LSIS Policy Update
9th October – 22nd October 2010
Further Education, Skills and the Economy
20th October – George Osborne announces Spending Review
The chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne has announced the Spending Review 1 ,
a document which fixes spending budgets for each government department up to 2014-15.
The Spending Review is a Treasury-led process to allocate resources across all government
departments, according to the government's priorities. Spending Reviews set firm and fixed
spending budgets over several years for each department. It is then up to departments to
decide how best to manage and distribute this spending within their areas of responsibility.
The document usually covers a three-year period, however, this document covers the fouryear election period of the coalition government.
Items of relevance to the learning and skills sector include:
Learning and Skills Sector/BIS
•
Over the four years of the Spending Review period, the Department for Business,
Innovation and Skills (BIS) will reduce its resource budget by 25 per cent. Taking into
account anticipated receipts, the cut to capital spending by 2014-15 will be 44 per cent.
The Department’s Administration budget will be reduced by 40 per cent, including savings
from abolition of the RDAs. The average annual savings will equal 7.1%, however, the
decline in funding becomes steeper over the spending review period.
•
The Further Education resource budget will be reduced by 25%, or £1.1billion, from £4.3
billion to £3.2 billion by 2014-15.
•
BIS will increase adult apprenticeship funding by £250 million a year by 2014-15 creating
75,000 additional places.
•
The participation age will rise to 18 by 2015.
•
Additional places will be provided for participation in 16 to 19 learning.
•
BIS will abolish Train to Gain and replace it with an SME 2 focused training programme.
•
Funding for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) for people not in settled
communities will be abolished in 2012.
•
Education Maintenance Allowances are to be replaced with ‘more targeted support’.
1 http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/spend_index.htm
2
The BIS website defines SMEs as ‘companies with fewer than 500 employees which have an annual turnover
not exceeding €100m and/or with an annual balance sheet total not exceeding €86m’.
http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/innovation/business-support/rd-tax-credits/sme-large-companyschemes
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•
The entitlement to free training for a first full level 2 qualification is being removed for
those over 25. Further education students aged 24 and over studying for a level 3
qualification (A-level equivalent) will be asked to pay fees. These students will be
supported by the offer of a government-backed loan where repayments will be dependent
on the learner’s income.
•
Adult learners and employers will be expected to contribute more to the cost of further
education.
•
BIS will continue to support basic skills provision in basic numeracy and literacy skills.
•
Spending on Adult Community Learning will be protected and ‘reformed’.
• BIS will seek to ‘reduce the complexity and bureaucracy that hampers providers from
responding to community needs’.
•
BIS will manage the reductions in resource spending by reforming Higher and Further
Education funding which will deliver broadly 65 per cent of BIS resource savings;
efficiencies will deliver around a further 25 per cent and the remainder of resource
savings, around 10 per cent, will be achieved by cancelling lower priority activities.
•
BIS will reduce spending on administration by £400 million a year by 2014-15. The
number of Arms Length Bodies will be reduced from 57 to 33, with 9 still under
consideration.
Schools/DfE
•
A 33% reduction in real terms by 2014-15 from the department's administrative budget.
This will be achieved by closing NDPBs, reducing headcount, reducing the costs of the
DfE estate and cutting ‘non-essential’ expenditure.
•
Overall resource savings in DfE’s non-schools budget of 12 per cent in real terms by
2014-15, contributing to overall DfE savings of 3 per cent in real terms.
•
Schools budget to rise from £35bn to £39bn.
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•
An extension from 2012-13 to 15 hours per week of free early education and care for all
disadvantaged two year old children.
•
A £2.5 billion pupil premium targeted on the educational development of disadvantaged
pupils.
•
Real term increases of 0.1 per cent in each year of the Spending Review for 5 to 16 year
olds.
•
Capital spending will be reduced by 60% in real terms by 2014-15. The average annual
capital budget over the period will be higher than the average annual capital budget in the
1997-98 to 2004-05 period. £15.8bn to rebuild or refurbish over 600 schools over the
spending review period.
•
Sure Start services will be maintained in cash terms, including new investment in Sure
Start health visitors.
•
Sure Start will be refocused on its original purpose of improving the life chances of
disadvantaged children.
Higher Education
•
Overall resource budget for Higher Education, excluding research funding, will reduce
from £7.1 billion to £4.2 billion, a 40%, or £2.9 billion, reduction by 2014-15. The
Department will continue to fund teaching for Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics (STEM) subjects.
•
HEFCE teaching funding to be reduced from 2012/13 academic year.
•
A National Scholarship fund of £150 million a year by 2014-15 for students on the lowest
incomes.
•
Reform of the higher education sector to shift a greater proportion of funding from the
taxpayer to the individuals who benefit.
•
Part-time students eligible for loans to cover the full cost of their tuition, on the same basis
as full time students
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Local Government
•
Overall savings in funding to councils of 7.1% a year for four years – except simplified
school grants, and a public health grant.
•
DCLG will set out plans to implement the first phase of Community Budgets in 16 areas
from April 2011, by pooling departmental budgets at source for 16 places, ‘to tackle
families with complex needs’, with the intention that all areas will be able to take this
approach from 2013.
•
End and rationalise a range of centrally directed programmes and instead streamline
funding for the most vulnerable children and families in a new Early Intervention Grant to
ensure local authorities have greater flexibility
•
Ring-fencing of all local government revenue grants will end from April 2011.
