North Yorkshire Council Adult Learning and Skills Service Accountability Agreement 2024/25
Purpose
The Adult Learning and Skills Service is part of the Children’s and Young Peoples Service directorate of North Yorkshire Council. We define our purpose as providing the gateway to opportunity for the region’s adults, (and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) enabling them to reach their full potential. Whether that be greater integration into society or to move into more-fulfilling employment roles we are keen to support individuals to thrive, improving their physical and emotional health and recognising the opportunities available to them.
We will achieve this through celebrating our key strategic purpose and using our funding to engage with our communities to support residents to feel confident, inspired and empowered to step through the door into learning.
Under a single Shared Head of Adult Learning and Skills, (serving both City of York and North Yorkshire councils) we work towards shared aims.
1. To clearly define the purpose of the adult learning services for all stakeholders.
2. To develop a curriculum offer that is in line with local skills needs.
3. To reach and inspire learning for the full breadth of the community demographic with the offer.
4. To be the provider of choice for those furthest away from the skills offer
5. To protect the full aims of community learning* within York and North Yorkshire
6. To grow provision into areas not well supported by other providers.
7. To support a clear progression pathway for all adult learners from entry through to higher education and into sustained employment.
8. To provide effective value for money for the communities of York and North Yorkshire.
We see ourselves as an important service within the authority, using our funding to align with the council’s priorities for residents and to meet the wider themes of the council’s plan for 2024-2028, the Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) for York and North Yorkshire and to work towards the skills aspirations of the new Mayoral Combined authority as we head toward devolution of the Adult Skills Fund (ASF) from 2025-26 academic year.
The accountability statement for 2024-25 builds upon the work started last year responding to the needs of the region. We have laid strong foundations in the celebration of transferable skills within all aspects of our curriculum. We have increased engagement with a wider and more diverse cohort of learners through Multiply activity, through work on digital inclusion and through work to embed Information, Advice and Guidance within community networks.
We have started work on using a more strategic pipelining approach to key sectors for the region, including health and social care and enhanced digital skills.
This work has been supported by greater integration into the work of the council and the wider further education sector allowing us to supplement our funding through the Learning Skills Improvement Fund (LSIF) and UK Shared Prosperity Funding (UKSPF).
Context and Place
The Adult Learning and Skills Service as part of North Yorkshire Council provides largely Education and Skills Funding Agency funded adult and community learning provision, with additional income from dedicated project work, supporting apprenticeships and the support for those learners aged 19-25 with Education Health and Care Plans.
The graphic above from North Yorkshire Council: Our plan for the future of North Yorkshire Council Plan 2024-2028 provides significant context to the opportunities and challenges within the region. We are a world-renowned tourist destination, combining natural landscapes and coastal areas with vibrant market towns and active communities. The economy of the region is shaped by successful small and micro-businesses, working alongside significant public sector and large-scale industry. These opportunities provide a strong platform for growth and investment driven by a single unitary authority and now in partnership with the City of York and a Mayoral Combined authority.
Our service, and its partnership with City of Yorks’ York Learning service, has a major role in enabling residents across the region to achieve the best they possibly can and benefit from our thriving economy.
Our offer is delivered face to face from venues across the county, these venues include community centres, libraries and council owned buildings and increasingly other important community hubs such as foodbanks. Since the pandemic a large proportion of delivery takes place online but as a service it is a strategic aim to widen the mode of delivery, increasing face to face delivery but also expanding our blended, bite-size and on-demand provision.
North Yorkshire is home to 4 General Further Education Providers in Harrogate College, Selby College, Scarborough TEC and Craven College, but due to the sparse nature of the region, large parts of the community will have to travel out of county to their nearest GFE, (provided by Darlington, Middlesbrough, East Riding, Bishop Burton and Stockton Riverside). The region is home to three universities and is served further by HE institutions outside of the region. There are 40+ Training Providers operating in the county offering apprenticeships and accredited adult learning courses.
Our passion for adult learning continues to drive us to deliver effective programmes of learning to a range of adults with a particular focus on those from disadvantaged and marginalised communities. We want to offer inclusive services with high quality learning provision and support, which works well across the spectrum of need, whilst meeting the needs of our local economy fully inline with the Council Plan we aim to deliver in a way that sets strong ambitions to increase opportunities for everyone living in North Yorkshire to live healthy and fulfilling lives.
The council plan for the county sets five aligned core ambitions as detailed above, Place and Environment, Economy, Health and Wellbeing, People and Organisation. We are ambitious within ALSS to be able to stress the significant impact that adult learning can have to meet these ambitions. Using creativity, innovation and our community roots we can utilise our Adult Skills funding to:
· Increase opportunities for people to manage through the cost of living crisis – through understanding waste, energy bills, practical hints and tips with embedded core numeracy, literacy and digital skills.
