Dance and Drama Awards: approved supplier process

The Dance and Drama Awards (DaDA) scheme offers an income assessed contribution to tuition fees and living costs for eligible students at private dance and drama institutions in England. Institutions that are part of the scheme are allocated funding (via a contract) by Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).

Institutions assess which students are eligible to receive support and how much funding they are entitled to, based on their household income. To be eligible to be part of DaDA, institutions must meet ESFA requirements including Trinity College London validation, Ofsted grading of 1 or 2 and financial health.

This procurement process establishes suppliers that meet ESFA's requirements for DaDA from 2020/21. Successful institutions are placed on an Approved Suppliers List from which ESFA determines which will be awarded a contract.

Neither submission of an expression of interest or a completed application, nor the gaining of Approved Supplier status, guarantees that ESFA will award a contract. The DaDA scheme offers support with tuition fees and living costs for eligible students at high quality private dance and drama institutions in England.

DaDA funding provides a contribution to the costs of participating for talented individuals who want to become professional dancers and actors. Around 1,200 students are in receipt of DaDA support each academic year.

Institutions that are part of DaDA are allocated funding by ESFA via a contract. Institutions are responsible for managing the funding.

They assess which students, based on performance at audition, have the most talent and potential to succeed in the profession. They then determine the amount of DaDA funding each individual is entitled to, based on their household income, using nationally set income thresholds and guidelines.

DaDA funding is only available to students enrolled on study programmes that lead to the Trinity College London (TCL) Level 5 and 6 Diplomas. These vocational programmes last between one and three years and cover professional acting, dance, musical theatre and classical ballet.

Students must be aged 16 to 23 to apply for dance programmes and 18 to 23 to apply for acting programmes. Institutions must be fully validated by the awarding body and must have successfully delivered the provision to at least one cohort of students.

ESFA undertake financial health assessments of institutions as a routine part of its' contracting process. ESFA auditors will undertake the assessment by reviewing institutions latest sets of full financial statements, using ESFA's normal published methodology, including the use of any moderation criteria.

Institutions must submit a copy of their latest full financial statements with their application. ESFA will not contract with any new institution with an inadequate financial health rating.

Failure to submit latest full financial statements will result in the awarding of an inadequate financial health rating. Additional information: All institutions that are part of DaDA must hold an Ofsted grading of 1 (outstanding) or 2 (good) for overall effectiveness.

As part of this process, Ofsted will undertake inspections for any institution that is currently part of DaDA and holds an Ofsted grading of good. Ofsted will also undertake inspections for any institution that is not part of the scheme but is applying for access Institutions that are part of the scheme and who hold an Ofsted rating of outstanding will not be inspected at this stage since they were found to be outstanding at the last inspection All inspections will be conducted against Ofsted's Common Inspection Framework.

Inspection methodology will take into account the provider context Institutions currently in receipt of DaDA funding, the inspection report will be published on the Ofsted website. For institutions not currently in receipt of DaDA funding, the inspection report will be for internal use only and not be published.

In all other ways, the inspection for DaDA and non-DaDA institutions will operate in exactly the same way Ofsted's normal policy is to provide up to 2 days' notice of inspection Each inspection is likely to last for 2 days. Provisional grades will be shared with the institution at the end of the inspection The final report will normally be produced within 28 working days of the inspection In addition to the criteria for TCL validation, Ofsted rating and ESFA financial health assessment standards, institutions must also meet general ESFA standards.

These include, but are not limited to, adherence to General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)compliance to equal opportunities safeguarding and health and safety The approved supplier process will establish the list of eligible institutions for 3 academic years 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 However in line with standard ESFA contracting procedures, institutions will be awarded annual contracts for each academic year All institutions currently part of the scheme or not, must submit an expression of interest if they intend to apply for Approved Supplier status. Further information about how to register is attached to this notice and at: https://education.bravosolution.co.uk Key stages in the DaDA approved supplier process: 14 September 2018 Closing date for expression of interest Expressions of interest received after closing date will not be accepted 24 September 2018 Approved supplier application available 16 November 2018 Closing date for submission of response questionnaire Responses received after closing date will not be accepted Spring 2019 Ofsted inspections End July 2019 Notification of outcome of Approved Supplier