§ Mr. SimmondsTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of Sector Skills Councils in addressing the skills gap. [177375]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisThere has been significant progress in establishing the Skills for Business network of Sector Skills Councils with 18 councils now licensed or recommended for licence. The Sector Skills Development Agency has been working with the developing Skills for Business network to agree a performance monitoring and evaluation framework to evaluate its performance over time against its policy objectives. That framework is now in place.
The first phase of the evaluation is now complete. It has shown that Sector Skills Councils are making good progress in analysing the skills gap in each of their sectors. The evaluation has provided baseline performance information so that the effectiveness of SSCs and the broader network can be tracked over time. The evaluation has further provided early information on emerging good practice and continuous improvement which will help to assess future impact.