•
Pioneer plans to enable councils to pool budgets to better tackle social problems and
freeing councils to borrow against future revenue in order to invest
DWP
•
Pension age to increase to 66 by 2020.
•
DWP will withdraw child benefit for families with a higher rate tax payer.
•
DWP will replace all working age benefits and tax credits with a single Universal Credit
delivering savings of £7 billion a year by 2014-15.
•
DWP will cap household benefit payments from 2013 at around £500 per week for couple
and lone parent households and around £350 per week for single adult household ‘so that
no family can receive more in welfare than median after tax earnings for working
households’. All Disability Living Allowance claimants, War Widows and working facilities
claiming the working tax credits will be exempt from the cap.
•
DWP will reduce the childcare element of working tax credits that parents can claim from
80 per cent to 70 per cent.
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•
Personalised back-to-work support through the Work Programme for the long term
unemployed and disabled people, delivered by private and third sector specialists.
•
Expand use of personal budgets for special education needs, children with disabilities and
long-term health conditions.
Voluntary Sector
•
Pay private and voluntary sector providers by results for delivering reductions in
reoffending.
•
£100 million transition found for the voluntary and community sector facing hardship.
Other
•
Reduction in total public sector headcount of 490,000 over the Spending Review period –
anticipated from natural turnover of approx. 8% and leaving posts unfilled as they become
vacant and some inevitable redundancies.
•
Regional Growth Fund of £1bn is to be extended to three years and to £1.4 billion.
•
Additional allocations to support Big Society, establish community organisers and launch
the pilots for the National Citizen Service.
•
DCLG overall resource budget to be reduced to £1.1bn.
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Next steps:
•
Each government department is to publish:
o vision and priorities to 2014-15;
o a structural reform plan, including actions and deadlines for implementing reforms
over the next two years; and
o the key indicators against which it will publish data to show the cost and impact of
public services and departmental activities. This section will be published for
consultation to ensure that the government agrees the most relevant and robust
indicators in time for the beginning of the Spending Review period in April 2011.
•
Government to publish a reform White Paper early in the New Year.
Sector responses to date include:
•
Assistant Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges, Julian Gravatt,
‘While we will need to wait until the finer details of the spending review emerge over the
coming weeks, we welcome the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s comments about skills being
seen as a priority for growth and the announcement of funding for extra places for 16 to 19year-olds... But we are concerned about the prospects of... the withdrawal of the Educational
Maintenance Allowance and would like to see more detail about what is meant by ‘more
targeted support’ for these young people’.
•
Graham Hoyle, chief executive of the Association of Learning Providers
‘The end of Train to Gain was not unexpected, but it is important that ministers recognise that
some continued investment in other work based adult skills training is necessary to help
sustain the recovery. Independent providers can deliver much more for less but this requires
the government to open up the further education market entirely in the same way that it is for
the rest of the education system’.
•
Lynne Sedgemore, executive director of the 157 group
‘We welcome the introduction of income-contingent student loans in further education, akin to
those available in higher education. In relation to 16 to 19-year-olds, it is good news that the
government is planning for an increase in participation, although wrong to assume that this
will make greater efficiencies possible. Those learners who do not currently stay on in
education will require different and usually more expensive provision than traditional learners.
We believe that greater efficiencies could be made in the 16-19 phase if the government
tackled the anomaly of small sixth forms or asked the Young People's Learning Agency to
fund school provision at the same rate as colleges.’
•
Chris Banks, chairman of the Independent Review of Fees and Co-Funding in Further
Education
‘I call for the government, colleges and private training providers to take this opportunity to
work towards a new more business-like way of working. In particular, colleges and private
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training providers must assess the real value of the provision they offer in order to set a
realistic price. They must put individuals and employers in the driving seat, respond to their
need for valuable, high quality, effective training, as customers of the Further Education
system’.
•
Alan Tuckett, NIACE chief executive
‘Although most individuals and employers will have to pay more, the continuation of the
safeguard and statement that, ‘spending on adult community learning will be protected and
reformed’, suggests that pressure from learners and providers has had an impact and some
of the worst-case scenarios have been avoided’.
•
Aaron Porter, NUS president
‘This is a devastating blow to higher and further education that puts the future of colleges and
universities at risk and will have repercussions for the future prospects of students and
learners. This is a spending review that looks an entire generation in the eye and says
‘you’re on your own.’
12th October – Mark Prisk speaks on growth and renewal: a new economic
framework
Minister for business and enterprise Mark Prisk has given a speech on northern regeneration. The
minister said that the last decade has demonstrated that the economy cannot rely on a small number
of sectors typically centred in London and the South East for national prosperity and proposed a new
economic framework based upon four foundations:
•
Strengthening economic leadership in Whitehall for those national priorities which are ‘vital’ if the
UK is to compete;
•
The replacement of RDAs with Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). ‘LEPs will succeed only if
the local business community is right at their heart, shaping the vision and setting priorities for
action’. Detailed proposals for LEPs will be published in the imminent white paper on sub-national
economic growth;
•
The Regional Growth Fund. The details of this £1bn fund will also be announced in the white
paper. 3 ‘But all successful bids will have to demonstrate their viability in harnessing private
investment to create sustainable private sector growth and jobs’;
•
Balanced economic growth – both sectorally and geographically through investment in
infrastructure networks. Examples include: the pledge to create ‘the best super-fast broadband
network by 2015’ and building a high speed rail link from Central London to Birmingham,
continuing northwards in a Y to Manchester and Leeds.
