Economic Challenge Investment Fund

1. How does the ECIF differ from the Employer Engagement Fund?

The Employer Engagement Fund was established to put in place capacity for long-term change in institutional practice and to support co-funding of provision.

ECIF is intended to support immediate impact on the people and businesses at greatest risk, in local economies and labour markets. In setting up the fund we have aimed for flexibility, recognising that in the current environment employers and individuals may be less concerned with qualifications and funding eligibilities than with securing the skills they need and protecting employment.

We would however expect institutions delivering ECIF activity to make effective use of the capacity developed with support from the Employer Engagement Fund and the Higher Education Innovation Fund.

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2. What activities can be supported from the ECIF?

HEFCE Circular letter 03/2009 sets out our priorities for the people and the employers who should benefit from this fund. We show some examples of possible activities, but we do not intend to be prescriptive. Institutions are encouraged to work with local partners, including those already undertaking activity to support local economies and employment, to identify the most effective roles that they can play. We have also provided further examples of the types of activities that could be funded under the ECIF.

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3. Is activity exempt from the equivalent or lower qualifications (ELQ) policy?

We are not changing our ELQ policy. Institutions can use the ECIF to support accredited and unaccredited provision. For accredited provision, the ELQ policy will apply unless the provision falls within current exemptions. Where provision is unaccredited, this does not fall within the scope of ELQ policy, and funding can be used to support training and development for those who already have higher education qualifications. Further information on ELQ and current exemptions is available.

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4. Can funding be used to support fee remission?

Yes. Institutions wishing to use the ECIF to offset fees will need to make a good case in the submission as to why fee remission is needed for the target learners. For provision not covered by regulated fees, we do not expect institutions to increase their fees as a consequence of receiving ECIF support. For part-time learners, where ECIF is used to offset fees, we would expect the maximum fee to be £1,435 (in 2008-09) and £1,470 (in 2009-10) - this aligns with the student support available under 'The Education (Student Support) Regulations' (specifically support for part-time courses').

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5. Can funding be used to support non-prescribed HE in directly-funded further education colleges?

No.

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6. Can ECIF support activity which is the responsibility of the NHS, Training Development Agency or other funding bodies to fund?

No.

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7. Can proposals include support for graduate employability or entrepreneurship?

Yes, however, we would expect the focus of activities to be on developing the employability or enterprise skills of those who are most at risk in the current recession (those who are about to qualify or have just graduated).

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8. Can funding be used to support increase in staff resource?

Yes, if these are essential to the direct delivery of activities, and provision to the target groups. However, we will not fund continuing costs or commitments which extend beyond the funding period.

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9. Can funding be used to support graduates who are not home or EU-domiciled or migrant workers?

Yes, where evidence can be provided that such groups are vulnerable in current economic conditions.

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10. Can funding be used to develop new partnerships or collaborations with organisations such as recruitment agencies, local careers services, Business Link and Job Centre Plus?

Yes. We believe it will be important for institutions to engage with the range of organisations which have a role to play in advice and support for individuals and businesses to maximise impact and minimise duplication. However, we are looking to support projects which will deliver clear outputs within 18 months.

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11. What activities can't be supported?

The fund cannot support activities or provision which have already been planned and funded, from whatever source. Institutions must demonstrate in their bids that the activities to be supported will be additional. Institutions must not substitute ECIF for existing funding. The funding is used to support individuals and businesses that need help in the current recessionary period. Any activities that do not respond to immediate needs, or will require ECIF support beyond September 2010 cannot be supported.

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12. Can matched funding come from other public funding sources?

Yes. Proposals will need to demonstrate how they will meet the priorities of all their funding partners.

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13. Using a full economic costing approach can indirect costs constitute the matched funding element?

We want the ECIF funding to lever additional resources through the matched funding element. This could be external resources if they can be secured from partners (for example, a Regional Development Agency may wish to support proposals that align with their immediate priorities). Alternatively, an institution may wish to commit its own additional resources to this area of activity. Institutions could, in principle, seek to reflect indirect costs in the proposal as the matched funding component. However, institutions should be aware that assessment of proposal will take this into account in assessing the value for money, and we will look more favourably on proposals that have secured genuinely additional resources for the matched component.

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14. Will capital funding be available?

No.

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15. Can Lifelong Learning Networks and Higher Level Skills Pathfinders apply for funding?

Yes, through a lead institution, we believe LLNs and HLSPs will be well-positioned to offer high-impact activities to support vulnerable groups and individuals in a recession. However we would expect proposals to demonstrate clear additionality beyond their existing business plans.

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16. Can an institution lead a proposal and also lead or be a partner in a collaborative proposal?

