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More time to teach – Report to reduce bureaucracy for frontline education staff

Lecturers and tutors in further eduction will spend more time teaching and less time form–filling under new proposals to cut the amount of bureaucracy they face, a cross Government report said today.

Reducing Burdens in Colleges of Further Education – a joint–project by the Cabinet Office, the Department for Education & Skills (DfES), and the Learning & Skills Council (LSC) – sets out to reduce the amount of unnecessary demands placed on all frontline staff in further education (FE), including back office staff.

The report identifies a range of bureaucracy–busting measures which will produce the following benefits:

• reducing the amount of data required of FE colleges by LSC & Ofsted/ Adult Learning Inspectorate – thereby cutting demands on lecturers and tutors and freeing them up to spend more time teaching;
• streamline funding to ensure resources are targeted to priority areas with minimal bureaucracy and complexity;
• guaranteeing the delivery of first class FE, ensuring the right skills are provided to meet the needs of both employers and the wider economy.

Among the actions proposed to make these benefits a reality – a total of 26 separate recommendations – are the following significant measures:

• reducing data collection requests through a protocol between key FE partners;
• better co–ordination of activity and data–sharing, for instance through introducing common administration, definitions and quality criteria across funding bodies;
• linking the existing funding methodology to improve outcomes for all stakeholders;
• using gateways for better communicating new policies and initiatives with colleges, employers and the public.

Launching the report Bill Rammell, Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education at the DfES, said: “I welcome this report as a useful and timely insight into how bureaucracy affects front line staff. The new Bureaucracy Reduction Group met for the first time on 30 November, and I have asked them to take account of the report findings as they develop their action plan.”

Jim Murphy, Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office said: “This report will free up front line staff to what they do best – delivering first class further education, preparing the UK workforce for the emerging challenges posed by the global economy.”

Caroline Lewis, Chair of the new Bureaucracy Reduction Group – set up to challenge the regulatory burden imposed by new and existing policies within the FE sector – said: “This is a very timely and helpful report. The Group discussed its findings on 30 November and we are arranging a day in the New Year for action planning. We will publish our plans to the sector in the spring.”

Paul May, Project Chair at the Learning & Skills Council said: “This is the first time that the Department for Education and Skills, the Learning and Skills Council and the Cabinet Office have worked together on the FE sector. This report highlights many issues that the current reform proposals can sensibly take action upon.”

Notes to editors

• The report can be found at: http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/bre/ - Link updated following move to BERR
• The project has been a joint effort between the Department for Education and Skills, the Leraning and Skills Council and the Cabinet Office.
• In producing this report, the Cabinet Office's Better Regulation Executive interviewed over 160 front–line staff representatives from 50 colleges from across the nine LSC Regions. The interviews were conducted between May 2005 and July 2005.
• Today's initiative is one of a series of Making a Difference projects taken forward by the Cabinet Office Better Regulation Executive (BRE) in partnership with other Whitehall departments. The projects aim to deliver tangible results that make a real difference to the work of front–line service deliverers, through working with front–line staff and with stakeholders (eg Government departments, agencies and outside bodies) to implement better regulation, identify bureaucratic burdens and remove unnecessary processes and paperwork.
• The Government announced the creation of the Better Regulation Executive (BRE) in the Cabinet Office in the March Budget, 2005. The overall aim of the BRE is to deliver better regulation and reduce unnecessary bureaucracy. Its work covers the private, public and voluntary sectors, across domestic and European issues. More information on the BRE can be found at www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/regulation

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