network (EAN) is a national programme that supports social mobility through matching up to two senior business volunteers (Enterprise Advisers) with a school’s careers leader to support them to increase business engagement with the school and develop a whole-school careers strategy and employer engagement plan that is representative of all pathways into employment and considers all sectors.

The volunteers and schools are supported by paid employees called Enterprise Coordinators (EC). Each EC has up to 25 schools and oversees a portfolio of up to 40 Enterprise Advisers (EAs). These roles are match funded by the Careers & Enterprise Company.

The Greater London Authority (GLA) submitted a proposal to the Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) to deliver the London Enterprise Adviser Network (LEAN). Team London was commissioned to deliver a small pilot on behalf of the GLA in 2016. In May 2017 the London Economic Action Partnership Investment Committee (LEAPIC) approved £100,000 of funding from the LEAP Core Funds towards match funding three Senior Enterprise Coordinators to support the development of phase two of the programme which included a partnership with Central London Forward and the Mayor’s Fund for London.

To date the EAN has:

• Seen a 50% increase in employer encounters in schools in the national Network;
• Introduced on average 3.45 new employers to schools in the national Network;
• Actively engaged over 2000 schools and 2000 Enterprise Advisers nationally.

In London, the LEAN has:

• Engaged 125 schools (105 Secondary and 20 Primary) across 18 boroughs;
• Recruited over 200 Enterprise Advisers from more than 150 different organisations (185 are actively engaged);
• Provided 1000 hours of volunteer support to schools;
• Held three Speed Networking Events engaging over 1200 students and 850 business volunteers.

The proposed expansion of LEAN has been drafted by Team London in partnership with the GLA’s Skills and Employment Team.

The proposed expansion was endorsed by the LEAP Investment Committee on the 1st March 2018. GLA spend on salaries for Enterprise Coordinators will be match-funded by the Careers & Enterprise Company.

The proposed expansion does not include schools and colleges in Croydon as Croydon is part of Coast to Capital LEP. Coast to Capital LEP currently offer the Enterprise Adviser Network in Croydon schools and colleges.

When each school joins the LEAN they audit their careers provision against each of the 8 Gatsby Benchmarks for good careers provision in schools and colleges. The Department for Education released the new Careers Strategy in December 2017 and the Statutory Guidance for schools in January 2018 and colleges in February 2018. In these, it stated that all schools and colleges should be working towards achieving all 8 Gatsby Benchmarks by August 2020. The statutory guidance also states that all schools and colleges should work with an Enterprise Adviser to support them in achieving the Benchmarks.

All 38 LEPs are involved in the Enterprise Adviser Network. London is the only LEP currently to not be offering EAN support to colleges.

The GLA will contribute up to £1.4mil. The CEC will contribute £1.268mil. A future decision will be sought for GLA spend towards an independent evaluation of the LEAN.

A full procurement process will be completed in order to contract up to four service providers to deliver the programme.

The LEAN will be managed by Team London who will work with delivery partners to deliver the programme across London boroughs using the strategic sub-regions: Central, East, West and South.

This investment would allow us to scale up the LEAN to be able to offer the Network to 100% of state secondary schools and colleges in the London LEP area (this currently excludes Croydon which is provided with access to EAs through the Coast to Capital LEP).

We expect 80% of schools and colleges to participate in the expansion of the LEAN. The LEAN will engage with at least:

• 477 schools and colleges, including pupil referral units
• 500 senior business volunteers (Enterprise Advisers)
• All boroughs in the London LEP area (excluding Croydon)

The programme will enhance the capacity of participating schools and colleges to deliver quality careers education – providing school careers leads with personalised support to improve careers provision. We expect to see an increase in the average number of Gatsby Benchmarks achieved by London schools (1.68 out of 8 is the current London average). We also expect increased levels of teacher confidence in knowledge of career pathways such as apprenticeships, higher apprenticeships and T-Levels. Through these mechanisms, the programme will improve access to high quality careers provision for young people studying at participating schools and colleges.

Scaling the programme across London will give the GLA direct and ongoing relationships with careers leaders in the vast majority of London’s secondary school and colleges. These relationships provide a mechanism for staff to signpost schools and colleges to other elements of the Mayor’s developing offer for London careers support.

A robust external evaluation will be conducted in Year 1 of the expansion to measure the impact of the LEAN.

Research by the Education and Employers’ Taskforce has been reviewed prior to the planning of this programme. Young people who have four or more encounters with the world of work while at school are 86% less likely to become NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) and will earn up to 22% more. The LEAN aims to increase business engagement in schools and advance equality of opportunity so that every young person has the opportunity to meet employers and experience work places therefore reducing the risk of them becoming NEET, regardless of race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment.

