Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill
12:00 pm
Julian Gravatt: The AOC has been very closely involved in the development of sub-regional groups, which we welcome. It will be important, with the local government role, to recognise the differences between different parts of the country. We have slight reservations about the different 16-to-19 institutions being commissioned at different levels depending on the details—for example, school sixth forms and sixth-form colleges being commissioned by the home local authority, FE colleges by the sub-regional group, and certain, not yet known, national providers being commissioned at national level.
We suggested early on that it might have made more sense for it all to be done by the sub-regional group in places, such as London and Manchester, where there is lots of trouble across boundaries, for example, and for it all to be done by the county in other parts of the country—often the shire counties—where there is not much movement outside. It is not something specifically covered in the Bill and there is always the opportunity to see how it works.