Through its Comprehensive Spending Review, the Government is taking into account the need to widen participation in post-16 learning

The Government should create a consistent policy framework for publicly-funded further education which embraces planning, funding, quality assessment, measurement of performance, financial support for students, guidance and the means of stimulating demand for learning [LW Ch 2]

4.1 The Learning Age sets out the key elements of such a framework, including the issues of quality assessment, performance and target setting. The Investing in Young People strategy is a coherent approach to maximising participation and attainment by 16-18 year olds. 4.2 In the context of the Comprehensive Spending Review, which all Government Departments are undertaking to review priorities and spending across their budgets, Ministers are considering options for creating greater equity in post-16 funding. For careers education and guidance, there will be a refocusing of effort towards those who most need help across all the sectors. The School Standards and Framework Bill contains measures concerned with local planning and decision making in the schools sector. Consistent with that, Ministers will be giving strong encouragement to FEFC and the Local Government Association to collaborate with other partners in developing a more co-ordinated approach to post-16 planning and delivery. Student support is considered below at paragraphs 5.1-5.4; and more detail on quality assessment is given at paragraph 6.2.

The Government should create a ‘Learning Nation Fund’ from the national lottery funds released after the millennium to achieve the quantum leap in participation in post-16 learning needed to tackle the backlog of underachievement [LW Ch 4]; should review the current range of challenge funds and specific funds to improve the coherence of funding locally and to minimise bureaucracy [LW Ch 4]; should redirect the priorities of the Single Regeneration Budget towards learning [LW Ch 4]; and should create a ‘Learning Regeneration Fund’ to provide incentives and reward for the permanent local strategic partnerships we recommend should be set up to widen participation [LW Ch 4]

4.3 The Government’s commitment to provide for an extra 500,000 people in further and higher education by 2002 is being taken forward within the Comprehensive Spending Review. 4.4 As announced in The Learning Age we shall consult on setting up an Adult and Community Learning Fund to sustain and encourage new schemes to help people gain access to learning, including courses in basic numeracy and literacy. The Government will make £5 million available next year to match contributions from trusts, charities and businesses. 4.5 It is too early to make firm decisions on the post-Millennium Lottery funding stream. The Government will carefully consider the proposal for a "learning nation fund", alongside other proposals, at the appropriate time. A total of £700 million of Lottery funding has already been committed to nationwide provision for out of school learning and childcare, training of teachers and librarians in information technology, and for creating digital versions of a range of cultural material. 4.6 The Single Regeneration Budget Challenge fund already supports local partnerships in lifelong learning initiatives. We will consider the other recommendations above sympathetically with other Government Departments, taking account of other developments, including the prospective establishment of Regional Development Agencies.

The Government should create a national framework for the funding of post-16 learning; the new system should be founded on the principle of equity and it should be simple and transparent [LW Ch 4]; should harmonise funding systems and funding levels across the whole of further education [LW Ch 4]; and should include in the common principles for the harmonised funding incentives and recognition of the relative costs required to widen participation [LW Ch 4]

4.7 These recommendations also have to be seen in the context of the Comprehensive Spending Review. The Learning Age proposes broad principles to underpin public investment in post-16 learning. The Government will continue to examine and refine the present system, with appropriate consultation and with an eye to the key principles of simplicity, transparency, equity and effectiveness. We support the recent decisions by the FEFC to ensure that widening participation is encouraged, for example through a weighting in the funding methodology which allocates additional resources in respect of students from socially disadvantaged areas.

The Government should set out clearly the relative contributions to be made from the public purse, by employers and by individuals in paying for learning [LW Ch 4]

4.8 The Government has already set out, as a general principle, that it wishes to see a fairer balance between the state’s and employers’ contributions to the cost of employer-led provision, and believes that employers should be meeting at least 50% of the costs of such FEFC funded provision. The Learning Age proposes a new partnership for investment in learning between the Government, individuals and employers. A key element of this will be a national system of Individual Learning Accounts, which will provide a means of targeting public support where it is most needed. All those with an interest in encouraging individual learning – including individuals, employers and Government – will be able to invest in them. The Learning Age describes how we shall explore, with FEFC and colleges, how to develop Learning Account funding methods in FE.

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