Archived decisions

14 - 19 EDUCATION AND TRAINING AS A SINGLE PHASE

1. The Executive Member has given support to the strategy for developing 14 - 19 education and training as a single phase and to its distribution across secondary schools, colleges and training providers in Hampshire. Also, there is to continue to be development of partnership working between the Local Education Authority (LEA), the Local Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and Connexions.

2. In response to the work being undertaken by the national Working Group on 14 - 19 Reform, Hampshire LEA set up a working party in partnership with the LSC. Along with LEA and LSC officers; - membership of the working party included Connexions, Fareham Training and school and college representatives. Its purpose was to:

· produce a strategy for 14 - 19 education and training which prepared schools and colleges for the recommendations which Tomlinson would make in his interim report.


· provide a coherent response to the 3 area reviews of 14 - 19 education and training which the LSC were conducting in Hampshire.


· offer unified and considered leadership to schools and colleges in managing a learning phase which would, in most cases, carry learners across at least two different institutions with two different planning and funding bodies.

3. After meeting over the winter and spring of 2003/04, the working party produced a draft strategy which acknowledges the shared responsibility of the LEA and LSC for developing policy aimed at raising attainment and participation in education and training by young people in the 14 - 19 age range. The strategy recognises that education and training are essential for the social and economic well-being of Hampshire. It also addresses the continuing Government focus on the need for education to have a vocational as well as an academic focus. From September 2004, there has been a statutory requirement for schools to include work related learning within the curriculum for all young people at Key Stage 4.

4. The strategy emphasises the entitlement to a range of courses which allow learners to make informed choices about their interests, needs and aspirations for the future. There is a requirement for providers to respond to the needs of individual students in planning and delivering a flexible curriculum which recognises and supports different learning styles, allowing young people to achieve their potential as learners, citizens and members of their communities. Several 11 - 19 consortia within Hampshire include schools and local colleges which currently operate in this way. It will be necessary for all schools and colleges to form effective partnerships that work at the same level.

5. An initial draft of the strategy was circulated within the LEA and LSC. Comment was also sought from Connexions, from the Hampshire Teachers' Liaison Panel and other interested parties and sent to secondary schools and colleges. The overall response was a positive one and the various comments made were taken into account when producing an updated version of the strategy. The Education Policy Review Committee have considered and support the document. As well as commending the work, they have paid tribute to those officers involved for what has been achieved. It is the first such jointly produced document of its kind in the country. The Committee are to receive a further report on the development of this initiative later in the year.

6. The strategy is due to be published in the near future and distributed across Hampshire to providers of education. It will be accompanied by an action plan. This is to include a series of planned actions with deadlines and success criteria to ensure the document makes an impact upon the educational strategy and opportunities available to the young people of Hampshire. The majority of these actions fall either within the remit of strategic bodies such as the LEA, LSC and Connexions or within that of the providers themselves. The closer working between the strategic bodies will be important in challenging schools and colleges to take the necessary action.

FELICITY HINDSON, MBE

For Executive Member for Education

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