CONSULTATION AND KEY EMERGING ISSUES

It’s definitely full steam ahead for the project as we draft the consultation document.  As part of this work, Jacqui Buffton, one of our team members, has been reviewing the various strands of feedback we have had over the last 2 months from all parts of the sector, and she has drafted a section for the consultation document.  So to provide some early feedback of what we think you have been telling us, I thought I would publish this draft section on my blog and later on our website.

Informal Consultation Process

As a precursor to this formal consultation document, various discussion papers were produced between November 2012 and January 2013 to stimulate debate and highlight key issues or areas to be addressed. Initial views were sought from individuals through four informal focus groups held in December 2012, in London and Birmingham. An open access, on-line initial consultation survey was available for completion from December to mid-January 2013. The Steering Group, which met twice (December 2012 and January 2013), and the Executive Group, were also used to gain views from organisations and stakeholders on what might be the key issues for consultation on the setting up of a Guild for the Learning and Skills sector. They also ensured, through their networks, that the initial consultation processes were engaged with by all relevant parties. A number of written responses to the initial consultation were also received.  In addition a dedicated blog was used to provide feedback on emerging issues and to help generate debate.  A Guild website was also set up to provide updates and access to key project documents.

68 people attended the four focus groups from a variety of organisations. 404 responses were received from the on-line survey. The majority were from the colleges (54%), the Independent Learning providers (23%), Local Authority and Adult Community providers (7%), with 3% from Third Sector Providers and the remainder (11%) from a variety of individuals not within the above categories.

Emerging Key Issues

All the focus groups raised the need to clarify the remit of the Guild and to identify what part of the sector landscape it was trying to or should occupy.  This was reflected in the on-line survey where half of respondents were supportive or very supportive of the general concept, but 42% were ambivalent until they knew more. 

The focus groups, those responding to the on-line survey and the Steering Group were in general agreement that the core focus of the Guild should be to enhance the professionalism of the sector. The on-line survey showed support for the Guild being responsible for the following functions:

·         Standards and qualifications for those working in the sector (87%)
·         CPD opportunities (84%)
·         Training, learning and curriculum development (80%)
·         Governance, Leadership and Management development (70%)
·         Undertaking or commissioning of research related to teaching and learning (73%)
·         Self-assessment and peer review (65%)
·         Organisational effectiveness and efficiency (57%)
·         Initial teacher training and supply (56%)
·         Learner support and learner voice (51%)

There was limited support for the Guild becoming responsible for ‘World Skills’ (41% in the on-line survey), but one written response pointed up the links with World Skills and connectivity with national and international standards, which had not been explained in the survey, so we will cover this in more detail in the consultation.

Written responses covered the need to include all sectors, develop the authority to set standards (one mentioned including standards for leaders and governors), the role the Guild might have in endorsing teaching qualifications and CPD modules, and in ‘future proofing’ the sectors, the dissemination of good practice models on performance management, the collection of appropriate data on the workforce and the links that could be made to the proposed Charter Status and Covenant. There was support for a Covenant demonstrated in the on-line survey, and from one written response, provided it did not undermine national or local bargaining arrangements. Collective bargaining and intervention with providers was not considered to be a Guild function.

 

Concern was expressed in a number of fora about how the Guild’s functions would align with what is already available within the sector and how it would add value.

The issue of the role of the Guild in enhancing the reputation of the sector, both with learners, employers and government was raised in the focus groups, the written responses and in the Steering Group.

There was general agreement throughout the initial consultation, that the Guild should be sector led/owned. Through the discussions at the focus groups, at the Steering Group and with individual organisations, the view emerged that it should begin as an employer–led organisation (here employer means provider) with the option to provide for individual membership at a later date. How to fund such an organisation was raised as an issue, and will need to be addressed further in the consultation document.

There were conflicting and strongly held views on what parts of the workforce should be covered by the Guild. This will again need further exploration as part of the consultation document.

If we have missed anything crucial please do let us know.