![Skills Third Sector [Link to Homepage]](http://www.skills-thirdsector.org.uk/site_images/logo.png){kind=logo}
Policy Briefing 31 August 2010
(17 August – 31 August 2010)
The 18th August 2010 marked the first 100 days of the coalition government, giving rise to much reflection on how the political landscape has been shaping up over the past few months. Opinion polls by ICM and Ipsos Mori suggested that the Coalition Government has been fairly successful with the public (despite a sharp drop in support for the Lib Dems).
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, chose to mark the occasion with a speech on economic growth in which he branded those who oppose public spending cuts as “deficit deniers”. Meanwhile, Nick Clegg used the occasion to proclaim the importance of social mobility to the policy agenda. In other news - businesses supplying services to the public sector were shown to be collapsing at an ever increasing rate; the outsourcing firm Serco reported a 20% rise in profits; and the Treasury locked horns with DWP over where the money to implement welfare reforms will come from.
In the world of education, the publication of A level results and the increased demand for places caused an estimated 170,000 students to miss out on a place in Higher Education this year. This is likely to place greater strain upon further education due to increased interest in vocational learning and college courses at a time in which funding looks certain to be reduced. Coincidentally, this week also saw the launch of National Colleges Week – an initiative to promote the vast social and economic contribution of colleges to new audiences.
_________________________________________________________
Skills
Around 200,000 out of 660,000 university applicants will not achieve a place at university due to increased demand. Figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) show that interest in higher education courses has risen by 11.8% this year, with more than 170,000 students missing out on a degree-course place. Universities minister David Willetts has advised unsuccessful applicants to look for other routes such as foundation degrees or apprenticeships.
BIS have launched a call for an increase in informal workplace learning. The call follows the pledge by a group of sixty-four companies, including McDonalds and BT, who have pledged to increase informal training opportunities for their workforce. This forms part of the department’s “Cafe Culture Movement” which aims to help organisations to see the benefit of informal employee training. The intention is to allow employees to meet and share ideas in a relaxed environment.
BIS have launched a review of offender learning which covers learning on custody and in the community. The review will inform forthcoming work between BIS, DWP and MOJ to inform the forthcoming “Rehabilitation Revolution” green paper to be published in November. The review will try to better link learning, reduced re-offending and employment.
An evaluation of the skills accounts trials has just been published. The evaluation tested their use with low-skilled individuals, the unemployed and Level 3 learners. The percentage who felt that skills accounts were a good idea was very high (94%). However, while skills accounts were found to give lower ability learners more confidence, low IT skills prevented many from using them without assistance.
Higher Education could face 35% funding cuts over 2011-2015 according to reports about a meeting between Cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell and university vice-chancellors. In this scenario the annual level of funding per student would fall from £5,411 to £3,537 if cuts to teaching, research and capital funding were shared equally.
Student satisfaction with undergraduate courses has stalled at 82% according to this year’s National Student Survey. The survey of 252,000 students, published by HEFCE, revealed that the top three universities in terms of student satisfaction were Buckingham (95%), Belfast (94%) and the Open University (93%).
The Third Sector National Learning Alliance and ACEVO are hosting two joint events for members in order to produce a response to the Coalition Government’s current Skills consultations (policy and funding)– in London on the 14th September and in Sheffield on the 17th September.
The Association for Learning Providers, 17 Group and Association of colleges have won regional contracts from the Learning and Skills Improvement Service to run the Employer Responsive programme. The focus of the programme, which will run from August to March 2011, will be employer responsiveness, apprenticeships and pre-employment training.
The Learning and Skills Improvement Service have published their annual review for 2009-10. The review details their achievements including quality improvement; supporting research; raising provider performance; building the capacity of the sector; and developing employer responsive provision.
Political
The Treasury has asked DWP to provide £5 in savings for every £1 spent on reforming the benefits system. Iain Duncan-Smith has been asked to ensure that the reforms cost no more than £3bn and contribute £10bn in net savings. More details will be forthcoming with the Spending Review in October.
The public have submitted over 44,000 ideas of how to cut the deficit via the government’s Spending Challenge. The most popular ideas will be taken forward to the Spending Review in October. You can read the range of suggestions about the voluntary sector here.