· Increase the levels of independence in adults with disabilities to take personal responsibility for health and wellbeing.
· Encourage families to work, learn and play together – delivering green ambitions, use of the considerable natural beauty of our landscape and the vibrancy of conurbations and to cement the connection with arts and heritage.
· Encourage more people to see themselves as learners and to benefit from lifelong learning to meet their potential .
· Support combined pride in and understanding of our wide and welcoming common heritage.
· Work in spaces in communities to help them be more useful and vibrant.
But through all of this we will demonstrate clear pathways that:
· Improve essential skills.
· support people to overcome digital poverty.
· allow people to take up better jobs that are better suited to their skills, ambitions and aspirations and progress into the wider economic infrastructure.
The York and North Yorkshire Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) details that the area is well-served by high quality education at all levels but that there is a clear challenge in connecting with those individuals who would most benefit from this provision.
Research undertaken in production of the LSIP describes an economic landscape in the region consisting of a high proportion of higher-skilled, non-manual sectors such as education, finance and professional services contributing to a resilient economy. Unemployment levels are low with a high number of jobs available in highly skilled sectors such as agritech, engineering and life sciences.
The proportion of people with higher level qualifications in the region is higher than the national average (48% versus 43% in the Annual population survey Jan-Dec 2021) with an aging demographic of the population that has an older than average working age with replacement demand increasing in industries where large numbers are soon to or have retired, the LSIP stresses that retaining talent in the workforce at all ages is critical. The working age population contracted by 2% between 2011 and 2021 in strong contrast to the national picture which expanded by 4% based on census information. The plan, (published in July 2023) went on to detail there were 9,945 unemployed claimants accounting for 2% of the working population in the region, against a national average 3.7% whilst there remained a high number of jobs available in highly skilled sectors such as engineering and life sciences, and that high quality learning institutions provided a significant graduate pipeline which is attractive to employers.
The region should now benefit from the opportunities afforded by devolution, with the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority coming into being on 1st February 2024 with its first Mayor elected in May 2024. As part of the devolution deal alongside the wider opportunities comes devolution of the Adult Skills Fund (ASF) from 2025. Work is already well underway in shaping an economic strategy for the region drawing on the strengths of the two constituent authorities. Underpinning this work will be a skills strategy and a strategy and commissioning approach for ASF.
Echoing the LSIP early consultation with the combined authority details that supply of learning opportunities is not an issue, but rather engagement with these opportunities alongside greater awareness are paramount. The Combined authority detailing its ASF priorities as shown below.
Approach to developing the plan.
The Shared Head for Adult Learning and Skills (York and North Yorkshire) set out and consulted on a clear strategic vision for the adult learning provision provided by North Yorkshire and City of York Councils in December of 2021. This strategy and direction identified the need to support adults to access the training and support that can be provided by engagement in education. This common strategy is important to support the wider economic requirements of the region and aims to enable strong lobbying support for the services once the adult education budget is devolved under a combined mayoral authority which is expected in the 2025-26 academic year.
This strategic document was consulted on in July of 2022 and published in September of 2022, this document was produced utilising the extensively consulted research base of the York and North Yorkshire LEP and is one of many documents that were used to formulate the York and North Yorkshire LSIP which additionally cites a strong research and policy base. The Shared Head has worked closely with the combined authority team to shape the CA skills and ASF strategies and these opportunities have been integral to the creation of a strong collaborative platform for the creation of this plan.
The key aim for this plan is to increase the wider social value of our funding via a strong platform of engagement of learners. Supporting more residents to see themselves as learners and to recognise their potential as a result will develop a strong pipeline to improved productivity and improved health and wellbeing outcomes.
As discussed within the service strategy it is a key strategic direction to collaborate with our FE and HE partners and to co-ordinate progression pathways to serve as a pipeline for their adult provision to support the regions wider economic growth through upskilling and re-skilling.
The final area of consideration, when building the plan, have been the greater clarity offered by the definitions underpinning tailored learning. As set out in the ASF funding rules for ESFA funded provision “the primary purpose of tailored learning is to support learners into employment and to progress to further learning, in line with the overall purpose of the ASF. It will, however, also support wider outcomes including using it to improve health and wellbeing, equip parents/carers to support their child’s learning and develop stronger and more integrated communities”. The funding rules go on to describe 7 key purposes that recognise the wider benefits of learning. These purposes being:
1. Engaging and/or building confidence
2. Preparation for further learning
3. Preparation for employment
4. Improving essential skills (English, ESOL, maths, digital)
5. Equipping parents/carers to support children’s learning.
6. Health and well-being
7. Developing stronger communities