Remit - January 1999 1. Introduction The Secretary of State for Education and Employment announced on 26 November his plans to ensure that strategic lifelong learning partnerships are in place across the country during 1999. The Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) and its national partners want to see a single strategic body - a Learning Partnership - in each area that will bring together all existing local partnership arrangements covering post-16 and lifelong learning. The intention is not to impose another layer or type of partnership locally; rather, Learning Partnerships will subsume existing arrangements building on the best of what is already in place. They will bring coherence to the different strands of provision on which their different partners lead. Partnership and collaboration are essential to achieving the Government's goals for economic prosperity and social cohesion through regeneration, capacity building and community development. Learning Partnerships will add real value by developing more coherent learning provision to meet the needs of young people and adults and the skill requirements of employers. They will support action to widen participation, increase attainment, raise standards and meet the skills challenge by driving action to achieve local targets linked to the new National Learning Targets, developing a framework for new student support arrangements in further education, forging links to the social inclusion agenda in schools, and initiating work on basic skills. The objectives and responsibilities of Learning Partnerships are set out in detail in section 3 below. 2. Background The thinking on local strategic partnerships dates back to the Labour Party's "Road to the Manifesto" document, Lifelong Learning, which set out a commitment to develop collaborative approaches to post-16 education and training. More recently, the Government's Learning Age Green Paper set out the need to work together to promote strategic planning, develop more relevant and cost-effective provision and meet agreed targets for lifelong learning. The DfEE has been working with a number of external partners to develop this agenda. A conference on 2 July - organised by the Association of Colleges, the Association of Principals of Colleges, the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC), the Further Education Development Agency, the Local Government Association (LGA), and the TEC National Council (TNC) with DfEE support - launched the National Partnership Protocol (copy attached) as a consultative document. The Protocol sets out aims, principles and an action plan for developing national and local partnership arrangements among those involved in post-16 education and training. The FEFC, LGA and TNC have worked closely together and have had a series of meetings with DfEE Ministers to discuss how to improve collaboration and the coherence of post-16 learning. They and other national and local partners have been working with DfEE officials to develop strategic local partnership arrangements. This remit builds on those joint discussions. 3. Objectives and Responsibilities Learning Partnerships will have a key role in taking forward the Government's social inclusion and regeneration agendas. Their broad objectives will be to widen participation in learning, increase attainment, improve standards and meet the skills challenge. Clearly, many national, regional and local bodies are already working to achieve some or all of those objectives. The added value of Learning Partnerships will be to harness the varied strengths of a range of local partners, to co-ordinate action in pursuit of their shared objectives and, in so doing, to achieve greater coherence and cost effectiveness. Broadly speaking, Learning Partnerships will be responsible for: co-ordinating local action in such a way as to create a more coherent, effective and accessible set of local arrangements for learning, careers advice and guidance, student support, etc.; and the development of local targets (linked to the new National Targets) which are clearly defined steps towards the achievement of the objectives described above and thus contribute to the Government's broad agenda. Specific practical responsibilities of Learning Partnerships in these areas are set out below. Coherence through co-ordination Learning Partnerships should help to bring greater coherence to local learning provision. In practice, they will be expected to identify and address gaps in provision, eliminate duplication and pull together different strands of activity for young people and adults on which their different partners lead, for example: learning provision for 16-19 year olds; learning provision for adults; workforce development; lifelong learning development plans; widening participation; and careers advice, guidance and information for young people and adults. Learning Partnerships will also lead efforts to develop coherent and effective student support arrangements. Under the new further education student support arrangements, colleges and LEAs will administer payments to post-16 students in school and further education from September 1999. For this to work effectively, both parties must work together in taking a strategic view of further education student support and in sharing information. Learning Partnerships will develop and monitor a framework enabling colleges and LEAs to work together and administer student support arrangements effectively. In practice, individual Learning Partnerships will decide what form that framework will take in their area but it might include: priorities for student support; and guidance and principles for working together, maintaining strong communication links and sharing good practice and support. A more specific role for Learning Partnerships will be to ensure co-ordinated