Sixth International JVET Conference: Researching Policy and Practice in Vocational Education and Training. 13-15 July 2005, University of Oxford
Dr. Mike Hammond
Research and Development Manager Dudley College
Title:
Success for All? An analysis of the policy effects and defects of national FE policy and local FE practices in the ‘Black Country’.
Abstract
This paper analyses the policy directives from the ‘New Labour Government’ behind Paragraph 14 of Success for All, in relation to restructuring FE Colleges, to create leaner and more specialised organisations, using the findings of OfSTED and ALI inspection reports. The paper analyses the effects or otherwise of this policy within the Black Country region of the West Midlands. The paper defines the regional characteristics of the ‘Black Country’, identifies the providers, and where applicable their OfSTED/ ALI grades. The paper concludes by pointing to possible failures at local level by the LSC to engage in the ‘Success for All’ agenda, but points to other factors, such as the reduction in franchising provision, as having the desired if uncontrolled and planned effect on rationalising FE Colleges in the ‘Black Country.’
Introduction
In 1992 the Conservative Government of John Major, sought to continue the modernisation of Public Services in the ethos of new public management, privatisation, and quasi market theories originally conceived by the Conservative Government of Margaret Thatcher, in 1979 (and which had been subsequently extended to a range of public services), by removing further education colleges from local authority control, and placing them into their own incorporated status (Levitas, 1986; Hall, 1988; Grocott, 1989; Clarke, 1991; Pollitt, 1993; Dunleavley and Hood, 1994; Clarke and Newman, 1997). The ethos behind the Further and Higher Education Act (1992) was that FE Colleges free from the control of politicians and bureaucrats within town halls, would be more able to address the needs of industry, and address the alarming skills gap within the UK economy, in relation to the main industrial competitors of the UK (Coldstream, 1993;Macfarlane, 1993; Bradley, 2000).
The Conservative Government in creating a market, and a market driven funding methodology, which forced FE Colleges to become ever more efficient, intended that the market would filter out winners and losers from the FE sector, with the winners growing in strength and the losers being forced to close or merge with more successful neighbours (Smithers and Robinson, 1993; Ainley and Bailey, 1997; Barrow, 1997). The Conservatives believed that the market model would improve quality, improve participation, shake out failing Colleges and close the skills gap identified within the economy (Bradley, 2000; Smithers and Robinson, 2000). The Conservatives were prepared to allow and indeed expected FE Colleges to close or merge as a result of their policies (Barrow, 1997). Rationalisation therefore of the FE sector has been a key Government aim for over a decade (Hammond, 2003).
In 1997-8, the new Labour Government of Tony Blair asked the Select Committee for the Department of Education and Employment to investigate the FE sector. In the report of that Select Committee, a sector crippled by financial deficits, industrial relations problems, poor standards, out of control franchising, sleaze and mismanagement was identified (Select Committee, 1998; Hammond, 2003). Through the Learning and Skills Act (2001), the Government sought to address some of the issues raised by the Select Committee, and move the FE sector from a competitive market model to a collaborative planned model. To achieve this a new body called the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) was created, which was both centralised and localised (like the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC) and the Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs) the bodies it replaced) body (DfEE, 1999; DfEE, 2000).
Although the emphasis had changed from a market to a planned model, this did not mean a change in the rationalisation emphasis by Government towards the FE sector generally; as the Government and the methodology changed, but the policy remained the same (Blunkett, 1997; DfEE, 1998; DfEE, 1999, DfES, 2002). In 2002, the Government published a major policy initiative for FE entitled ‘Success for All’, and in Paragraph 14 of Success for All, FE Colleges and the LSC were challenged to make hard decisions about the future structure of their Colleges, and where necessary move towards specialisation and specialist Colleges, rather than the traditional general FE Colleges, which had evolved out of the mechanics institutes in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
It is therefore the effects of this policy enunciated in paragraph 14 of Success for All that the project upon which this paper is based developed, and this paper explores this issue, in relation to the ‘Black Country’ sub region of the West Midlands.
Methodological Design
When approaching the philosophical design of this research, the researcher chose initially an interpretative paradigm, as the data aimed to bring together the different stories from around the Black Country in relation to the key policy initiative of ‘Success for All’. Research paradigms are necessary for any piece of research, and the researcher was presented either with a positivistic or an interpretative paradigm (Sil verman, 1985; Patton, 1990; Cohen and Manion, 1994). For this research, the researcher rejected the positivistic paradigm, because positivism postulates that the truth is out there and can only be identified by a process of empirical science and rational methods of analysis and data collection, with objectivity being the goal (Burrell and Morgan, 1979). Objectivity appeared unsuitable for this research, as the aim of the work was to elicit opinions on the development of the policy of ‘Success for All ‘ within the ‘Black Country’, and such views are quintessentially subjective in nature, being the opinion of the individual based albeit on some external factors. Such a search for opinions does not lend itself to positivism; since some authors even deem positivism to be unsuitable for social science research (Cohen and Manion, 1994, p56).
Having rejected positivism, with a view to seeking a more subjective approach, the researcher had to seek a method of data collecting which facilitated the specific data design. The method adopted for data collection therefore was the in-depth semi-structured interview, as in this context of naturalistic interpretative enquiry; this allowed the human being to become the instrument of the research (Lincoln and Guba, 1985; Tesch, 1990). Because of the time constraints of using taped interview data, and the need to transcribe this without administration support, the researcher sought to keep the questions to a minimum, and reduce the meaning units that evolved out of them to only those specifically relevant to the research in hand, while at the same time allowing the subjects to engage in pathways they found interesting, to see if valuable data was forthcoming, but at the same time bringing them back to the structured elements in the interview questionnaire. In this way, the researcher was able to engage in debate and the development of evidence (LeCompte and Preissle, 1984; Miles and Huberman, 1984).