The minister said that to ensure sustainable growth in the coming years, government must re-balance
the economy through:
3
th
This was confirmed in the 20 October Spending Review along with an additional £0.4bn in funding, for a third
year of the fund.
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•
effective leadership by government to free enterprise and give business the infrastructure and
incentives it needs to grow;
•
building the future economy on many sectors, not just a few;
•
ensuring that every area can participate and grow;
•
creating economic partnerships which represent the real economy, not a neat, uniform map in
Whitehall; and
•
and it means enabling local business and civic leaders to shape their communities to tackle their
problems, their way.
13th October – Reclassification of GFE and 6th Form colleges
Following the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announcement of a change to the way Further
Education colleges are treated in National Accounts so that they are classified as part of central
government, rather than a part of the private sector, BIS has issued guidance asking colleges not to
take action at this time. It states that these changes are not expected to have any direct impact on
colleges for the remainder of the financial year.
The impact on future years is more uncertain, and BIS’ current working assumption is that from April
2011, all FE college expenditure will fall within the budget of BIS and the department may have to
consolidate FE college financial information into its accounts. The department will ‘work urgently’ with
ministers, HM Treasury and AoC to agree how these changes will work in practice with the aim of
‘protect[ing] the autonomy and independence of colleges to minimise burdens wherever possible’.
As part of the process, BIS will look at the current controls on college borrowing. Ministers are
currently working to repeal the requirement on FE colleges that to secure the consent of the chief
executive of the Skills Funding Agency before borrowing money. BIS will seek to involve the College
Finance Directors’ Group in discussions on the accountancy and budgetary implications of a reduction
in financial memorandum and government controls.
15th October – Ofsted says trainers and employers can learn from the best:
Apprenticeships
According to the Ofsted report, Learning from the best: examples of best practice from providers
of apprenticeships in underperforming vocational areas, more apprentices are completing their
training programmes, and finishing them more quickly, when they have been carefully screened and
tested for selection and given taster courses at school.
The report looked at how to raise completion rates and better meet the needs of young people and
employers and highlights the importance of support from mentors, preferably former apprentices
themselves, and the need for regular progress monitoring by assessors in the workplace. Good use of
management information in planning assessors’ work led to higher success rates, as did giving young
people more tailored individual learning plans and monitoring targets set for learners and employers.
Having the same assessor or training officer throughout training made an important difference.
Flexible training, designed to meet employers’ needs, was also crucial.
Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Christine Gilbert, launching the report, said ‘I urge all employers and
training providers to use this report and the examples of best practice it contains. It is a practical guide
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designed to help providers and employers support apprentices with stretching and realistic training,
setting them on their way to highly successful careers’.
19th October - 157 Group publishes NEETs case studies and QCF discussion
paper
The 157 Group has published a set of case studies about young people who are not in education,
employment or training (NEET) and a discussion paper about the Qualifications and Credit
Framework (QCF). The case studies offer examples of how 157 Group colleges are working to help
young people, improving their life chances and future economic well-being. The QCF discussion
paper, arises from the participation of 157 Group colleges in a project designed to support the
introduction of the QCF, and articulates some of the colleges' concerns about the effective
implementation of the new framework.
21st – Industry-led group to help redeploy high skilled defence workers
Business Secretary, Vince Cable has announced that a new industry-led group has been created to
‘ensure that high value skills in the defence sector can be effectively redeployed’ where there are
industrial changes as a result of the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) 4.
The Skills and Jobs Retention Group will be chaired by Allan Cook, the current chairman of SEMTA
(Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies) and the former CEO
of the defence system company Cobham. It is anticipated that the work of the group will complement
the activities of DWP and Job Centre Plus.
6th October – David Blunkett pledges commitment to lifelong learning
The former secretary of state and parliamentary patron of NIACE, David Blunkett, has pledged his
commitment to working with NIACE to make a strong case for lifelong learning. In a letter to NIACE, the Rt
Hon David Blunkett MP, said ‘If ever we needed evangelism for lifelong learning it is now. It is adult
learning that is going to take the brunt of the cuts within education and with it will go the life chances not
only of individuals, but of course the impact on family and therefore on the aspiration and motivation of
youngsters in those communities... I pledge again my own commitment to working with you all to save
what we can, and to think imaginatively as to how we promote not just the cause but the reality on the
ground as people did a century ago’.
11th October – LLUK review FE teacher qualifications in England
LLUK are working on behalf of BIS to review and update the new teaching qualifications for further
education sector in England involvement. The aim is to review and update these to ‘ensure they are
delivering the skill-set required for the future’. The review will include:
•
4
current generic teaching qualifications, including PTLLS, CTLLS, DTLLS and their equivalents
offered by higher education institutes;
A document which sets out how national security can be delivered both effectively and efficiently.
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•
current subject specific qualifications for teachers of literacy, numeracy and ESOL;
•
accredited professional development opportunities beyond initial training; and
•
a proposal to establish a new qualifications framework for all learning professionals.
The review will take place in two phases. The first phase, from October 13 through to 9 November,
will take a broad overview approach to the review with opportunities to feedback. The second phase,
taking place in 2011, will see more detailed proposals being put forward for change, based on the
feedback received from the first phase. Opportunities to contribute include an online response form,
or attendance at one of six face to face events.
15th October – GTC gives up fight on qualifications parity
The General Teaching Council for England (GTC) has dropped its work on giving FE teaching
qualifications parity in schools because of the threat of abolition to the schoolteachers’ regulatory
body.