and integrated transport for post-16 learners in the area; a Standards Fund will be available from April 2000 to help with this task. Learning Partnerships will put together competitive bids for funding which will then be put forward to the DfEE. Guidance on the Standards Fund will be issued in due course. Local Learning Targets Learning Partnerships will play a key role in regenerating learning in communities and in promoting social inclusion. In carrying this out they will set local targets which reflect the levels of improvement needed to meet the new National Learning Targets for young people and adults and to contribute to the Learning Age target to help 500,000 people with poor basic skills by the year 2002. Learning Partnerships will also monitor and publish details of progress towards achieving those local targets. The specific nature of local arrangements for setting, owning, monitoring and achieving these targets will be for partnerships to decide but are likely to be characterised by: proposals to stimulate and monitor progression to further learning drawing on - for example - analyses of careers service tracking data; review mechanisms adopted by learning providers to reduce drop-out and under achievement; locally relevant targets for achievement by different client groups; work to ensure basic skills provision effectively meets local needs; clear links with pre-16 and schools targets; and entitlements to access, quality of provision and guidance. Learning Partnerships will have an important role in increasing participation in learning generally and, in so doing, will help towards achievement of the national Learning Participation Target (to be announced shortly). Learning Partnerships will also set and monitor participation targets for young people, linked to increasing and broadening participation needed to deliver local achievement targets and the Investing in Young People strategy. Learning Partnerships' rôle in driving forward work on targets is a vital one. Although they are not an end in themselves, targets are one of the key steps on the road to achieving the broader objectives of increasing participation, raising attainment, improving standards and meeting the skills challenge. Local Learning Plan How Learning Partnerships intend to work towards the above objectives and fulfil the above responsibilities should be set out in a local learning plan which, in most cases, we expect to be in place by September 1999 (all final plans should be agreed by April 2000). Each Learning Partnership's local learning plan should include: proposals for raising standards and improving the quality of provision across the partnership area; and demonstrate: the coherence of local education and training planning; how labour/learning market information (LMI) will be collected, shared and used along with economic assessments to influence planning decisions; how progress towards local targets will be achieved; the availability of provision and its relevance to the needs of different client groups including employers, disengaged young people, adult learners, special needs, etc.; what resources are already available along with proposals to improve their cost-effectiveness; links with employers and their contribution to achieving targets; how a suitably broad, accessible and responsive curriculum will be made available for all young people along with specific proposals for collaboration at provider level; how the potential of the full range of learning opportunities for adults can be realised including the rôle of higher education institutions and their outreach activities, the potential contribution that adult education can make to community development, the role of TEC-funded adult learning, and how adults can be made aware of and encouraged to benefit from that range of opportunities; how the partnership will promote coherence by providing an effective link between local lifelong learning activity/plans, the social inclusion agenda in schools and work on disaffection for 14 year olds upwards; and how the partnership will provide key information to support the planning work of Regional Development Agencies, FEFC Regional Committees, Local Authorities, TECs, careers services and others. 4. The Nature of Learning Partnerships The introduction of Learning Partnerships provides an opportunity for those involved in all post-16 and adult learning to adopt a creative and innovative approach in moving forward their agenda. Existing lifelong learning initiatives - Learning Cities for example - may be brought together into a stronger, more influential bodies which are more able to achieve positive outcomes. There is no set prescription for the nature of Learning Partnerships - the only requirement is that certain "core" local partners will need to be involved in order to enable Learning Partnerships to function effectively. Existing or prospective partnerships have significant flexibility to develop into important strategic local bodies which meet the specific needs of their localities both in terms of their structure and the work they undertake. There are already partnership arrangements in place across much of the country supporting a range of national, regional and local learning priorities - Education Business Partnerships, Information Advice and Guidance (IAG) Partnerships, Kennedy partnerships, local authority Lifelong Learning Development Plans, New Deal, New Start, SRB Partnerships, Targets Task Forces, TEC Learning Partnerships, Learning City partnerships, etc. In many cases these have common partners and common or overlapping boundaries; the overall effect can be confusing for local communities and can lead to inefficient working practices. Clearly, in the short term, Learning Partnerships will need to take account of existing partnerships and, in some cases, may well subsume