By Tash Shifrin
03 September 2009
The reorganisation of the troubled Learning and Skills Council into two successor bodies could throw its work and internal control systems deeper into crisis, the quango’s chief executive has warned.
The LSC hit the headlines last year when it was forced to halt a huge college building programme when the scheme ran out of money, leaving an estimated £5.7bn backlog. Former chief executive Mark Haysom resigned in March this year.
Two new bodies – the Skills Funding Agency and the Young People’s Learning Agency – are set to replace the LSC in April.
But new chief executive Geoffrey Russell has warned that the shake-up could jeopardise its work in planning and funding further education and skills training.
In the quango’s annual report, Russell warned: ‘As the transition progresses over the next year, there are significant risks that the LSC will not be able to meet its objectives, staff morale will be affected and systems of internal control will break down.’
The shake-up had caused ‘and will continue to provide, considerable diversion from ongoing business’, he said.
Elsewhere in the report, Russell admitted that risk management was ‘not yet fully embedded in the LSC’. Internal audit work had identified ‘critical weaknesses’ in governance arrangements for learner support – including the education maintenance allowance grant system.
The report outlines a series of delays in Education Maintenance Allowance payments after a contract, aimed at reducing costs in 2008/09, was awarded to private firm Liberata in 2007. The contract has since been transferred to Capita.
A spokeswoman told Public Finance that plans to mitigate the risks of the transfer to the two new quangos included ‘flexibility on the part of the LSC and the sponsoring departments’ while moving to the new structures.
‘A chief operating officer has also been appointed to focus on managing the “business as usual” aspects of the business so that we do not lose sight of our daily responsibilities,’ she added.
The LSC would move to two ‘shadow’ bodies during the autumn to allow time to develop new business processes well before they went live, she said.
Twelve colleges of the 144 caught in limbo by suspension of the capital programme have now been given the go-ahead to build.
03 September 2009
The reorganisation of the troubled Learning and Skills Council into two successor bodies could throw its work and internal control systems deeper into crisis, the quango’s chief executive has warned.
The LSC hit the headlines last year when it was forced to halt a huge college building programme when the scheme ran out of money, leaving an estimated £5.7bn backlog. Former chief executive Mark Haysom resigned in March this year.
Two new bodies – the Skills Funding Agency and the Young People’s Learning Agency – are set to replace the LSC in April.
But new chief executive Geoffrey Russell has warned that the shake-up could jeopardise its work in planning and funding further education and skills training.
In the quango’s annual report, Russell warned: ‘As the transition progresses over the next year, there are significant risks that the LSC will not be able to meet its objectives, staff morale will be affected and systems of internal control will break down.’
The shake-up had caused ‘and will continue to provide, considerable diversion from ongoing business’, he said.
Elsewhere in the report, Russell admitted that risk management was ‘not yet fully embedded in the LSC’. Internal audit work had identified ‘critical weaknesses’ in governance arrangements for learner support – including the education maintenance allowance grant system.
The report outlines a series of delays in Education Maintenance Allowance payments after a contract, aimed at reducing costs in 2008/09, was awarded to private firm Liberata in 2007. The contract has since been transferred to Capita.
A spokeswoman told Public Finance that plans to mitigate the risks of the transfer to the two new quangos included ‘flexibility on the part of the LSC and the sponsoring departments’ while moving to the new structures.
‘A chief operating officer has also been appointed to focus on managing the “business as usual” aspects of the business so that we do not lose sight of our daily responsibilities,’ she added.
The LSC would move to two ‘shadow’ bodies during the autumn to allow time to develop new business processes well before they went live, she said.
Twelve colleges of the 144 caught in limbo by suspension of the capital programme have now been given the go-ahead to build.
