David Willetts

On the day that a cross-party Committee condemns the Government for its handling of the capital crisis in Further Education, David Willetts, the Shadow Secretary of State for Universities and Skills, will host a Further Education and Skills Forum.

Shadow Secretary for Universities and Skills, David Willetts said:

“This report pins the blame squarely on ministers. Colleges were told to “big-up” their building projects, yet no one had oversight of the total capital programme. The report suggests ministers knew about the problems much earlier than they have admitted - by September 2008 rather than late November. And their plan to replace the Learning and Skills Council with three new quangos is making the problems worse, not better.

“There are now 180 college rebuilding projects on the table but only 13 have got the go-ahead. FE colleges, which want to focus on reskilling and upskilling during the recession, continue to stare a huge financial crisis in the face. Unfortunately, the biggest losers are unemployed people, low-skilled people and employers wanting to train their staff.

“This is a staggering failure and responsibility lies at the top. We must do better. Our Skills Forum is an opportunity to talk directly to the sector about the existing capital crisis as well as the newly-emerging crisis in apprenticeship funding. And we will be looking to the future by hearing about what the sector can do to help tackle the record number of people not in education or training as well as the growing number of unemployed people, and the skills gap.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

1. The Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee report Spend, spend, spend? is published at 00.01am on Friday, 17th July and says:

• ‘We ask that the LSC and DBIS clarify the remark made in the minutes of the LSC External Advisory Group meeting in September 2008 that Ministers were considering risks associated with the FE college capital programme.’ (p.34).
• At a meeting in November 2008, a senior DIUS official told the LSC’s National Council that ‘the Treasury’s steer was to bring forward capital spend, especially on the public side.’ (p.31)
• ‘the same management problems that befell LSC were also there in DIUS … [including] a total failure to pick-up messages from the sector (or apply common sense) about the scale of the commitments which were being made.’ (p.32).
• ‘DIUS did not place key risks it had identified in its Accounts - including poor risk management at the LSC - in its Departmental Report.’ (p.25).
• ‘Out of over 180 projects submitted to the LSC - of which a significant proportion had received Approval in Principle - only 13 have proceeded to the next stage of consideration.’ (p.46)
• ‘Some colleges received funding for iconic buildings when something much cheaper would have served perfectly well. Other worthy projects, perhaps in areas of greater deprivation, will now not be funded at all.’ (p.21).
• ‘We conclude that both DIUS and the LSC are jointly liable for not recognising the weak points of a capital programme which suffered from no overall budget and poor management information, but which was being heavily marketed by the LSC to colleges. A heinously complicated management structure within the LSC and the approaching Machinery of Government changes bred a lack of responsibility and an air of distraction. Everyone wanted this laudable programme to succeed and so failure became unthinkable.’ (pp.54-55).
• ‘Looking forward, the decision-making structure will shortly become even more complicated as the number of organisations involved increases from three (LSC, DIUS, DCSF) to five (Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, DCSF, Local authorities, Skills Funding Agency, Young People’s Learning Agency). Both the transition to the new arrangements (which will be led by a new Department) and the new arrangements themselves have the potential to repeat and compound all the problems we have identified throughout the report.’ (p.55).
• ‘the Committee was told by one college principal that a project which had initially been going to cost £8 million was transformed into one costing £175 million through the regional LSC property process.’ (IUSS Committee press release).

2. David Willetts, the Shadow Secretary of State for Universities and Skills, will host a Further Education and Skills Forum in County Hall, Norwich, between 11am and 1pm on Friday, 17 July 2009. Invitees include representatives from FE colleges, other training providers and employers. If you are interested in attending, please contact Nicholas Hillman at nicholas.hillman@conservatives.com