ESVFON - OBJECTIVE 2 1999 ESF UNDERSPENDS AND PROJECTS EXTENDING INTO 2000

ESFVON

European Social Fund Voluntary Organisations Northern

OBJECTIVE 2 1999 ESF UNDERSPENDS AND PROJECTS EXTENDING INTO 2000

1999 projects which have submitted extensions into 2000 must be aware that The European Secretariat at Government Office - North East must be notified of any underspend identified within the 1999 section of the project. Projects will not be allowed to carry forward 1999 ESF project funding past 31st December 1999 as the extension into 2000 is a separate project (i.e. you will have two projects). It is essential to notify The Secretariat quickly; if you do not then it will be extremely difficult to reallocate those funds to another project in the North East. Consequently, this money will be lost the Region as it must be returned to the European Commission if it not committed by 31st December 1999.

For ERDF, you will receive a revised offer letter for your whole project once your extension has been approved. This means that you will still only have one project and can therefore treat your ERDF grant as a continuous funding stream. This allows you to roll any 1999 underspends forward into 2000.

As good practice you should closely monitor your spend, irrespective of the type of project you are running. In this way, deviations from your application's expenditure profile can be quickly identified and corrected. Any underspends identified after 31 December 1999 must be returned by the Region to the European Commission.

OBJECTIVE 2 2000-2006 MAP

As some of you will have seen in the media the United Kingdom Government has submitted the map for the new 2000-2006 Objective 2 Programme for the North East to the European Commission for approval. This approval is not expected until the end of 1999.

If you are a current Objective 5b area (designed to assist rural areas of the Northern Uplands of Northumberland and Durham) then this information also relates to you as the Objective 2 and 5b programmes have been merged to make a new Objective 2 in the 2000-2006 Programme.

The United Kingdom as a whole was required to reduce its population coverage by 33%. In comparison to this figure the North East has only had a 12% reduction in the amount of population that Objective 2 will cover. This means that 87% of the population will still be eligible. All is not lost if you are in an area which has been included in the 12% as European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) will still be available to you until the end of 2005. This will however be on a sliding scale as time elapses and means that European Social Fund (ESF) resources in Objective 2 will not be available to you. You will have to access ESF through Objective 3. The 12% of the population no longer eligible for Objective 2 will be called "Transitional Areas".

These transitional areas are found mainly in Durham (with the exception of Easington), Castle Morpeth and parts of Darlington. Areas totally unaffected include, Berwick on tweed, Alnwick, Wansbeck, Blyth Valley, Hartlepool, Stockton on Tees, Middlesbrough and Redcar & Cleveland. All other areas have lost at least one ward to transitional status. Further information can be seen in the attached map or for more detailed ward information from ESFVON.

There are three wards which will be ineligible for Objective 2. These are Ponteland East, Ponteland South and Ponteland West.

The amount of money for the Programme will be £460 million (£430 million for eligible areas and £30 million for transitional areas).

Although as stated earlier the map is not expected to be approved until the end of 1999 much work has already been undertaken to help inform the new Single Programming Document and also the efficiency of the whole application process.

CONSULTATION PAPERS

In preparation for the new Programme and also in response to the development of a Regional Economic Strategy by the Regional Development Agency (One NorthEast), ESFVON has submitted a number of responses. What follows is the five discussion papers and a brief outline of each response.

Administrative Arrangements
Sustainability
Technical Assistance
Equal Opportunities
Social Inclusion

In response to a discussion paper on Administrative Arrangements for the new Programme, ESFVON used the information gained from its recent questionnaire (an executive summary of which was circulated with the July bulletin. Copies are still available upon request) and its own experience to deal with the topics under the headings of packages, whether ESF should be included in the 2000-2006 Objective 2 Programme, application procedures and Key/delegated Funds.

The key points put forward were:

that ESF should remain in the Programme as if it were removed it would place to great a burden on Objective 3 especially as Objective 2 Transitional areas have to apply to Objective 3 in the new Programme for ESF.
ESF projects should be multi-annual if desired, but not all funds should be taken be these types of project.
package approach should be modified to reduce bureaucracy and the time-consuming nature of the process. It should also not be based on the skill of the bid writer but on the quality of the project.
greater authority should be devolved to local area packages
Secretariat staff should attend package meeting to give definitive advice
More voluntary and community sector Package Managers
Key/delegated funds should be included in the new Programme and should be targeted at a local level and for the purpose of funding small projects
Combined ESF and ERDF application forms included as part of a general simplification and streamlining.

