Job Outcome Incentive Payments and PICS

Job Outcome Incentive Payments are described in SFA Guidance Note 8, from paragraph 24.  As the name implies, they are designed to make it worth providers’ while to ensure that learners achieve jobs, and that these outcomes are reported to the SFA.  They are dealt with as a pilot in 2011/12, and will be implemented fully in subsequent years.

JOIP in 2011/12

In 2011/12, providers are encouraged to set themselves up to provide jobs for learners.  There is no specific payment made for individual learner outcomes; instead, providers can be given 2.5% of their adult skills budget to prepare themselves as described in paragraph 29 to attain as many job outcomes as possible.

The value, at 2.5% of the total budget, is claimed in twelve equal instalments through the TPS.  Since there is no direct relationship between learners and the amount claimed each month, PICS does not attempt to calculate this.

If a provider specifically asks not to take part in the pilot, then the 2.5% is added back to the adult skills budget for the year.

JOIP in 2012/13 and beyond

We do not yet have any specific information about a formula for claiming JOIP in 2012/13 and subsequent years, and paragraph 31 suggests that the SFA has not yet reached any firm conclusions about how this is to be paid.  If, as we expect, the amount paid becomes part of the formula-funded calculation depending on actual job outcomes recorded in the ILR, then PICS will calculate these values.

Posted in Contracts & Funding, Industry News | Tagged ,

Financial Managers, Last Chance To Book

This event is now closed, but there are other dates available.

Get up to date with the latest information on SFA and YPLA funding, and make sure that you’re using the funding tools in PICS fully, by attending our popular Financial Management Event.

As well as reviewing the principles of SFA and YPLA funding for 2011/12, we will be paying particular attention to:

  • Monitoring your performance against your contract profile in PICS
  • Managing your Budget for the 2011/12 contract year
  • Accurately tracking your funding within subcontracting arrangements

The seminar will be hosted at Austin Court in Birmingham on the 15th of February by Luke Fitzgerald, Pellcomp Director and industry funding expert.

 

 

Posted in Training |

Job Vacancy: C# Web App Developer


Graduate/Junior Developer with demonstrable object oriented programming (Java, .NET or similar) skills, gained from a recent Computer Science/Software Engineering degree to join our web and application development team. Primary duties will involve creating and maintaining web and service based applications using ASP.Net and C#. Full training in ASP.Net and C# will be provided but existing experience in these technologies will be advantageous.

Additionally, the following skills are desired

  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript
  • Java or C# Programming
  • SQL

For further details, please contact martin@pellcomp.co.uk

Posted in Job Vacancy |

Job Vacancy: Delphi CRM Developer


Graduate/Junior Developer with demonstrable object oriented programming (Delphi, Java, .NET or similar) skills, gained from a recent Computer Science/Software Engineering degree to join our development team.

The successful candidate will be enthusiastic about software development and will be focusing primarily on the development of our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. An awareness of relational databases from a development perspective will be required. Development will be mostly conducted in Delphi, but full training in this language will be provided if necessary.

For further details, please contact martin@pellcomp.co.uk

Posted in Job Vacancy |

LIS version 19.02

You’ve probably seen that the Data Service has issued a new version of the LIS. Our initial testing suggests that the funding calculations are much more accurate than in version 19.01, and we strongly suggest that you move to this version as soon as possible. The software and documentation are available here.

We suggest that you read the Release Guide and the Quick Start Guide before you start. Please remember that the LIS is the Data Service’s software, not Pellcomp’s, so we can’t take responsibility for any problems that you encounter; we do, however, believe that it’s a useful adjunct to PICS in checking data validity and funding calculations

Posted in 2011-2012 Changes, Contracts & Funding, Industry News | Tagged , , , , , ,

Looking to the year ahead

We wish you all a happy new year and hope that you had an enjoyable festive season.

Our first event of the New Year will be the free Winter User Group on the 18th of January;   with speakers from the YPLA, the SFA and theia in addition to demonstrations from the Pellcomp team,   it is the perfect opportunity to survey the year ahead both from an industry and PICS perspective. Go to our website to secure your place now.

Our Financial Management Seminar to be held on the 15th of February will help you prepare for the coming months in greater depth.   We will be focusing on all aspects of SFA & YPLA funding both in terms of funding guidance and PICS practices,   helping to ensure you maximise your funding potential. In addition to looking at this year’s funding we will also be discussing what is known of next year’s funding.   This highly interactive session is held in a seminar style and places are limited, go to our website to book your place now.

Posted in Events & Exhibitions, Industry News | Tagged

PICS LIS reconciliation

The amendments to the LIS Known Issues document that were released just before Christmas   explain almost all the differences reported by the PICS LIS reconciliation report,   and lead us to believe that the SFA and YPLA funding calculations in PICS are substantially correct.   Many amendments are promised for LIS 19.02; in the mean time, there is a document   on our website which helps to explain most of the differences reported by the PICS reconciler.

Posted in Contracts & Funding, Hints & Tips, PICS Procedures | Tagged

Update from the Data Service

We’ve just had a reminder from the Data Service that the final LR05 collection for 2010/11
is due on November 21st, and this is a ‘hard close’, so no revisions will be accepted after that.
You’re also being asked to get our R04 return, due on December 6th, in as early as possible to avoid the rush.
We at Pellcomp are sorry to keep nagging you like this, but we feel we ought to pass these things on: the theia post can be found in the
FE Connect blog.

Posted in Industry News | Tagged , ,

Final submission for 2010/11

We all know, I hope, that the final ER13 submission needs to be with the Data Service by close of play this Friday, November 11th.  You may not be aware that any provider that has not made a submission since October 7th is required to re-submit their data for 2010/11: apparently some of the calculation bases have changed, and it’s necessary for the Data Service to re-calculate all values.  So if you haven’t made a submission in the last month, please be very sure that you re-submit a period 13 before this Friday.  The Information Authority announcement can be found here.

As always, before you submit your data, check it against the LIS, make sure there are no rejections, and reconcile against the LIS.  Check the ENR that you receive from the submission, make sure you get a PFR, and check this too against PICS.  You don’t have very long to get this right.

Posted in 2010-11 Changes, Industry News | Tagged , ,

PFR Reconciler Released

Hot on the heels of the first PFRs from the Data Service, we’ve released the PICS PFR reconciler for 2011/12.  There are several new issues which may lead to unexpected differences between PICS and the PFR:

• In a number of cases, aims are given incorrect learning aim reference codes in the PFR: this will lead to mismatches between PICS and the PFR, and to reports of duplicate entries.  In most cases these are compensating errors which don’t affect the overall funding; these cases are commented in the reconciler output, and will disappear when the PFR is corrected.

• Area uplift is consistently shown as zero in the PFR: checking against this uplift is therefore suppressed in the reconciler until the PFR is corrected.

• There are many known funding discrepancies in both the LIS and the PFR: some of these are documented by the Data Service in their Known Issues Document available here.

The format of the 2010/11 PFR has also been changed for period 13: these changes are also taken account of in the new reconciler.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged