Financing of modules - a guide for delegates

The Consortium operates its own self-financing fund to run the programme and other activities, so direct costs are kept very low. As a result, this high-impact, high-quality management development programme is also extremely cost-effective.

Each company pays a fee of £1,800 for each participant into the Consortium fund. Participants fees are invoiced directly after attendance at the Introductory Module.

Fees are not refunded for any reason.

Other than this fee, member companies are only then required to pay for 2 night's bed & breakfast accommodation for their participants' attendance at each module together with associated travel costs.

The participants organising a module, are requested to try and obtain B&B accommodation local to wherever they are hosting the module. Generally this will be at a rate of around £100 or less per night. So, in total the cost of participation financed by each company will be:

£1,800 participation fee
£1,500 approximately for B&B plus misc. expenses for attendance at the 6 modules
______
£3,300 (estimated)

This is considerably less than the costs associated with 10½ days of similar high quality management development.

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Module Budgets

At the Introductory Module you will created a plan for the remainder of the programme. You will have established:

• your themes and topics for each module
• which companies will host each module
• when each module will take place
• where each module will take place
  

  The delegates from the company, which will be hosting a module, will then set about planning and arranging the detailed logistics for their 2-day event. Once your module outlines have been planned, you will need to consider your budget. The Consortium's budget arrangements can seem complicated to start with but the rules below should help avoid confusion about what is paid for from your company's finances and what the Consortium funding covers.
  

  The Consortium operates its own fund controlled by the Consortium Steering group made up of Company Representatives and managed by the Consortium Treasurer.
  

  The Core Programme covers 10 ½ days of development training for each participant. The Introductory Module is organised by the Consortium Steering Group. The remaining modules are arranged and funded as follows:

Thus a total of £8,500 is allocated to run a complete programme.
The Consortium monitors the actual costs of hosting modules, and periodically adjusts the budgets to reflect the real costs involved in running an event to the standard expected. If for any reason it appears to be difficult to organise a module with the funds allocated, please speak to your Company Representative for advice.

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Breakdown of Module Costs

The Consortium's rules about how these funds may be spent, and guidance on costs charged to the delegates and participating companies, are given below:

• Only 10½ days funding, spent in the pattern shown in the table above will be refunded to the delegates responsible for organising and hosting a particular module.
• Under-spending the allocated budget is acceptable (!), but money saved on one module cannot subsequently be used on another module, or to fund an extra event.
• If a group wish to set up any additional events either within the programme e.g. a extra one day site visit, or after the programme e.g. another learning module, then you must organise and fund these events yourselves, or consider applying for the Self-directed Learning Fund (see details below).
• The Consortium encourages delegates to continue learning together but you need to liase with Consortium Representatives to avoid dates conflicting with other Consortium visits to your companies. Remember there can be up to three Consortium Programmes running, and visiting your companies at any one time.

  In order to minimise the amount of actual money transferred between the companies, the Consortium operates a 'netting-out' process. At the beginning of each new programme, the Treasurer calculates the amount each company owes for its delegates' participation (£1,500 per head) and then deducts from this the funding allowed for a company that is hosting one of the modules (£2,000 or £2,500).

  Subsequent actual expenditure by the delegates who are hosting the module is paid by their company and netted off against the funding already allocated at the beginning of the programme. The process for managing this differs in each company and delegates need to refer to their Company Representative for more details.

  Under no circumstances will the Consortium Treasurer pay invoices received from delegates hosting a module or from 'suppliers' unless previously agreed with the Treasurer and the relevant Company Representative.

  In addition the Consortium has very clearly defined guidelines about what the module budgets can be spent on:

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When using an external venue you need to make it very clear to the hotel or conference centre what you want charged to the delegates, and what you want charged back to your own (hosting) company. Confusion about who is paying for what can cause problems on departure so make sure that the hotel management have briefed their front desk about your charging arrangements.

The Consortium does not expect to have to pay charges for using internal training rooms and facilities used within the host company sites. Delegates should pay their accommodation and other personal charges when using company owned residential management centres. To sum up, you arrange for all charges, other than those for delegates, to be paid from your company's consortium training budget. Your Company Representative will be able to advise you on the specific payment arrangements.

Gifts

Sometimes small promotional gifts, pens, umbrellas, diaries, t-shirts etc are given out by the host company during a module. These are normally provided free to the programme by the host company, and not paid for from the Consortium funds.

The Self-Directed Learning Fund

An additional fund of up to £3,000 is available to each programme at the discretion of the Consortium Steering Group. To obtain access to this funding, the group must put together a business case to support a formal application.

Whilst there are no hard and fast rules on how this money is spent, the stated principle is that the Self-Directed Learning Fund is to provide additional group learning opportunities to enhance the Core Programme. This could be in the form of expert speakers, consultants fees, management games or simulations, textbooks or distance learning materials. This fund belongs to all the participants of a programme and must not be used by host company delegates to subsidise the normal Company module running costs or for social activities. Nor can it be used to fund travel/accommodation on modules.

Where travel/accommodation costs may be incurred for additional modules or special visits, agreement must be obtained by each delegate with your Company Representative that your company is willing/able to cover these costs.

To apply for this fund, groups should put together a business case which provides the following:

• The planned learning objective & outcomes
  
  
• A detailed outline of the intended use of the fund e.g. an agenda, speaker details, format of the days, proposed venue, etc.
  
  
• Detailed costs, broken down into those to be covered by the Self-directed Learning Fund and those to be recovered by the delegates from their companies
  
  
• The rationale for choosing the option you are putting forward
  
  
• Confirmation that all delegates are able to benefit from this option.
  

This should be sent to the one of the Company Representatives who will circulate to the whole of the Consortium Steering Group and seek their agreement to the use of the fund.

When/if agreement to use the fund is given, a representative from the programme should be responsible for maintaining a record of payments attributable to the fund and for arranging reimbursement through the Consortium Treasurer. Normally one of the companies will pay the bills associated with the activity and the Consortium will then reimburse the company as part of the 'netting-out' accounting process.

Clearly there is a significant amount of planning needed to secure the use of this fund and to ensure you obtain the maximum value from it. Therefore it is recommended you discuss if/how to use the fund early on in the programme, preferably at the first company module.

If you require any further advice on any aspect of your budget or module planning, please contact your Consortium representative.

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