Archived decisions
STRATEGY FOR LIFELONG LEARNING : Report of the Adult Learning Task Group
1. Key strategic issues arising from the review:
The County Council's strategy for lifelong learning must take account of the following:
1.1 The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) now has statutory responsibility for the strategic planning and securing provision of adult learning and skills development.
1.2 The local LSC regards the sixteen post-16 colleges as the main providers of adult learning, particularly with regard to programmes of academic and vocational learning, and essential skills.
1.3 The local LSC wishes to fund the County Council to:
· Deliver first-rung learning as part of widening participation programmes in targeted areas and/or in partnership with the voluntary sector and internal County Council services
· Lead on the development of family learning (including family literacy, language and numeracy) particularly within schools.
1.4 Increasingly, government funding for adult learning will be targeted in support of the National Skills Strategy - although the value of `learning for learning's sake' is recognised, the expectation will be that this should be at the learners' own expense.
1.5 Issues of coherence will become increasingly important - who is best placed to deliver what?
1.6 The flexibility, accessibility and potential cheapness of e-learning will become the preferred option for a growing number of adult learners, as evidenced by the success of Learndirect delivered by new providers such as the Hampshire and IOW Learning Hub.
1.7 The 11 Local Strategic Partnerships and their emerging Community Learning Fora have the potential to become the main brokers for setting local priorities, forming partnerships between providers and representing the interests of adult learners.
1.8 Adults as learners have very diverse needs, a varied experience of learning, different learning styles and a hugely complex array of life circumstances - the strategic planning for adult learning must reflect this diversity and will be just as complicated - there are no tidy and simple solutions.
2. The County Council's current provision for adult learning:
2.1 For the purpose of this review, adult learning is regarded as planned activity with progression towards some intended learning outcomes, as opposed to activity where the main outcomes are social or recreational, with any learning being informal or consequential.
2.2 `Learning' is a fundamental human activity. Every service department within the County Council is making provision for some kind of adult learning, often for its main client groups and always for its staff. Only rarely is this branded or recognised as `life-long learning'. Examples include training for foster parents and school governors, workshops at arts centres, coaching courses for sports development, outdoor education opportunities, access to archive material by the County Records Office, focus groups on planning issues, activity groups for the elderly and so on. The Hampshire Learning Centre is evidence of the County Council's commitment to staff training.
2.3 The County Council's `Adult and Community Learning Unit' (ACLU) is managed within the Education Department and secures formal adult learning through funding agreements with over a hundred locally-managed providers, including schools, community organisations and internal services. ACLU currently supports about 28,000 adult learners. Most of the provision is made at 24 secondary schools and 4 arts centres. About 20,000 of the learners are following `leisure-based' learning with no direct links to academic or vocational qualifications, of whom more than 6,000 are aged over 50. A growing number of primary schools are becoming involved in programmes of family learning. ACLU supports a number of `widening participation' projects through partnerships with voluntary organisations, social services, libraries and museums.
2.4 The local LSC estimates that the sixteen post-16 colleges are supporting 100,000 adult learners, mainly in academic/vocational courses, including provision for basic skills. A number of colleges are also being funded to engage in family learning and widening participation. Confusion over roles and inconsistencies in funding by the LSC has sometimes resulted in overlaps between college and ACLU managed provision.
2.5 The County Council has entered into community management agreements with 34 secondary schools. Local management committees are funded to oversee arrangements for the community use of school facilities and the delivery of community programmes. Twenty-two of these schools receive additional funding from ACLU to provide adult learning. A number of these also funded by colleges through so-called `franchise agreements' and four receive funding directly from the LSC. Some others enable colleges to deliver college-managed programmes on their sites.
2.6 ACLU continues to expand provision for family learning in schools, often in partnership with the Early Education and Childcare Unit. Programmes include support for parents of both primary and secondary age ranges, and in the development of literacy, language and numeracy skills in families.
2.7 The County Library Service actively supports lifelong learning and facilitates informal learning by adults. The Government has used lottery income to fund a national programme to enable public access to the internet through libraries. The `Peoples Network' initiative has set up 282 terminals in Hampshire libraries for public use. Library staff help individuals to research information on the internet, they provide stock used in course work by tutors and learners and they provide study spaces for use by learners. A growing number of adult learning providers use libraries to deliver their course programmes. This is culminating in the transformation of libraries into `discovery centres', offering improved access and greater support for lifelong learning activities. Currently, 13 centres are in various stages of planning.
2.8 Both the Library and the County Museum Services have joined with ACLU in family learning and widening participation projects. ACLU is currently developing a pilot project in Waterlooville to test the feasibility of establishing Learndirect Centres within libraries, which will enable adults to select from a vast offering of on-line learning programmes. The Recreation and Heritage Department funds a development post within ACLU which is supporting this and other initiatives on sites managed by the Department.
2.9 ACLU is also engaged with the Social Services Department in innovative programmes supporting carers and adults with learning disabilities and difficulties.
2.10 A number of voluntary organisations provide adult learning outside the LSC funded sector, including examples such as the Women's Institutes, branches of the University of the Third Age, and Community Associations. They continue to offer low cost and less formal opportunities for adult learning for particular interest groups and make a significant contribution to the overall pattern of provision. The County Council's support is less direct and includes maintenance grants, discounted use of premises, access to training etc.
3. Strengths of the current arrangements:
3.1 The County Council has become the main supporter of adults learning for personal interest, rather than work-related or qualification purposes.
3.2 Schools, libraries, museums, arts centres and other outlets for the County Council's services, all provide community-based venues for adult learning outside the more formal college settings.