The initial design of the research up until this point had factored into it, support being received in relation to interviews from the Principals of the main Black Country FE Colleges, and the Black Country LSC. Despite numerous letters and telephone calls, the researcher was only able to elicit the support of two College principals. The Director of Planning at the ‘Black Country’ LSC has declined to take part, as has one of the College Principals due to work commitments, the other College Principals have ignored all attempts at correspondence. In relation to the interviews that took place, then these took place in the offices of the Principals concerned, and followed the suggestions laid down for academic interviews of this kind by academic experts in the field, in that they were based around the research questions, but allowed the interviewees to wander, and thus the researcher did not stick to asking the same questions in the same order, and where necessary, the researcher followed the interviewee down avenues that were interesting and relevant to the research (Walker, 1985, pp4-5; Minichiello et al, 1995, p65).
From a research perspective, the attitude of the Black Country LSC and Black Country College Principals seemed interesting, and led the researcher to consider whether the title of the research was such as to frighten some post 16 leaders within the ‘Black Country’ into non co-operation. The subject is controversial in that it relates to Government policy, and FE management of the policy, and the researcher was aware of this when undertaking the research. It is however in the opinion of the researcher, vital that an analysis of performance of Government policy at the ‘grass roots’ level takes place, as this enables policy makers and policy research academics to assess the impact and effectiveness of Government policy. Some interesting similarities in view did emerge even from this limited data pool, but as it is almost impossible to provide the protection from identification that interviewees require under the ethical rules of research, only broad findings are discussed in this paper, and no transcribed data is reproduced.
The lack of interpretative input from practitioners within the area, led to the researcher re-thinking the methodology, and concentrating on a more black letter[1] and documentary form of data collection than had been originally intended. This meant that time the researcher had allotted to interviewing and transcribing data was spent trawling through large numbers of policy documents and reports pertinent to the Black Country Sub-region of the West Midlands. The literature data is therefore primary in nature, as it is taken from direct sources, rather than commentary on the sources by other academics or policy makers (Cohen and Manion, 1994).
This exercise proved extremely useful, as the researcher took the documentation down not just to Sub-regional level of the Black Country Learning and Skills Council, but also to Borough level, within the boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton[2], by looking at OfSTED area reviews/ inspections, and consultation reports on the various Boroughs commissioned not only by the Black Country LSC, but also by others. From these reports, the researcher was able to consider the Borough issues together, and identify common trends and patterns, which would not become apparent if the reports were considered in isolation. These diffuse issues, could then be related back to the sub-regional plan and management responsibility of the Black Country LSC, and then critically analysed against Government policy. This appears to be a novel approach in relation to the ‘Black Country’ region, as these reports have not apparently been brought together into any form of holistic analysis prior to this research.
This exercise showed that there were some major issues, in relation to the Success for All agenda, and the actual enactment of Government policy at the sub-regional level of the ‘Black Country’, and may go some way to explaining the reluctance of some in the sub-region to engage in the research.
Black Country Perspective
The Black Country is an urban area, which comprises of three metropolitan boroughs, being Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall. It also includes the recently created city of Wolverhampton (referred to for ease under its old borough status in this paper). The population of one million people is diverse and multi-cultural, with established ethnic minority groups. It has some of the most deprived wards in the country, and its employment base is heavily dependent on manufacturing. Traditionally the Black Country has depended on heavy engineering, glass, manufacturing and once upon a time mining for economic growth and stability. The structure of the Black Country labour market is however, predominantly made up of small firms, with 80% of companies employing between one and ten people. Most large employers in the Black Country are public bodies such as the Metropolitan Local Authorities and FE Colleges (LSCBC, 2004, p12).
Despite a steady decline in jobs over the last ten years within the Black Country, manufacturing continues to employ around 25% of the total workforce. Currently, this equates to some 100,000 people, and although economic indicators suggest that these types of jobs will continue to decline, there is still a potential recruitment issue, as by 2012, although it is estimated that there will be 36,000 less manufacturing jobs in the ‘Black Country’ sub-region, it seems likely, that over the same time frame 75,000 people will leave manufacturing, leaving a 39,000 short fall. Some 37,000 people leaving manufacturing at this time, are estimated to be currently employed in skilled occupations in the metals and electrical/electronics industries, which will require training of their replacements in these skills to avoid skills gaps. There is aligned with this, a dependency upon traditionally focussed manufacturing, which has led to an over representation within the Black Country economy of low/semi skilled occupations, which are the most vulnerable to technological advances (LSCBC, 2004, p12).
Further, the number of people employed within the Black Country is forecast to increase by just over 11,000 jobs by 2012. This presents a significant challenge to the ‘Black Country’ economy, as the majority of these extra 11,000 jobs, are likely to require an education up to NVQ4 (Bachelors Degree) level, with approximately 25 % at NVQ 3, but only 20% at NVQ 2 level. The poor academic performance of the Black Country may make it difficult for current inhabitants of the region to effectively access these jobs. Currently, the Black Country has a greater proportion of its population with low levels of numeracy and literacy skills (30.4% and 28.1 % respectively) than anywhere else within either the West Midlands or Great Britain. The problem is most serious in Wolverhampton and Sandwell (LSCBC, 2004, p15).