The GTC’s board meeting endorsed a report which recommended that it should take no action over
the disparity between Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and FE’s qualification, which means that
lecturers cannot be paid as qualified staff if they work in schools.
The report outlined obstacles to FE’s Qualified Teacher in Learning and Skills (QTLS) award in
schools, saying it is based on accreditation on the job, and that although the qualification is relatively
new under 10 per cent take-up is too low.
Keith Bartley, chief executive of the GTC, said that because of the decision to abolish the council, it
had stopped some long-term projects. ‘We are not continuing some research and evidence gathering
for pieces of work where we may not be able to adopt a policy plan before the organisation ceases to
exist.’
13th October – Using existing data to produce provider-level measures of
positive outcomes from further education: BIS call for expressions of interest
BIS is keen to make more use of existing data to put information into the public domain on the quality
of further education provision, ‘to support the decisions made by learners and employers when they
choose courses’. One of the key measures is of positive outcomes, in terms of the progression of FE
learners into further or higher learning or into work. The measure is currently derived from large-scale
surveys of learners, but BIS is looking at the scope for moving to a methodology based on matching
education and employment data. This project is intended to produce measurements to compare with
existing survey results. Expressions of interested should be submitted by Wednesday 3 November.
10th October – Access to the professions: useful contact information
As part of its work with employers to widen access to the professions for under-represented groups,
BIS has produced a list of over 60 professional bodies with links to their websites, containing
information about the body, the benefits of joining, entry requirements and continuing professional
development.
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14-19 and Schools
21st October – Michael Gove announces changes to the specialist schools
programme
The Secretary of State has announced changes to the specialist schools programme. Funding for
specialist schools, including for High Performing Specialist Schools (HPSS), will be mainstreamed
from April 2011. This funding, approximately £450 million for 2010-11, is not being removed from the
schools system and will continue to be routed to schools through the Dedicated Schools Grant.
The government is also announcing that schools will no longer be required to designate or redesignate as specialist, removing this bureaucratic burden. Currently they must demonstrate that they
meet a range of benchmarks set by DfE.
From April 2011 the Department will therefore no longer fund the Specialist Schools and Academies
Trust (SSAT) and Youth Sports Trust (YST) to support schools through the designation and redesignation process and run networks of specialist schools. For this financial year, the total grant for
the specialism programme for the SSAT is £13 million, and for the YST it is £2.5 million.
15th October – Nick Clegg’s speech: putting a premium on fairness
Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg delivered a speech ahead of the Spending Review detailing the
government’s commitment to fairness. Nick Clegg began by outlining the three main ways of thinking
about fairness and equality and said that the government would put a much greater emphasis on
fairness as denoted by social mobility and life chances. Nick Clegg said that social mobility ‘is the
central social policy objective for the coalition government... we know how tough it is, but we are
determined, we know it takes a long time, and we will stay the course’.
Nick Clegg announced a ‘fairness premium’ of more than £7 billion over the spending review period.
The premium is made up of three elements.
•
First, all ‘disadvantaged two year-olds’ will have an entitlement to 15 hours a week of pre-school
education, in addition to the 15 hours already available to them at three and four years of age. ‘By
offering more help at an earlier age to the most disadvantaged children, we will directly tackle the
gaps in attainment that open up in the critical early years of life’. This additional early years
investment will amount to £300 million a year by 2014-15.
•
Second, a Pupil Premium ‘to help poorer pupils wherever they live in the country’. Schools will
receive additional funds to offer targeted help to every pupil eligible for free school meals and
reduce educational inequalities. By the end of the Spending Review period, this pupil premium
will grow to an additional £2.5 billion of investment each year.
•
Third, the government is looking at what can be done ‘to remove the obstacles to aspiration that
hold back bright boys and girls from deprived backgrounds’. The government is proposing to
provide a form of “student premium” for the least advantaged students, representing a
commitment of at least £150 million a year by the end of the spending review period 5. The
5
th
This was confirmed in the 20 October Spending Review, as the National Scholarship Fund.
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government will consult with universities and students on the most effective way of achieving that
goal.
19th October – Pupil absence figures for autumn 2009 and spring 2010
The Department for Education (DfE) has published the latest statistics for autumn term 2009 and
spring term 2010. Together, the data show a decrease in overall and persistent absence rates in both
primary and secondary schools compared with autumn term 2008 and spring term 2009. Authorised
absence rates decreased in both primary and secondary schools. Unauthorised absence rates
increased in primary schools and decreased in secondary schools.
Schools Minister Nick Gibb said ‘The government is committed to tackling the underlying causes of
absenteeism, raising academic standards and ensuring every child can meet their potential,
regardless of their background. We are putting in place a series of measures to raise standards of
behaviour, put teachers back in control of the classroom and ensure pupils understand that the
authority of their school can extend beyond the school gates’.
20th October – Ofqual consultations
Ofqual has launched two consultations on its approach to regulating qualifications, examinations and
assessments. From Transition to Transformation: Strategic Regulation of Awarding
Organisations and Qualifications sets out how Ofqual proposes to secure the standards and
efficiency of qualifications through regulation. A consultation on Ofqual's proposals aimed at securing
efficiency and value for money in the provision of regulated qualifications has also been launched.
The Consultation on Economic Regulation and the Fee-Capping Process sets out how Ofqual
proposes to achieve these aims. They will run for three months until 31st January 2011.