3.3 The County Council's services engage a huge number of potential learners, many of whom would not otherwise come into contact with mainstream providers of adult learning.
3.4 The network of community schools established by the County Council provides a management infrastructure to support and develop both formal and informal opportunities for adult learning. Their community links are often singled out for praise in reports by school inspectors. The County Council's funding support for the community programmes enables local income-generation which supports cross-subsidy in adult learning provision. The schools represent extremely good value. Government is re-packaging the concept of `community schools' as `extended schools' and is launching an initiative to encourage an expansion of such arrangements. The County Council is ahead of the field with its vision of schools as `centres of learning' within their communities and with the wealth of management experience in existing community schools.
3.5 Considerable investment has been made in improving physical access for learners with disabilities, in raising awareness and in making policies, procedures and provision more responsive to their needs.
3.6 ACLU has successfully established a rigorous quality assurance framework within the network of providers, which was an action point highlighted in a report by Ofsted following an inspection in 2000. ACLU also adds value through a comprehensive programme of staff development.
3.7 ACLU has been particularly successful in expanding provision for family learning. The Andover Family Learning Partnership which brings together schools, parent support services, health agencies, voluntary organisations and a local college, has earned recognition as a model of good practice for transfer elsewhere.
4. Shortcomings in the present arrangements:
4.1 The County Council's adult learning service is too dependent upon LSC funding, as evidenced by the potential disruption resulting from the LSC's recent decision to withdraw funding from `leisure-based' courses. (The County Council currently funds only 7% of ACLU's budget of nearly £2.2 million).
4.2 The low level of the County Council's funding support for adult learning is reflected in the value of the LSC's current support, which is one of the lowest in the SE Region. Consequently, the fee levels are already amongst the highest, leaving little scope for increasing income to support `full-cost recovery' styles of delivery.
4.3 Withdrawing funding from programmes supporting 20,000 learners and requiring these to become self-financing has major implications for the County Council's commitment to inclusion and sustainability.
4.4 The pattern and distribution of providers and the curriculum across the county has largely been determined by history, rather than any strategic planning. There is little coherence and too much duplication, often resulting from the competition for resources. ACLU has made some notable improvements through county forum meetings and promoting cluster groups at local level, but there is a limit to what can be achieved within the context of the present funding framework.
4.5 The model of a County Council service delivered by a small central unit through agreements or contracts with providers has major limitations, particularly with regard to strategic influence. It is difficult for ACLU to play a part in 11 different LSPs and Community Learning Fora. Decisions about fee levels and discounts for learners on low income, and the breadth of the curriculum offered, are made by individual providers and are too often determined by financial interests rather than the needs of adult learners. There is a risk that local priorities such as provision for learners from ethnic minority communities will be overlooked and responses assumed.
4.6 The potential of the County Council to provide information about adult learning opportunities through libraries and information centres is not being recognised and consequently, is not being adequately funded.
4.7 The Adult Learning Inspectorate's expectations with regard to quality and the LSC's requirements of performance monitoring and individual learner records are placing a huge strain of the capacity of ACLU and the provider network. Resources have increasingly been diverted away from the direct support of adult learners.
5. Areas for improvement:
5.1 Overall, there needs to be greater collaboration between providers. ACLU will develop action plans to build on the partnership arrangements with voluntary organisations and will continue to strengthen the county forum through which organisations share good practice and seek to work together. ACLU will promote better collaboration between different services in the County Council, building on the successful relationships with Social Services and services managed through the Recreation and Heritage Department.
5.2 There should be clearer progression routes for adult learners, both within a provider's programme and between programmes offered by different providers. ACLU will work with colleges to agree local planning and to identify progression opportunities for learners engaged in widening participation projects and family learning in particular.
5.3 More can be done to support the signposting of adult learners to appropriate provision. Front-line staff in libraries, information centres and schools need to be better trained to deliver `information, advice and guidance'. The County Council's web site needs development, so that potential learners can link to local course listings and eventually to enrol on-line.
5.4 The County Council needs to support schools and other providers in making `full-cost recovery' courses more viable. There should be careful monitoring to assess the impact of the LSC's funding changes and to identify any groups of individual learners or local communities which are affected disproportionately. Measures should be put in place to reduce the cost of service delivery so as to limit the pressure on learners' fees.
5.5 The County Council's commitment to life-long learning should be self-evident in the way that it delivers its services to the public. At all levels, the County Council should engage with adults in ways which value learning and which lead to self-empowerment. As a `learning authority', the County Council should continue to seek feedback from its client groups about performance and act on the information received. A `culture of learning' should be encouraged throughout the organisation.
5.6 Family learning and support for parenting skills should continue to be regarded as a priority in future development. ACLU needs to continue building capacity within primary schools for the delivery of family learning opportunities and should promote the successful outcomes of the `Skills for Families' pilot project with secondary schools. There should be collaboration with colleges both in the delivery of programmes and for progression into other learning programmes.
5.7 The County Council should seize the opportunity being presented by a government initiative to expand the current network of extended schools over the next three years. The existing schools should be helped to promote their experience and share good practice with others. There should be an audit to assess the match between current allocation of resources and the levels of need in communities. Future development should be planned to address gaps in provision and to target schools capable of making the most impact on disadvantage. The extended schools' strategy should include an expansion of opportunities for adult learning.
5.8 The innovative plans for `Discovery Centres' needs to be rolled out at locations across the county. ACLU needs to continue working with the Library Service to embed new forms of support for adult learning. Libraries and Discovery Centres should include `Learndirect' facilities enabling adults to pursue learning on-line. The initial pilot at Waterlooville should inform a county-wide action plan.