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DfE Government Major Project Portfolio data, September 2018 (csv)

Updated 18 July 2019
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Project Name 30 Hrs Free Childcare Programme Apprenticeships Reform Programme Priority School Building Programme 2 Social Work England T Level Programme
Department DFE DFE DFE DFE DFE
IPA Delivery Confidence Assessment (A Delivery Confidence Assessment of the project at a fixed point in time, using a five-point scale, Red – Amber/Red – Amber – Amber/Green – Green; definitions in the IPA Annual Report on Major Projects) Amber/Green Amber Amber/Red Amber Amber/Red
Description / Aims The Government has legislated through the Childcare Act 2016 to introduce an entitlement to 30 hours of free childcare for working parents of 3 and 4 year olds (the extended entitlement). The extended entitlement will be rolled-out nationally from September 2017 with early implementation in some areas from September 2016 in keeping with commitments made by the Prime Minister. A multifaceted transformation programme, aiming to deliver against 4 key strategic objectives: · To meet the skills needs of employers - and the country by being high quality, relevant programmes that result in apprentices becoming fully competent in their occupation · To create progression for apprentices - by creating high quality programmes that result in apprentices becoming fully competent with transferrable skills in an occupation that offers progression. · To widen participation and social mobility in apprenticeships – to ensure that more people from a diverse range of backgrounds have access to the benefits of apprenticeships at all levels. · To create more quality apprenticeships - through our campaign work and by creating a sustainable funding system and a high quality apprenticeships offer. We have successfully developed and implemented a new employer levy and funding system, designed and implemented a new digital online IT system which enables employers to manage their apprenticeship programmes and established a new Institute for Apprenticeships all of which completed in April 2017. We are supporting transition from apprenticeship frameworks to new employer designed standards, establishing ways to raise BAME participation rates by 20%, designing a policy to ensure inclusive apprenticeships to support social mobility and, with the support of the Institute, significantly uplifting the quality and quantity of apprenticeships. We will also implement a comprehensive strategy to support employers and providers to understand the changes to the apprenticeship system and ensure that the wider market is ready. The Priority School Building Programme is meeting the condition need of the school buildings in the very worst condition across the country. There are two phases of the programme, covering a total of 537 schools: - Under the first phase of the programme, known as PSBP1, 260 whole schools are being rebuilt and/or refurbished. 214 schools through Capital grant and 46 using private finance. The vast majority of schools in PSBP1 have been handed over by the end of 2017, two years earlier than originally announced. - Under the second phase known as PSBP2, individual blocks of accommodation at 277 schools are being rebuilt and/or refurbished using capital grant and are scheduled to hand over by the end of 2023. - To ensure value for money for the public sector, schools in both phases of the programme are grouped together to make projects (or batches) that will be commercially attractive and drive strong competition. This grouping of projects also allows us to take advantage of economies of scale in procurement in terms of both time and cost. PSBP2 has 49(+2) schools worth over £10m of which 17(+3) have their design and build contracts awarded. The future pipeline of projects, determining requirements on steel sourcing, has been signalled to the market pre-procurement. This gives potential bidders sufficient time to prepare for competitive bidding under ESFA frameworks; alternative frameworks and OJEU procurements. Government’s aim is to promote a strong, consistently effective social work profession that is well trained, competent and properly supported to transform the lives of those who are most vulnerable. At the heart of this vision is establishing a new specialist social work regulator, Social Work England, which will focus on public protection and practice improvement. To increase the economic value of skills being supplied by the post 16 system, increasing take-up of high quality qualifications to improve skills, increasing productivity and social mobility. To enable the sustainable delivery of new high quality T Levels for 16-19 year olds.
