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Single Equality Scheme consultation
A new scheme aimed at ensuring all adult learners have the opportunity to achieve their full potential and contribute to a more productive and skilled economy is out to public consultation.
Learners, providers, local communities, and other individuals and organisations affected by and interested in the work of the Skills Funding Agency will be able to read its new Single Equality Scheme consultation and answer questions to help shape the final scheme.
Current evidence suggests that raising the skills of under-represented and under-achieving groups could have a significant impact on economic growth. According to the National Skills Forum, raising the employment rate of disabled people to the national average could boost the UK economy by £13 billion.
Geoff Russell, Chief Executive of the Skills Funding Agency, said the new scheme aims to help tackle learner inequalities and build on the successes of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), the previous organisation responsible for funding learning and skills.
Mr Russell said: “We are committed to placing equality and diversity at the heart of what we do. There is a direct correlation between skills, productivity and employment. Only by eliminating discrimination and embracing diversity can we ensure that every single person is able to take advantage of the opportunities available to them and make a valuable contribution to the economic success of this country.”
As well as promoting equality across the learning and skills sector, the Skills Funding Agency is also tasked with ensuring equality across its own organisation. While the agency’s staff are ethnically diverse with an acceptable balance of males and female members of staff, disabled staff are under-represented and, at lower grades, women are over-represented.
“An independent review of the LSC’s scheme found that employees considered it a good employer that treated staff fairly and with respect,” said Mr Russell, “but we have a duty to build on this, to embed and promote equality so that all staff have equal opportunities to flourish in the organisation, which will in turn help our organisation grow and succeed.”
The new draft Single Equality Scheme sets out how the Skills Funding Agency will meet its duties as set out in the Equality Act 2010. Once the consultation is complete, the full three-year scheme will be published later this year.
Anyone unable to respond to the consultation on line can request a paper copy of the consultation document by calling call 0845 377 5000. All responses must be submitted by 6 September 2010.
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Notes for Editors
Skills Funding Agency
The Skills Funding Agency funds and regulates adult further education skills in England.
It is responsible for channelling funding swiftly, efficiently and securely to further education colleges and other providers, primarily in response to customer (employer and learner) choice on programmes. It will operate through customer focused services: National Apprenticeship Service (NAS), Employer Skills Services, and Next Step.
The Skills Funding Agency is an agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
An independent review of the LSC’s Single Equality Scheme, conducted by Ecotec, said the LSC was at the forefront of addressing equality and diversity and is perceived as a good role model in the learning and skills sector.
The LSC introduced Equality and Diversity Impact Measures (EDIMs) in 2007 in order to judge the sector’s progress in enabling all groups of learners to achieve their goals. Ecotec conducted an independent review of these measures which found that progress had been made in many areas: the goals for young male learners were achieved, with a significant narrowing of the gender success rate gap at levels 2 and 3; the previous drop in success rates for Bangladeshi learners was reversed, with a 14% improvement in success rates at full Level 3; and there were significant improvements in success rates for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities in Apprenticeships.
The National Skills Forum’s Doing Things Differently report says the cost of the ethnic minority employment gap through benefit payments and lost tax revenue is £1.3 billion. The cost in terms of lost output is estimated at £7.3 billion.
And the Women and Work Commission estimates that removing barriers to women working in occupations traditionally done by men, and increasing women’s participation in the labour market, could be worth between £15 billion and £23 billion.
Media contact: Ann Barnes, Press Officer, Skills Funding Agency, 0191 492 6355, ann.barnes@skillsfundingagency.bos.gov.uk.
