Transcript Slide 1

Skills Funding Agency : Policy and Funding Update
By Liz Searle, Skills Director – East Midlands
Welcome
Contents
•Adult Skills : a new approach
• Government policy: CSR, Skills Strategy and
Skills Investment Strategy
• Investing in Skills for Sustainable Growth :
Future FE funding
•What does this all mean?
Adult skills : a new approach
• Colleges and Training Providers
– Responding to the demands and needs expressed by employers
and learners (who in turn will have access to better information
support their choices – eg. All Age Careers, LLAs)
– Respond to partners JCP LEP’s
– funded by commercial (fee) income as well as provision which is
fully and co-funded by the taxpayer
– Able to direct public funding within and across programme areas
– Rewarded for performance and meeting priorities
Adult skills : a new approach
•Stakeholders (eg. LEPs, JCP)
Expressing the needs of their area/sector and
attempting to “nudge” FE Provision – directly - by
using intelligence and engaging customers
• Skills Funding Agency
– A slimline funding body
–Not a planning body and rarely intervening
– Contracting with far fewer FE providers than
Four things on the “to do” list
1. Install a simple and flexible system that embeds
accountabilities and incentives so that without interference,
the FE sector will itself deliver the outcomes learners,
businesses and communities need.
2. Trust that this approach will work.
3. Disseminate intelligence and information, advice and
guidance to help providers and customers make good
decisions, but also gather intelligence so we can publish
what is being delivered, and monitor the system as a whole.
4. Be prepared to intervene in the hopefully rare instances
when bits of the system look like they might need help.
Government Policy
• Consultation on Skills Strategy and FE Funding
Methodology – October 2010
• CSR – published 20th October
• “Skills for Sustainable Growth” and “Investing in
Skills for Sustainable Growth” – published 16th
November
•Skills Conditionality Consultation – Published 9th
December 2010 on DWP Website
Investing in Skills for Sustainable Growth
Context : wider strategy “Skills for Sustainable Growth”
Three underpinning principles:
– Fairness: focussing public funding on those who need it most
– Shared responsibility: shared investment
– Greater freedom: trusting Colleges, training providers and key
stakeholders (eg. LEPs, JCP) to do their jobs
FE budget: £3.7bn in 2011/12 falling to £3.3bn by 2014/15
(learner numbers 3.4m 10/11….expected to fall to 2.9m by 12/13)
Investing in Skills for Sustainable Growth
• Savings through:
– Efficiencies
– Policy changes
– Unit cost reductions
– Changes to statutory entitlements
– Re-balancing who pays
– More freedoms for colleges
Future FE funding – the headlines:
75,000 more adult apprenticeships – with a focus on Level 3
• Fully funded first Level 2 or first Level 3 for people aged 19
up to 24
• Fully funded Skills for Life (basic skills) provision
• From 2013/14 Government-backed, income-contingent loans
for people aged 24 and over undertaking Level 3 or higher
qualifications
•Units and Qualifications fully funded for JSA and ESA
(WRAG) claimants
Future FE funding – the headlines:
• Replacing Train to Gain with an SME-focussed
programme to help small employers to train lowskilled staff
• Helping people who are on active job-seeking
benefits to secure work through training which is
relevant to the labour-market
• Further reductions in bureaucracy, Minimum
Contract Levels and a single Adult Skills Budget
from 2011/12 academic year
“Through the CSR we have protected
funding of £210m for informal adult
and community learning,
with increased flexibility across
the four components”
Investing in Skills for Sustainable Growth
(page 12, Adult Safeguarded Learning (ASL)
paragraphs 31 to 33)
Adult Safeguarded Learning (ASL)
“During the coming months we will work with the sector to
develop a new model…”
(which) “will support the development of the Big Society, focusing
public funding on people who face barriers to learning…..”
“We plan to build more effective progression routes for those
people who want to progress to formal learning”
“To enable providers to be more responsive to their communities
in the 2011/12 AY we will combine the four elements of ASL into a
single budget line”.
Investing in Skills for Sustainable Growth – page 12
European Social Fund
Objectives of ESF Operational Programme (OP)
align with Skills Strategy, albeit narrower emphasis
Combination of CFOs aligning provision,
eg DWP’s ESF will support workless households,
moving them towards actively seeking employment,
Skills Funding Agency ESF will provide employment
related skills support to help secure sustainable
jobs.
European Social Fund
Using streamlined approach to procurement using
ACTOR – national exercise for first half of 11-13
PfU, R2R and element of support grant to
employers to take on Apprentices from those
supported through this provision – 16 months to
start in April
Will ensure geographical coverage
Will still need niche and specialist provision best
delivered through voluntary and community
organisations, but contracting arrangements may be
European Social Fund
Minimum Contract Levels – but:
Removal of 51% rule will allow greater
subcontracting; successful prime contractors will be
published to facilitate new arrangements
Capability to deliver, not to write good bids
What does this all mean?
1. Customer power
- A greater expectation of financial contributions from customers
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(co-funding, no funding, loans)
….and in turn, that they will have higher expectations of the FE
and provider system
Better information/more transparency
More freedom for providers to respond to local needs
Potential to use QCF for credit accumulation
Less central priority setting
What does this all mean?
2. Stakeholder power
-
College and providers need to contribute to local communities
and economies
– Expect direct engagement with a range of stakeholders (LEPs,
Local authorities, JC+, employers, SSCs, learners….)
– Consult on business plans and set out how public money will
be used
– Publish information on how their plans have been delivered
What does this all mean?
3. More responsibilities for colleges/providers
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Local planning by Colleges and providers, no central planning
Engagement with / responsiveness to stakeholders and customers
Tougher decisions taken locally on the use of scarce resources
Tighter rules on eligibility – Colleges and training providers have to
work much harder to earn their financial allocations
– ……and sell (full cost) to people who will pay more
– Need to deliver chunks of learning, using QCF for accumulation of
credits
– All providers need to be on ACTOR!
What does this all mean?
4. Skills Funding Agency
– Simpler system – streamlined structure. TBC March/April 2011
– We assume the system will work – ie don’t default to micromanagement
– Step back from local relationships: responsibility of colleges and
providers to engage with local partners – not ours
– Continue to monitor the data – eg make sure Apprenticeships are
delivered in line with Govt ambition
– But where there are issues that local partners can’t resolve….we
reserve the right to intervene
Skills Funding Agency : Policy and Funding Update
By Liz Searle, Skills Director – East Midlands
Thank you