Departmental commentary on actions planned or taken on the IPA RAG rating. The programme delivery confidence was Amber/Green at programme closure with significant progress made addressing recommendations from assurance carried out by the Infrastructure Projects Authority. Lessons learned have been captured, business as usual (BAU) processes developed and agreed with HMRC. BAU governance arrangements are now established and the service has successfully transitioned into BAU. Summer 2018 saw performance meet or exceed targets with take up at 83% and sufficiency of places at 90%. Apprenticeships will now phase the roll-out of the service to non-levy payers next year, rather than the big-bang approach originally planned. This change is welcomed. There is also now widespread acceptance across Whitehall that the Programme will miss the 3m target and instead must focus on achieving the highest number of quality starts possible by 2020. As a result of both decisions, revised DCA to Amber, although there remain to be significant delivery challenges. The Programme has a new SRO who was previously the Apprenticeship’s Programme Director. The Programme has also changed its Governance, with the aim of ensuring the Programme Board focuses on strategic direction (especially given the Apprenticeships Post-2020 Vision work ongoing within DfE) as well as benefits realisation. This shift is welcomed, although how this work will align with other reforms within Skills and Technical Education is not clear. We continue to achieve target feasibility and handover dates which gives us greater confidence that we will achieve overall target completion. In this light, we hope to see an improvement to the Delivery Confidence Rating in the future. The new forecast, approved by SCB (Schools Capital Board) has now formed the basis for a new baseline for 2018-19 which factors in additional slippage that may occur as a result of complex schemes. The baseline/forecast dates have been developed to reflect more realistic timescales, improving our ability to model future projections with greater accuracy. We have agreed short and long term actions to further improve management processes and forecasting arrangements. This work is ongoing. Substantial progress has been made to support delivery of Social Work England (SWE). DfE and DHSC continue to work with key stakeholders and SWE to ensure a smooth and safe transfer of regulatory functions. Key finance and corporate documents to establish SWE’s independence as an ALB have been issued. Grant in aid funding has been transferred to SWE’s bank account. SWE has four NEDs who, along with Lord Patel of Bradford (SWE’s Chair) and Colum Conway (SWE’s CEO) will form SWE’s Board. Four Executive Directors (EDs) were appointed in September. Recruitment is ongoing for two further NEDs and one final ED. A preferred digital supplier has been appointed, contracts have been finalised and the supplier started working on 14/9. SWE staff are due to move into SWE’s premises in Sheffield in December. Delivery confidence for the T Level Programme remains at Amber Red, due to the complexity and interdependency of the programme on internal and external factors. Significant success has been achieved against an extremely tight timetable, meeting all our major milestones. However, significant challenge remains in upskilling the FE workforce, securing further capital funding for future delivery beyond 2020 and whether funding levels will be sufficient to incentivise providers to continue to engage with T Levels. Risk remains on the ability to ensure that industry placements are available to support every student who applies for a T Level qualification, and we will need to monitor the impact of these flexibilities closely on the programme.
Project - Start Date (Latest Approved Start Date) 11/05/2015 08/05/2015 01/05/2014 09/05/2016 25/10/2016
Project - End Date (Latest Approved End Date) 31/03/2018 01/04/2021 31/12/2022 Exempt under Section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (Information Intended for future publication) 30/09/2023
Departmental narrative on schedule, including any deviation from planned schedule (if necessary) The 30 Hours Free Childcare programme was successfully delivered in Sep 2018, with the project completing closure activities: lessons learned, benefits management and transition activities ahead of national rollout. Critical milestones and schedule remain on track. Transfers minimum viable service Apr 2018, Non-Levy Beta Apr 2018, Frameworks to standards shift complete Mar 2020. Public School Building Programme 2 does not at this point have any indication that there will be any delays in in the overall delivery of the programme. A majority of milestones are steady state and/or on track. Work continues to ensure a smooth and safe transfer of regulatory functions between the current regulator and SWE. There has been a very significant amount of effort applied to maintaining the delivery schedule, and we have met all of our key milestones, including our two first 'go / no go' points. Working collaboratively with delivery partners, we launched the ITT for the development of the 2020 qualifications and subsequently awarded contracts to Awarding Organisations to develop the first three T Levels. We remain on track to meet our next key 'go / no go' point in Feb 2020 with the approval of the first three qualifications.
