In what ways will Skills England strengthen the relationship between Whitehall and local governments?
Skills policy has long suffered from fragmentation, a lack of system clarity and multiple initiatives that add up to less than the sum of their parts. The creation of Skills England is therefore an opportunity for a long-term, consistent national strategy.
However, responsive, high-quality local skills systems are crucial—as Skills England said in its first report, published in September 2024, “ultimately, skills are nurtured locally for local employers”.
A strong relationship will demand a clear shared purpose and collaboration between the national body and local governments, while at the same time working in a way that supports the needs and growth potential for different places.
How will Labour’s initiative to bring skills policy up to speed with industrial planning affect local economies? Do you think Labour is doing enough on this front to boost inclusive local growth?
Two of the government’s national missions are relevant for the skills agenda: to raise living standards by boosting growth and to break down barriers to opportunity. Sitting across both is the role of skills, which acts as a driver for productivity growth and helps to ensure that growth is inclusive.
The 2024 English devolution white paper sets out the aim of establishing Strategic Authorities (SAs), which involve “a number of councils working together, covering areas that people recognise and work in”. Where Mayoral SAs currently exist, they have been tasked with producing local growth plans. In terms of skills specifically, they are to have responsibility for most adult skills budgets, including some new funding flexibilities, and will take on joint ownership of the local skills improvement plan (LSIP) model, alongside employer representative bodies.
These local growth plans are an opportunity to bring skills, labour markets and employers together via localised strategies that can meet the growth needs of local economies, while also boosting participation in progression opportunities for particular groups, such as economically inactive or young people.
There is potential for more effective working between public services—and making better use of grassroots organisations
How can Skills England address the challenge of reconciling national funding priorities with local needs, especially at a time when many local authorities are in financial crisis?
Compared with our international peers, our publicly funded skills provision performs poorly. Skills funding is divided up into pots subject to specifications, or it is linked to initiatives such as short term training schemes. It is also decoupled from local priorities, which reduces its impact.
A key goal for devolution and local growth plans should be for investment to be targeted in ways that support sector growth and business development, while also encouraging private investment in skills alongside.
In an era of constrained public sector resources, including schools, further education and higher education—not to mention local government—the ability to work collectively on shared local aims is important. The best impacts will be achieved if funding priorities allow flexibility and can identify and respond to local needs and opportunities. In addition, accountability should be based on outcomes or progression measured against a clear baseline.
What role can local governments play in ensuring that community voices influence the skills agenda, helping government policy to meet the needs of locals and employees, as well as employers and businesses?
For many people, the skills landscape can be baffling. It is often unclear as to what support is available and from where, particularly in terms of adult skills, and what might be expected from employers.
Barriers to labour market participation, such as health or employability issues, can be addressed by providing clearer pathways and access to local skills systems. There is also strong potential for more effective, unified working across different public services–and in making better use of partners. Voluntary sector organisations and grassroots community groups often have much more granular relationships within, and understanding of, their local communities.
We should see a devolved, flourishing skills system as a chance to humanise and demystify the support landscape. The goal is a more circular relationship between communities and skills provision, and more tailored individual support—both linked to employer needs and sector growth plans.
Do you think Labour’s approach to apprenticeships is mindful enough of how employer and employee needs vary across the country?
The plan to evolve the apprenticeship levy into a skills and growth levy is designed to create more flexibility to offer short-term placements. There is not yet clarity on what this looks like in practice. Skills England’s future assessment of priority skills needs will inform what training is eligible for funding under the new levy.
It will be important that there is enough flexibility for this levy to align with local skills plans, and also that employers can leverage in further investment on top of it. This means tightly aligning local schemes with wider objectives and using apprenticeships as a core driver within the skills ecosystem.
Labour entered office amid various crises in the public sector—so local partners need to be in the driving seat when developing their skills systems
In August last year, you urged the new Labour government to make “rapid progress” on public service planning. The first report from Skills England came out in September, and there are plans for initial engagements to be published in early 2025. Is this an example of the pace of change you were asking for?
The new government entered office amid extremely challenging financial circumstances and varying levels of crisis across the public sector. So, while it is necessary to be realistic about the pace of change and the capacity of the government and civil service to proceed, it is also a reason for local partners to ultimately be in the driving seat when developing their skills systems. National institutional architecture will come and go, and although the hope is that Skills England will be an effective and enduring agency that creates real collaboration and impact, it is local partners, employers and employees–those with skin in the game–who need to be enabled through this renewed agenda.
Minds are now focused on the forthcoming spending review, which promises to embed longer-term planning horizons for public services. While there may not be more funding on offer overall, a big priority will be how to make the greatest impact from existing funding. Devolution, government missions and a wider skills reform agenda all need to focus on one clear objective: investing in and nurturing our precious human capital, to enable growth and spread opportunity.
