Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons fewer than a third of local authorities received a grant from the 2017-2018 delivery support fund; and if he will publish the criteria by which his Department judged whether such a grant would be allocated to successful applicants.

Funding was made available through the Delivery Support Fund for work that directly benefits 30 hours delivery and will create (directly or indirectly) 30 hours places for the 2018 summer term.

The bid round guidance set out that we would assess local authorities’ applications against the following three areas:

1) Evidence of local delivery needs - the extent to which a local authority a) demonstrated understanding of their local demand and how they expect this to increase by the 2018 summer term and b) demonstrated the barriers or challenges they are facing.

2) Summary of the proposal - the extent to which a local authority demonstrated how their proposed project(s) would effectively address the challenges they face, and how it would help them to secure sufficient places for the 2018 summer term.

3) Delivery plan - the extent to which a local authority demonstrated that their project(s) are well costed, and that they would have the necessary skills and resources required to successfully deliver their work.

We ran a three-stage assessment process to inform the funding decisions. This consisted of a sifting exercise, an assessment panel and a financial evaluation panel.

The revenue and capital funding allocations can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/30-hours-delivery-support-fund-grants-for-local-authorities.