Higher Education
12th October – Lord Browne report on higher education
Lord Browne has published his report Securing a Sustainable Future for Higher Education in the
UK. The Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance, was launched in
November 2009 and was tasked with making recommendations to government on the future of fees
policy and financial support for full and part-time undergraduate and postgraduate students. The
three aims of the work have been to increase participation, improve quality and create a sustainable
long-term future for higher education in this country.
The report has been written on six principles. That:
•
more investment should be available for higher education;
•
student choice should be increased;
•
everyone who has the potential should be able to benefit from higher education;
•
no one should have to pay until they start to work;
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•
when payments are made, they should be affordable; and
•
part-time students should be treated the same as full time students for the cost of learning.
Key recommendations in the report include:
•
a 10% increase in student places should be factored into the system over the next four years
•
that the current cap on fees of £3,290 per year should be removed, allowing universities ‘to put
quality first’ and charge accordingly;
•
a tapered levy on institutions charging more than £6,000 per year ‘to ensure that those which
charge the most contribute more to supporting the poorest students’. Universities that wish to
charge more should be required to demonstrate to the regulator and to their students both
improved standards of teaching and fair admission;
•
That no student should pay anything until they graduate and are in work and reach annual
earnings of over £21,000 a year, up from £15,000 under the current system;
•
That students should receive better quality information, advice and guidance; and
•
That there should be a level playing field between part-time and full-time study. Those who wish
to pursue part-time study should have equal entitlement to tuition support under the Student
Finance Plan.
21st October – David Willetts post-Browne review speech
Following the publication of the Browne review, David Willetts has given a speech setting out the
department’s plans to move forward on higher education policy. These include:
•
BIS aims to bring proposals of regulation of graduate contribution levels to Parliament before
Christmas;
•
BIS is keen to hear views from the sector on the wider issues that the Browne review considered,
including governance and regulation, private providers and student number controls;
•
looking at the Browne recommendations for a more generous maintenance grant, supplemented
by a more generous loans package. ‘It would be a great achievement to increase maintenance
levels on a progressive basis, with more generous grant than now, even in these austere times.’
•
part-time students will – as Browne proposes – be eligible for loans to cover the full cost of their
tuition, on the same basis as full timers;
•
BIS will reform graduate contributions, by increasing the threshold at which people begin to repay
loans, and by introducing a positive interest rate. ‘We can see the case for setting the income
threshold for repayments at £21,000, as Browne suggests.’
•
BIS has not reached a final decision on the levy and the fee cap, but it may be possible to set new
levels for the basic and higher rate fee caps, ‘with stringent conditions on access which any
institution would have to meet before setting a graduate contribution at the higher rate’. However,
universities who wish to charge more for undergraduate courses will need to produce ‘compelling
evidence’ as to what the extra money would buy in terms of better teaching, contact time and
services for students; and
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•
Current thinking includes merging HEFCE and OFFA, once funding to universities is channelled
through students rather than through HEFCE. However this would not be implemented before the
academic year 2012/13.
11th October – 157 Group and MEG publish joint paper on higher education in
colleges
The 157 Group and the Mixed Economy Group have published Rising to the Challenge to
demonstrate how FE colleges could be central to the future direction of HE policy. The paper also
aims to address the fact that the college contribution to HE is not always widely understood and not
well reported in the media. Key points highlighted include:
•
FE colleges are major providers of higher education;
•
Colleges make a distinctive contribution to HE;
•
Colleges offer cost-effective provision;
•
Colleges look to self-regulation to improve quality;
•
Colleges deliver higher-level skills; and
•
Colleges need a stable planning environment.
15th October – Information about online courses should be improved
A HEFCE commissioned Study of UK Online Learning has highlighted the need for universities and
colleges to improve information available to students about online courses. The report provides an
overview of UK provision of online distance learning at higher education (HE) level.
The main findings of the study were:
•
most HE online courses (apart from the Open University) are postgraduate level, and most could
be described as professional development or with a strong vocational focus;
•
it is difficult to find information about online courses on university and college web-sites; and
•
the terminology used to describe online programmes is often unclear.
The report states that to improve, institutions could do a better job at showing students the breadth of
online courses available; and accessibility could be improved by structuring the information to mirror
the search methods of potential students.
Devolved Administrations
19th October – Green training opportunities in Scotland
650 new training places are to be delivered through Skills Development Scotland to upskill and
reskill employees in low carbon technologies as part of the Scottish government's drive to ‘maximise
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the economic benefits of greener business’. The Scottish government, with the support of European
Social Fund money, has invested £585,000 to fund these training places this year.
The fund will be open to all private sector, voluntary and community-not-for-profit organisations,
employing less than 250 staff, whose current or intended business activity is in renewable energy,
energy efficiency, and/or carbon reduction. The initial focus will be on skill needs within the built
environment, including microgeneration, and energy efficiency.
The Education Secretary said that the announcement ‘further demonstrates that Scotland is investing
in our workforce to ensure we have the necessary skills to maintain our lead in the renewable energy
field and bring us even closer’.
14th October – Welsh Secretary welcomes further fall in unemployment in Wales
Secretary of state for Wales Cheryl Gillan has welcomed the latest Labour Market Statistics which
show a further fall in the unemployment rate in Wales to 8.2%, a 0.9% drop from the last quarter. The
statistics also show that the economic inactivity level in Wales was 504,000, a rise of 8,000 on last
quarter. The Economic Inactivity rate was 36.6%, a rise of 0.4% on last quarter.
