Planning

A fundamental administrative element of the business planning cycle is the agreement creation process. The agreement is a legal contract between the ministry and the Literacy and Basic Skills (LBS) organization. The agreement outlines the organization’s rights, obligations, and the activities they will undertake with respect to entering into a legal contract to deliver the LBS program to Ontarians.

Once the organization has submitted their business plan to the ministry, it is reviewed and assessed. When the ministry has been satisfied that the business plan meets all requirements, the agreement creation process is initiated. LBS agreements are created before the start of the fiscal year on April 1. The ministry uses the information detailed in the business plan to form the binding agreement between the organization and the Government of Ontario for delivery of the LBS program.

Once the agreement has been created, the agreement is sent to the LBS organization for signature. Each agreement is attached to a memo from the regional director/director which outlines the steps an organization must take to finalize their agreement with the Province.

The LBS agreement and director memo are sent to the authorized representative of the organization who has the legal authority to bind the agreement. The agreement is not considered to be in force or binding until signed by the organization’s legal signing authority and the ministry.

Once two signed, original copies of the agreement are returned and ministry staff have validated that all the required information has been received, the LBS agreements are then forwarded to the regional director/director for signing.

One copy of the agreement is maintained by the ministry, while an original copy is returned to the organization.

When there are fundamental changes to business plans/projects (e.g. activities or budget), an in-year amendment to a signed LBS agreement is required. Amendments are mutually agreed upon and are initiated at the request of the LBS organization or as required by the ministry.

Requests initiated by the LBS organization must be made in writing, supported with a rationale and assessed by the ministry staff.

Any amendments to the agreement must be signed by the ministry and the organization to acknowledge the changes as they pertain to the current year’s agreement. Similar to the agreement signing process previously detailed, the amended agreement must be signed first by the LBS organization, returned and then signed by the appropriate signing authority within the ministry. Once again, a copy will be sent to the recipient organization and the original signed amended agreement maintained within the organization’s file at the ministry.

The purpose of the business planning process is for Literacy and Basic Skills (LBS) service providers and support organizations to plan and communicate to the ministry how they will achieve their commitment to service levels, service quality standards and continuous improvement targets, in agreement with the ministry, within budget and within the annual business management cycle.

The ministry operates on a fiscal year based business management cycle (April 1 to March 31). The business plan reflects this business management cycle and includes deliverables and progress indicators to be measured during the fiscal year. LBS service providers must submit a business plan for each service delivery site where LBS services are offered.

Once completed, the LBS business plan will inform the responsibilities and performance commitment targets and deliverables in the LBS agreement. The business plan also provides the ministry with their LBS service delivery and support organization deliverables and progress indicators that will be monitored through discussions with LBS consultants

The Business Plan outlines an organization’s plans to deliver all five services of the LBS program:

• Information and Referral
• Assessment Learner Plan
• Development
• Training
• Follow-up

Service providers must set and meet LBS Performance Management targets. In addition, service providers are required to deliver LBS programming focusing on specific goal paths and OALCF complexity levels within communities as agreed at the Literacy Services Planning and Coordination meetings, facilitated by regional networks.

Support organizations will include details in their business plan to draw the relationship between:

• the business plan service category commitments, services/activities and deliverables to be undertaken from April 1 to March 31;
• the service categories and strategic priorities identified by the ministry.

As service categories and strategic priorities identified by the ministry may change it is important that support organizations familiarize themselves with the Business Planning Instructions and Templates released each year.

Regional networks support all stream and sector Literacy and Basic Skills (LBS) service providers by facilitating the literacy service planning and coordination process in each community. The process involves all LBS service providers and, where possible, other community services. Its purpose is to facilitate effective and efficient delivery of the LBS program within a broader system of education, training and labour market attachment services.

Literacy Service Planning helps to ensure that there is no duplication or gaps in service within the local area. The principal product of the local planning and co-ordination process is the Literacy Service Plan.