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ITEM EX14

EXECUTIVE – 20 JULY 2004

ADULT AND COMMUNITY LEARNING STAFFING STRUCTURE

Report by Director for Learning & Culture

1. This paper gives the rationale for the forthcoming modernizing of the structure of the Adult and Community Learning Service, and the issues arising from the consultation.
2. The structure of the ACL service has been based, since the service began, on locating single professional staff in local centres, most of them attached to schools. Local managers have managed most of the curriculum range for their locality, with the support of administrative staff and, more recently, outreach workers and some part-time curriculum co-ordinators in the larger centres. Over the years a small central team has also been built up for staff development and, increasingly, supporting national curriculum initiatives such as basic skills, family learning, and the development of centres for IT and electronic learning. Local and central teams have operated in very different ways, and one driver for change now is the need to further integrate central and locally-organised teams.

Rationale for Change

3. Since 2001 learner numbers, curriculum development and quality have been resourced, and learner data reported, using a national 14-area curriculum framework, and this has stretched the roles of local staff, most of whom were ‘generalists’ appointed to manage programmes ranging over most of those 14 areas. Many local authorities have restructured to some extent to give more emphasis to curriculum, in at least their major curriculum areas. Adult Learning Inspectorate reports on services have emphasized this as necessary underpinning for quality. Curriculum focus is therefore another reason to review Oxfordshire’s staffing structure.
4. A further rationale is that the number of learners enrolling in each academic year and the level of Learning and Skills Council funding for them, will continue to be uncertain. The proposed formula for funding non-accredited learning from 2005-6 onwards has not yet been announced. The priority being given to funding skills, and to a free level 2 qualification, also point towards diminishing subsidy for learning that improves quality of life, but does not contribute directly to the economic agenda. So a future service structure will have to be more flexible and cost-effective in order to sustain the different types of provision, and the level of service, choice, and local responsiveness that have characterized Oxfordshire’s offer.
5. Another vital consideration is the need to rationalize work, to build up appropriate staffing for tasks best done by administrators, and to reduce the current very high workloads, too often inappropriately administrative, of many field and central managers.

Consultation

6. The 2003-6 Three-Year Plan committed the Service to reviewing its structure, with an implementation date of January 2005. A staff consultation took place between 24 May and 14 June, and consultation with the main relevant staff union the following week, based on a document sent to all staff, and supported by explanatory meetings.
7. The consultation paper presented two broad alternative structures for achieving strong organization to support the service’s main curriculum areas, and to maintain good local networks so to be in touch with local communities’ needs, to outreach and market informally, and to tap into local partnership resources. It presented principles, rather than actual numbers of posts at every level. In both models the proposed main unit for management of the service was a division with an operational head, making three altogether: Cherwell and West, City, South and Vale. The paper proposed that the number of local centres performing personnel and finance functions be reduced, so that each remaining one benefited from economies of scale and a viable staff grouping, while smaller centres could still be maintained as course venues.
8. The full consultation document is available in the Members’ Resource Centre, along with a report by the County Council’s Consultation Officer on the responses. The two alternative models on which the consultation was based are summarised in Annex 1. Key points are:

• The consultation process did not provide a clear preference in terms of a restructure model. However a small majority of consultees preferred model A because it supported service integration and cohesion.
• Consultees were also supportive of the clear curriculum knowledge and leadership this model affords.
• A number of benefits were identified for restructuring, which suggests a broadly receptive climate for change.

9. The consultation meeting with the relevant union for academic staff, the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (N ATFHE) recorded these points
   
   

1. Restructuring would address issues of workload
2. Because the paper was not specific about actual posts at various levels they would wish to continue to consult with ACL management on the development of restructuring proposals
3. A review of the new structure should be set for July 2005.
   
   
10. Meetings, individual and group responses to the Consultation highlighted the need for premises and communication problems to be solved, and for sufficient support staff and training to make a new structure work. These remain considerable concerns, since the historical premises available to the service across Oxfordshire are usually small offices in schools, and it will be impossible to cluster staff in the most desirable ways for good teamwork, communication and efficient working. This problem remains largely unresolved; there is already a shortage of daytime teaching space, and affordable space for professional and administrative staff is even harder to find.

Preferred Option

11. Following the consultation, managers have selected the first of the two options in the consultation paper (model A) as the preferred model, with modifications. This locates most curriculum line management in the three county divisions, with team members responsible for convening cross-county groups to maintain consistency and quality. New countywide projects will continue to have central management until ‘embedded’. Between two and five locations in each division are likely to retain substantial administrative functions, the remainder will be course venues, or be used as a base for small numbers of academic staff. Outline organisation charts will be available in the Members’ Resource Centre for information.

Implementation

12. The senior management team will agree their new roles by August. Managers will then finalise roles and job descriptions at divisional level and conduct selection interviews, or options and preference exercises, as appropriate. Field academic posts will be filled in November to take effect in January 2005. The restructuring of local administrative teams will follow. Due to natural wastage, and posts being filled only on a temporary basis during the last academic year pending restructuring, it is envisaged that current service resources will cover all structural change. Thereafter the service will have to respond to fluctuations in funding from the LSC and other sources, but it is hoped that the new structure will better enable it to do so.
13. A further change to be discussed in due course is to the overall name of the service. Adult and Community Learning has been to some extent a difficulty, since it became the national name for just one of LSC funding streams the Oxfordshire service received. This may need review before publication of the main 2004/05 programmes.

RECOMMENDATIONS

14. The Executive is RECOMMENDED to endorse the principle of restructuring of the Adult and Community Learning Service as outlined in the report.
    
    

KEITH BARTLEY
Director for Learning & Culture

Background Papers: Consultation Document and Report on Responses

Contact officers:
Mari Prichard, Head of Adult and Community Learning Tel. (01865) 815153
Suzanne Bridgewater, Adult and Community Learning Officer Tel. (01865) 815232

July 2004

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