Cheryl Gillan said ‘This is welcome news. Not only has there been a fall in the unemployment rate in
Wales but we have also seen an increase of 0.2% in the employment rate in Wales, now standing at
67.2%... However, despite the fall in unemployment we cannot be complacent. We will continue to
work in partnership with the Welsh Assembly government to bring more businesses to Wales and
equip jobseekers with the skills needed to re-enter the workforce’.
Local Government and Public Sector
14th October – Public bodies reform: proposals for change
As part of the government’s aim to ‘radically increase the transparency and accountability of all public
services’, the minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, summarised plans to reform a number
of public bodies and also announced further proposals. The government intends to introduce a Public
Bodies Bill that will enable many of these plans to be implemented. The reform process, which
covered all of HM Government’s non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs), as well as other bodies,
such as some non-ministerial departments and some public corporations, is anticipated to increase
government efficiency.
The government proposes to reform 481 bodies. Of these 192 will cease to be public bodies and their
functions will either be brought back into government, devolved to local government, moved out of
government or abolished altogether. Announcements of particular relevance to the learning and skills
sector include:
Department
BIS
BIS
BIS
Public Body
HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for
England)
Construction Industry Training Board (CITB)
UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES)
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Under consideration
Under consideration
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BIS
Cabinet Office
Cabinet Office
DfE
DfE
DfE
DfE
DfE
DfE
DfE
DfE
DfE
DfE
Student Loans Company
Office for Fair Access
National School of Government
Children’s Workforce Development Council
General Teaching Council for England (GTC)
National College for Leadership of Schools and
Children’s Services
Ofsted
Ofqual
Partnerships for Schools
Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency
Training and Development Agency for Schools
Young People’s Learning Agency
Ofqual
Under consideration
Under consideration
Under consideration
Under consideration
No longer a NDPB
Under Consideration
Retain
Retain
Under Consideration
No longer a NDPB
Under Consideration
Under Consideration
Retain
13th October – Eric Pickles speaks on townhall waste and duplication – National
Indicators and Local Area Agreements abolished
Ahead of the Spending Review local government secretary Eric Pickles delivered a speech
announcing the abolition of centrally driven targets, known as Local Area Agreements. It is
anticipated that this will ‘instantly remove reporting on 4,700 Whitehall targets from councils' daily
workloads’. Instead, local areas will be in control of their own delivery targets, answering to residents.
National Indicators used to monitor council performance will be replaced with an agreed single list of
Whitehall data requirements for local government. New transparency arrangements will make sure
councils remain accountable to local people. Mr Pickles reiterated that transparency, productivity and
innovation must be the watchwords for council business from here on in.
Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles said:
‘Time and time again, I hear complaints from councils about how much of a burden the National
Indicator set is. Not because measurement and targets are always a bad thing.
‘National targets tend to mean that councils are constantly working on things which matter to
Whitehall, regardless of what local residents think. I'd much rather councils were tackling local issues.
The money being spent on form fillers and bean counters could be far better spent helping elderly
people to stay in their homes.
‘So I'm scrapping the existing local area agreements. I'm handing over control of more than 4,700
targets to councils and their voters. To keep them or dump them as they see fit.
‘And instead of the National Indicator Set, and instead of every single department's endless demands
that you measure this, that or the other, there's just going to be one list of every bit of data that
Government needs.’
11th October – Government efficiency review published
Sir Philip Green has published a report on his review of government which focussed on commodity
procurement of goods and services like IT, travel, print and office supplies, and the management of
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the government’s property portfolio and major contracts. The key finding is that the government has
consistently failed to make the most of its scale, buying power and credit rating.
The work of the review team has revealed the poor quality of much of the data relating to where and
how government spends its money. In addition, a lack of a centralised approach to buying goods and
services has allowed departments to pay hugely different prices for the same items.
Key recommendations include:
•
Government must leverage its name, its credit rating and its buying power;
•
A property strategy must be written and implemented;
•
A consistent approach to budgeting, monitoring and forecasting should be developed and include:
o A team of three to four individuals, with financial and commercial expertise, reviewing
departmental spend with an emphasis on efficiency and accountability;
o ‘A proper quarterly review process’, including spend to date and forecast should be submitted
to the centre, detailing spend against budget, previous forecast and last year;
o Reporting should be standardised, to give a total government view across categories;
o Budgets should be prepared ‘bottom up’ where appropriate.
Sir Philip Green said ‘There is no reason why government should not be as efficient as any good
business. Any large organisation would want to use its credit rating and scale to buy efficiently. The
conclusion of this review is clear - credit rating and scale in virtually every department has not been
used to make government spending efficient’.
18th October – ‘No stone unturned’ Francis Maude unveils efficiency savings
The Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, has promised to leave ‘no stone unturned’ in the
hunt for more efficiency savings at the centre of government as a means of addressing the deficit
while protecting the front line. He made this promise as he set out the efficiency savings that have
been made because of actions led by the newly established Efficiency and Reform Group (ERG).
The Group, which is based in the Cabinet Office, was set up to ensure that departments across
Whitehall adopted ‘a new and ambitious approach’ to saving money and started working together to
ensure the greatest economy of scale when buying goods and services. It is also an attempt at
bringing private sector operations practice to government.
The Group oversees information and communications technology spend, procurement, marketing and
consultancy spend, and Civil Service expenses and recruitment. Much of its work ‘has never been
tried by government before’, such as renegotiating contracts with major suppliers across government
to reduce costs, and a freeze on all new advertising and marketing spend. Savings identified by ERG
include:
•
over 300 ICT projects have been reviewed and work is underway with departments to stop or descope contracts worth £1billion.
