Regional Response
Fund project
Changing Landscapes
WHO ARE WE?
West Midlands Centre for Excellence in
Teacher Training (WMCETT) established 2007
after a successful bid to QIA (now LSIS) by the
Centre for Lifelong Learning at the University
of Warwick to set up a CETT.
Works with FE, WBL, AVC/ACL, and skills
sectors.
Regional Response Fund project
• February 2011 put in a bid to RRF fund.
• Aim of the fund “activities that allow
providers to deal collectively with the
operational, funding and planning
implications of the changes to funding
mechanisms and allocations
(resulting from current
government policy)” (LSIS).
Change Exchanges
• Aim – three/four sub-regional networks across
the West Midlands that enable providers in the
lifelong learning sector to share responses and
solutions to recent funding changes and new
policy priorities.
• - encourage greater collaboration and
cooperation between sector providers.
• - stronger links with LEPs and
other regional and national agencies.
How they will work
Worcst,
Warks
and Cov
Staffs/Shrops
Herefordshire
Worcst,Warks,
Cov
Birmingham/
Black Country
Changing Landscapes
• Having set up the ‘Change Exchange’ the
project has continued to look at how the
new government policy New Challenges,
New Chances is being implemented and
how it is changing the Learning and Skills
Landscape.
New Challenges, New Chances
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Students at the heart of the system.
National Careers service.
A ladder of Opportunity.
Excellence in teaching and learning.
Relevant learning programmes and quals.
Strategic Governance.
Freedom and flexibility.
New Challenges, New Chances
• Simplified funding.
• Empowered Students.
• Global FE.
New Challenges …….
• A greater emphasis on ‘learner voice’.
Links to wider policy on consumer choice
in health and social care.
• A market economy in educational
provision.
• Review of Vocational learning and Quals.
• A stronger role for Governors/Trustees in
accounting to learners and community.
New Challenges….
• Governors and Trustees more
accountable for quality of T and L.
• Freedom to change organisational
structures – to take over other
organisations and become a prime
contractor.
• Simple funding – big contracts.
• Entrepreneurialism.
Recent policy announcements
• 24+ loans announced. 50 million bursary
for disadvantaged.
• FE Guild – bids. Deregulation of Quals.
• Commission of Adult Vocational T and L.
• BIS launched Maths and English in
Prisons Pilot.
• 15 Community Learning Trusts
announced.
Policy….
• New Studio Schools – Stoke, Walsall,
Midlands.
• New City Deals announced. (Birmingham)
• A survey has been set up to understand
the make up, dynamics and scale of the
Third Sector’s delivery of learning and
skills.
• New repository of Social and Economic
data.
Policy….
• SEN Green paper –
A new duty for joint commissioning requiring
LAs Health, Education and Social Care for
people with SEN from 0 -25.
FE and academies now have same
responsibilities as schools for provision of
education for students with SEN up to 25.
Changing Landscapes – findings
• Interviews are taking place with providers
across the sector in the West Midland
region. This is what we have found so far.
LEPs
• Most LEPs have established a ‘Learning
and Skills’ group. But FE does not feel well
represented. Too HE focused.
• New models emerging like Staffs
Educational Trust.
• LEPs are about economic development
and enterprise. The kind of employees
they need are not the students that FE
deal with day to day.
LEPs
• LEPs are not focused on basic skills etc
FE Colleges
• Very varied responses – some have embraced new
policy landscape – becoming a prime contractor and
taking over smaller colleges, WBLs, charities, ACLs.
• Some small, rural and not well placed - waiting to see
what happens.
• New models emerging – Gazelle, Big College groups,
Global.
• Some seeing themselves in a very competitive position.
• Others seeing that regional collaboration is critical.
• Some seeing themselves in the schools market.
• Others withdrawing, concerned about future of 14 - 19
provision.
FE
• Some partnering or developing prime
contractor status with WBL.
• Others concerned about fraud and
inappropriate use of money.
• Some picking up on local accountability
context and changing governance
arrangements. Devolved Governance.
• Some developing partnerships.
• Some becoming UTCs.
• Some partnering with major employers.
HE in FE
• Development of University Colleges.
• Loans for level 3 and above– unknown
potential or trap.
• Who will take out loans?
• Will employers stop paying for training?
• HE are opening their own UTC.
• Access funding – returned on completion.
Adult Community Learning
• John Hayes has been moved from BIS. He safeguarded
ACL.
• Range of delivery models – fully commissioned out – full
Direct delivery. Makes ACL vulnerable.
• Many LAs cutting direct delivery due to head count and
funding cuts.
• ACLs are collaborating with voluntary sector providers
and focusing on delivering community based outcomes.
• Some colleges are recognising that ACL could be a
useful way into local community. In some areas the FE
college delivers most ACL.
ACL
Are there cultural barriers between ACL and FE?
• Is FE sufficiently in tune with the kind of approach that
works in hard-to-reach communities?
• Does FE see outcomes in terms of qualifications rather
than outcomes around community cohesion or
engagement?
• If barriers exist how can they be addressed?
Voluntary Sector
• Disparate range of providers – no single point of contact.
• History of developing partnerships and co-production.
• Have a perspective on the needs of the hard-to-reach
community. Have a real understanding of local context.
• Many doing employment training – funded by LAs etc.
• Generally have not been strategically connected into FE
• Cultural and sector barriers.
• Relationship between this sector and other providers is
seen as crucial in policy terms re: Big Society.
Work-based learning
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Business and profit focus or
Social Enterprise.
Collaborating together – Associations
Concerned about the identification of future skills
and use of Innovation funding.
• Mergers, partnerships etc.
• Soc Enterprises have links with Vol sector.
• Some delivering JCP work.
Key messages:
• Landscape is looking different from area to
area.
• Much turbulence. Market forces at work.
• Local knowledge is valuable in being
responsive and is often lost when large
organisations elsewhere deliver.
• It is hard for sectors to work together when
the drivers and incentives are different.
Jobs, Qualifications, Outcomes.
Messages….
• The market driven approach is deliberately creating
fewer prime contractors who are managing large
contracts. This flies in the face of local
responsiveness.
• FE Colleges have been positioned to support
smaller providers but are often seen as predatory.
Taking on this mantle is easier for some than others
depending on previous politics.
Key messages
• Employers continually say that trainees
are not ‘work ready’ but cannot define
what that means.
• More of a divide between education up to
19 and employment-focused learning
beyond 19. Dept. Ed/Dept.BIS.
Project Team
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Fergus McKay
Jill Hardman
Susie Knight
Julie Chamberlain
Anna Hraboweckyj
Barbara Parkinson
• J.chamberlain@warwick.ac.uk
• 024 7615 0661