A response on Technical Assistance has supported the aims of effective management and administration of the next Programme, through greater transparency, better dissemination and exchange of information, greater accessibility for applicants, efficient and affective administration and implementation of the Programme, improved promotion and publicity, increased awareness/addressing of equal opportunities, increased awareness/addressing of environmental sustainability. This paper was particularly relevant to ESFVON, and partner organisation Teesside Council for Voluntary Organisations (TCVS) as this is where the funding we receive to provide services such as this Bulletin in Objective 2 is accessed from.

A principle point in the response was to provide for continued support to the voluntary and community sector, and as such allow the current work of ESFVON and TCVS to be continued. This was supported by the ESFVON questionnaire which indicated that the current activities of workshops, surgeries, seminars, conferences, Bulletins/Factfiles, help with match funding ideas, administration/ management guidance, project ideas and finding partners should all be continued.

ESF and the North East of England Objective 2 Programme 2000-2006 was a response with reference to both ESF and how this will fit into the six challenges the Regional Development Agency's Regional Economic Strategy has identified. The six challenges and ideas put forward were:

Creating Wealth by Building a Diversified and Knowledge Based Economy was felt could be cultivated by developing clusters in areas such as Information Communication Technology (ICT) and multi-media, knowledge based training, advanced technology in manufacturing, engineering and other areas, environmental sustainability, diversification in rural areas, and community regeneration.
Establishing a New Entrepreneurial Culture should be undertaken by supporting and strengthening the small business sector which encompasses community businesses and co-operatives. This could be through the development of the aforementioned community businesses and co-operatives, management skills, and business start-up and development training.
Building a Highly Adaptable Workforce must include social and economic inclusion and it was argued one of the strengths of the voluntary and community sector was its success in these two crucial areas. It was also felt synergies between projects in Objective 2 and 3 will be advantageous. Suggested ESF actions were training specifically aimed at redressing identified skills gaps and targeted vocational training to raise the base level of prospective employees to at least NVQ Level 2 in key skill areas.
Placing Universities at the Heart of the Economy was felt to be important, but too great an emphasis should not be placed on ESF for NVQ's 4 and 5. Areas of at least equal importance were training targeted at skills gaps as in challenge 3, more under-graduate, graduate and post-graduate placements with SME's and/or community and voluntary organisations, knowledge transfer to other organisations and communities, and promotion of flexible and distance learning.
Meeting 21st Century Transport and Property Needs. It was believed most actions relating to this challenge are not ESF eligible. However, the actions were considered important.
Accelerating the Renaissance of the North East was believed to be the most directly targeted at the voluntary and community sector as historically they have worked with the most disadvantaged individuals and communities. The view was put forward that without the sector's, often unappreciated work, the "mainstream" economy would falter. Synergies would also link with all other challenges through training. Softer outputs were also identified. The actions put forward were strategic capacity building as a separate, properly resourced action and properly resourced "key funds" to assist small scale capacity building projects to allow "risky" projects to be piloted.

Further actions identified were the need to revisit Community Appraisals to assess baseline progress and community led and community based projects given extra "weighting" to ensure a bottom up approach. The third point was the need for more than just lip service to be paid to the actions and that the voluntary and community sector has an integral part to play in its success.

At present there are two Discussion Papers for submissions to be made. These are on Equal Opportunities and Social Inclusion. These can be obtained from either ESFVON or Government Office. ESFVON will be developing a response and would welcome any comments which you may feel are important. Alternatively you may wish to submit your own views directly to Government Office on these issues, or other discussion papers. It would greatly assist us however in achieving a regional overview, if such responses could be copied to ESFVON.

2000-2006 SINGLE PROGRAMMING DOCUMENT SUB GROUPS

As part of the development of the new Objective 2 Programme there have been several sub groups established to address specific issues. These issues, groups chairs and voluntary sector representatives are:

Group	Chair	Voluntary Sector Representative
SPD Steering Group	Tony Dell (GO-NE)	Donald Dempsey (ESFVON)
Admin Arrangements	Robin Fallon (GO-NE)	John Keelty (WEA Teesside)
Competitiveness	Kevin Richardson (Regional TEC's)	Jane Robinson (Northern Arts) Tracey Moore (Entrust)
Equal Opportunities	Helen Joicey (North Tyneside Council)	Sue Featherstone (TCVS)
Social Inclusion	John Pearson (Derwentside Council)	Sue Mason (ESFVON)
Technical Assistance	Sarah Warhurst (Durham County Council)	Donald Dempsey (ESFVON)
Rural	Ian Pearson (MAFF Carlisle)	David Francis (Community Council of Northumberland) John Jewitt (Tees Valley Rural Community Council)
Sustainability	Chris Little (Countryside Agency)

Last Updated: 25 October 1999