Quality Improvement Strategy 2003/06

A NIACE Response to the Learning and Skills Council Strategy
Published: December 2002

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Summary of NIACE's Response

NIACE welcomes the Council’s Quality Improvement Strategy for 2003-06. It is a key document that underpins the commitments made to high quality adult learning opportunities made in Success for All (1). NIACE believes that it is important for the strategy to outline clearly the responsibilities for delivery in terms of support and development of teachers and those managing provision. For quality improvement issues not to be addressed during the year in which the DfES post 16 standards unit and its ‘leadership college’ initiatives bed down, would be odd to say the least. It will be particularly damaging in the areas of literacy, language and numeracy provision for adults.

Much of the strategy relies on providers’ ability to provide sufficiently robust data to meet the requirements of the LSC. It is hoped that data requirements do not adversely affect provision that has had a lower level of resource allocated to data collection under previous funding arrangements.

The key to the success of any strategy is detailed action planning. NIACE welcomes the steps taken towards this in the series of eight expert seminars organised by the Council. We think such focus groups should continue in order to assist the Council progress (through partnership) the implementation phase, and provide ongoing evaluative feedback of its success. This partnership working is a key part of the monitoring and review of the strategy.

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