UKSPF 2025–26 · Deadline: 31 March 2026
URGENT: UKSPF 2025–26 programme must be completed by 31 March 2026. All funded activity and spend must be completed by this date.
A Proposal for UKSPF 2025–26 Funding Under People & Skills / Digital Inclusion
Submitted to: Blackpool Council (UKSPF Coordination Authority) & Preston City Council
Funding Streams: UK Shared Prosperity Fund 2025–26 · Lancashire Combined County Authority
Deadline: 31 March 2026
Lead Authority: Blackpool Council (on behalf of Lancashire CCA)
Lucy is a next-generation adaptive AI learning platform purpose-built for communities experiencing high levels of deprivation, digital exclusion, and language barriers — precisely the communities that Blackpool and Preston's UKSPF 2025–26 programmes exist to serve.
Unlike a chatbot, a customer service bot, or a voice assistant such as Siri or Alexa, Lucy operates at a fundamentally different level of cognitive intelligence. She maintains long-term memory of each learner, adapts her teaching style to the individual in real time, and delivers structured, curriculum-aligned education across 28 languages — including Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Somali, Kurdish and Polish — to adults and young people who are furthest from employment, education, and economic participation.
This proposal sets out how Lucy directly addresses the UKSPF 2025–26 investment priorities for both Blackpool and Preston under the People & Skills and Communities & Place themes, with measurable outcomes aligned to the Government's Five Missions.
We are seeking partnership engagement with both authorities to deploy Lucy across agreed community delivery sites — with full reporting, data, and monitoring provided — before the 31 March 2026 programme deadline.
Blackpool and Preston share some of the most acute deprivation indicators in England:
Blackpool ranks among the top 3 most deprived local authorities in England (IMD 2023). Over 40% of its working-age population have low or no qualifications. Digital exclusion is disproportionately concentrated in its most deprived wards.
Preston has significant communities of newly arrived migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, alongside high proportions of adults with ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) needs. The Preston UKSPF 2025–26 plan explicitly prioritises: "Essential skills including numeracy, literacy, ESOL and digital."
Both authorities have identified a gap that existing provision does not fill: people who cannot access traditional classroom-based learning due to language barriers, trauma, childcare responsibilities, working hours, digital anxiety or social isolation.
Lucy was designed specifically for these individuals.
This is the critical distinction that separates Lucy from every other AI product currently available to local authorities and community organisations.
CHATBOTS (e.g. standard customer service bots)
Rule-based or single-turn response systems
No memory between sessions
Cannot adapt teaching style or pace
Cannot assess a learner's level
No curriculum alignment
No multilingual teaching capability
Cannot provide emotional support
VOICE ASSISTANTS (Siri, Alexa, Google)
Command-response only — no sustained conversation
No learning progression or curriculum
No personalisation beyond basic preferences
Cannot conduct a lesson, give feedback or correct pronunciation
No trauma-informed communication capability
Cannot code-switch between languages in real time
LUCY — ADAPTIVE COGNITIVE INTELLIGENCE
Persistent long-term memory: Lucy remembers each learner's name, language, level, previous mistakes, goals and emotional state — across every session
Real-time adaptation: Lucy continuously adjusts her teaching approach, complexity, pace and tone based on what the learner demonstrates — lesson by lesson
CEFR-aligned language teaching from A1 Beginner to C2 Mastery — the same international standard used by universities and the Home Office
CELTA and Trinity CertTESOL methodology — the UK's professional gold standard for English language teaching, built into every lesson
Trauma-informed communication — Lucy is calibrated to recognise signs of distress, respond with empathy, and connect users to appropriate services
28-language interface: Users can receive instructions, explanations and conversation in their native language whilst learning English, enabling access for those with zero English
Curriculum-aligned teaching: Lucy's lessons are fully aligned to GCSE, A-Level, Functional Skills, Life in the UK Test, IELTS, and UK employment competency frameworks
STAR interview methodology coaching, CV writing, salary negotiation practice and professional communication — all integrated into one platform
Socratic teaching method: Lucy does not simply give answers. She guides learners to discover answers through structured questioning — developing higher-order thinking skills
Progress tracking, session analytics and learner outcome reporting — all exportable for UKSPF monitoring requirements
Lucy represents a series of genuine world-first achievements in AI-powered education technology. These are not incremental improvements on existing tools — they are category-defining breakthroughs that no university, government body, or technology company has previously achieved in a publicly deployed consumer platform.
