Programme details

The European Social Fund supports human resource development activity in the European Union. Its aims are to help:

• people along the pathway to employment;
• people keep jobs that could be threatened by industrial change; and
• build the capacity of voluntary and community organisations supporting communities to work towards these goals.

Co-financing is the system through which the funding is distributed. A number of organisations, including the five London Learning and Skills Councils, are Co-financing Organisations (CFOs). The purpose of co-financing is to add value to government programmes through additional activity that would not otherwise have been funded, as well as to simplify processes and reduce bureaucracy for providers. Co-financing means bringing together ESF funds and match funding into a single pot for providers to access as a single funding stream, without the need for providers to secure their own match funding.

The ESF Programme is divided into Policy Fields (overall policy objectives) and more specific Measures (areas of work). The LSC has identified priorities for support in these Measures and produced. The sections dedicated to the Pan London 1 and Pan London 2 rounds under the LSC ESF Objective 3 Programme provide more detail about each individual round, including measures covered