The Office for Civil Society and BIS have launched a taskforce on reducing charity regulation. The taskforce is chaired by the president of NCVO, Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts and also includes Lynne Berry from WRVS, Andrew Hind of the Charity Commission, and David Tyle of Community Matters. The taskforce’s responsibilities will include the responsibilities of trustees, employment law, and service delivery contracts.
A new ministerial group on social mobility will be set up to develop a Social Mobility Strategy and former Labour Health Secretary Alan Milburn is to undertake an annual review on social mobility it has been announced. This review will examine the contribution of employers and non-governmental organisations to social mobility and policy initiatives will include reforms to the tax system to reward work and a focus of education resources on the most disadvantaged.
Either the Local Government Association or the Improvement and Development Agency is set to take control of funding for training and improvement across local government. Currently the funding is distributed among nine separate organisations, including the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education. In the future this funding will be unringfenced in order to reduce overhead costs and promote the better use of resources. This will be supported by a short consultation which closes on 9th October 2010.
Unison, the union have challenged proposed reforms to the NHS which will give employees the chance to “spin-out” from the public sector to form social enterprises. The union argue that the reforms have not properly fulfilled the duty for public consultation.
A review will be made into bonus payments paid to NHS consultants. The review will consider the need for incentives to encourage and reward excellent quality of care, innovation, leadership, health research, productivity and contributions to the wider NHS.
The first wave of “free schools” will involve only around a dozen new schools – falling far short of scheduled government plans according to the Financial Times. The schools, which are funded by the taxpayer but run by private-sector bodies, will open in September 2011.
The Department for Education have launched a public consultation on fostering and children’s homes. The proposed changes are designed to reduce delay in foster placements, streamline bureaucracy and remove overly prescriptive regulations. The consultation runs until 19 November 2010.
The University of Birmingham have published research for DWP on the relationship between undertaking training and gaining/retaining employment. The report uses long-term data and suggests. The research shows that the proportion of workers aged 16-69 in training rose by7 8% between 1994 and 2003 but has remained flat since then. For most age groups, except those under aged 20, the rate of wage increase was raised if they had undergone a period of training.
The Department for Culture, Media & Sport is running a consultation on how the Big Lottery Fund might take into account the need to distribute money to projects delivered by the voluntary and community sector. The consultation runs until 29th October and further details can be seen here.
The voluntary sector
ACEVO and PWC have jointly published a report on how commissioning could be reformed to put communities and citizens at the heart of service design and delivery. The paper advocates the use of initiatives such as personal budgets, participatory budgeting, choice and voice in order to create services that reflect the complexity of people’s lives. They also recommend that support for commissioners be refocused to concentrate on market development and skills in innovative service design.
A specific “civic core” of people is responsible for the vast majority of volunteering in the UK. According to research published by the Third Sector Research Centre, two-thirds of unpaid help is given by around 7% of the population. The amount of unpaid help and civic participation in the most advantaged areas is also well over twice that of the least advantaged.
Kevin Curley of NAVCA is to represent the voluntary sector on the Independent Challenge Group, a stakeholder group established to provide advice to the government for the forthcoming spending review. Curley is the only civil society leader appointed to the body.
The Government has produced a guide on the implications of the Equality Act for voluntary sector service providers. The Equality Act will be introduced on 1 October 2010 and will simplify existing equalities legislation. The guide provides advice on how to prevent and address discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services to the public.
New Philanthropy Capital have published a paper on how charities can make an effective evidence-based case to government. The publication poses to charities the same 9 questions that the Treasury is currently asking government departments, including whether the activity is essential to meet government priorities, whether it can be targeted at those most in need; and how it can be provided more effectively.
Think tanks and research
Polls undertaken by Ipsos Mori show that the Coalition Government has the highest “100th day rating” of any government since 1979 (except Blair in 1997). Public awareness about the “big society” agenda has also increased to 52% since the election but 61% still know either “not very much” or “nothing” about any specific plans.
A poll published by ICM shows that the coalition remains reasonably popular, with 46% of voters deeming it to be doing a good job in running the country against 36% who say it is doing a bad job. Meanwhile, a drop in support for the Lib Dems has meant that Labour are on an equal footing with the Conservatives (37%).