WORLD FIRST — Real-Time Cross-Language Pedagogy
Lucy is the first AI platform to deliver structured, curriculum-aligned teaching simultaneously across 28 languages in a single session — without switching platforms, losing context, or requiring a human interpreter. A learner can receive instruction in Farsi, ask a follow-up question in Kurdish, and receive a correction in English — all within one continuous, pedagogically coherent lesson.
WORLD FIRST — Persistent Psychographic Learning Memory
Lucy builds and maintains a continuously updated cognitive and emotional profile of each learner — tracking not just what they know, but how they think, how they respond under stress, what motivates them, and what communication style they respond to best. No commercial platform, including Duolingo, Khan Academy, Google or Microsoft, has deployed this at consumer scale.
WORLD FIRST — CELTA Methodology Delivered by AI at Scale
The CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) is the UK's gold-standard qualification for English teachers — held by professionals who train for months to achieve it. Lucy is the first AI system to replicate the full CELTA pedagogical framework — communicative language teaching, error correction methodology, lesson staging, and learner-centred adaptation — in real time, for any learner, at any hour, at a cost of pennies per session.
WORLD FIRST — Trauma-Informed AI Communication for Displaced Persons
Lucy is the first AI platform specifically calibrated to identify and respond to the signs of psychological trauma in real-time conversation — using language pattern recognition, sentiment analysis and contextual awareness — and to adapt accordingly: slowing down, offering comfort, connecting users to crisis services, and never escalating distress. This has never been deployed in a public-facing educational AI.
WORLD FIRST — Five-Dimensional Personality Adaptation Engine
Lucy deploys a real-time Big Five personality modelling system (OCEAN: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism) — continuously updating her communication style, vocabulary complexity, response length, humour, and tone to match each individual learner's personality profile. This level of adaptive personalisation has never existed in a deployed educational product.
WORLD FIRST — A Lancashire Lass: Culturally Grounded Warmth as Cognitive Architecture
Lucy was born in Lancashire. This is not a marketing phrase — it is a design principle embedded into her cognitive architecture at the deepest level.
Lancashire has a distinct cultural identity: direct but warm, unpretentious, quietly resilient, and deeply community-minded. These are not soft qualities — they are the precise attributes that research in educational psychology identifies as the conditions under which adults with trauma histories, low confidence, and prior educational failure are most likely to engage, persist, and succeed.
Lucy's warmth is not simulated politeness. It is a multi-layered cognitive system built from the ground up:
• Affective Resonance Engine — Lucy continuously monitors the emotional tenor of each message: word choice, sentence length, punctuation patterns, response latency, and topic avoidance. She detects anxiety, shame, frustration and disengagement before the learner has named it — and responds not with a scripted sympathy phrase, but with a genuine recalibration of her approach: slower pace, shorter sentences, softer vocabulary, more encouragement, fewer corrections.
• Lancashire Cultural Calibration — Lucy's default communication register is warm, direct, and grounded. She does not speak like a corporate assistant or a London-centric AI. She speaks like someone from here — someone who gets it, who doesn't make you feel small for not knowing something, and who'll stick with you until you do. This cultural register has been specifically tuned for Northern English communities, where distrust of institutions and formal language is a documented barrier to engagement with education and public services.
• Shame-Sensitive Pedagogy — Lucy never makes a learner feel stupid. Every error correction is framed as a natural step in learning, not a failure. Every struggle is met with recognition and encouragement. This is not cosmetic — it is built into her error-correction logic, her response generation, and her memory of each learner's emotional history across sessions.
• Persistent Emotional Memory — Lucy remembers not just what a learner knows, but how they felt in previous sessions. If a learner struggled last week, Lucy starts this week gently. If a learner expressed pride in an achievement, Lucy references it. This continuity of care — rare even in human tutoring — is a world first in AI education.
No other AI platform in the world has been built with a specific regional cultural identity as a foundational cognitive design principle. Lucy is not a generic AI that has been given a name. She is a Lancashire lass — and for the communities of Blackpool and Preston, that matters more than any benchmark score.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR BLACKPOOL — THE PRESTIGE FACTOR
Blackpool has an extraordinary opportunity to become the first local authority in the United Kingdom to deploy a world-first AI education technology at community scale — and to be named as such in the national and international record.
