Academy head hits back

Planning, 8 August 2008

Peter Roberts is somewhat disappointed. The chairman of the Academy for Sustainable Communities has just read the Commons communities and local government committee's report on shortages of planners and skills gaps and expresses confusion at its findings.

The MPs' conclusions (Planning, 25 July, p1) on the academy's efforts are mixed. It wins praise for its "significant work" in identifying skills gaps, which indicates that the planning profession alone is staring down the barrel of a 16,000 shortfall in staff within the next four years. But the committee also called on the DCLG to assess the academy's impact over its first three years.

Its report complains that the academy reached only three per cent of its target professional workforce, at a cost of around £15 million. Roberts clearly feels the criticism is misplaced. "Planning is a very important profession but it is only one out of the 103 activity areas the academy is expected to cover," he says. "We have a budget of £15 million, so that means spending £150,000 per area over three years."

The committee also refers to doubts voiced by several witnesses at its inquiry over the academy's influence, accusing it of failing to establish "a clear picture of what it is for and what it does". Here Roberts is adamant, emphasising the academy's terms of reference as envisaged in the Egan report.

"We were never set up to be the direct deliverer of education and training to individuals or professionals. Our role was always to be a national strategic body. We have worked with the appropriate professional and educational bodies to create the basis for more effective delivery of planning and other skills. But it's not our job to be a mega-planning school," he insists.

"It's important for us to continue to emphasise what we were charged with doing and the mode for doing it. We were tasked with developing sustainable community skills and knowledge. We would need far more than a staff of 20 and the budget of £5 million that we have now if we were to cover education, training and continuing professional development (CPD) for every planner."

Roberts declines to be drawn on the MPs' headline call for a sector skills council for planners. He points out that this is under the control of a different ministry to the one to which the academy reports. In any case, there is already a body - Asset Skills - to do this job, although again planning is just one of its responsibilities. "If somebody asked us to provide some specific help we would be pleased to do so, but this is not in our gift," he asserts.

Later this year the academy will be absorbed into the Homes and Communities Agency. While it is keen to retain its identity in the process, it also hopes that being part of such a heavyweight organisation will increase its clout.

But before that point is reached, Roberts indicates three areas in which the academy has been highly pro-active. Its generic module, developed with the Open University and the Bayswater Institute, aims to help deliver interdisciplinary programmes in skills for sustainable community professionals.

This covers the government's economic, social and environmental policies, links between core and associated occupations, generic skills for specific professions and the need for community engagement. The module can be inserted into undergraduate, postgraduate and CPD courses or used as a stand-alone training package.

The academy has also launched a sustainable communities foundation degree. This covers the core disciplines of planning, design, housing and environmental management. Partnership working, community consultation, governance and project management are also on the menu.

The course has been available since January at Sheffield Hallam University and the academy aims to have it on offer in at least one university in each region within the next three years. Students can move on to an honours degree through final-year modules on planning, housing, human geography and environmental studies.

The curriculum offers a non-traditional career path that aims to convert people who would otherwise not think of becoming sustainable community professionals. The academy told the committee about the degree but it was overlooked in the committee's final report, much to Roberts's bewilderment.

"It is disappointing that the MPs did not identify such a positive alternative pathway to getting planners," he says. "We did it in the expectation that it would meet a need in the market place. To design, establish and validate a degree usually takes two to three years. We did it in a year."

Finally, Roberts points to the successful promotion of Planning for Non-Planners, a joint initiative with the British Urban Regeneration Association aimed at local authority professionals who work closely with planners but who are not qualified. It was piloted at Kirklees Council in May with senior and middle managers drawn from regeneration and development, design, highways and leisure departments.

The course covers masterplanning, environmental assessment, sustainability appraisal, project assessment and even a typical planning application. Feedback from delegates has been positive and the academy is now looking to roll out the programme country-wide. "We are trying to demystify planning so people can understand what it can do and how they can work alongside planners to find a solution for their communities," Roberts explains.

CV
Age: 61
Family: Married with one son
Education: BA in geography, University of Leicester; postgraduate
certificate in education, University of Manchester; MA in applied
geography, Newcastle University
Interests: Liverpool Football Club
2005: Chairman, Academy for Sustainable Communities
2003: Professor of regional planning, University of Liverpool
1996: Professor of European strategic planning, University of Dundee
1988: Professor of urban planning, Leeds Metropolitan University
1978: Senior research manager, Ecotec
1977: Principal lecturer, Coventry University
1971: Lecturer, Liverpool John Moores University
1970: Lecturer, Flintshire College of Technology
1969: Research assistant, Newcastle University