Lecturers and tutors will be able to spend more time teaching and less time form-filling under new government proposals to cut red tape in further education (FE).
‘Reducing Burdens in Colleges of Further Education’ – a joint-project by the Cabinet Office, the Department for Education & Skills (DfES), and the Learning & Skills Council (LSC) – has been set up to reduce the amount of unnecessary demands placed on all frontline staff in FE, including back-office staff.
The report has a total of 26 recommendations, including cutting the number of data collection requests through key FE partners by sharing best practice and disseminating new policies and initiatives to colleges.
Jim Murphy, parliamentary secretary at the Cabinet Office said: “This report will free up frontline staff to what they do best – delivering first class further education and preparing the UK workforce for the emerging challenges posed by the global economy.”
It is hoped the measures will cut bureaucracy by reducing the amount of data required of FE colleges by the LSC, Ofsted and the Adult Learning Inspectorate, as well as streamlining funding to focus more on priority areas.
The report includes interviews with more than 160 front-line staff representatives from 50 colleges across nine LSC regions.