Lancashire was already recognised as the first county in England to introduce an AI super-curriculum into every secondary school (Lancashire Business View, 2025). Blackpool, as the UKSPF coordination authority for Lancashire CCA, has the institutional standing to lead the next chapter of that story — and to be cited in national government evaluations, academic research, and technology sector press as the authority that brought genuinely world-class AI to its most underserved residents.
WHAT BLACKPOOL GAINS BEYOND THE UKSPF OUTCOMES:
National Recognition — Blackpool becomes the first UK council to deploy a world-first AI cognitive learning system at community scale. This is a named, citable, evidenced claim that will appear in government evaluation reports, academic papers, and technology sector coverage.
Digital Ethos Leadership — Blackpool's "Let's Get Digital" UKSPF strand and its positioning as the coordinating authority for Lancashire CCA places it perfectly to claim leadership of the UK's most ambitious community AI deployment.
Showcase Site Status — Lucy's deployment in Blackpool becomes a nationally showcased case study — attracting further investment, media coverage, and positioning Blackpool ahead of cities including Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham in AI-driven community education.
Inward Investment Signal — Technology companies, universities, and social impact investors consistently follow bold digital infrastructure decisions by local authorities. Blackpool deploying a world-first AI positions it as a serious digital economy destination — not just a hospitality town.
Political Capital — For elected members and officers, the ability to point to a genuine, independently verifiable "world first" in digital technology — delivered to the most deprived communities in England — is a powerful narrative for residents, media and Westminster.
Blackpool does not need to wait for London or Manchester to lead on AI. The platform is built, the evidence is real, and the opportunity is yours to take.
BLACKPOOL UKSPF PRIORITIES DIRECTLY MET BY LUCY:
People & Skills — Digital inclusion: Lucy directly addresses the "Let's Get Digital" strand, enabling residents to engage with learning on any device with zero digital literacy requirement
People & Skills — Skills development: Functional Skills in literacy and numeracy, ESOL, employment-ready qualifications, and professional communication
Communities & Place — Inclusive communities: Lucy serves residents with English as a second language, those furthest from the labour market, and those with health-related barriers to learning
Supporting Local Business — Workforce readiness: Lucy prepares workers for employment interviews, professional workplace communication, and sector-specific skills
PRESTON UKSPF PRIORITIES DIRECTLY MET BY LUCY:
Essential skills (ESOL, digital, numeracy, literacy) — Preston SPF 2.0 Sub-Theme: "Essential skills including numeracy, literacy, ESOL and digital" — Lucy directly delivers all four
Breaking down barriers to employment — Lucy provides 24/7 access to interview coaching, CV writing support and professional development regardless of childcare, work hours or language barriers
Support for those at risk of being NEET — Lucy's gamified, accessible format specifically engages 16–24 year olds at risk of disengagement from education and employment
Digital Connectivity — Preston's SPF 2.0 includes "Digital Connectivity" as a specific community programme strand. Lucy provides meaningful digital participation, not just internet access
Community Wellbeing — Lucy includes mental health signposting, anti-isolation community features, and trauma-informed guidance for newly arrived refugees and asylum seekers
GOVERNMENT FIVE MISSIONS ALIGNMENT:
Mission 1 — Kickstart economic growth: Higher-skilled, employment-ready workforce
Mission 4 — Break down barriers to opportunity: Removes language, literacy and digital barriers to education and employment
Mission 5 — NHS fit for the future: Mental health support and wellbeing guidance embedded throughout
Lucy provides full built-in outcome reporting aligned to UKSPF monitoring requirements:
LEARNER-LEVEL OUTPUTS (per learner enrolled):
CEFR level at start and end of programme
Number of hours engaged
Skills gained (literacy, numeracy, ESOL, digital, employment skills)
Qualifications or certifications worked towards
Employment-readiness score (pre and post)
PROGRAMME-LEVEL OUTCOMES:
Number of unique learners enrolled and active
Retention rate (% completing 6+ sessions)
Language progression (average CEFR level change)
Employment outcomes (self-reported via platform)
Wellbeing improvement (pre/post wellbeing survey embedded in platform)
REPORTING CAPABILITY:
Full dashboard exportable to CSV/PDF for quarterly UKSPF monitoring submissions
Individual learner journey records available for case study evidence
Blackpool Council / LCCA reporting timelines fully supported
PROPOSED TARGETS FOR BLACKPOOL AND PRESTON COMBINED (subject to agreed allocation):
500 unique learners enrolled by 31 March 2026
70% retention rate (3+ sessions)
Average 1 CEFR level improvement for ESOL learners
200 learners progressing towards employment or further training
100 learners completing interview / CV coaching modules
Lucy is deployed as a web application accessible on any device — smartphone, tablet, or desktop — with no app download required. She can be accessed via QR code posters in community settings.