2018/19 TOTAL Baseline £m (including Non-Government costs) £750.02 £2,243.30 £448.60 £11.35 £50.00
2018/19 TOTAL Forecast £m (including Non-Government costs) £750.51 £1,863.60 £448.60 £7.89 £50.00
2018/2019 Variance %age 0% -17% 0% -31% 0%
Whole Life Cost TOTAL Baseline £m (including Non-Government costs) £5,874.92 £11,347.50 £2,398.50 £21.31 £146.20
Departmental narrative on budget/forecast variance for 2018/19 (if variance is more than 5%) Budget variance less than 5% The 2017/18 forecast costs are 17% below baseline as we are forecasting a participation budget underspend in 2017/18. This budget is very difficult to forecast as there is a lot of uncertainty around employer behaviour following the introduction of the new levy. Starts delivered since introduction of the Levy in May continue to be very low and show a reduction of 61% compared to the same time last year. The new levy has transformed the way that Apprenticeships operate in addition to the transition from frameworks to standards. This is a lot of change for both employers and the market to get used to. Employer behaviour is hard to predict and it is very difficult to accurately forecast spend during a period of such uncertainty. Our updated forecast for 2017/18 reflects the reduction in the number of starts and also the slippage in our other spending plans as the need for enhancements to the Apprenticeships Funding Service are assessed. This has resulted in an expected underspend compared to baseline in 2017/18. As employers have 2 years to spend their levy funds It is likely that spending will increase in the next financial year resulting in higher than expected costs in 2019/20 and onwards. There is still a high level of uncertainty around these forecasts. Enhancements and changes to the Apprenticeships Funding Service are still being planned and the split between investment in change and Recurring new costs reflects current known plans. This will be updated as further enhancements obtain ministerial approval. Budget variance less than 5% The 2018-19 forecast is around 31% below the original baseline. This variance is predominantly due to further development of planning assumptions. Budget variance less than 5%
Departmental Narrative on Budgeted Whole Life Costs Following the first time availability of data showing actual take up of offer, baseline costs were revised this quarter. Now that actual data around take up of the offer in the first year of delivery is available, we have revised the underlying assumption around the average hours of childcare taken a week, and this has resulted in an increase in the forecast costs in future years This is primarily due to revised forecasts for the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) budget to fund delivery of the 30 hours entitlement in future years. It should be noted that delivery of the 30 hours childcare entitlement is a demand-led project and recurring new costs are modelled on what we currently know and understand about the population and estimated take-up of the offer. We will continue to refine these forecasts as we receive more up-to-date information about take up of the offer. Whole Life costs are currently within profile in the Strategic Outline Business Case Initial capital investment to address the poor condition of school buildings will avoid significant future costs to deal with a deteriorating estate and help to avoid any incidences of basic need pressure created through obsolescence. The budgeted whole life costs are based on the expected costs of the implementation of Social Work England as the regulator of social workers in England. The costs have been calculated from 2017-18 up to the point at which Social Work England takes on its regulatory functions. The capital costs associated with the project are predominantly associated with the premises and ICT systems required for Social Work England to take on its regulatory functions. Costs set out are those for the T-Levels programme as set by HMT at the 2017 Spring Budget. We have no confirmed budgets past Financial Year 2019-20. Future budget will be set in the next government spending review.
Annual Report Category Government Transformation and Service Delivery Government Transformation and Service Delivery Infrastructure and Construction Government Transformation and Service Delivery Government Transformation and Service Delivery
The IPA Annual Report publishes the whole life cycle costs on projects, based on figures from their Business Cases, whilst the National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline (NICP) focuses primarily on the upfront capital investment on a project. Where both documents refer to the same projects, this distinction will be the principal reason for any differences in the data sets published. Other government publications may use different methodologies to derive cost figures Not set Not set Not set Not set Not set