8.5 The overall task of implementing the new strategy of developing lifelong learning for all should be given to the Department for Education and Employment to lead and oversee. However, the strategy also needs to be taken up by all departments of Government, so that they too may contribute to its achievement. All Government departments should plan and monitor the implementation of the main strategy in their own spheres of responsibility. They should take responsibility for identifying and dismantling barriers to participation and achievement, including those within the processes, procedures, administration and regulations of Government itself. Part of this will need to be all a systematic evaluation of the implications for lifelong learning of Government's own policies and decisions, across a range of services and activities.
8.6 Government will also need to review its fiscal and taxation policies with view to using them to provide incentives that promote lifelong learning and encourage learners themselves to invest in learning. Government should also review the allocation of funds to education generally, and those identified for the promotion of lifelong learning in particular, including funds for the proposed Lifelong Learning Foundation, University for Industry and Individual Learning Accounts. Such a review should also explore ways in which other sources of public funding, for example through the benefits system, could be used more effectively to support people in lifelong learning, as has already been suggested by the Kennedy Committee on Widening Participation.
8.7 In order to pursue this approach, Government should consider means of ensuring the highest possible level of inter-departmental collaboration. It could take the form of a high-level interdepartmental committee or supporting unit to co-ordinate the development of the national strategy. In any case, arrangements should be put in place to maintain close liaison with the Cabinet unit established to combat social exclusion in this country.
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