Investment plan criteria
In order to qualify for Government funding, investment plans must meet the criteria below. Plans will be reviewed against these criteria over the summer, with the Department for Education and local areas agreeing success measures to be met before memorandums of understanding are issued.
We expect areas to submit plans for the full three-year funding allocation. However, we will accept more tentative plans for years 2 and 3, to enable local areas to build on the growing evidence base from year 1 of the programme on what works to improve adult numeracy. We will revisit investment plans, and allocations before each year of Multiply in order to approve any amendments.
All proposals should have the backing of local leaders in the authorities in which they are situated.
Deliverability
Reaching those most in need of improved numeracy skills may be challenging and will require strong coordination in local areas. All interventions should include detail of their deliverability by addressing each of the points below:
-
Partnership working with local education providers, employers, voluntary and community sector organisations, Job Centres, and others.
-
Plans for engagement with other, local touchpoints where there may be interaction/identification of people with low numeracy skills such as housing providers, debt advisory services, schools, Family Hubs, and others.
-
If lack of workforce is identified as an issue for deliverability of Multiply, this should be evidenced clearly and linked to a proposal on how you plan to use funding to increase capability. Plans should also address any impact of proposed interventions on current educational provision and how this will be managed.
-
If you intend to use some of your allocation for admin to support delivery you should outline how you plan to use these funds.
-
An ability to deliver new activity starting in financial year 2022-23 and covering the three years of the Multiply Programme.
-
Evidence of the benefits of the proposal and how you will ensure/protect value for money.
Evidence of need and demand
- Available data on local adult numeracy levels, for example on historic and current participation and achievement, from existing employer surveys, etc.
- A clear understanding of current provision support by the Local Skills Plan or LSIP
- Short explanation of why improving adult functional numeracy matters to your local area.
Interventions
- What interventions you will deliver, to improve functional adult numeracy in your local area, drawing down from the menu of interventions in this prospectus, and including detail on deliverability as above.
- A short explanation of how the above interventions will not displace or duplicate the maths entitlement funded through the Adult Education Budget.
Strategic Fit
- Investment plans should demonstrate how interventions fit with the Government’s wider ambitions set out in the Levelling Up White Paper and Skills For Jobs White Paper, in particular:
- Putting employers at the heart so that provision leads to progression into or within employment, or to further study.
- Ensuring people can access training and learning flexibly, as part of our commitment to lifelong learning – i.e. delivering Multiply provision alongside wider DfE programmes, such as Bootcamps, as appropriate.
- Offering new opportunities to access high quality work and progress in the workplace.
- The Levelling Up ‘skills mission’ that “by 2030, the number of people successfully completing high-quality skills training will have significantly increased in every area of the UK.”
-
Interventions should also demonstrate how they are a strategic fit locally e.g. how they fit with a local areas labour market and skills strategies, covid recovery strategies and/or LSIP (where one exists), and critically, respond to adult numeracy needs locally.
-
We expect to see join up and coordination where appropriate with the wider UKSPF, including in upper tier authorities where other UKSPF funds are administered by lower tier authorities.
Engaging and motivating learners
Local areas should set out how they intend to engage and motivate learners to achieve their proposed interventions. This should include:
-
Reducing negative attitudes to maths and addressing barriers to participation.
-
Raising awareness of Multiply locally.
-
Engaging with local employers and identifying and engaging with local touch points (such as housing associations, JCPs, debt advisory services, health services, other community organisations and / or buildings) where people with low numeracy skills could be identified, supported direct and / or signposted into provision.
-
Identifying, where possible, clear progression routes that people can follow once they have improved numeracy skills / a qualification, e.g. being able to apply in a certain field / job or further study course, being able to progress in a certain workplace.
-
Identifying further study courses that require numeracy / a maths qualification and targeting people who may be interested in these courses.
-
Embedding additional relevant maths modules into vocational courses.
-
Incorporating Information, Advice and Guidance into courses.
Measuring success
The technical guidance sets out details of the data to be collected from providers, practitioners, learners and employers over the course of the programme in order to inform programme-wide monitoring and evaluation. It also sets out how DfE will analyse this data and share it with local areas to inform local planning, decision-making and delivery.
In investment plans we expect local areas to consider what further data collection, evaluation or research may be appropriate to build on the DfE data collection in order to meet local priorities and assurance.
You Tell Us
Please let us know if you do not currently have the capacity to develop an investment plan for Multiply and effectively deliver on this funding.