Decision details

The Government, through the Department for Education (DfE), wishes to devolve skills funding, previously commissioned nationally, to Upper Tier local authorities to manage at a place-based level. As a result, East Sussex County Council has been awarded a total annual funding amount of £2,358,050.00 to deliver Skills Bootcamps. These are flexible short vocational courses designed to improve the skills of the workforce in
key sectors, offered to adults aged 19 and over.

In East Sussex, there are known skills gaps in construction, engineering, green jobs, adult social care, the visitor economy, the land-based and food production sector and in digital skills and leadership and management across all sectors. The Council needs to ensure that local businesses and providers have the workforce that can enable them to meet forthcoming pressures in line with new Government policy (i.e. early years childcare provision, teaching, green energy and the industrial strategy).

The Council has designed a call for Bootcamp provision to meet identified skills gaps in the local economy; and it is seeking accredited training providers to offer the courses specified to 570 East Sussex residents in total, over a period of one year from April 2025 to March 2026.

The Director approved a series of contracts to be issued to local providers for the delivery of the Skills Bootcamps programme in the value of £2,358,250.00.

The Director could have refused the funding. However, the information presented in the procurement report justified the decision to award the funds and due process has been followed.