From education to employment

Simon Ashworth speaks about Subcontracting

Simon Ashworth, Chief Policy Officer, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers

Subcontracting has been the area that has seen the most questions raised by AELP members over the past six months. In January there was a significant change in the subcontracting rules, specifically the subcontracting rules for non-levy paying employers, where the main provider needed to be involved in delivery of some of the on-programme training or assessment.

This caused lots of challenges and concerns, with the main questions asked of AELP centred around:

  • What that these changes meant
  • How they would affect the relationship with the main provider
  • How to work within these rules

Guidance has now been developed by the Provider Reference Group, which works hand in hand with the ESFA, which offered a bit more clarity around the definition of these rules and how a provider can work with them to remain compliant.

Last year we had the PAC enquiry into learndirect, one area that received a lot of attention were the issues of fees, charges and transparency. Moving forward, the ESFA’s formal response to this, anticipated within the next month or so, is expected to include a level of management fee capping.

Earlier this year AELP produced some best practice guidance, in conjunction with Holex and Collab Group. One of the recommendations from this is that the main provider should not be charging more than 20% for management fees, and in most cases should be considerably less.

Click the link below to hear AELP’s Chief Policy Officer, Simon Ashworth’s views on subcontracting at the AELP’s 2018 Summer Conference.

{https://soundcloud.com/fenews/simon-ashworth-aelp}

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