The Government is about to make available a huge pot of money worth up to £270m over the next 30 months on a new initiative called ‘Multiply’ to boost numeracy skills in adults across the country.
Multiply was announced in the Autumn Spending Review and in the Levelling Up White Paper as part of a range of initiatives that aim to boost adult skills.
The programme will help people improve their ability to understand and use maths in daily life, at home, and in work. From household finances, to helping children with homework, to making more sense of numbers presented by the media and improving employability and job prospects.
In addition, the fund encourages providers to work with employers to boost numeracy skills at work with both new recruits and current staff - to help efficiency and productivity within the workplace.
Multiply funding
Multiply funding will be distributed to all Mayoral Combined Authorities, and upper tier/unitary authorities outside of these areas in England. In addition, the Government will be commissioning an online portal for people to use.
All local authorities have submitted an ‘investment plan’ to the Department for Education to outline how they want to spend the funding, in what is a much more localised process, which takes devolution even further than previous initiatives.
Provisional maximum allocations to local areas in England for Multiply, over the 30 months of the programme (October 2022-March 2025), are in place and allocations are determined by three key factors: local authority skills level, total population size and an area cost uplift.
Targeted funding
The key objective of the Multiply allocation equation is to ensure funding is targeted towards areas with the greatest skills need.
Each authority will determine how to spend their allocation, with the vast majority completing some form of tender exercise to bring their vision to life. This means that training providers, colleges, community groups and any organisation with an interest in helping people with their numeracy skills can apply to win a contract to deliver support.
With a strong background in helping organisations bid for similar initiatives, SCLO Consulting is ideally placed to support you if your business is looking at getting involved in the process.
Read more: T Level results are out and what a success!