Capacity building in local authorities:
an evidence base for “16–19 commissioning”

10 October 2010

The capacity of local authorities in commissioning 16–19 education and training is increasing despite policy-makers not yet being settled on their role. A free expert background paper is available here.

In the run-up to April 2010, local authorities were preparing for new responsibilities for commissioning 16–19 education and training, which extends the age range for which they are responsible to the full 14–19 range. This policy change was introduced to ensure:

• every local area has a sufficient and appropriate balance of education and training
• continued improvement in the quality of education and training delivery
• a strong emphasis on helping young people develop skills needed by employers.

The London Borough of Newham wanted to find out about young people’s views on education, training and job prospects. As of April 2010, they now have an increased responsibility for the education and training of young people in the area.

In partnership with the Policy Consortium, experienced researchers from ORC International delivered detailed research specifically focused on Newham and organised their own network event open to all English local authorities. The aim was to collate, collect and share evidence to understand what is known as “16–19 transfer” and inform the commissioning process. The diagram below shows the focus of the research.

For London Borough of Newham (LBN) we:

• Produced a summary of available existing data of LBN's 16–19 education and employment, drawing on a wide range of national and LBN-specific sources
• Interviewed 380 16–19 year olds living in Newham, which was a large enough sample to generalise the findings to all 16–19s in Newham
• Interviewed 380 employers in management, business development and recruitment roles. Again, this gave enough responses to reflect the views of Newham employers.

Our main message to local authorities planning how best to commission 16–19 provision was “don’t re-invent the wheel”. Much of the data, analysis and thinking required for the successful commissioning of 16–19 education and training already exists.