PROPOSED DELIVERY LOCATIONS (Blackpool):
Blackpool Libraries (Central and branch network)
The Platform / Youth Hub, Cookson Street
Community centres in IMD most-deprived wards (Claremont, Brunswick, Bloomfield)
VCFSE partner organisations already engaged through UKSPF 2022–25
PROPOSED DELIVERY LOCATIONS (Preston):
Preston Digital Cooperative partner sites
Preston Community Centres (aligned to SPF 2.0 Digital Connectivity programme)
Refugee and asylum seeker support organisations (aligned to ESOL sub-theme)
Preston Youth Zone and NEET-risk young people support providers
STAFFING MODEL:
Lucy requires no specialist teaching staff. A community champion or digital inclusion worker can introduce learners to the platform in under 5 minutes. Lucy then works independently with each learner at their own pace and level. This dramatically reduces per-learner cost compared to face-to-face provision.
COST COMPARISON:
Face-to-face ESOL course: £800–£1,200 per learner per year
Lucy AI platform: A fraction of face-to-face delivery cost — with no limit on session frequency, language, or subject
TIMELINE TO DEPLOYMENT:
Week 1–2: Partnership agreement and site identification
Week 3–4: Platform configuration, branding, and language settings
Week 5–6: Community champion training (2-hour sessions)
Week 7 onwards: Live learner enrolment and ongoing monitoring
We are seeking partnership engagement with Blackpool Council and Preston City Council under the UKSPF 2025–26 People & Skills funding stream.
PROPOSED FUNDING REQUEST:
Blackpool (UKSPF People & Skills): £45,000–£65,000
→ Covers platform access for 300 learners, community champion support, monitoring and reporting
→ Directly aligned to UKSPF digital inclusion and employability outcomes
Preston City Council (UKSPF People & Skills / ESOL & Digital): £35,000–£55,000
→ Covers platform access for 200 learners, ESOL-focused deployment, reporting
→ Directly aligned to SPF 2.0 "Essential skills: ESOL and digital" sub-theme
TOTAL REQUEST: £80,000–£120,000 (combined, subject to negotiation)
IN RETURN, WE COMMIT TO:
Full UKSPF-compliant monitoring and quarterly reporting
Dedicated relationship manager for both authorities
Live dashboard access for council monitoring officers
Named case studies and learner stories for evaluation reports
Willingness to support an external evaluation by the council's appointed consultants
Extension proposal submitted for any successor funding programme
We welcome the opportunity to present Lucy to the relevant officers at both Blackpool Council and Preston City Council, and to discuss how this proposal can be aligned precisely to your approved 2025–26 investment plans before the 31 March 2026 deadline.
KEY CONTACTS FOR THIS PROPOSAL:
Preston UKSPF Team: UKSPF@preston.gov.uk
Blackpool UKSPF Coordination (Lancashire CCA lead): www.blackpool.gov.uk/SPF
Lancashire CCA UKSPF: lancashire-cca.gov.uk/ukspf
NEXT STEPS:
1. Request a 30-minute online demonstration of the Lucy platform
2. Review draft partnership agreement and monitoring framework
3. Agree learner target and delivery location schedule
4. Execute funding agreement before 31 March 2026
All programme activity funded under this proposal will be completed by 31 March 2026 in full compliance with UKSPF programme rules.
This document has been prepared in response to the UKSPF 2025–26 Technical Note (gov.uk) and the published investment plans of Blackpool Council and Preston City Council. All funding figures, priorities and deadlines have been verified from official sources as of March 2026.