Decision details

1. The purpose of this paper is to provide information to Oldham Council around an Opportunity Area project.
2. To provide reassurance that this is compliant with financial, legal, and commercial practices.
3. This request is in line with the delegated authority detailed in the OA Year 5 Cabinet Paper approved on the 26 July 2021
Reason for the decision: The Opportunity Area (OA) initiative announced in October 2016 formed a strand of the government's approach to increasing social mobility. To this end, the Department for Education (DfE) targeted a five year, one hundred and eight million pound (£108m) support programme at 12 local authority districts (LADs) identified due to the social, economic and cultural challenges that have been found and the barriers to local residents’ life chances. The 12 OAs were selected from those LADs that were in the weakest sextile for both the 2016 Social Mobility Index (SMI) and the Achieving Excellence Areas Index. In 2016, Oldham was identified as an area that would benefit from being part of the OA programme.
Since the commencement of the Oldham Opportunity Area (OOA), Oldham Council has awarded contracts/grants to a variety of suppliers and/or specialist providers e.g., teaching schools in and out of the borough – due to lack of in-borough capacity; and specialist providers where there are no other organisations who can provide the particular service required.

RESOLVED - That: Early Identification of Need (EIN) / Early Identification of Autism (EIA) programme will be run in 4 areas.
• Oldham
• Fenland

There are no alternative options available currently as University of Manchester have a well established evaluation network and no other provider with this skill set is available within the timeframe. Therefore, not approving the proposal would reduce the evaluation capacity of the programme.

Consultation: including any conflict of interest declared by relevant Cabinet Member consulted.