Responding to needs
Responsiveness to the needs and views of learners, employers and communities will be central to the development of self regulation within the FE system.
All providers will be expected to develop strategies for actively engaging these key stakeholders in their planning, review and development processes. The stakeholders should expect opportunities for greater influence on the nature of provision and how it is delivered; more bespoke forms of delivery should result. They should also expect an enhanced voice in governance functions, through the greater flexibility that will be available to providers in determining the composition of their governing bodies. Providers will be expected to develop comprehensive procedures for facilitating and responding to ‘customer’ complaints.
At a system level, the Single Voice will be a key vehicle for identifying and representing the system wide views and needs of learners, employers and communities across the FE sector. It will do so directly through assuming operational responsibility for such functions as the National Learner Panel and National Learner Survey, and indirectly though close working relationships with other national bodies on ways of enhancing responsiveness. The Single Voice will also be fully responsive to the needs and views of learners, employers and communities in the development and implementation of a sector owned improvement strategy for further education.
The Learner Voice
The Single Voice will maintain its dialogue with the National Union of Students and NIACE about their work with the development of learner involvement strategies. The Single Voice will develop a Learner Involvement Strategy (LIS) as a component of its overall strategic planning process. The LIS will engage and incorporate existing forums and reference groups such as the National Learner Panel (NLP) alongside learner representative bodies, building on best practice examples from its members. Mirroring the institutional process, the Single Voice LIS will be developed in the spirit of engagement and partnership with all relevant learner groups and organisations with multiple access points and mechanisms for involvement.
The National Learner Panel (NLP) will operate from within the Single Voice to provide a reference group for consultation on policies, proposals and initiatives at the national level. The Single Voice will work with the National Learner Panel to determine how best to support its activities and future development. The Single Voice LIS will interface with the providers’ own strategies to:
- encourage greater learner involvement at an institutional level through, for example, training, mentoring and coaching
- encourage greater dialogue and consultation with learner representative bodies; ensure learner involvement in learner survey design and analysis
- review the results of the National Learner Survey
- ensure that learner views are acted on
- initiate change in the system from a learner’s perspective
- identify key priorities from the learner perspective and provide advice on policies, proposals and initiatives at the national level.
It is assumed that the existing budget for the NLP will be transferred to the Single Voice to enable it to provide a secretariat function for the NLP.
The Employer Voice
From April 2008, the UK Commission for Employment and Skills will be responsible for managing the Sector Skills Council network, including accreditation and will articulate the needs of employers. The Single Voice will seek to establish a strategic partnership with the Commission with a view to improving the FE sector’s responsiveness to employer needs in England. Until April 2008 the Single Voice will maintain dialogue with the Sector Skills Development Agency. The Single Voice will be able to engage with the views of employers at a national level on skills needs through the Alliance of Sector Skills Councils (TASSC). Just as providers engage with employers at the local level, the strategic partnership with the Commission will seek to complement rather than duplicate or override local or regional employer engagement activities, including the local employer coalitions funded by Working Ventures UK.
The Community Voice
Communities will benefit from a greater focus on ways of assessing and demonstrating the value of further education to local communities. Current work on Public Value and the socioeconomic impact model will be built on by the Single Voice as part of its commitment to support the further development of the Framework for Excellence to ensure a broader set of outcome measures are developed that reflect the value of further education to local communities and the wider contribution of adult and community learning in meeting government targets.
Communities will benefit from the dialogue that the Single Voice will have with the LGA, HOLEX, LEAFEA and NIACE to ensure that local community interests are reflected in the future work on self regulation, including ways of enhancing the community voice.
