European Social Fund in England

Sustainable Development Tools

ESF Guidance Manuals 2 and 3 explain that ESF providers are required to put in place appropriate Sustainable Development Policies and Sustainable Development Implementation Plans. These policies and plans will be assessed by contract compliance officers and are likely to be audited.

ECOTEC and Action Sustainability were commissioned in early 2008 by DWP ESF Division to develop and deliver a Sustainable Development training programme for contract managers. This programme was funded through ESF Technical Assistance and delivered during June and July. It focused on the use of practical tools to assess the following provider contract deliverables:

• Sustainable Development Policy
• Sustainable Development Implementation Plan

The generic tools developed to undertake these assessments are available for download below. These are based on the ‘Flexible Framework’ which was adopted by the Government’s Sustainable Procurement Task Force.

ECO AS Policy Evaluation

ECO AS SD Action Plan provider Self Assessment v) 0c

The tools have been further adapted by DWP to align with the wider DWP Compliance Monitoring system used by DWP contract managers responsible for managing and monitoring DWP CFO providers. Examples of these adapted tools are available here:

DWP Extract from CMF Annex

DWP SD Action Plan Provider Self Assessment

DWP ESF1(07-13) Monitoring Form 0 0k

The focus for both sets of tools is a process of continuous improvement where contract managers agree with providers areas where practical changes can be made in the way sustainable development is applied to ESF funded activity, as well as wider organisational and partner impacts. The tools are available in spreadsheet format and can generate a graphic representation of progress, which can benchmark progress against other organisations. For further information on the Flexible Framework see http://www.actionsustainability.com/.