§ Mr. BoswellTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the readiness of the Learning and Skills Council for the assumption of its responsibilities in April. [150456]
§ Mr. Wicks[holding answer 15 February 2001]: Good progress is being made with the establishment of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), which is on track to assume its responsibilities from 1 April 2001. We are grateful to the support that staff in Training and Enterprise Councils and the Further Education Funding Council are giving with this process. At national level, all members of the National Council, and Adult and Young People's Learning Committees have been appointed; the council has met three times, the Young People's Learning Committee will meet on 15 February and the Adult Learning Committee will meet on 5 March. All 47 local LSCs have in place local chairs, local boards and executive directors and most local councils have met on at least one occasion. The process for appointing staff is well under way. The matching of staff with transfer rights to posts is on track. Some resulting vacancies have been advertised already and others will follow. Contracts have been concluded with IT suppliers and the first part of the IT systems that the LSC will need has been installed in every local LSC.
In November, we published "The Learning and Skills Council Remit Letter", which set out the Government's vision for the LSC and the priorities for its first corporate plan. The LSC plans to begin consultation on this corporate plan in March.
§ Mr. BradyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many representatives of schools with sixth forms sit on local Learning and Skills Councils. [151243]
§ Mr. WicksEleven head teachers of schools with sixth forms have so far been appointed as council members to the local Learning and Skills Councils. Action is also in hand in a further six areas to fill local council member vacancies specifically left for school heads. In addition, further experience of schools matters will be brought by the 29 local council members appointed from a local education authority (LEA) background (typically directors of education), by the six local executive directors who have previous LEA officer or head teacher experience, and by a number of local council members who are school governors.
In April 2002, the LSC assumes responsibility for school sixth form funding, and in recognition of this we will encourage the LSC to appoint further school heads as vacancies arise on local councils.