MD2299 Skills for Londoners Strategy

The Mayor’s draft Skills and Adult Education Strategy: ‘Skills for Londoners’ was published for public consultation on 24 November 2017 and consultation closed on 2 January 2018. Responses were considered at the SfL Taskforce meeting on 30 January and in more detail at a separate meeting with some of the Taskforce members on 22 February 2018.

A Consultation Report to the Mayor has been produced and is at appendix B. It will be published with the final strategy. Also appended is a summary of the evidence base (appendix C).

The Skills for Londoners (SfL) Framework - the delivery plan for the SfL Strategy, incorporating the devolved Adult Education Budget (AEB) - will be the subject of a separate MD.

Skills for Londoners is the first dedicated post-16 skills and adult education strategy produced by a London Mayor. It sets out the skills challenges London faces, along with the priorities and actions required to make the London skills system the envy of the world and achieve the Mayor’s vision for:

‘A City for all Londoners – making sure Londoners, employers and businesses get the skills they need to succeed in a fair, inclusive society and thriving economy’

The Mayor has identified three key priorities and a set of collaborative actions within these to help address London’s skills challenges and realise his vision. The priorities provide the strategic context for the Skills for Londoners Framework, which further outlines the Mayor’s funding priorities, desired outcomes and delivery approach for the devolved Adult Education Budget, European Social Fund, Skills for Londoners Capital Fund and other City Hall programmes.

Strategy priorities:

• empower all Londoners to access the education and skills to participate in society and progress in education and work
• meet the needs of London’s economy and employers, now and in the future
• deliver a strategic city-wide technical skills and adult education offer.

A set of indicators has been identified for the Mayor’s Skills for Londoners Strategy (to 2028), as well as top-level indicators that will contribute to the objectives set out in the Mayor’s Economic Development Strategy (EDS) (to 2041).

The strategy sets out the Mayor’s immediate ambitions and priorities for skills and education over the coming years, but, in the longer term, working with the London boroughs, the Mayor aspires to create a single, integrated skills and adult education offer for London to deliver a more strategic, whole-system approach to post-16 skills.

The Mayor’s manifesto sets out priorities to improve social and economic equality outcomes for
Londoners. This includes specific objectives, such as increasing female representation in STEM and expanding opportunities for disabled people to work and gain skills. These are supported by elements of the Skills for Londoners Strategy, such as the Digital Talent programme and the review of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) education provision.

Priorities in the Skills for Londoners Strategy have been assessed for their impact on equality and
diversity through the EDS Integrated Impact Assessment (appendix D). Joint work is underway with the GLA’s Communities and Social Policy Unit to align to the Mayor’s Diversity and Inclusion Vision. Priority 1 in the Skills for Londoners Strategy is devoted to empowering all Londoners to access skills to participate in society, and progress in education and in work; promoting diversity and enabling social mobility.

The GLA is working with businesses to look at improving employment and skills practices, to promote diversity and equality, particularly through the Mayor’s ‘Good Work Standard’. This work aligns with Priority 2 of the Skills for Londoners Strategy.

The strategy outcome measures include social as well as economic indicators.

The Skills for Londoners Strategy has been developed with considerable input from GLA teams via specific workshops, the Strategy Co-ordination Working Group and written input. These teams include Health, Regeneration, Education and Youth, Communities and Social Policy, as well as MOPAC.

External stakeholder consultation (with public, private and voluntary sector organisations in London)
included written consultation, with 78 responses, and a series of 10 events engaging over 450 organisations.

Consultation with Londoners included:

• a Talk London Survey, which received 660 responses;
• 14 focus groups and 16 interviews with target audiences for qualitative insights; and
• quantitative polling through YouGov.

Interviews have been undertaken and an ongoing dialogue is underway with the borough Sub-Regional Partnership Directors and Skills Leads, the London First Employment and Skills Commission and the Mayor’s Business Advisory Board. A member of the Business Advisory Board attended the Skills for Londoners Taskforce meeting in January 2017 to provide a joint view on the strategy.

From the consultation, there were high levels of support for the vision and each of the three priorities set out in the draft strategy. Most comments focused on how these could be strengthened rather than asking for significant changes.
Key changes called for included:

• the vision and Priority 1 should be less employment focused and show greater recognition of the wider benefits of learning (wellbeing, health, confidence etc).
• Priority 2 should focus more on soft skills/work-readiness skills, which are frequently highlighted by employers as the key skills priorities.
• consultees welcomed the strategic role played by the GLA in Priority 3, but stressed that this should be a partnership approach which supports local partners (FE colleges, skills providers, local authorities and sub-regional partnerships) to meet local need.
• consultees also identified a need for a wide range of indicators to give a rounded assessment of progress.
• there was particular support for the proposed priority actions to develop an All-Age Careers offer and Skills and Employment Knowledge Hub, as well as ensuring provision is widely accessible and affordable.

Key risks for meeting skills needs in London include the impact of automation and Brexit. These will be considered by the London Occupational Skills Board, a new employer/business group working as part of the Skills for Londoners governance structure. A further issue is the need to clarify funding and delivery arrangements for the devolved Adult Education Budget. Officers are continuing dialogue with the Department for Education, correspondence has been sent to all provider groups in London and workshops are underway to manage this process. The SfL Framework will be consulted upon to ensure any specific funding and delivery issues are identified.

There are no direct financial implications arising from this report although the Strategy itself will be a key driver of how future education and skills funding is allocated including skills capital funding, London’s European Social Fund allocation and, from 2019, the Adult Education Budget.

Under sections 30 and 34 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 (the GLA Act) the GLA (acting through the Mayor) has power to do anything which it considers will further its purposes, including the promotion of economic development and wealth creation, and social development, in Greater London, and to do anything which is calculated to facilitate, or is conducive or incidental to the exercise of its functions.

Under section 31(3) of the GLA Act, the GLA’s powers under section 30 are limited; the GLA shall not incur expenditure in providing, inter alia, any education services in any case where the provision in question may be made by a London borough council, the Common Council or any other public body. Under section 31(6), however, nothing in subsections 31(1) to (5A) shall be taken to prevent the GLA incurring expenditure in co-operating with, or facilitating or co-ordinating the activities of, the bodies mentioned in those subsections. This MD concerns the approval of the final Skills for Londoners Strategy.

Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 (the “Equality Act”), as a public authority, the Mayor and the GLA must, in taking decisions, have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation, and to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not. Relevant protected characteristics under section 149(7) of the Equality Act are age, disability, gender re-assignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.

The SfL Framework will set out the Mayor’s approach to funding and commissioning skills and employment-related programmes in line with the Skills for Londoners Strategy, including the devolved Adult Education Budget, European Social Fund and other Mayoral programmes. This is effectively the delivery plan for the Skills for Londoners Strategy and will be the subject of a separate MD.