REPORT OF THE

EXECUTIVE MEMBER

EDUCATION

PART I

ADULT LEARNING PLAN 2003/2004

1. Part 1, Chapter 4 of the County Council's Constitution sets out the range of documents which form the County Council's policy framework, all of which need to be formally adopted by the County Council. One of these is the Adult Learning Plan, and this report seeks the County Council's approval of an Adult Learning Plan for Hampshire covering the period August 2003 to July 2004. Copies of the Adult Learning Plan have been placed in the Members' Rooms.

2. Responsibility and funding for securing adult and community learning transferred from Local Education Authorities to the Learning and Skills Council in April 2001. Since then the Adult Learning Plans prepared by the County Council for the year 2001/02 and 2002/03 have been accepted without condition. It is now necessary to formulate the document for 2003/04 which will set out the context for the delivery of adult and community learning during that academic year, and for it to be submitted to the Learning and Skills Council. The preparation of the Plan has been complicated by the lack of a national funding formula which had been expected for introduction this year. This means that forward planning cannot be other than short term in the absence of a consistent and reliable long term formula. The funding arrangements are therefore once again of necessity transitional.

3. The Adult Learning Plan for 2003/04 consists of four main areas:

· Review of delivery to date.


· A business plan for 2003/04.


· A self-assessment report focusing mainly on performance.


· A quality improvement plan setting out changes and developments for the coming year.


Among the salient points are:


· The need for co-operation and co-ordination between providers, rather than competition


· Direct assistance to providers with aspects such as quality assurance.


· Promotion of courses in community venues and schools rather than colleges, in order to provide opportunities for new groups of adult learners who have not felt able to participate in the past.


· Further development of effective working relationships between the County Council and the Learning and Skills Council with the aim of improving standards and management information and thereby encouraging a range of diverse provision throughout the county.


Among the initiatives specifically included within the Adult Learning Plan for 2003/04 are:


· Further development of basic skills provision.


· Increased provision for family learning.


· Extended adult participation in learning.


· Increased levels of retention and achievement.


· Support for schools in becoming centres of learning in their communities.


· Improvements in the performance of the service and the quality of its provision.

4. The extent of adult and community learning opportunities available is clearly dependent on resources. The Learning and Skills Council's core funding amounts to £1.218 million, accompanied by specific grants for targeted priority areas such as ethnic minorities, family literacy/numeracy and disabilities; together with the County Council's contribution of £153,000. It is clear that, without additional funding for the core adult and community learning, the only way of increasing the value of financial support for individual learners and providers is to reduce the number of learners and providers being supported. This will result in fewer learners being funded by the Local Education Authority, but will give the remaining providers a larger share of available resources. Consequences of this in the coming year will be that the County Council will cease funding adult and community learning in college managed programmes. The funding thus released will enable resources to be concentrated on a smaller number of providers. Support for college-based courses will be routed through the Learning and Skills Council rather than via the County Council.

5. The strategies contained in the report have been the subject of consultations with colleges, providers and learners' groups and command general support. They have also been discussed informally with the Learning and Skills Council.

6. For reference, a copy of the County Education Officer's report is attached as a separate document with the Council White Book, in order to give Members a more detailed explanation of the background to the Adult Learning Plan now recommended for approval.

RECOMMENDATION:

That approval be given to the Adult Learning Plan 2003/04.



D.G. Allen
Executive Member for Education

8FR48603