Supplementary memorandum by the Academy
for Sustainable Communities
Following the Select Committee hearing on Monday
19 May, you invited ASC to write to you to provide further information.
We are pleased to submit this supplementary evidence.
At the outset, it may be useful to remind the
Committee of ASC's purpose. As you are aware, the creation of
ASC was one of the main recommendations made by Sir John Egan
in his review—Skills for Sustainable Communities. The new
approach he advocated recognised that while professional skills
are vitally important, simply upgrading them in isolation will
not achieve the outcomes the Government is seeking in terms of
sustainable communities. Significantly, and reflected in our central
mission, the Egan Review identified the need for all professionals
working in the sector, including planners, to be educated and
trained both in specialist (professional) skills and in a broad
range of generic skills, including strategic visioning, project
management, leadership, partnership working and community-focused
communication.
ASC was created in order to deliver this culture
change across the full range of sustainable communities core occupations.
This culture change entails reforming the ways in which professionals
and others are educated and trained, with great emphasis placed
on team working and generic skills. Such a culture change requires
a considerable shift in attitudes and priorities.
ASC's remit is to work across the entire sector
in order to provide strategic direction and leadership. Our guiding
principle is that we only get involved in the commissioning and
delivery of specific learning programmes when there is a clear
market gap that no other body is able or willing to fill. ASC
was not established as a direct training provider, nor was ASC
given the remit to focus on the specialist skills of any single
profession. Indeed, although ASC delivers a number of discrete
and direct projects and programmes, the operating model it was
set by ODPM (now CLG) was chiefly one of "leading and influencing",
recognising that a direct delivery model would require substantial
financial resources and might result in ASC competing with organisations
who should be key partners.
Since becoming fully operational in spring 2006,
everything ASC has done has been about tackling the issues raised
by Egan head on. Key achievements include:
— Developing, piloting and delivering
learning programmes, materials, best practice and events that
more than 24,000 professionals have accessed in the last two years
and which we are rolling out nationally over the next three years
(a summary of ASC's suite of programmes is attached).
— Fostering a common approach across
the sector to improving generic skills through our Joint Commitments
with 12 organisations, including several major professional institutes,
including the RTPI, RIBA, CIH and Asset Skills, the Sector Skills
Council with lead responsibility for town planners.
— Partnering these major professional
institutes and other professional and skills bodies to ensure
that an understanding of sustainable communities and generic skills
is integral to the learning and ongoing professional development
of at least 100,000 professionals.
— Developing, piloting and launching
the UK's first Foundation Degree in sustainable communities. This
is running now, and we expect the programme to be available in
at least one university in every region by 2010. This degree opens
access to those who may not have been considered as traditional
Higher Education entrants, and successful students can gain access
into planning or housing careers by taking a fourth year of study
and gaining an Honours Degree in Planning Studies or Housing Studies.
— Developing, piloting and launching
a Generic Module on sustainable communities that can be incorporated
into the education and training of emerging practitioners. The
module, an Egan recommendation, will ensure future practitioners
are equipped with generic skills and understand sustainable communities.
It is currently being used by two universities and is due to come
on stream in seven more universities by 2010. It has also been
used as a stand-alone short course.
— Developing curriculum support materials
that more than 74,000 young people in schools and more than 3,000
teachers have accessed, building on a successful programme with
schools in Milton Keynes. This motivates school students to gain
an interest in their communities and encourages them to consider
careers in the sector.
— Providing access to careers advice
to more than 60,000 young people and 900 careers advisers through
innovative materials, including using current professionals as
ambassadors for the different professions.
It is important to appreciate that some of the
above programmes are innovative and have required considerable
effort to develop and deliver. ASC has had to commission, validate
and develop courses and we are proud of our delivery record in
respect of this. For example, the Foundation Degree in Sustainable
Communities was planned, developed, and delivered in nine months;
such a procedure typically takes 18 months in a university.
Turning to other questions from the Select Committee:
— The lack of the business plan on
the ASC website. The new 2008-09 business plan was discussed at
the April meeting of the Steering Board and the covering report
explaining the key points from this discussion are available on
our website as part of the Board Papers. The new business plan
will be discussed with Iain Wright MP, our sponsor Minister, on
25 June, after which it will be published on the ASC website.
If the Committee would like a draft copy we would, of course,
be happy to supply this promptly.
— ASC's work on carbon and climate
change. We are about to publish a new, detailed section on our
website that signposts practitioners to information about climate
change. This accessible resource was developed in conjunction
with a range of bodies, including the Sustainable Development
Foundation, the Landscape Institute and the Housing Corporation.
We also recently partnered the TCPA to deliver national and regional
events examining the Government's eco towns and housing growth
policies. We are currently examining how environmental awareness
can be incorporated into generic skills. A member of ASC's steering
board is chairing the UK Green Building Council's Skills Task
Force, which aims to identify the carbon management skills landscape
and gaps in knowledge and provision. The UKGBC feeds into the
2016 Task force.
— "Raising Our Game". The
cross-professional course for senior staff to which Professor
Roberts referred in the Hearing is run in conjunction with the
Institute of Leadership and Development as the accrediting body.
