Policy Update

The good news is that the launch of the careers service for adults has now been officially confirmed, and the contractors have been announced. The brand is to be – wait for it – Next Step! This will now apply to the whole service, including what was formerly Learndirect Advice and is currently the Careers Advice Service. The future of the ‘advancement’ aspects of the service, building on the recent prototypes, is less certain: it was due to be rolled out later, but may now be in question.
The key issue now is whether the service for adults is to be part of a new all-age service; and if so, how and when it will be integrated into Connexions/career IAG services for young people. Linked to this is concern about the immediate future of these latter services, in the light of the massive cuts in local-authority funding: already there are rumours of severe cuts in Connexions budgets in some areas. Also, the new Government’s policy to encourage ‘good’ schools to become academies could lead to fuerther erosion of local-authority services, and hence of the partnership model for CEIAG provision (though it is still unclear how many schools will apply for academy status).

The notion of an all-age service was in the Conservative Party manifesto, and the Liberal Democrats also indicated prior to the General Election that they supported it. So will these commitments be confirmed quickly enough to maintain a sufficient base on which to construct it?

Any feedback on how these forces are playing out at local level would be welcome.

Tony Watts