Organisation and Policy: Influencing Public Policy: Archive: LIFE Appendix 3

Learning Trust Fund for Wales

An appendix to NIACE Cymru's response to LIFE

1. NIACE Cymru welcomes the proposals for a Learning Trust Fund with the following observations:

i) the Trust should operate to release the energies of the voluntary sector and mainstream learning agencies but should not be confined to existing providers or provision

ii) if the concern is to revitalise community based learning, new as well as existing forms of opportunity will be urgently needed

iii) the Fund would need to ensure that emerging programmes provided access to guidance and training built on an agreed quality framework

iv) maximum benefit from the Fund would be achieved through arrangements which provided linkages for learners between new voluntary provision and more structured learning activity

v) complementarity between the initiatives sponsored by the Fund and the work of the major providing agencies, colleges, local authorities, tecs, voluntary groups and others would need to be a priority to ensure the dissemination of good practice, robust progression routes and effective collaboration between all concerned

vi) the Fund, in addressing learning pre and post-16, would provide a mechanism, if carefully managed, to address the interface between initial and later learning, the lifelong learning capacity in schools, and the further development of family and intergenerational learning

vii) the Trust would be an integral component in the support for community based learning and activities which it sponsored would be embraced by Learning Development Plans. There would be a role for joint planning groups in highlighting activities which the Trust might sponsor, in managing/reviewing that activity and in any follow through arrangements, to ensure maximum value for learners

viii) the interface between the work of the Trust and initiatives funded, for example, by the National Lottery Charities Board, would need to be managed to avoid duplication and further confusion for learners at the point of delivery

ix) public perception of the Trust might be enhanced by some public funding to underpin the contributions of private sponsors

2. In recommending that NIACE be considered for a potential role in the management of the Trust, we would make the following points:

a) LIFE recognises NIACE Cymru's contribution to the development of "a range of effective community learning activities" which would be reflected in Learning Development Plans, and in the dissemination of best practice: both would feature in the effective operation of the Learning Trust

b) effective collaboration involving community groups, employers, trades unions, voluntary agencies, (including the WI, VIAE and WCVA), local government, further and higher education and the media will rest on a capacity to draw on existing, evolving and emerging good relationships in all parts of the Country. NIACE works effectively with providers across the full range of learning activity.

c) many of the elements involved in harnessing collective energies in the interests of widening participation, as envisaged by the Trust, are evident in Adult Learners' Week

d) NIACE Cymru has worked effectively with the National Lottery Charities Board and produced advice for the eligibility criteria and priorities in Wales for the New Opportunities Fund in 1997

e) NIACE has extensive experience of grant giving and managing projects; financial control rests in Leicester but day to day oversight will reside in Wales

f) there would be value in the capacity to draw on the experience which will accrue as NIACE shares, with the Basic Skills Agency, management of the Adult and Community Learning Fund for DfEE

g) NIACE is a registered charity and shares many of the concerns, interests and experiences of the voluntary and community groups with which the Trust will engage

3. NIACE would welcome the opportunity for further discussion with the Welsh Office in furthering the concept of the Learning Trust.

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