Roles and responsibilities

The national partners have a responsibility to support colleges' and providers' plans for improvement and to help them implement new initiatives. Each organisation has a distinct role, but collectively they are responsible for:

• developing and implementing the overall policy and strategy for the further education system on behalf of Government and Ministers
• developing the range of provision available to learners and employers and ensuring that there is choice and specialisation
• managing risks to the quality of provision so that the interests of learners, employers and local communities are safeguarded
• enabling leaders, teachers, trainers and staff who support learning to develop their skills so that they are able to deliver an excellent service for learners and employers
• providing a framework for assessing quality and an appropriate degree of robust external judgement and accountability

The principal responsibilities of the national partners - what support they can (and cannot) offer colleges and providers to improve - are set out here (PDF).

A new relationship with colleges and providers

National partners act on behalf of Government and Ministers to implement policy. From the perspective of colleges and providers, this work too often appears to be delivered in a 'top-down', prescriptive manner. National partners have an obligation to recognise that colleges and providers have significant experience of responding to new initiatives. They must therefore develop new ways of working with the sector that facilitate and; support, they must recognise the priorities and pressures colleges and providers face in their day-to-day work in the move towards a self-regulating system and a more demand-led environment. This is why it is important that the Improvement Strategy is read in conjunction with the forthcoming proposals by Sir George Sweeney for a self-regulating system.

The national partners, working with colleges and providers to implement the Improvement Strategy, propose to:

• recognise the shared partnerships they have with colleges and providers to deliver excellent services for learners, employers and communities
• apply the principles of self-assessment and continuous improvement to their own activities
• report on measures of the effectiveness of partnership-working as part of the regular reporting on the Improvement Strategy progress (see Section 5 for more detail)
• be clear about how they communicate with colleges and providers and develop ways to make sure that their messages are consistent and coherent
• address the lack of joined-up thinking and coordinated action
• anticipate and address policy reforms and their implications across the system
• seek regular feedback on the effectiveness of their services and support and the clarity of their roles and responsibilities, and respond accordingly
• develop a coordinated engagement strategy for their work with representatives of learners, employers, communities and providers