Agenda Item: 5

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Report

Contact Name: Felicity Roe Tel: 01962 846474 Email [email protected]

Melanie Saunders Tel: 01962 846364 Email [email protected]

1 Purpose of Report

1.1 This note provides a brief update on the progress in planning for the transfer of 16-19 responsibilities from the LSC to local authorities from April 2010.

1.2 Work is progressing in line with the pace of change being set by the government and the Learning and Skills Council. There are still some significant issues to be worked through nationally around the commissioning and funding framework. The essentials of the transfer of staff (which we have more local power to influence) are now progressing and are on track for April 1 2010.

1.3 Members may wish to refer to the paper to Select Committee in October 2008 for full background details.

2 Background information

2.1 On 17 March 2008 the DCSF and the DIUS published the White Paper Raising Expectations : Enabling the System to Deliver, in order to consult on the implementation of proposed reforms to 16-19 and post-19 education and training. The Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill is now progressing through Parliament and should become law by the end of this calendar year.

2.2 The reforms are built upon a number of principles :-

· Provision is driven by learner choice and funding follows the learner

· Local Authorities will be the strategic lead for outcomes and achievement 0-19

· Local authorities will form sub-regional planning and commissioning groups based upon the travel-to-learn patterns of young people.

· A Young People's Learning agency (YPLA) will be established to support local authorities in meeting their new responsibilities.

· A strong, demand-led Further Education (FE) sector will deliver post-19 skills funded through the Skills Funding Agency (SFA)

2.3 These reforms sit alongside other related reforms to 14-19 including the introduction of Diplomas and Functional Skills, the roll-out of entitlement for all young people and the raising of the participation age (RPA) to 17 by 2013 and to 18 by 2015.

2.4 The Hampshire sixth form college estate alone houses over 14,000 learners with a further 1,500 in Hampshire school sixth forms and nearly 22,000 in Hampshire FE colleges.

2.5 Learners are free to select which college they wish to attend regardless of location and each college selects students according to different criteria, depending on the kind of institution and the range of courses on offer.

3 Activity to date

Staff transfer

3.1 Between November 2008 and March 2009 County Council officers received briefings from the Local Learning and Skills Council (LSC) on various aspects of the LSC responsibilities. Officers also shadowed LSC colleagues in their annual planning/funding dialogues with the post-16 sector. Officers from the County Council, including the Director of Children's Services, also presented to the LSC staff to assist them in their decisions on which organisation they should move into.

3.2 Since April 2009 the LSC (nationally and locally) has been focussed on the process of matching their transferring staff to the three `receiving' organisations - the Local Authorities, the Young People's Learning Agency (YPLA) and the Skills Funding Agency (SFA). That matching process finishes on 1 October (just after this paper was drafted). Hampshire's indicative structure is for 16 transferring posts. We anticipate twelve of these will be filled, possibly leaving some flexibility with the remaining vacancies, although that may be impacted by national funding decisions prior to April 2010.

3.3 From October 1 2009 we will be working closely with the transferring LSC staff to ensure that by April 1 there is as complete as possible skills set for the County Council to deliver its responsibilities. That will involve a skills audit, development of appropriate structures to make the best use of the transferring skills, and training for both LSC and County Council staff.

3.4 Once we know the most senior officer appointment from the LSC to the County Council we will be working closely with them to shadow the LSC activities over the next six months. The LSC will retain full statutory responsibility for the delivery of its functions until 31 March 2019.

Groups

3.5 The Children's Services Departmental Management Team and other key senior officers are meeting regularly with the 15 principles of the post-16 colleges. These meetings are chaired by the Director of Children's Services. The meetings to date have created opportunity for a very valuable dialogue with the sector, with information sharing from all partners helping to enhance understanding of mutual aims and challenges.

3.6 Senior departmental officers are also members of the Sub Regional Planning group which consists of officers from Hampshire, Southampton, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. This is an important group that will, from April 1, need to work together to plan and commission across the sub region to take account of the movements of young people across authority boundaries. The group will also need to determine the commissioning of scarce resource to meet the needs of vulnerable groups, particularly those with Learning Difficulties and Disabilities, but also including all the vulnerable groups identified within the Children and Young People's Plan.

3.7 The governance arrangements for the Sub Regional Group are currently being discussed and will be considered by the Executive Lead Member for Children's Services at a decision day early in 2010.

3.8 Although the sub regional group will be one of the major focuses of partnership planning activity, Hampshire County Council is bordered by thirteen other local authorities and young people travel across the county boundaries in both directions in order to access learning. The greatest percentage of two way cross-border "traffic" is with the following authorities :-

3.9 Hampshire also has Assistant Director level attendance at the Regional Planning Group which will, after April 2010, play a role across the region in determining the overall planning framework, place numbers and budgets. However, it is not yet fully clear how this will work in practice as the National Commissioning Framework, which should set out some of this detail, will not be available until the end of October at the earliest.

4 Funding implications for the local authority

4.1 The budgets for the transferring staff will transfer to Hampshire in a `ringfence' agreement that will last for three years. This protects them from the impact of Hampshire as a `floor' authority, where, had they been placed into base budget the funding would not have been received by the authority. It is still not clear what will happen at the end of three years, but we are working on the assumption that after that point the funding will go into the County Council's base budgets.

4.2 The funding for the 16-19 provision by the colleges will be allocated to them on a national funding formula basis, and the County Council will therefore have little direct financial leverage. Influence will be through the commissioning of places for courses and individuals with specific needs. In reality this means that the County Council will have little direct influence on the `mainstream' of 16-19 provision, which is led by learner demand. Our task will be to ensure that those who would otherwise be disadvantaged by such a system (the vulnerable groups mentioned above) have sufficient provision made for them, within appropriate geographical areas. This is an area of activity that has been underdeveloped by the Learning and Skills Council and which will need to be at the heart of the approach from the County Council if the aims of the Children and Young Peoples plan for all young people to the age of 19 are to be met.

4.3 Work has now started to draft a strategy for 16-19 provision in Hampshire. It will dovetail with the Children and Young People's Plan. This strategy will be considered by the Executive Lead Member for Children's Services in due course.

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IMPACT ASSESSMENTS:

Equalities Impact Assessment: n/a

Impact on Crime and Disorder:n/a

Climate Change:n/a