some of them. Certainly, over time Learning Partnerships will incorporate existing partnerships where appropriate in order to simplify access for local people, for example, in providing information, advice and guidance services for adults. In developing Learning Partnerships, partners will wish to consider the following guidance. Membership In order to fulfil the above responsibilities, partnerships must include, as a minimum, representation from FE sector colleges, local authority and schools, Careers Service and TEC. Beyond that, membership will vary depending on local needs and circumstances, and the particular issues addressed at any time and may include - for example - HE sector representation, the Employment Service, employers, Trade Unions, the Churches, voluntary and community bodies, the Youth Service, and statutory agencies in the social inclusion field. Partnerships are encouraged to think creatively about who to involve and how to structure themselves; and not to be constrained by existing and traditional practice. For example, many New Start Partnerships have developed innovative ways of engaging the community in their work. Leadership Leadership of Learning Partnerships will depend on local needs and will vary across areas. In each case, partners will need to identify a lead body to be accountable for partnership funding and to take a convening role. Learning Partnerships themselves will need to ensure that the different functions for which their members are individually accountable are organised and delivered in a "joined up" way. The exchange of plans between partners will help to inform this process. Boundaries and Numbers Boundaries should take account of local labour markets, travel to work patterns, and patterns of education and training provision and should - as far as possible - be set in a way that helps to rationalise existing local partnership arrangements. Where those are currently supported by Government funding, it is likely that such funding will be transferred to Learning Partnerships. The expectation is that local partners will reach agreement on geographical boundaries in consultation with others locally, and with the Government Office. The DfEE and its national partners will be ready to assist with this in order to ensure sensible coverage. The total number of Learning Partnerships nationwide is likely to be somewhere between the number of TECs and the number of local authorities (i.e. between 70 and 130). 5. Partnership Fund A Partnership Fund is being introduced to encourage collaboration among learning providers and to support the new partnership arrangements. Funding of £25million over the three years 1999-2002 will be available to: promote collaboration especially between schools, colleges and providers of work based training for 16-19 year olds but also for collaboration involving 14-16 year olds in work-related learning (other funding will be available for adults including £9million for local authorities on a matched funding basis to develop new initiatives, underpinned by Local Authority Lifelong Learning Development Plans, to widen participation in adult learning); and pump-prime national coverage of strategic partnerships able to address the specified outcomes. DfEE will issue full details of and arrangements for accessing this fund in early 1999. Arrangements will be also made to share good practice between partnerships and with the Department and its national partners. 6. Next Steps - Mapping As a first step it will be necessary to map current partnership activity to enable local partners to assess how far existing arrangements can be rationalised and whether new arrangements need to be set in place. Much information is already held locally and/or regionally but this almost certainly does not give the complete picture. Local partnerships which currently meet, or could meet, the above criteria should contact their local Government Offices as soon as possible and at the latest by 15 February 1999 identifying the partnership's geographical boundaries. They should provide an outline of existing objectives/activities and identify a lead partner. Any queries about this process or the Remit itself should be directed to the contacts listed in the attached annex. Government Offices will identify gaps and overlaps in coverage and work with partners locally and with national partner organisations to establish effective arrangements. Government Offices will administer the Partnership Fund and monitor and review partnership arrangements to ensure that progress towards achieving the outcomes is being made. At a national level DfEE will continue to work with national bodies to ensure national coverage and to develop criteria for the use of the Partnership Fund. Annex - Contacts TECS Queries from TECs should be directed to Mary Lord at the TEC National Council Tel: 0171 735 0010 Fax: 0171 735 0090 Local Authorities and LEAs Queries from Local Authorities and LEAs should be directed to Julia Bennett at the Local Government Association Tel: 0171 834 2222 Fax: 0171 664 3030 Careers Services Queries from Careers Services should be directed to Shelagh Woolliscroft at the Careers Service National Association Tel: 01246 291 541 Fax: 01246 291 541 FE sector colleges FE sector colleges should contact the appropriate FEFC Regional Director. Other Queries Any other queries should be directed to the appropriate Government Office on the following telephone numbers: East Midlands - Tel: 0115 971 9971 Eastern - Tel: 01223 202 000 London - Tel: 0171 217 3456 North East - Tel: 0191 201 3300 North West - Tel: 0161 952 4000 (North West) Tel: 0151 224 6300 (Merseyside) South East - Tel: 01483 882 255 South West - Tel: 0117 900 1700 West Midlands - Tel: 0121 212 5050 Yorkshire and the Humber - Tel: 0113 283 6300

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