14+ Skills Landscape

On 1 April 2010, all functions previously carried out by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) with respect to 16-19 education and training transfer either to Local Authorities (LA) or the Young People's Learning Agency (YPLA). Local Authorities now have the central commissioning role for all education and training for young people aged 16-19, up to 25 with learning difficulties, and for those young people in youth custody aged 10 to 18.

The role of the YPLA is to support and enable local authorities to carry out their new responsibilities by providing national frameworks to support planning and commissioning, ensuring coherence of commissioning plans, securing national budgetary control, managing the national funding formula, supporting the local, sub-regional and regional infrastructure and providing strategic data and analysis.

The newly formed 14+ Learning & Skills Strategic Team will provide a service for the LA managing the functions, transferring and integrating them with existing LA accountabilities for 14+ education and training. In addition there will be some accountability to the newly formed Sub Regional Planning Group between Devon, Plymouth and Torbay and the Regional Planning Group (RPG) covering the SW Government office region.

The team will need to :

• secure new service delivery systems at every organisational level and work to the agreed new governance (local/regional/national) models;
• ensure the organisation is fit for purpose and able to meet its statutory, commissioned and financial targets;
• carry the responsibility for the relevant targets and programmes in the Local Area Agreement (LAA), National Indicator Set (NIS), and the Children & Young People’s Plan (CYPP)
• be accountable for all indicators relating to the Economic Well Being outcome under the Every Child Matters strategy.

The Apprenticeship, Skills, Children and Learning Act presents Devon County Council a great opportunity to build on the relationships already established between key educational, skills and economic stakeholders to work together to plan and commission a coherent, integrated and responsive offer to all young people. This is particularly important as we move towards the Raising of the Participation Age from 2013. The 14+ Learning and Skills Strategic Team will strive to achieve this commitment. 

Please click here to access key information and contacts regarding the newly formed Devon 14+ Learning and Skills Strategic Team.