Qualifications: 14-19
Key National Policy Documents
Overview of 14-19 Delivery
National / Regional
Two new national agencies are being created, both will have control over allocation of national budgets: Young People's Learning Agency, responsible for 14-19, and Skills Funding Agency (SfA), responsible for adult learning.
Young People’s Learning Agency (YPLA)
A small non-departmental public body (NDPB) that will be established by 2010 with local authorities as strategic decision makers, its main role will be to support and enable authorities to commission provision whilst ensuring budgetary control.
Core functions of the YPLA include:
- Ensuring the coherence of plans
- Funding and budgetary control at National and Regional levels
- Developing national frameworks and providing support for planning and commissioning
- Undertaking national commissioning and contracting where this is appropriate
- Ensuring local authorities are provided with the data, management information and strategic analysis that enables them to make intelligent commissioning decisions
The YPLA will be given powers to intervene where there is significant risk that local authorities will not be able to develop robust commissioning plans within the time constraints of the commissioning cycle.
Regional Planning Group (RPG)
Its not clear from publicly available sources which organisation will host the South East Regional Planning Group. The acronym RPG is already over-used at regional level. The RPG could sit with the South East Regional Assembly or SEEDA. Local Authorities will need to work together to commission the most effective provision for young people in their area, especially given the number of young people who will travel to another local area to learn.
The RPG will scrutinise 16-19 commissioning plans from ‘sub-regional groupings’ to ensure they are coherent (making consistent assumptions and using common data), can be funded within the regional budget (which one assumes will go to the RPG for the South-East Region), and will deliver the 14-19 entitlement. The RPG should also work with Regional Skills Partnerships (Don’t ask! this could be SEEDA or LSC) to make sure that commissioning plans reflect local skills needs.
Learning & Skills Council South East has a Regional Commissioning Plan 07/08 that includes a Commissioning Strategy for Young People (its light on detail though, and gives no indication that it addresses any of the above!).
The strong presumption is that the RDA (SEEDA) will co-chair the RPG with local authorities. The RDAs will help ensure that local authority plans deliver what is needed by employers, taking account of the regional economic strategy and regional skill needs.
Likely RPG members
- Young Peoples Learning Agency (YPLA)
- Skills Funding Agency (SfA)
- Kent & Medway LA’s
- SEEDA (Regional Development Agency for the South East)
- South East Regional Assembly
Kent (& Medway?)
There is no publicly visible strategy for the delivery of 14-19 reform in Kent; however there has been a rationalisation in its organisation. Kent is part of a Kent and Medway 'sub-regional grouping'. This is logical on the basis that Connexions and LSC already work to this.
The following is my understanding of 14-19 reform in Kent:
- Kent has a statutory responsibility for producing the 'Kent Prospectus' and the Kent 'Common Application Process'. This is currently delivered by Connexions Kent and Medway on behalf of Kent CC.
- A 14-24 Strategic Forum replaces the previous 14-19 Strategy Implementation Group (SIG) and 14+ Strategic Forum and is chaired by Sue Dunn, Manager of the 14-24 Innovation Unit. The Forum represents Kent CC, Connexions Kent and Medway, Learning and Skills Council Kent and Medway, an FE Representative, and the chair of each of 9 area 16+ forums.
- Nine 16+ forums are responsible for the development of 16+ offers and processes within defined geographical areas of Kent. I say defined, but the geographical areas of coverage are not known but it is believed they broadly align with existing arrangements for secondary networks and Local Children's Service Partnerships (LCSP's). There are no available agenda, minutes or plans(yet!).
- A 14-24 Innovations Unit is headed by Sue Dunn, and provides strategic leadership and stewardship to 14-24 reforms.
- Public documents mention 14-19 Planning Forums in the context of subject specific diplomas. The use of the same term as above is confusing, but they seem to refer to work by Advisory Services Kent (ASK) led by Jennie Thomas.
- Local authorities have submitted their initial proposals to DIUS with more detail required by March 2009. I have not seen a Kent draft. How the above structures and groupings make sense of the 'delivering the reforms' national guidance is opaque.
Kent 14-19 Strategic Implementation Group Action Plan 2007/8
Kent Trust Web 14-19 Pages
Kent Trust Web - Vocational Learning Home Page
14-19 Prospectus
The prospectus should provide improved data quality by enabling Learning Providers to maintain their own data and content. The system should eventually identify providers that have not updated their content and data by a given date and automatically request them to review their prospectus information.