•
around £402 million has been saved in this financial year following a review of the government’s
largest projects, including the abolishment of ID cards
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•
A moratorium has been introduced to stop departments buying new space or renewing existing
leases. So far 20 buildings have already been vacated, saving £18 million in rent this year.
•
Total spend across Whitehall has been reduced by more than £100 million compared to the same
period last year following the introduction of new rules stating that any spend over £20,000 needs
ministerial and permanent secretary approval; and
•
Action has been taken to reduce the use of temporary, agency and interim staff. Latest figures
show the total number has already fallen by an estimated 30%.
In addition to the efficiency savings, Francis Maude confirmed the government is looking to make
‘radical changes’ to the way it provides services to citizens, making them easier to access and
cheaper to provide. As part of this plan, Francis Maude will work with Martha Lane Fox, the UK
Digital Champion, on her proposals to improve government’s online services. One area they will be
looking at is moving to an online first model for some services.
14th October – DWP publishes reports on Support for the Newly Unemployed
and the Six Month Offer
The Department for Work and Pensions has published evaluations of Support for the Newly
Unemployed (SNU) and the Six Month Offer (6MO). Key findings from the research include:
•
Both Jobcentre Plus staff and customers generally welcomed the introduction of the SNU and
6MO initiatives, with staff reporting that the measures increased the support available to
customers in the recession.
•
There were some implementation and delivery issues, particularly around the availability of some
of the 6MO training and volunteering support, and a mismatch between provider and Jobcentre
Plus staff expectations regarding the volunteering and self-employment strands. This was thought
to be in part due to the short period between the announcement and roll-out of the initiatives.
•
Provider delivered SNU for professionals/executives attracted positive feedback from Jobcentre
Plus staff and customers with mixed views on provider support for non-professionals. Jobcentre
Plus delivered SNU varied widely between offices and experienced disappointing attendance
rates.
•
Around half of customers eligible for 6MO support took up at least one strand of support.
Customers were most likely to have made use of the recruitment subsidy, either informing
employers about it or submitting it with applications as part of their jobsearch.
•
At the time of the survey, customers who had accessed the recruitment subsidy were most likely
to be in work, followed by customers who had accessed the self employment support.
15th October – New structure charts for government available
As part of its ongoing drive to make the government more accountable, the Cabinet Office has
published new details about civil servants working ‘at the heart’ of government. Departments have
published for the first time structure charts setting out details of the number and grade of staff working
in different teams.
The structure charts show:
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•
The names, job title and salary for all senior civil servants at director level and above; and
•
The job title of all senior civil servants at deputy director level, along with the number of staff in
their team and the breakdown of their grades.
More data will be added over the next few weeks including the total salary cost of each team reporting
to deputy directors, job descriptions for senior roles and team functions.
14th October – financial secretary to the Treasury announces changes to
restricting pensions tax relief
Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Mark Hoban MP, has announced that the annual allowance for
tax-privileged pension saving will be reduced from £255,000 to £50,000, and the lifetime allowance
will be reduced from £1.8 million to £1.5 million. This will replace the proposal legislated for by the
previous government administration in the Finance Act 2010. It is anticipated that the measure will
raise £4 billion per annum and will affect 100,000 pension savers, 80% of those will have incomes
over £100,000. The government plans to introduce the reduction in the lifetime allowance from April
2012. The reduced annual allowance will come into effect from April 2011 and the reduction in the
lifetime allowance from April 2012.
15th October – Lord Young adds ‘Common Sense’ to health and safety and the
compensation culture
Lord Young of Graffham, the prime minister’s adviser on health and safety law and practice, has
publishes his report Common Sense, Common Safety, examining the country’s perceived
compensation culture and the impact of health and safety regulations on businesses and personal
freedom.
The Prime Minister and the Cabinet have accepted all of the recommendations put forward by Lord
Young, who will continue to work across departments to ensure his recommendations are carried
through. The paper puts forward a series of policies for improving the perception of health and safety,
‘to ensure it is taken seriously by employers and the general public, while ensuring the burden on
small business is as insignificant as possible’. At the same time, Lord Young calls for restrictions on
advertising for ‘no win, no fee’ compensation claims and a ‘revolution’ in the way personal injury
claims are handled.
Among the key recommendations Lord Young proposes a common sense approach to educational
trips. He recommends a single consent form covering all activities a child might undertake at school.
International
14th October – European Commission consultation on how the European audit
market can be improved
The European Commission has launched a consultation on the role of statutory audit as well the
wider environment within which audits are conducted. The financial crisis has highlighted
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‘weaknesses’ in the audit sector which need to be explored further and so the Commission is asking
whether the role of auditors can be enhanced to mitigate any new financial risk in the future. This
work on audit is part of an effort to learn lessons from the crisis and reform the financial sector.
In particular, the Commission is keen to discuss whether audits provide the right information to all
financial actors, whether there are issues around the independence of audit firms, whether there are
risks linked to a concentrated market, whether supervision at a European level might be useful and
how best the specific needs of small and medium sized businesses may be met.
A green paper has been published and responses are sought by 8 December 2010. Any emerging
policies will be set out in the course of 2011.
