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Regional Learning and Skills Councils Regulations 2007

rose to move, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Regional Learning and Skills Councils Regulations 2007. The noble Baroness said: I commend these draft regulations, which were laid before Parliament on 14 November 2007 and approved in another place on 4 February. This debate provides an opportunity to discuss the draft Regional Learning and Skills Councils Regulations 2007 and completes the parliamentary reform process set in train by the passage of the Further Education and Training Act 2007. The Act contains provision relating to the restructuring of the Learning and Skills Council. Section 2 inserts a provision into the Learning and Skills Act 2000 requiring the Learning and Skills Council to establish regional learning and skills councils for each area of England specified by the Secretary of State. These will replace the 47 local councils which have been abolished under Section 3 of the 2007 Act. By ““local councils””, I do not mean local authorities. When I first read my brief, I thought, ““That doesn’t quite sound right””. The draft regulations make provision about regional councils of the Learning and Skills Council for England, including matters such as membership, the appointment of members, the delegation of regional council functions, and regional council proceedings. They are the first set of regulations to be made using the power in Section 18A(2) of the Learning and Skills Act 2000 as inserted by Section 2 of the 2007 Act. The case for change was already made during the passage of the Act—I know that noble Lords were very much involved with that. Since its creation in 2001, the Learning and Skills Council has found it increasingly necessary to operate at a regional level and within a regional context. In response to this, the LSC has already set up nine regional offices as part of its executive structure, supported by informal regional committees, which were established under paragraph 1(1)(b) of Schedule 3 to the Learning and Skills Act 2000. Today’s draft regulations make provision about regional councils as a statutory part of the LSC’s structure, with boundaries that will match the geographic areas of the nine government office regions. The proposals form one strand of an overall package of measures to streamline the LSC’s accountability structure. They aim to bring consistency between the non-executive structure and the new internal staffing structure that the LSC has now put in place, while bringing savings of £40 million, which will be redirected to front-line services. These changes to the LSC’s executive and non-executive structures will strengthen its capacity to commission, with partners, the learning and skills infrastructure needed across the regions and meet our aspirations to improve the skills of the population to ensure a world-class skills base by 2020. We are continuing with these plans in the light of the recent machinery of government announcement on 16-19 funding, and the Education and Skills Bill which is passing through Parliament in another place. The decision to transfer 16-19 funding to local authorities has signalled a major change for the LSC. These changes will take time to implement and the LSC will remain responsible for funding all forms of post-16 education and training outside higher education for some time. We will look for the LSC to build on its achievements, and to play a key role in ensuring that a wide range of skills provision is available to support business needs. To do this, it must have a strong and robust accountability structure in place which enables the LSC to work effectively with partners at all levels to ensure that the system continues to deliver on the new and challenging targets which we have set. During the past few months, we have also published the LSC grant letter, setting out our priorities for the next three years, which will require a strong executive and non-executive LSC structure to maintain delivery. The grant letter made it clear that the LSC needs to operate strongly at national, regional and local level to achieve government's objectives. For example, the grant letter identifies delivering an expanded train-to-gain service through closer working with regional development agencies as one of the LSC’s top priorities. These draft regulations also need to be set in the context of the review of sub-national economic growth that was published last year. It recognised that regions and localities need to play a vital part in ensuring that they can continue to benefit from economic growth. These regulations are necessary to fulfil the policies that underpin the restructuring of the LSC and make provision for the establishment of the operation of regional councils. I commend them to the Committee. I beg to move. Moved, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Regional Learning and Skills Councils Regulations 2007. 2nd Report from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments.—(Baroness Morgan of Drefelin.)