TECs

HC Deb 28 October 1999 vol 336 cc1079-81

3. Miss Anne McIntosh (Vale of York)

If he will make a statement on his plans for the future of TECs. [94251]

The Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Mr. David Blunkett)

I am announcing today the boundaries of the new learning and skills councils at sub-regional level—subject to the legislative process of this House—following consultation through the regional development agencies and with the broader community. I am also announcing that a minimum of 40 per cent. of the membership of both the national and local councils will be those with recent experience in business and commerce, that the chairman of the national council and the majority of local council members will similarly have had recent business and commercial experience, and that we will try to ensure coherence in the delivery of funding and the provision of services to provide the skills that we need for the 21st century.

Miss McIntosh

I take it from the Secretary of State's answer that the training and enterprise councils are to be abolished officially. May I take this opportunity to place on record my overwhelming support for North Yorkshire TEC and the contribution that it has made through the business community to training in the area? May I also ask the Secretary of State who is to be responsible for Investors in People and what the local involvement will be of the business community in training in future? I understand that reporting will be not local or sub-regional, but national—there will be no local involvement.

Mr. Blunkett

The last point is entirely wrong. There will not only be direct involvement, but a great deal of discretion will be given to local learning and skills councils. Today, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and I are putting out the details of the boundaries and of the operation of the Small Business Service. Those details are in the Vote Office for all Members to see. The Investors in People and work force development programmes will be carried out from the Small Business Service, which in the majority of cases locally will be coterminous with the learning and skills councils. It will have the opportunity to contract out those services to ensure that, by building on the success of the many business links, we will be able to provide the support and help to small businesses that they have lacked and for which they have clearly called.

Mr. Ian Pearson (Dudley, South)

I welcome my right hon. Friend's announcement. Does he agree that he needs to get two big things right? One is to manage sensitively the transition in the next 18 months, so that the wheel does not fall off, and TEC staff continue to be motivated and committed to delivering their training and enterprise agenda. The other is to ensure that the new learning and skills councils are not mired in the bureaucracy that was heaped on TECs and are allowed genuinely to tackle skill shortages in their areas. What plans has my right hon. Friend in both fields?

Mr. Blunkett

On the first point, I assure my hon. Friend that we will take every possible step to ensure that the transition is effective and that we carry forward programmes that are working to the new system. We will draw forward the announcement on resources for TECs from the usual time in the spring to the middle of November. We hope that that will ensure that they can support and work with us, as the TEC National Council is committed to doing, to ensure that the transition works effectively.

Secondly, we are absolutely committed to business playing a vital role to ensure that learning is customised for the needs both of localities and the regions, and to ensure that in a modern, knowledge-based economy, we get the skills required non-bureaucratically and effectively. We will reduce the layers that exist in providing those skills, redirect the money from administration—up to £50 million a year—into training and skills development, and ensure that we meet the needs both nationally and locally of an economy of the future.

Mr. Richard Allan (Sheffield, Hallam)

The Secretary of State will be aware that many of my constituents work for his Department in Sheffield and are interested in decisions that affect the national headquarters of the learning and skills councils. Can he tell us where that will be? Can he assure staff in Sheffield about his Department's long-term commitment to maintaining a significant presence in the city and say what options may be offered to staff who may be affected by the decision?

Mr. Blunkett

I am releasing today the decision taken following the investigation by Capita into the most cost-effective and administratively sensible approach to delivering the new programmes. We have decided that the learning and skills councils headquarters, together with the adult inspectorate, should be in Coventry. We believe that that will have an impact at the headquarters in Sheffield on about 100 or more employees. As usual, we shall give guarantees of redeployment and further training to them. We need to point out, however, that they will benefit from the Department's own concentration at the Moorfoot site of the staff needed to oversee the transition and to implement the new programmes, and a guarantee to retain the support that exists to the 2,750 people across Moorfoot and the Employment Service headquarters who currently have a job in the city.

Ms Joan Ryan (Enfield, North)

Is my right hon. Friend aware that the London TEC council has stated that it strongly supports the objectives of the White Paper "Learning to Succeed"? We have a skills gap in London, particularly in the manufacturing trades and commercial construction services. We must have a learning and skills council that targets and closes those gaps. Does my right hon. Friend agree that for that to happen, it is vital that we have greater business involvement and greater training investment from businesses and employers?

Mr. Blunkett

This is a partnership, which involves the allocation of £5 billion a year to 5 million current learners, matched by the commitment of business and commerce to their own in-house training and the broader needs of the sectors. The new 70 national training organisations are assisting in precisely that. The new structure, with a co-ordinating body and five learning and skills councils in London, will enable us to focus on the needs of Londoners more clearly and ensure that we meet the skills needs of the capital and the nation.

Mrs. Theresa May (Maidenhead)

The Government's proposals on TECs and post-16 education and training have been described by the Confederation of British Industry as a step in the wrong direction", by the Institute of Directors as a potential form of centralised manpower planning", by the Local Government Association as introducing unnecessary layers of bureaucracy", and by a former permanent secretary at the Department of Employment as central control that cannot take account of local circumstances". Will the Secretary of State now accept the need to abandon his heavy-handed, centralised approach? Or do we assume that he classes the whole of British business, local government and the civil service as forces of conservatism?

Mr. Blunkett

The main forces of conservatism are on the Benches opposite.

I met Adair Turner and his colleagues from the CBI this week, and they welcome today's announcement. They embrace the way in which we have listened to the comments that they, the British Chambers of Commerce and others have made. They are fully in favour of our devolved powers and funding for the local learning and skills councils, and to the commitment to business having a substantial role in determining how public money is spent to meet the demand, which they rightly identify as being crucial to our nation's future. Therefore, they are behind what we are doing, not against it, and behind the Government, not the Opposition. They will work with us to ensure that the system works.