governance good practice guide

Foster review (2005)

"Realising the potential, a review of the future role of further education colleges"

Sir Andrew Foster was invited by the Secretary of State for Education and Skills and the chair of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) to carry out an independent review of the future role of further education colleges, in November 2004.

During the course of the review, Sir Andrew invited written evidence from colleges and others, commissioned research and think pieces, and held a series of workshops with key stakeholders. Sir Andrew published his report in November 2005, entitled "Realising the potential, a review of the future role of further education colleges".

The review sets out a vision for FE colleges and a clear set of values. It also sets out key recommendations that Sir Andrew believes need to be implemented if that vision is to be realised. Sir Andrew gave a presentation about his report at the Association of Colleges annual conference on 15 November 2005. The White Paper issued by the Department for Education and Skills in March 2006 'Further Education: Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances', responds to Sir Andrew Foster's review findings.

Strengths

• FE supports around three million 16 – 18 learners each year.
• There is a diversity of provision, a significant commitment to social inclusion and well-regarded skills for business programmes.

Weaknesses

Sir Andrew stressed that while the performance of a small number of colleges was cause for concern, this was affecting only 4% of provision. However, this small number of colleges drew the most media attention and were regarded as failing their learners. Sir Andrew's main concerns were the system-level issues, with:

• conflicts inherent in the relationship between colleges and the LSC, and their effects on planning
• too many bodies advising, regulating and inspecting the sector, and
• the lack of clarity within the LSC and the DfES about the role and purpose of FE colleges.

Sir Andrew further identified that these system-level weaknesses led to:

• insufficient focus on addressing skills shortages in colleges
• insufficient clarity of purpose for colleges
• inadequacies in quality improvement and quality assurance
• lack of a clear public image and reputation for colleges
• insufficient local integration of planning between colleges and the LSC
• poor management of information, especially in establishing value for money and the timeliness of data provision to decision makers; one issue may be the amount of data available, not all of which has a value
• complexity and conflict in the oversight of provision, and
• workforce and leadership not always attuned to the needs of the system's complex requirements and needing further support and training.

In order to address these weaknesses, the report identifies five imperatives, as illustrated in the diagram below.

It is around the above imperatives that the 60 recommendations of the report are developed.

Key recommendations

Quality

• Improve the effectiveness of the funding mechanism and funding oversight.
• Streamline the management and regulatory burden for colleges.
• Introduce 'contestability' hearings for colleges not showing improvement after 12 months.
• Initiate a drive to improve quality.

Learners

• Increase responsiveness to students and promote the learner voice.
• Provide more specialisms and learner pathways through provision.
• Increase capital investment and improve the infrastructure in colleges.

Employers

• Increase responsiveness to employer voices through better consultation and engagement.

Reputation

• Improve the marketing and promotion of colleges nationally, and the achievements of learners and staff.

Purpose

• Make the acquisition of skills and employability the key purpose of FE colleges.

In concluding this section, Sir Andrew emphasised the need to prioritise the imperatives for the FE sector and that, in his judgement, skills training was the key issue facing the economy and for colleges. He stated that many positives were cited in the text of the review and they were important, but the priority is skills and the recommendations flow from that.

The Government response to the Foster review is contained in the White Paper, 'Further Education: Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances'.

The following are available for download:

Sir Andrew Foster's review

Review summary

The underpinning evidence

The PowerPoint presentation given to the Association of Colleges annual conference.