Response to 'Quangos in the Education & Skills System' Wednesday, July 21, 2010 - 15:22

The statement below was produced in response to a document issued by CIPD containing inaccurate material about NIACE. The document has since been withdrawn and a written apology has been received from the Chief Executive of CIPD. The statement below remains available so that the possibility of future errors is reduced and because material released on the Internet may remain in circulation.

NIACE is astonished that a usually-authoritative organisation like the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) should so fundamentally misunderstand the nature of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education as a voluntary organisation in a call for education quangos to be cut. NIACE is not a quango.

Unlike quangos which have their boards chosen or ratified by a Secretary of State, the Board of NIACE is accountable to more than six hundred corporate and individual members, in England and Wales, subscribing to its aims.

In order to attract the resources through which to take forward its charitable purpose of promoting the study and general advancement of adult continuing education, NIACE's Board seeks to raise income from a variety of sources.

It would be odd if the charity did not seek to work in partnership, where possible, with the Government of the day. Indeed NIACE's relationship with central government is based on the long-established compact between the state and the voluntary and community sector as developed by the Office for the Third Sector within the Cabinet Office. In this way NIACE seeks to add value to civil society and work for its beneficiaries in a manner quite distinct from that of public or private sector bodies.

More than eighty percent of NIACE's income from Government comes not in the form of grant aid but through work won via competitive tender, which advances its charitable purposes. In this respect it demonstrates the qualities of flexibility and entrepreneurship that characterise third sector public interest organisations. Its success in this field comes from an authoritative technical knowledge of adult education and training, drawn from its broad base of members, upon which Government, Parliament, and the media can call.

NIACE's reputation, built up over eighty nine years, rests on its independence. Unlike trade or professional associations, NIACE does not defend a single sectional interest and unlike a quango, it can and does campaign against government policy on occasion (for example by drawing attention to the loss of 30 per cent of publicly-funded places for adult learning between 2004 - 2008). This advocacy work is not funded from the public purse but through other charitable funds - which are also used to fund independent research, such as the Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning that reported last year.

Rather than calling for NIACE to be cut, the CIPD might wish to reflect on the extent to which support for voluntary and community sector organisations, such as NIACE, might represent a highly effective and efficient use of public funds, worthy of expansion in the future.