HOW local authorities can apply to the government's £320m fund to help councils transform local services.

THE government has launched a £320m 'Transformation Challenge Award' it says will help councils transform the way local services are run and put the user first.

This page details how local authorities can apply to the fund, which covers the years 2014-15 and 2015-16.

The funding announcement by the Department for Communities and Local Government includes a further £90m available immediately under other plans, taking the total to £410m.

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FAQs published

The Transformation Challenge Award team have published responses to a series of Frequency Asked Questions on the requirements, process, and assessment of the Award. You can access the FAQs via:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/320002/Transformation_Challenge_Award_FAQs.pdf

Listen to Brandon Lewis’ discussing the Transformation Challenge Award

The Minister held a phone-in on the Award, the full recording can be found here:
https://soundcloud.com/dclg/transformation-challenge-award-teleconference

DCLG have launched a call for evidence for the Service Transformation Challenge Panel.

This call for evidence will be open from 1 May to 10 July 2014.

'The Panel is very keen to hear from a wide range of people. Local authorities and their partners will be important stakeholders, but the Panel is also interested to receive submissions from anyone who has evidence on how we can transform local public services to deliver better outcomes for local people.'

Click here for more information.

What is the Transformation Challenge?

The full prospectus is available here. It includes links to application forms for local authorities.

How is the fund broken down?

There is a bidding process for the £320m Transformation Challenge Award which opened on Wednesday, 2 April 2014.

This is broken down into three parts:

* £15m Transformation Challenge Award 2014 to 2015 to support local authorities working with partners across the public service to transform services, including smaller districts who wish to share management teams
* £105m Transformation Challenge Award 2015 to 2016
* £200m capital receipt flexibility in 2015 to 2016, to support local authorities working with partners across the public service to transform services

What about the additional £90m?

£90m will be made available immediately through the following plans:

* £1m in 2013-14 for 9 local authorities working with the Public Service Transformation Network to speed up and scale up their transformation plans
* £6m in 2013-14 for 13 local authorities who narrowly missed out on funding in the 2013-14 Transformation Challenge Award bidding process
* £83m of unused capitalisation provision has also been transferred to councils in 2013-14 which provides additional revenue for every authority to invest in local service integration and transformation. The unused capitalisation provision will be distributed to all authorities in line with the formula for councils' Start Up Funding Assessments

The additional 13 authorities who narrowly missed out on funding in the 2013-14 Transformation Challenge Award have now been awarded £6m. They are available to view here.

How to access the funds:

2014-15

The £15m fund for 2014-2015 is going to be split into two parts:

1. Facilitating small district councils to share a senior management team, including any chief executive, with one or more other councils; and

2. Supporting a small number of places which, by working with other public sector partners, can utilise funds in 2014-15 to reform services and make a return in 2014-15.

Bids for this fund should be made on the official application form available on the DCLG website and should be received no later than 5pm on 1 July 2014.

2015-16

The £305m available for 2015-16, comprises £105m revenue grant and £200m flexible use of capital receipts, to support proposals to re- engineer business processes and re-design services. The fund will have 2 elements:

A: Encouraging authorities which already share a senior management team and any chief executive to go further with their plans to re-design their services;

Expressions of Interest should be received no later than 5pm on 1 July 2014.

Formal bids Bids should be received no later than 5pm on 1 October.

B. Encouraging places that have ambitious plans to work in partnership across the public sector and with the voluntary and community sector or the private sector to re-design services.

Expressions of Interest should be received no later than 5pm on 1 July 2014.

Formal Bids should be developed with the relevant department and this support will be provided following the Expression of Interest stage between July and October. A bidding form will be provided, if necessary, before the 1 October bidding deadline.

A full schedule of the timetable for applying for the £200m flexible use of capital receipts is available in the prospectus available here.

Questions or queries in relation to the fund should be directed to the team at DCLG at transformation@communities.gsi.gov.uk.