To March 2008, there have been 137 participants enrolled on the
programme, drawn from the public, private and third sectors and
from a range of professional disciplines (including planning)
and we are on track for a further 200 participants for the current
financial year.
A brief summary of our wider suite of programmes
is enclosed over the page. It is worth noting that our focus now
is on accelerating delivery of programmes which we have been developing
and piloting.
Finally, we would like to bring to your attention
some of the programmes specifically aimed at the planning profession.
We have always recognised the central role of the planning sector
in the delivery of sustainable communities and have focused extra
resources to improve the skills and knowledge of those involved
in planning. To date, ASC have:
— Expanded the www.communityplanning.net
website, in partnership with RTPI, to improve feedback facilities
and promote case studies.
— Developed and piloted "Planning
for Non Planners", together with BURA, which demystifies
the planning process for non-planners, including elected members.
— Developed "Financing the Urban
Renaissance" with the BPR and PAS to help elected members,
planning officers and developers learn from large regeneration
projects.
— Worked with RTPI to understand how
planners prefer to learn and how knowledge is used to change the
way people work. This has helped to ensure that CPD is delivered
in the most effective way.
— Developed "Sustainable Communities:
The Skills to Deliver" with TCPA to give leaders and decision-makers
a high-level understanding of issues such as community leadership,
consultation, master planning.
— ASC have also worked with South East
Excellence to equip councillors, elected members and developers
in the five towns' network with the generic skills needed to better
understand the planning process.
To summarise, success for ASC lies in changing
the behaviour, attitudes and knowledge of the many professions
involved in sustainable communities. Our impact is twofold. Primarily,
it is on how practitioners work by delivering generic skills to
support multidisciplinary and cross sectoral working. Secondly,
it is about the influence ASC has on others to encourage delivery
against labour shortages and skills gaps across the sector.
ASC's programmes and tools have been designed
to fill gaps in the career pathways available to potential and
current sustainable communities professionals. The table below
represents a selection of key programmes and products:
Pathway |
ASC programme |
Education | Making Places: teacher resource for Key Stage 3 (11-14). Ask about place?: teacher resources, in partnership with the Geographical Association, to explore sustainable communities within the context of the geography curriculum.
Citizenship toolkit: teacher resources, in partnership with CSV, to explore sustainable communities within the context of the citizenship curriculum.
|
| Careers | Ask:What If?: interactive website and careers adviser materials that promote 33 related professions, including town planning, transport planning and surveying.
Future Vision Awards: national award scheme for students that promotes sustainable communities and offers high-profile work placements.
|
| Entry routes | Foundation Degree: three-year programme that develops an understanding of sustainable communities and improves generic skills and can lead to a fourth year Honours degree in planning or housing studies and on to professional accreditation.
Generic Module: flexible suite of materials that embed cross-disciplinary learning and generic skills development into higher education curricula.
|
| Vocational | Community development: sustainable communities unit incorporated into the City and Guilds Higher Professional Diploma in Community Development.
|
| Continuing Professional Development | In a Nutshell: series of online facilitated workshops that improve understanding of skills, sustainable communities and the policy context.
Raising our Game: six-month, accredited by the Institute of Leadership and Management to Levels 5 and 7, multi-disciplinary programme that promotes a common understanding of sustainable communities and develops generic skills.
Diagnostic tool: online resource that helps individuals to identify skills gaps and signposts them to national and regional training and support.
Train&Sustain: toolkit that provides trainers with resources to deliver a strong understanding of the sustainable communities agenda to their chosen audience. This will be piloted shortly.
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| Best practice | Creating the Future: Government's national awards for sustainable communities, succeeding the Deputy Prime Minister's Award.
Showcase: online case study website that promotes best practice in achieving sustainable communities and developing generic skills. There are currently 38 live case studies available.
Learning Laboratories: live learning projects, which pilot different approaches to tackling skills issues on a local and regional level. The Learning Labs help to identify learning that can be disseminated and replicated in other regions. Recent projects have included a design led project in the North West, and one aimed at elected members and developers in the South East.
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| Specialist skills | Brownfield Skills Strategy: launched the government's national strategy to improve skills to develop Brownfield land jointly with English Partnerships. The consultation period ends on 10 June.
Demystifying climate change: online resources that help non-specialists integrate green issues into delivery of sustainable communities.
Community Cohesion: research into potential learning module for adapting cohesion into delivery of sustainable communities. This is currently being piloted.
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| Networks | Leaders' Network: ASC-run national network of more than 60 chief executives of regeneration bodies and other leaders that provides an expert sounding board for HCA, CLG and major projects and promotes shared learning.
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