The Scottish Government

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PRESENT

John Burt Angus College (Chair)

Raaj Bhatti Further & Adult Education Division

(Secretariat in place of Gerald Wilson)

Col Baird Review of Scotland's Colleges Team

Audrey Robertson Further & Adult Education Division

Colin MacBean Analytical Services Division

Karen Corbett HM Inspectorate of Education

Gordon McBride Scottish Funding Council (left during item 6)

Julie Gilstrap Association of Scotland's Colleges

Brian Lister Cumbernauld College

Christina Potter Elmwood College

Gordon Rodgers Scottish Qualifications Authority

Mary Senior Scottish Trades Union Congress

Jacqui Hepburn Sector Skills Development Agency

Carl Bow Scottish Enterprise

Linda McTavish Anniesland College

1) Welcome and Introductions

1.1 The Chair welcomed everybody to the eighth meeting of this group.

2) Minute of meeting on 2 June 2006

2.1 This was approved for publication on the ROSCO website, and it was noted that all actions had been completed.

3) Minute of workshop event on 3 July 2006

3.1 This was also agreed with a couple of minor amendments:

• Date on document to be changed to 3 July 2006
• Typo in last sentence on page one should refer to "Spending Review"

3.2 As well as the outputs from the workshop, it was agreed that the group should also consider any relevant new information as it becomes available.

4) Update on Review

4.1 Col provided a brief update on the work of the other RoSco workstreams.

4.2 A recurring theme throughout those groups has been the importance of establishing an evidence base, especially with regard to estates. Not just in terms of the economic benefit but the social benefit as well, although this is not always easy to do.

4.3 Col also clarified the process by which the individual workstreams would feed their conclusions to the Core group, who would make the final decision on their recommendations. The "Unlocking Opportunity" report was the exception to the rule in that it was being launched well in advance of the conclusion of the Review. The "Phase II" report will thus go the Core group towards the end of the review.

4.4 It was suggested that as we have a reasonable idea of what the two reports from this workstream are going to say, the Core group should consider the mechanism for taking forward the Review's recommendations.

5) Update on "Unlocking Opportunity"

5.1 Col advised that the report was with our publishers and will be ready for the conference on 3 October 2006. A six page folding A5 format summary document is also under consideration.

5.2 Deputy First Minister has agreed to deliver the keynote speech at the event.

5.3 Thirteen colleges will be involved with the conference. There will be six workshops in the morning and afternoon. One presentation will be to the full conference. Group members agreed to chair one of the workshops they will be attending on the day.

5.4 Although the bulk of the event will focus on "Unlocking Opportunity", there will be a half hour session in the afternoon to inform the current phase of the group's work. Col tabled three possible questions to focus discussion at that session:

• What main factors will influence college activities (and funding) over the three-year period from 2008 to 2009?
• What new or emerging financial pressures will there be on the college sector?
• In what areas could colleges make a new or bigger difference?

5.5 It was agreed that whilst financial pressures were important, the focus should be very much on opportunities. For example, not withstanding things like the pension issue, what new activities could colleges move into if they had access to additional resources?

5.6 It was thus agreed to drop the second question and focus on the first and third questions within the limited time available at the conference.

5.7 It may be possible to raise these questions at a forthcoming Principals' CPD event.

5.8 The group agreed that colleges could co-ordinate publicity after the event at a local level, whilst the Executive would publicise it at a national level.

ACTION - Colto revise paper

6) Background Papers

6.1 Before discussing each of the papers, the Chair reminded the group what this phase of the work entails.

6.2 The group has been asked to examine the difference that colleges could make if additional funding were allocated as a result of the next Spending Review by:

• identifying the pressures and opportunities;
• estimating the costs; and
• evaluating the difference that such funding could make to learners, the economy and wider society.

But in doing so, the group should not cover any matters that will be covered by the Review's other workstreams.

6.3 The discussion then moved to Paper 14, which detailed the background papers that had been commissioned at the workshop event in July.

Paper A Pensions

6.4 Gordon Craig spoke to this paper and advised that a recent SFC survey indicated a major increase in average college pension contributions over the period 2000- 01 to 2001-08. There is no evidence to indicate this rising trend will not continue.

6.5 This results in a significant funding pressure for colleges as at present, the

unit resource allocated to them does not take this into account.

6.6 It was agreed that the paper should be tailored to reflect the future impact of

this pressure within the period covered by the next Spending Review. It would also be helpful to know where the figures quoted came from.

6.7 The group acknowledged that there will be regional variations as to the extent of this problem in the sector. It was also noted that the Pension issue is a concern within the public sector as a whole.

6.8 In terms of its intended purpose, it was suggested that the paper would benefit from including an Options Appraisal.

ACTION - Gordon Craig to re-draft paper and submit to Group in time for next meeting.

Paper B Skills

6.9 Jacqui spoke to this paper, which sought to identify the opportunities for Scotland's Colleges to meet future skills needs. The paper focussed in detail on five key areas:

• Skills needs of growing businesses
• Skills levels of those in low-skilled jobs
• Work readiness of school leavers
• Skill gaps in soft skills
• Sector specific skills needs

6.10 It was agreed that there was a need to prioritise, linking with Paper F: New

demands/growing expectations on Colleges, as well as recognising the emerging findings from the Leitch Review, and using the latest information

available from this year's Futureskills Scotland survey.

6.11 Although drilling down by sector may reveal more opportunities, it was agreed to maintain an overall strategic overview so as not to risk diluting key issues and also to retain flexibility to manoeuvre afterwards.

