Leon Walker,
Regeneration & Renewal,
29 August 2008
The current skills regime is far too complex and local authorities should be given more power over skills provision, a think-tank has said.
The New Local Government Network (NLGN) said it approves of forthcoming government reforms to UK skills policy in which funding and responsibility for upskilling 16-19 year olds will be devolved to local authorities and sub-national agencies.
But the think-tank says that, as part of streamlining this process, both 14-19 further education college commissioning and 16-19 capital funding should be devolved to local authorities.
Councils should also be able to use mechanisms such as multi-area agreements to aggregate skills provision with neighbouring local authorities, according to a new report by the NLGN.
Author of the report Nick Hope said: "The organic formation of collaborative arrangements between local authorities, such as through Maas, will allow them to integrate their education and skills strategy far better with their economic strategy at the most appropriate spatial level".
Licence to Skill: Streamlining the skills system by devolving skills to local authorities is available here