By 2010 the area prospectus should be integrated with data and information sharing developments (such as MIAP) to acquire organisational data from Learning Providers. Descriptions of national curriculum courses and qualifications should be available from examination boards as a central information source, removing the need for prospectuses to maintain local descriptions. Providers should also not need to duplicate course descriptions to multiple prospectuses. Descriptions of courses and qualifications offered by providers will instead be obtained directly from existing websites or entered directly by the provider.
The 14-19 Prospectus should be a user friendly fully searchable directory of education and training available in their area at levels 1 through to 3. Kent's can be found HERE.
It should also provide:
- Labour market information for the area
- Information about the results achieved on courses in the previous year
- Feedback about courses from students who have previously taken them
- Information about progression routes from courses
- Details about how to get in touch with IAG practitioners who can offer support
- Information about financial support and transport
- The opportunity to apply for courses online through the CAP
- The opportunity to post feedback on courses
- The opportunity to develop an individual learning plan through the Prospectus
The Kent 14-19 Prospectus is already available and offers information on local learning opportunities and how to apply for them. Other local 14-19 Prospectus websites can be found through the [www.direct.gov.uk/14-19prospectus|DirectGov] website.
Early in 2009, we will publish an Action Plan for the 14-19 Prospectus and the Common Application Process. This will set out our expectations for the development of the 14-19 Prospectus and CAP and provide information about the support available at a national and local level.
In each of the next three years, starting this financial year, Government is making an inadequate £1.7m available to support the development of high-quality online prospectuses. The first of these payments was made to local authorities on 3 November 2008
Common Application Process (CAP)
The Common Application Process is a means for post-16 students to apply for courses found through the Prospectus. CAP is intended to link directly to MIAP and prospectus.
In Kent the CAP is managed by Connexions Kent and Medway, and should be linked to the Kent Prospectus by 2010.
14-19 Partnerships (whether 'partnerships' refers to the statutory' subregional groupings' is debatable) will be responsible for delivering a Common Application Process in partnership with schools, colleges and training providers. To make the transition to post-16 learning simpler and smother, the CAP will be firmly linked to the 14-19 Prospectus. To ensure the full range of learning options are covered DIUS will work with the LSC and the new National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) to ensure there is alignment between the new National Apprenticeship Vacancy Matching Service (NAVMS) and CAP.
- It will be one process through which all young people can apply for education and training opportunities so that they no longer have to navigate different applications processes for different opportunities
- Young people will be able to use it to apply for education and training courses from level 1 to level 3, namely GCSEs and A levels, Diplomas, and progression pathways within the FLT
- It will be linked to the National Apprenticeship Vacancy Matching Service
- Young people who have not applied for education or training or received an offer of a place can be offered support and advice from specialist IAG professionals.
The Action Plan for the 14-19 Prospectus and Common Application Process will provide further information about developments at local level and will set out what support is available to deveop management information systems that enable delivery.
The Managing Information Across Partners (MIAP) Group was set up in 2002 to address the problems of information collection and sharing across the post-14 education sector. It now brings together 42 post-14 learning and skills sector organisations with the clear aim of turning the philosophy “collect once, use many times, used by all” into reality.
MIAP arose from the post-16 reforms following the Learning and Skills Act 2000 and the legacy of disparate policies and systems, particularly in the FE sector. Based on the recognition that effective data management would help realise the benefits of reform, a study by David Mason Associates confirmed the need for stronger links with schools, higher education and the devolved administrations, leading to a UK-wide approach.
A DfES-led Programme Board, including representatives from the LSC, QCA, DWP, HESA, the Information Commissioner’s office and the devolved administrations, undertook a programme of work to investigate feasibility and user requirements, securing wideranging support from stakeholders. Ministerial support for the MIAP concept and incremental approach was obtained in June 2004 and reaffirmed in July 2005. In the autumn of 2005, the Programme Board, whilst retaining the strategic direction, delegated programme delivery to the Learning and Skills Council (LSC).
The aim is to have a fully functioning MIAP infrastructure and service in place by 2010. Progress to date has included the launch of the UK Register of Learning Providers in August 2005 and the completion of two tranches of Common Data Definitions (CDD) with initial rollout planned from Summer 2006. In January 2007, LSC contracted with LogicaCMG to deliver a service for the first 5 years of MIAP operation. This document defines the Functional Requirements of the first
(Release 1a) and second release (Release 1b) of the MIAP system to be implemented in September 2007 and October 2007, respectively, to underpin the MIAP service contracted to LogicaCMG. It builds upon the formative work undertaken by LSC and described in the MIAP Operational Model.
Reduced Shakespeare Overview of the new 14 - 19 proposals
Origins
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