Equality and Diversity
11th October – ECRC publishes triennial review of fairness in Britain
The Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published How fair is Britain?, a
triennial compilation of evidence on discrimination and disadvantage in Britain. The report states that
long-standing inequalities remain undiminished; and that new social and economic fault-lines are
emerging as Britain becomes older and more ethnically and religiously diverse. The Review also
identifies recession, public service reform, management of migration and technological change as
major risk factors in progress towards a fairer society. The report finds that over recent years, public
attitudes have become much more tolerant of diversity, and much less tolerant of discrimination.
The report identified five critical ‘gateways’ of opportunity which the commission states make the
difference between success and failure. These include:
Health and Well-being
•
Men and women from the highest social class can expect to live up to seven years longer, on
average, than those from lower socio-economic groups (based on life expectancy at birth).
Education and Inclusion
•
•
•
•
•
Girls achieve better results than boys at age five in England, and at age 16 in England, Scotland
and Wales, and in every ethnic group.
Girls and women tend to be concentrated in some courses which tend to lead to relatively poorlyrewarded jobs;
Forty-four per cent of Black, Indian and Pakistani students are at ‘new’ universities compared to
35 per cent of other ethnic groups. Eight per cent of Black students are at Russell Group
institutions, compared to 24 per cent of White students;
Apart from Gypsy and Traveller children, the performance of White British boys on free school
meals at GCSE is the lowest of any group defined by gender, free school meals status and ethnic
group.
At age five, 35 per cent of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals achieved a good level
of development, compared to 55 per cent of pupils not eligible for free school meals.
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Work and Wealth
•
•
Pakistani and Bangladeshi men’s earnings fall 13 per cent and 21 per cent below what might be
expected, and Black African Christian and Chinese men experience pay penalties of 13 per cent
and 11 per cent.
Fifty per cent of disabled adults are in work, compared to 79 per cent of non-disabled adults.
Safety and Security
•
Two-thirds of lesbian, gay and transgender secondary students report that they have been victims
of often severe bullying (17 per cent of those bullied reported having received death threats).
12th October – Government takes action to improve digital experience for the
disabled
Communications Minister, Ed Vaizey, has launched the eAccessibility Plan, a plan to ‘improve
public websites, upgrade IT equipment and provide better online content to suit the needs of disabled
people’.
The key objectives of the plan include:
•
Improving technology and digital equipment to suit the needs of those with disabilities and tackling
issues of affordability and availability of equipment (television, radio, computer) and software
(such as Braille embossers, light signallers and screen readers);
•
Implementing a new regulatory framework to enable OFCOM to specify measures to ensure
disabled people have equivalent choice and access to digital communications services as nondisabled consumers;
•
Improving the design of public sector websites to make them more accessible to disabled users;
•
Making previously inaccessible online and television content accessible to disabled users, such as
e-books for those with a visual impairment; and
•
Promoting awareness of the issues facing disabled groups in the digital economy to achieve a
more inclusive society.
Voluntary and Community Sector
14th October – Councils should recognise the valuable role of the voluntary
sector – Greg Clark
Decentralisation minister Greg Clark has delivered a speech urging councils to make best use of the
voluntary sector's ability to ‘deliver effective and innovative local services’ when managing future
budgets.
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The minister said there was an even greater need for the diversity, innovation and cost savings that
voluntary and community groups can offer in a tougher economic climate, and councils should look for
opportunities to strengthen ties with the sector. Praising the contribution of the voluntary sector to
education, tackling worklessness, the environment and social care, Mr Clark said voluntary and
community groups should have the right to challenge councils to offer a better alternative if they can
do things better or more cost effectively. It is anticipated that the forthcoming Localism Bill will
‘entrench’ this new right for communities to ‘challenge the status quo and open up opportunities for
new ways to do things differently’.
Gregg Clark said ‘in a tight economic climate there is a greater need for the diversity and innovation
voluntary and community groups can offer. Reinforcing monopolies of local services by retrenching
into the town hall is not the way forward. Opening up more of councils' budgets to have it carried out
by voluntary organisations can improve effectiveness, increase resilience and save costs’.
New Faces and Awards
21st October – Leadership appointments in Higher Education bodies
Universities and Science Minister David Willetts announced the following appointments and
reappointments:
•
Tim Melville-Ross is reappointed as Chair of the Board of HEFCE for a further three years from 1
January 2011;
•
The new Student Loans Company (SLC) non-executive chair is Ed Smith, who will take up his
appointment from 1 November 2010. Ed was also reappointed as Deputy Chair of the Board of
HEFCE from June this year for a further twelve months; and
•
Sir Martin Harris is reappointed as Director of the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) for a further 12
months effective from 16 October 2010.
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Contact the LSIS policy team
This policy update has been prepared by Angela Nartey, policy research officer, LSIS. Your
comments are welcome – please contact Angela by email on angela.nartey@LSIS.org.uk.
Caroline Mager, Executive Director, Policy, Research and Communications
Caroline.Mager@LSIS.org.uk
Telephone: 020 7766 0016
Jenny Williams, Head of Policy
Jenny.Williams@LSIS.org.uk
Telephone: 020 7766 0014
Angela Nartey, Policy Research Officer
Angela.Nartey@LSIS.org.uk
Telephone: 020 7766 0002
© LSIS October 2010
Published by the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS).
The purpose of these guides is to stimulate discussion and debate. While every effort has been made to ensure
the information contained within this publication is correct, neither the publisher nor the authors or their
companies accept any liability for any errors or omissions.
The text in this document may be reproduced free of charge in any format or media without requiring specific
permission, on condition that the source is acknowledged, that the material is not used in a derogatory manner
or in misleading context and that the findings are not misrepresented.
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