Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with Mayoral Combined Authorities on Local Skills Improvements Plans.

The department is delighted that across all areas of England, employer-led local skills improvement plans (LSIPs) have already helped engage thousands of local businesses and have brought them together with local providers and stakeholders, including the Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) and the Greater London Authority (GLA), to collaboratively agree and deliver actions to address local skills’ needs. LSIPs were designed to support local innovation and growth so that every part of the country can succeed in its own unique way.

The department has purposely given employers the leading role in developing LSIPs, as they know their skills’ needs best. However, the department recognises the importance of the MCAs and GLA being involved in LSIPs, given their role as commissioners in their local areas and to support employer representative bodies (ERBs) to consider skills priorities within the broader context of economic growth and development. That is why the department placed a duty on the Secretary of State for Education to be satisfied, in approving LSIPs, that the views of the MCAs and the GLA had been considered in their development. The department also engaged MCAs and the GLA in the development of the LSIP statutory guidance in 2022, which clearly sets out the role they should play.

We welcome the positive engagement that took place between MCAs and the designated ERBs during the development of the plans and which is currently taking place as they are implemented. Indeed, each ERB will provide a public annual progress report in June 2024 and 2025 setting out progress made since publication of the plans.