Meeting the ambitions of our communities

Current changes to the learning and skills landscape present opportunities and a clear role for local government in ensuring that all communities, including those that are most disadvantaged, have access to a wide curriculum, high-quality, responsive provision and progression in learning, writes PETER BOX

Supporting and leading local communities is at the centre of what we do as councillors, whatever our political affiliation. Our focus is on achieving outcomes for our constituents. Given our democratic mandate and local knowledge, we are in a better position than anyone else to facilitate community action, foster and express local community identity, and create opportunities for voluntary groups to develop and succeed – as well as to ensure accountability to the community for taxpayers’ money spent locally.

The government has said it wants to cut back on bureaucracy and give local areas genuine control through developing what it calls a ‘Big Society’. We share that ambition and are central to making it happen. Councils across the country are already transferring power, assets, resources and decision-making down to grassroots communities and stimulating and encouraging local people to take action to resolve issues and tackle local priorities.

Taking adult skills as an example, democratically elected councillors play a key role in supporting communities to access learning opportunities – ensuring that good local transport connections are in place, that the local area is a viable and attractive place for enterprise and business and that provision reflects the needs and views of local people and business. Councillors take a strategic view, ensuring all voices are heard – not just the loudest – to make decisions that reflect the needs and aspirations of local people and business in an area.

It is crucial that in central government’s efforts to push forward with its Big Society agenda it does not over-engineer from the centre.

The continuing protection of informal adult and community learning, at least for the time being, is very welcome. Local government has a key role in lifelong learning and a key role to play in the skills system to ensure local learning and training meets the needs of both local people – at all ages and stages of their lives – and local employers.

The new Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), bringing together civil and business leaders, will be at the heart of making this connection stronger

Recognising this, the government has said it will encourage higher and further education institutions to engage with their LEP to ensure alignment between economic development priorities and the skills provision available locally. In many places, excellent relationships between employers, local government and training providers already exist and the challenge now is to extend that across the country.

Independent analysis

 I know many learning providers are concerned some LEPs do not see skills as central to their task – but independent analysis by SQW of the local enterprise proposals showed that the vast majority did regard skills as a priority.

This is essential. Local Enterprise Partnerships can play a pivotal role leading and shaping the response to approaches from businesses to invest in an area. LEPs will also need to consider how existing local employers are supported to adapt to changes to market conditions. This will require a strong dialogue with further and higher education skills providers, which will have greater freedoms from central government red tape to respond more positively to employer demand.

Recent discussions with the Confederation of British Industry, the Chambers of Commerce, the Association of Colleges and the 157 Group have all pointed to the importance of the role of local government in this work.

I started by referring to the link between informal adult and community learning and the skills agenda. Although the skills budget is much larger than the £210 million Adult Safeguarded Learning funding stream, the latter reaches hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom pay fees to fund their own learning. Last year’s Transformation Fund reached over a million adults who were engaged in local partnerships, often involving their local council. This was the Big Society in practice.

The current changes to the adult learning and skills landscape – from the big budgets around skills for employment to the investment in community learning – present opportunities and a clear role for local government. The skills strategy announced the government’s intention to reinvigorate and reform informal adult and community learning to support the Big Society, deliver progression routes for those who want them, and target public-funded provision more effectively.

Now is the time to refresh and energise local partnerships – to agree a strategic view of the needs of the local economy and the scope for development, and enable providers to deliver flexible learning and skills at local level that meet the needs and ambitions of local employers and local people. Supporting the government’s vision of the Big Society, local authorities’ leadership role can help ensure all communities, including those that are most disadvantaged, have access to a wide curriculum, high-quality, responsive provision and progression in learning.

Councillor Peter Box is Chairman of the Local Government Group’s Economy and Transport Programme Board and Leader of Wakefield Council