The right skills for the job?

After a rocky start, the Learning and Skills Council's chief executive, John Harwood, is starting to win grudging praise for his work. Neil Merrick reports

A year ago it was difficult to find anyone with a good word for the Learning and Skills Council, the body that runs education for people over 16. Having replaced the Further Education Funding Council last year, it has been seen as over-bureaucratic and struggling to find its feet.

Today, the issue is not so clear cut. Ask the principals of England's 405 FE colleges for an opinion of the LSC, and you'd probably get 405 different replies. That is partly because the national LSC has established itself at its base in Coventry, and its 47 local councils or arms have been gaining in confidence and having more impact on the day-to-day running of colleges, private trainers and school sixth-forms.

Waltham Forest College was put under special measures two years ago after running up debts of £1.5m. Its principal, Carol Gibson, praises North London LSC. "It's been very supportive and part of our recovery," she says. Any problems, says Gibson, were mainly due to poor communication between the local and national LSC or other government departments. For instance, North London LSC was unable to tell Waltham Forest why it received only £323,500 this year to fund the teachers' pay deal, instead of an expected £427,500.

A survey for the Association of Colleges found concerns over the effectiveness of local LSCs, especially where they had insufficient staff with FE experience. This is the case with South Yorkshire LSC, says John Rockett, the principal of Rotherham College. "The LSC contract managers have no idea what they're talking about."

John Harwood, the LSC's chief executive, accepts there were teething problems. "We have moved people around and recruited new people. Now every local council has people with sufficient experience of FE, and six employ more than 10 staff with FE experience." Harwood, previously the chief executive of Oxfordshire County Council, had a bumpy time last autumn when he was quoted on Radio 4's Today programme saying that 40 per cent of FE teaching was unacceptable. He wrote to every college, ap-ologising for the damage caused and claiming he had been misrepresented due to poor editing.

He now appears to have won over at least part of the sector. David Gibson, the chief executive of the AOC, is pleased by some of Harwood's recent statements. Peter Pendle, the general secretary of the Association for College Management, believes the LSC is turning the corner – partly due to Harwood's leadership. "He is gaining a better understanding of the sector and speaks more forcibly on its behalf," he says.

But the LSC is unlikely to gain support from all colleges until it can show it has reduced bureaucracy. In spite of Harwood's claims that most of the paperwork was inherited, the council is seen by many to be at the heart of the problem. Last year, it set up a bureaucracy-busting task force, chaired by Sir George Sweeney, the principal of Knowsley Community College. Some changes have already been implemented, including simplifying the standards fund and cutting the number of provider reviews from three a year to two. But the AoC survey found that 90 per cent of colleges have not noticed any reduction in bureaucracy; only 3 per cent believe the LSC represents value for money. Any lasting change will probably have to wait until the task force issues its final report. "We should be able to show some discernible improvement in the next six months to one year," Harwood says. Colleges, school sixth forms and private trainers are due to come under a single funding system from 2004. Over the next two years, it will be crucial for the LSC to communicate the changes clearly.

Is the criticism fair? According to Sir George, the new body has made "a really good fist" of things. "Sometimes people don't understand the sheer magnitude of merging so many different organisations into one. Most important, the LSC has made a start on the transition to a plan-led system, which was very different to what we had before."

Nick Lewis, the principal of Broxtowe College in Nottingham, believes that changes to the standards fund and provider review system have had some effect in reducing bureaucracy. But colleges such as Broxtowe were disappointed to discover next year's funding allocations in June or July. Under the old system, allocations were known by the end of May. Lewis says: "The council has to live in a very complex policy environment and establish relations with a wide range of partner bodies, including the Department for Education and Skills and the Treasury."

The problems are the result of ministerial meddling, says Dan Taubman, of the lecturers' union NATFHE. "At the end of the day it's a creation of the Government, and the Government is overloading its agenda."