The Enterprise Adviser Network has worked with careers leaders in each school to address the needs of every cohort of students. The lessons learned from this have been reviewed and incorporated into the new programme, ensuring equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) and persons who do not share it, and to ensure the programme will foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

The development of the expanded LEAN programme has been informed by a review of the government’s Industrial Strategy, which states that there is a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) skills gap in the UK and girls are less likely to choose STEM subjects at A Level than boys. For this reason, we have worked with STEM Learning to recruit volunteers with a STEM background which will advance equality of opportunity for young people, specifically girls, in London.

We have worked with cross sector organisations to ensure our pool of over 200 Enterprise Advisers are diverse (in terms of race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment), therefore fostering good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

Funding for the current LEAN is due to end in September 2018. A decision is needed on (i) continuing the network and (ii) increasing its reach to most secondary schools and colleges in London.

The overall strategic aim of the project is to provide consistent and coherent careers support in London’s schools and further education colleges. This supports the Mayor’s manifesto commitment to work with schools to improve careers advice.

The proposal directly supports one of the core objectives of the Mayor’s draft Skills for Londoners Strategy to ‘reduce barriers to participation in lifelong learning and progression in work, through the creation of an all-age careers offer’. Within the strategy, the Mayor has committed to ‘…extend and further diversify the London Enterprise Adviser Network in many more London boroughs’.

We have worked alongside colleagues in the GLA’s Education and Youth team to ensure the LEAN aligns with their careers education work and supports the core objectives of the Mayor’s draft Skills for Londoners Strategy.

There is a high level of need for careers support in London. Careers education provision remains patchy. A recent analysis shows that London schools have achieved an average of 1.68 of the Gatsby Foundation’s 8 Good Career Guidance Benchmarks. This compares to 1.90 for all other schools. There is a risk that if London was to opt out of the EAN that this gap would further increase in comparison to other LEPs.

The reach of the LEAN in London is smaller than in other LEP areas. In every other LEP apart from London the EAN is presently available in both secondary schools and colleges. If the project does not proceed, there are reputational risks for the LEAP and Mayor, especially given the high demand for careers support.

The recent Department for Education (DfE) National Careers Strategy and Statutory Guidance states that access to the Enterprise Adviser Network will be available to all secondary schools and colleges to support careers education. If funding is not secured London’s schools and colleges would not receive this support. Government has committed to match-funding contributions from local areas to help achieve full coverage of the EAN in each LEP area.

This investment in the LEAN will give London a careers support co-ordination function, which could be used going forward to direct and co-ordinate other elements of the Mayor’s Careers Offer, currently under development.

Risks to the programme include:

1. The total estimated cost of this programme is £2.668m and will span three financial-years from 2018-19 to 2020-21. The GLA will contribute up to £1.4m, with the balance of £1.268m being funded via the receipt of income from the Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC). The phasing expenditure, the receipt of income and the GLA funding source is summarised below:

1. With regards to the funding of the GLA contribution of £1.4m, this will be funded from the reallocation of budgets relating to the GLA’s Apprenticeship and Careers Advice budgets that were included in the GLA budget from 2017-18 to 2020-21 held within the Skills & Employment Unit (£670,000 & £730,000 respectively). This will include the re-profiling of budgets and the subsequent transfer to the Team London Unit, who will be responsible for managing this programme.

1. The reallocation of funds from GLA’s Apprenticeship budget to this programme will be sourced directly from the allocated budgets for 2019-20 and 2020-21. The Career Advice budget will be re-directed in its entirety to the programme as profiled as above. For information the current profile of the GLA’s Careers Advice budget is as follows:

2017-18 - £295,000

2018-19 – £170,000

2019-20 - £145,000

2020-21 - £120,000

Total - £730,000

It is expected that there will be a GLA funded independent evaluation of the London Enterprise Adviser Network, which will be subject to further approval via the Authority’s decision-making process.

The foregoing sections of this report indicate that:

- the decisions requested of the Mayor concern the exercise of the GLA’s general powers, falling within the statutory powers of the GLA to do such things as may be considered to be facilitative of or conducive or incidental to the promotion of economic and social development in Greater London; and

- in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the GLA’s related statutory duties to:

(a) pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;
(b) consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and
(c) consult with appropriate bodies.

In taking the decisions requested, the Mayor must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty, namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010, and to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the mayor should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

In the event that the Mayor is minded to make the decisions sought officers must ensure that:

- no reliance is placed on the Careers & Enterprise Company funding until after a legally binding commitment is in place in this regard and they are content that the GLA can comply with the terms attached to such provision of funding; and

- the services required are procured by Transport for London Commercial who will determine the detail of the procurement strategy to be adopted in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code. Officers must ensure that the relevant contract documentation is put in place and executed by the successful bidder(s) and the GLA before the commencement of the services.