An important part of BIS’s work is reducing unnecessary bureaucracy on employers and front-line staff in public, private and third sector training providers.
Simplifying funding and audit arrangements, better and more coherent use of data, and developing better, more strategic relationships built on trust are some of the measures in place to achieve this.
The two bodies working to tackle bureaucracy and reduce unnecessary administrative burdens within the learning and skills sector are the Bureaucracy Reduction Group and the information authority.
FE and Training Bureaucracy Reduction Group
The FE and Training Bureaucracy Reduction Group was set up in June 2005 and is chaired by Tony Craven, retired Principal of Salford College.
The Group has members from key partner organisations and also practitioners in the sector. The work is jointly supported by BIS and the Learning and Skills Council.
The Group builds on the work of the Bureaucracy Review Group, which was set up in 2003 under the Chairmanship of Sir Andrew Foster, and on the LSC’s Bureaucracy Task Force.
The BRG has the power to review and challenge the impact of new policies across the whole learning and skills sector, to publicly challenge existing policies where they add unnecessarily to bureaucracy and to scrutinise proposed plans before they are implemented.
For more information on the work of the BRG visit their website at www.fe-brg.org.uk/ where you can send comments directly or even register to attend one of their scrutiny sessions as an expert witness and speak in person to the system designers.
If you'd like to raise specific examples of bureaucracy for the BRG to look into and raise with appropriate organisations, please follow this link
The information authority
The information authority was set up in response to concerns about FE data burden that were raised in the Foster Report (2005) and the government white paper ‘Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances’ (2006).
It operates by setting and regulating data standards for further education (FE) and training, reviewing the need for data collections and improving data quality.
Since becoming fully functional in October 2007 the authority has investigated several areas of data collection and use, and instigated work to streamline, improve and provide clarity.