Paper C Partnership Working

6.12 Mary spoke to this paper, which was regarded as being one of the more aspirational themes in improving the way Colleges work. It also has some links to the SLALE paper on profiling the workforce.

6.13 Partnership working is a good way for staff and management to work together to achieve common objectives. But it is not always easy to do and is resource intensive.

6.14 The group welcomed the paper but would also like it to have a focus on external partnerships. One way of doing that could be to centre on the Community Learning Partnership approach and also to focus on policy

delivery, for example, NEET / Determined to Succeed / School and College partnerships.

6.15 The Chair noted that he had recently sent an e-mail to ASC on Partnership working, which Col offered to circulate after the meeting.

ACTION - Colto circulate John's e-mail on partnership working, to the group.

ACTION - Mary to revise paper in light of feedback received and submit to group in time for final meeting.

Paper D Tailoring support for learners in Scotland's Colleges

6.16 Karen spoke to this paper which outlines the diversity of the student population in Colleges, and some of the associated pressures and opportunities in tailoring support to meet their needs.

6.17 The people we are trying to help here can have very complex backgrounds. There should be a move to focussing on the learner as an individual instead of labelling them into a category of additional support need.

6.18 Initial engagement can be very resource intensive as the College has a responsibility to provide information in formats which are appropriate to the needs of the individual learner, e.g. on-line, distance learners and speakers of other languages.

6.19 Some issues to consider include:

• Is this an "add on" or integral to the College's work?
• How can Colleges reduce the risk of student failure with timely interventions that help them to progress?
• Do we really understand the complexity of what learning support is or do we just think we do?
• Are the current funding arrangements appropriate for the types of students we have?

Paper E European Funding

6.20 Gordon spoke to this paper and advised that the current stream of funding will end in 2006, and although future funding levels have yet to be finalised, there is an expectation that they will be significantly tighter.

6.21 At present, this resource is used for additional activity including helping students from socially deprived areas. There is now a danger that Colleges will have to reduce this and have less of a good story to tell on the Social Inclusion front.

6.22 Some business support activities and e-learning initiatives are also resourced via European Funding. It also augments Student support costs, for example, travel and child care.

6.23 So overall, this will potentially have a huge adverse impact on Colleges. The hardest to reach will not be reached and it will widen the Opportunity gap.

6.24 The group was asked to consider what the options were for moving forward on this. It was agreed that as ESF funding was additional resource for additional activity, the focus should be on highlighting what activities would suffer if funding were to reduce.

6.25 Finally, it was noted that last week, the Executive had launched a consultation on future European Funding.

ACTION - Gordon Craig to amend paper in light of feedback received and submit to Group in time for next meeting.

Paper F New Demands / Growing Expectations on Colleges

6.26 The Chair spoke to this paper. With Phase II, the group has been asked to consider what differences colleges could make were funding available. SFC would use the extra resource to fund growth in the sector. But we need to be clear what that means.

6.27 What are the new demands colleges are facing? How can additional funds be used to fund growth in the sector? For example:

• School/College links and pupils going through Skills for work
• Major increase in migrant workers requiring training
• Major increase in ESOL demand
• Reducing NEET - more intensive staff support activities
• NHS - turning over 50% of their workforce over next 10 years
• Globalisation
• Adult Literacies and Numeracy - Key delivery role to play - more than just "support" as stated in the paper.
• Other demographics including ageing population

6.28 The group noted there were inevitable overlaps with the skills paper.

Additional Paper - Volunteering

6.29 Linda tabled a paper outlining the relationship between Scotland's Colleges and the voluntary sector. It is different from that of schools and HEIs as colleges have lifelong learners in their student base.

6.30 It is a valuable experience that helps students to develop key skills e.g. communication and working with others. If it is to be encouraged, it would be helpful to consider the scope to earn a learning credit through this worthwhile activity.

6.31 Volunteering generates "public value" in terms of the value to the student, the value to staff and the value to the community. There is an economic advantage in that society does not pay for the volunteered services.

6.32 The group welcomed the paper and the proposal to recognise volunteering with learning credits.

ACTION - Linda to revise paper in light of feedback received

ACTION - Colto circulate Linda's revised paper to relevant Executive divisions including those dealing with voluntary organisations and funding for learners, and provide feedback at the next meeting.

6.33 The Chair thanked members for producing these initial drafts. They have

provided very useful background and a sound foundation for progressing the Phase II work.

7) Outline format of Phase II Final report

7.1 Col spoke to Paper 15 circulated in advance.

7.2 The proposed format was generally agreed. But the indications are that the next Spending Review will be much more outcome focussed than before. So, the report must include an options appraisal, detailing a number of possible choices and explaining the reasoning behind the preferred options.

7.3 It was suggested that "Making a Bigger Difference" would be a good title for this report.

7.4 Members can e-mail Col if they have any further comments.

8) Any other business

8.1 Col advised that it would be helpful if the report could be completed in November, to give the Core Group an opportunity to view it before the outputs from the other workstreams.

8.2 He proposed two more meetings, the second taking nearly a full day, as it would be the final meeting of this group as follows:

• Tuesday 31 October 2006 - 10:00 to 12:00 - Meridian Court
• Tuesday 28 November 2006 - 11:00 to 16:00 - possibly at Glasgow Metropolitan College

ACTION - Gerald to make arrangements for next two meetings of working group

8.3 There being no further business to discuss, the Chair thanked everyone for their input and the meeting was brought to a close.

Summary of Action Points/

SUMMARY OF ACTION POINTS:

Raaj K Bhatti

FAED Skills team

September 2006