Local skills improvement plans: a review of their impact and opportunities for the future

Local skills improvement plans: a review of their impact and opportunities for the future

Based on interviews with senior college leaders and employer representative bodies across the country, and input from across the further education (FE) sector, mayoral combined authorities (MCAs) and local authorities (LAs) and business groups, this report makes several recommendations on how LSIPs need to change for the future, grouped into four key areas.

• The first is the focus on building genuinely place-based partnerships, ensuring that LSIPs act as a partnership between all the key stakeholders, and that they cohere with other local or regional planning processes, rather than adding layers of complexity to an already complex system.
  
• The second is ensuring effective, strategic employer relationships which are a ‘two-way street’, ensuring that the focus reflects the broad range of employers within a place, is on the long-term priorities rather than simply current vacancies, and involves reflecting on how employers will have to change too.
  
• The third is the funding context, recognising the impact of both the level of funding going into the system and the funding approach, as either enabling or undermining ability to deliver on the plan.
  
• The fourth is ensuring a clear and coherent approach to accountability, so that everyone is clear on their roles and responsibilities in developing and delivering on LSIPs.

Read the report