Agenda item

Report of the Cabinet Member for Learning and Employability

The Committee considered the Annual Self-Assessment of the Community Learning Service.  Members were also asked to approve the Community Learning Strategy and priorities for the Service for 2019-2023.

Members were informed that the Skills and Employability Service focused on a range of education and training opportunities to meet the needs of learners, the economy and the wider community, and supported delivery of the LEP priorities.  The report to the Committee was about the Community Learning provision that the Service provided in Staffordshire.  The portfolio of work included Community Learning and adult classroom-based learning.  Members were asked to comment on the annual performance of the Community Learning provision, in order to further improve quality, outcomes for learners and in remaining a good learning provider.

Members were informed that the Service had engaged with 4658 learners over the past year, with a diverse range of providers around the County.  The quality of the provision was very good, with the Service’s own assessment based on the Ofsted framework, showing that 97% of the sessions were judged good or better.  Over the past few years the provision had had more of a leisure learning focus than the Service would like moving forward, and had been highlighted by the Committee the previous year.  The focus of the new Strategy was on the County Council’s Strategic Priorities, in particular assisting care leavers, adults with low skills particularly in English and Maths, working with people who had learning disabilities or mental health issues, those on state benefits and those from minority ethnic groups who struggled to access employment. A further focus was on families and family learning.  Another Strategic priority was around health and emotional well-being.

The Committee considered details of how funding would be used and noted that there was a shift to direct it towards the priorities outlined.  Leisure, health and wellbeing were now all grouped together, with the emphasis being on the health and wellbeing element.  There would be an investment of £6m from the ESFA over the four-year period. 

Members commented that they were pleased to see the Strategy aligned to the Council’s Strategic Priorities, specifically in relation to employment and better paid jobs and the focus on digital skills development but asked if the targets were challenging enough.  A member raised several questions in relation to Family English, Maths and Language and emphasised the importance of this for families where parents struggled to help their children.  It had been recognised that the Family Learning provision in previous years had been underperforming and it was acknowledged that while the number of enrolments were smaller for 2017-18 the quality of provision was now a lot better.  There was now a better relationship with schools, whereas previously the Service had relied on sub-contractors.  For the forthcoming year £200,000 would be invested in this area, which would expand the provision.  There were also more schools engaged with providing the courses and the intention was to increase this and encourage schools to interact more with their communities and not just focus on delivering their school curriculum.  For future years funding would be based on demand and if necessary this could be re-prioritised.

In response to a question about the discrepancy between the number of learners and number of enrolments it was confirmed that some learners do progress through courses.  It was also questioned why the enrolments for leisure were so high, and for STEM so low, as this would seem to be an area to create opportunities for people to move into employment.  Also, in relation to the District Analysis, Moorlands and Lichfield were not meeting their targets and it was asked if there was anything which could be done to address this.  In terms of leisure learning it was reiterated that this point was raised the previous year, and this had been taken on board.  Members were informed that the purpose of leisure learning was usually about keeping older people active.  Nevertheless, provision had shifted away from that in recognition of the point which had been made by the Committee that the focus should be on Strategic Plan objectives and resources were now being directed at STEM subjects.

With regard to targets, a member commented that these should be achievable but should be challenging and asked if targets were being reviewed to ensure that these were challenging and that the Service could demonstrate that they were aiming to achieve an increase in performance.  It was queried why the district enrolment targets were significantly less than in previous years, when the aim should be to make progress year on year.  In the light of the shift in emphasis under the new Strategy, which was very welcome, it would be appropriate to set a new set of targets.  The Cabinet Member pointed out that the targets reflected the change in terms of the new programme and new suppliers for year one.  However, he assured members that he would take on board their comments on this and would be challenging these targets.  Also, when returning next year and presenting targets for year two of the plan the Committee would be able to be very challenging because these would be the targets set once the Service had been through the change programme.  There would need to be a focus on those districts where there was a low take up.

It was agreed that utilising the local knowledge of Community Cabinet Support Members and undertaking a piece of work to market test areas would be helpful in clarifying access to courses and local need.  Officers also agreed to consider working with Work Clubs (in South Staffordshire) to see if more could be done to help young people access employment.

With regard to the Self-Assessment, it was confirmed that this used a pre-determined set of standard questions.  In the light of the new Strategy it was suggested that it would be helpful to have more locally derived supplementary questions to test how successfully it was working and provide more informed feedback.  Members were informed that this would be the case and the questioning would be expanded, and in addition visits would be made to providers.

The Strategy referred to more work being done around market testing and marketing courses and how people access them.  A member queried what would be done differently that hadn’t previously and asked how the new marketing strategy would reach out to people.  Members were informed that the Service had taken a lot of learning from the Career Learning Pilot which had been undertaken, around how to engage with people.

RESOLVED That:

a)    The performance and quality assurance of the Skills and Employability’s Community Learning Service, through the Annual Self-Assessment Report and areas for improvement be noted; and

b)    The comments of the Select Committee on the Community Learning Strategy and priorities for the Service for 2019-2023 be taken into consideration by the Cabinet Member for Learning and Employability and help to shape the Strategy.