Yes. The maximum overall funding a single institution can receive is normally £500,000, but this can be split across more than one proposal.

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17. Will HEFCE be seeking to ensure regional coverage for successful proposals?

We do not intend to prescribe a minimum or maximum number of projects in each region. We believe that all regions will have institutions or partnerships which are in a position to make a credible proposal, and projects will be assessed first against the policy criteria and then against other criteria. As we intend to approve approximately 50 projects we would expect each region to have at least one successful project.

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18. How will HEFCE monitor use of the funding allocated under the ECIF?

We will seek to minimise burden in developing monitoring arrangements. For example, for institutions delivering co-funded provision, we will look to use the existing monitoring mechanisms to submit information on the use of ECIF.

a. Development activities

We will ask institutions to report progress against the activities indicated in the submission template through qualitative monitoring reporting. We will provide further information on our requirements at a later date.

b. Provision

• For non-accredited provision we will ask institutions to report progress against the volumes indicated in their proposal through qualitative monitoring reporting.
• For accredited provision where the delivery is supported by ECIF funding - institutions should return this activity on HESES and HESA (or HEIFES and ILR) as non-fundable
• For accredited provision where the delivery is supported by the institutions existing capacity through mainstream teaching or non-mainstream additional student numbers, through the existing reporting arrangements (HESES/HESA or HEIFES/ILR). This situation may occur where the ECIF has been used to recruit learners or adapt existing programmes quickly, but not to support delivery of the learning.

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19. Should ECIF activity be reported in the Higher Education-Business Community Interaction Survey (HE-BCI)?

Higher education institutions should not report ECIF activity on the HE-BCI survey (specifically under 2C of Part B of the survey). But they are free to report in the survey how the ECIF has impacted on their strategy as reported in Part A of the survey. Should advice be required in relation to this issue please contact Adrian Day, e-mail a.day@hefce.ac.uk.

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20. Can students supported though the ECIF count towards other targets?

As ECIF will not attract any additional student numbers from HEFCE, institutions will not receive a specific target associated with student learning. We will monitor against the proposed activities (including volume) set out in the submission. Students supported by the ECIF cannot count towards an institution's other targets, such as for LLNs, co-funded additional student numbers or their mainstream teaching targets.

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21. Can the funding be used to support employees of universities or colleges in receipt of ECIF funding?

No.

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22. How will HEFCE evaluate the impact of the ECIF?

We have set out our approach to monitoring under question 18. In addition we will shortly be commissioning an evaluation for our overall workforce development programme (prioritising co-funding projects). Where relevant in providing information to inform policy and enhance practice, we would expect the evaluators to consider the impact of ECIF projects. Projects should be prepared to engage with this evaluation process which we will seek to ensure is low-burden.

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23. Will funding be recovered for non-delivery of activity?

Payments for projects will be staged and dependent on receipt of satisfactory monitoring returns. We would expect to re-negotiate funding with institutions who report substantial non-delivery of outputs. We recognise that in the current economic environment, uptake of activity by individuals and employers is unpredictable. Discussions of any proposed funding recovery would take into account institutions' circumstances.

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24. Who will be involved in assessing proposals?

The proposals will initially be assessed by HEFCE officers from institutional and policy teams against the criteria outlined in HEFCE Circular letter 03/2009. The existing Employer Engagement Fund panel, which includes representatives from employers and institutions, supplemented by two HEFCE Board members, will meet to consider a sample of proposals to validate that the criteria have been applied appropriately. The final decision on successful proposals will rest with the Chief Executive through delegated authority from the HEFCE Board.

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25. In completing the proposal template, can institutions seek the advice of HEFCE institutional teams, as with SDF and employer engagement funding?

Yes. Institutional teams will be able to provide general support on interpreting the guidance we have offered. However, they will not be able to offer guidance on draft proposals. A list of HEFCE Regional Consultants is available.

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26. Will unsuccessful proposals receive feedback from HEFCE?

Feedback will be available on request from institutional teams after funding awards have been announced in April.

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27. Can an institution put its own resources towards the matched funding element?

Yes. But matched funding should not come from HEFCE special funding (such as the Higher Education Innovation Fund, Employer Engagement Fund, or for Lifelong Learning Networks and Higher Level Skills Pathfinders) but can be from the block grant or other available resources. (Also see question 13 on 'indirect costs' as matched funding)

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28. Will HEFCE accept in-kind contributions for the matched funding element?

If an employer or other organisation wishes to provide resources in the form of in-kind contributions, we will in principle accept these as the matched funding element. Proposals should be clear on what these contributions will be and how secure the commitment is from the employer or organisation.

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