EMA Administrators
Frequently Asked Questions - Activity Agreements
Background
Activity Agreements (AA) were rolled out nationally on 1 April 2011. An Activity Agreement is an agreement between a young person and an advisor that the young person will take part in a programme of learning and activity which helps them to become ready for formal learning or employment. This will form a key element of the senior phase of Curriculum for Excellence for some of our most vulnerable young people. The young person may receive an EMA in return for complying with this agreement.
Q - What are the qualifying criteria for an Activity Agreement?
A - The general eligibility for AAs is the same as that for EMA namely Age, Income, Residence and Valid Course.
Q - What is the qualifying date for a young person on an AA?
A - This will be the first date of engagement/first day of the course and will be different for each young person.
Q - What would constitute a Valid Course?
A - A young person's participation in an Activity Agreement should be based on an assessment of their needs, interests and capabilities. Local Authorities have always had discretion to recognise any course of learning or activity for the purposes of EMA. For AA's the 16+ Learning Choice co-ordinators will decide on the term of the AA.
Q - Can we accept applications for AA after the autumn and winter cut-off dates?
A - Unlike the school/college sector which pays EMA for approximately 40 weeks, young people on an AA can be paid for the full 52 week period providing they have reached the end of compulsory education. They can therefore enter and leave an AA at any point during the year.
Q - What financial information is used for assessing AAs?
A - The financial information requested for AAs is the same as for all applicants of EMA.
Q - What if an AA runs over 52 weeks or two financial years?
A - As young people on Activity Agreements can enter and leave at any point during the year, it may be necessary to carry out a re-assessment of their circumstances. This may be needed to ensure that you have current financial information for them, particularly if they have been on an Activity Agreement for some time, possibly more than 52 weeks. There is no cut-off date set for this nationally, but you may find it helpful to carry this out around the time you have new applications being sent out to those in school.
Q - How do we register AAs for payment e.g. on the SEEMIS System?
A - It may be helpful to know that one pilot area set up an additional school called 'Activity Agreements' as you would for a private school that does not use SEEMIS. Payments can then be set to all weeks. Any problems or concerns with payments should first be taken to the EMA data team in Edinburgh at emadata@scotland.gsi.gov.uk.
Q - How are EMA payments affected by public or learning centre holidays?
A - Generally the minimum 3-day week rule applies for AAs as with any other learning agreement. However, as the structure of the activity for those on AAs may not be spread equally over a 5-day week, i.e. the young person may only be engaged for two days per week, we would ask that the Local Authorities use their discretion and consider whether the young person has achieved 60% of their agreed activity out with the holiday/closed dates for any week. For Easter and Christmas holiday periods, as long as the centres are open and the young people are attending in accordance with their learning agreement, they can continue to receive EMA.
Q - Is there a minimum number of hours per week that a young person must participate in an activity agreement in order to get EMA?
A - No, the minimum requirement will be different for each person. Locally placed 16+ Learning Choice co-ordinators will set the degree of engagement which may be at a low level initially and may increase over time.
Q - Can the parents or carers of young people participating in Activity Agreements still get child benefit?
A - Not at the moment, but this is something we are working on. Currently, Child Benefit legislation does not cover Activity Agreements as a form of full-time education. We are working with the UK Government to update legislation to include Child benefit and we will update you when progress has been made.
Q - Do we need to ask for a Birth Certificate/Passport for those on an Activity Agreement?
A - If a young person is unable to provide a birth certificate or passport, but their date of birth can be verified by another means e.g. a school register or the E1 (SEEMIS) system, and you are happy to accept this as proof of age, then they do not need to provide a birth certificate or passport.
Q - Is their a cut-off point from a young person starting an activity to them submitting an EMA application, or applying for EMA once they have finished their activity?
A - The activity agreements were rolled out nationally on 1st April 2011 so this should only apply to the pilot areas for activity prior to this date. Although Activity Agreements run for a 52-week period, generally we will only backdate late claims to the beginning of the current academic year. Obviously there may be cases where there are special circumstances and each case should be looked at on an individual basis. The trusted professional may be able to provide details of any special circumstances but we would not backdate into the previous financial year i.e. not before FY 2009/10 for AY 2010/11.
Q - Is there a cut-off point for the return of the declaration/agreement once an award has been made and notified?
A - There is no cut-off date for the return of a declaration/learning agreement. The Local Authority may wish to set its own internal 'return by' dates to address cases where the delay may give cause for concern. In such cases where there is a long delay the trusted professional may be able to provide details or assist.
Q - How many self certifications can young people on AA have?
A - This has always been at the discretion of the Local Authority in line with their existing local policies and procedures. However, each case should be looked at on an individual basis and, as AAs operate on a 52 week basis, you may wish to consider increasing this accordingly.
Q - A young person has been given community service, how does this affect their EMA?
A - AAs are living documents and can be revised and adjusted in accordance with a young person's changing needs etc. In this case the Activity Agreement can be revised to take account of the community service but the young person would still have to achieve the terms and conditions of the AA to the level previously agreed and out with any Community Service time/days. For example, if a young person is given Community Service one day per week, but their current AA requires two hours engagement per day to achieve 10 hours per week, they must then do more hours over Monday to Thursday to still achieve the ten hours. In essence, Community Service must NOT be taken into account as counting towards achieving 100% of the Activity Agreement.
Q - Can young people on Activity Agreements get bonuses?
A - Last year, for the Pilot areas only, partnerships were allowed to use some of their AA grant to pay discretionary bonuses for young people on AAs. From 1st April bonuses will no longer be paid to young people on Activity Agreements or for anyone engaging in a learning activity for which they receive EMA.
Q - Do we need to have a separate EMA Application form for AAs?
A - No, the same application can be used for all. It is at the discretion of the Local Authorities if they wish to change the colour or style of the application for their own identification purposes.
Q - ho deals with the EMA application where the training is out with the area in which the young person lives?
A - The Local Authority in which the young person on an AA resides should process the application for an EMA. This is different to arrangements we have for schools, as the young person on an AA will be added to a virtual school on the system rather than an actual institution in which they are learning. This is because funding for AAs is given to each authority on the basis of the number of young people they have in their area. This funding can be used to buy bespoke provision where nothing exists currently that would suit the young person. In a number of occasions this can mean that some of the provision a young person is receiving is based outside the authority. Therefore, it would complicate the matter to ask outside LAs to process the EMA application and collect information on attendance. As such all the young people in your area on AA's should be added to the 'dummy' school and have their EMA application processed in this way. The LA would need to make arrangements as to how best to record attendance etc but this could be by phone/email.
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