Further supplementary memorandum from
Communities and Local Government (DAR 09-17)
I wanted to take this opportunity to express
both my pleasure, and the CLG Ministerial Team's pleasure, in
participating at the 2009 Departmental Annual Report Inquiry on
2 November. As agreed during the session I am writing to you to
share my understanding of the number of planners employed by local
government, and what action the Government is taking to address
the shortage of planners. I also agreed to provide you with an
update on the positive work of the Homes and Communities Agency
(HCA) Academy.
NUMBER OF
PLANNERS EMPLOYED
BY LOCAL
GOVERNMENT
Appendix one, to my letter of 14 October to
you, set out that there had been a reduction in the number of
staff employed in local authorities in planning and development
areas of work between 2006 and 2008. These figures, taken from
the CIPFA statistics, include professional planners, technical
staff, administration, and other support staff. They do not allow
a figure for professional planners only. However, we believe that
these reductions are likely to relate to reductions in administrative
posts due to cost savings and technological advances.
In contrast, there has been a steady increase in
the number of filled posts in planning policy and development
control. These increases are likely to be professional planners,
however, there is no annual survey that records the number of
professional planners in local authority planning departments.
My Department is currently evaluating the ways in which a survey
could be distributed, via the Planning Officers Society, to ascertain
the effect of the downturn on the number of professional planners
in local authorities. I will keep you updated as this work develops.
STEPS TAKEN
TO INCREASE
THE NUMBER
OF PLANNERS
The primary step that the Government has taken
to increase the number of planners is through the Post Graduate
Planning Bursary Scheme. Since 2004-05, my Department has funded
bursaries to high calibre graduates to study a postgraduate planning
course. Since 2004-05, 607 students have benefited from the scheme
at a cost of £5.68 million.
In 2009-10, we expect to award 153 bursaries (compared
to 92 in 2007-08). This scheme has also raised the profile of
planning within the universities and helped secure the planning
schools' position in universities and attracted more students.
There has been a steep increase in the number of planning students
rising from a total of just over 600 in 2000, to just over 1,000
in 2007.
From the exit surveys undertaken for the first
two years of the bursary scheme, we know that 99% of students
graduated. Of these graduates, 36% were subsequently employed
in local government, 34% in private planning consultancies, and
the remainder in the voluntary sector, public bodies like the
National Health Service, research posts in universities or were
still seeking employment at the time of the exit surveys. From
2008/09 students awarded bursaries have to enter into public service
contracts and will be expected to work for at least two years
in the public service within the first five years of employment.
We have also funded the creation and operation
of a distance learning MA in Spatial Planning and a foundation
degree in Planning at University of the West of England. We have
also provided three one off capacity building grants to individual
universities located in regions where there is a high level of
development activity and thus a demand for planners.
THE HCA ACADEMY
The HCA Academy's remit is to attract new entrants
into, and improving the generic skills of, the place making sector.
This includes built environment professionals such as planners,
but its role is to support and supplement the role of profession
specific education, recruitment, skills and training bodies such
as the RTPI and PAS.
The Academy is tasked with improving multidisciplinary
working across professions and ensuring generic skills are transferable
across the disciplines. All of the Academy's courses are therefore
open to, and attended by planners, as well as all the other professions
and disciplines involved in place making.
Examples of the work the HCA Academy has undertaken
to support planning includes:
— The Foundation Degree in Sustainable
Communities. This is a key part of the Academy's work to tackle
recruitment problems in the sector whilst equipping professionals
with a broad range of generic skills and knowledge in order to
deliver sustainable communities. The degree is designed to open
up entry routes to careers in planning and housing. The aim is
to run the foundation degree in every English Region. Four universities
are already signed up to delivering the degree with the remaining
ones coming on stream in the next financial year.
— As part of the Skills Action Plan
a task and finish group is looking at recruitment and retention
across the place making sector. The Academy is involved in working
with Asset skills helping develop apprenticeships in key areas,
such as planning and regeneration. The group share best practice
recruitment strategies particularly in terms of under represented
groups.
— The Ask:What if? Website covers
33 professions including planning, transport planning and community
planning. The site is designed to attract young people into professions
across the housing and regeneration sector.
— The Academy is updating Mind the Skills
Gap, the market intelligence work that underpins key skills
strategies for the sector. This work, reporting next year, will
identify the key skills gaps and labour shortages in the place
making sector (including planning) across the county, this will
help target recruitment and training development. This will enable
the Academy and its partners to plan and co-ordinate a sector
response to tackle shortages and gaps.
It is worth noting that the Academy is the only
organisation that focuses on the skills and capacity of different
professions and disciplines, from a range of different types of
organisation, to create, maintain and regenerate successful places.
In addition, it is the only organisation that specifically focuses
on promoting inter-disciplinary and organisational working and
skills.
It should also be noted that the Academy has
undertaken a large range of activities to support place making
that would not have otherwise been undertaken by other bodies.
I have attached further, more detailed, information on these activities
at annex A below.
John Healey MP
Annex A
ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN BY HCA ACADEMY
PLACE-MAKING
SKILLS
The HCA Academy is supporting the delivery of
housing and regeneration programmes through the rollout of its
bespoke learning programmes. These include:
— Foundation Degree in Sustainable Communities—part-time
programme now available in four universities and on target to
be in every region by 2011.
— In a Nutshell—10-week, online introductory
course to place-making available every month and regularly sold
out.
— Planning for Non-Planners—demystifying
planning workshop available at least once a quarter and regularly
sold out.
— Creating Sustainable Communities—CPD
module available through four universities with more planned.
In addition, the HCA Academy has launched the
Place-based Recognition Scheme to identify quality products that
improve place-making skills and knowledge. This will allow the
HCA Academy to create a directory of recognised programmes, resources,
and best practice relevant to practitioners.
THE HCA HUB
The HCA Academy is currently creating the HCA's
learning and knowledge website, an online "hub" of resources
that will provide a trusted source of information, toolkits and
learning for the HCA and the wider sector.
The hub will:
— Provide an easy-to-use central resource
to meet HCA staff and partners' needs for up-to-date knowledge
and skills.
— Encourage delivery partners to learn
from past mistakes and best practice to improve the delivery process.
— Meet the need for cost-effective, accessible
methods of learning at a time when training budgets are tight
and pressures on delivery partners are increasing.
The Academy is halfway through the two-year
project, with the hub scheduled to launch in October 2010. It
builds on and integrates the Academy's popular online tools, such
as:
— Planning and Climate Change—an
online version of Planning Policy Statement: Planning and Climate
Change, created on behalf of CLG and in partnership with the
Planning Advisory Service.
— Showcase—a best practice website
featuring more than 70 case studies.
— Demystifying Climate Change—a website
that provides a comprehensive overview of policy and signposts
practical solutions.
TARGETED CAPACITY
The HCA Academy is in the first year of a national
programme designed to ensure that places are sufficiently prepared
to engage in the HCA's "single conversation". This builds
on the HCA Academy's previous place-based work in Milton Keynes,
Stoke, and the Tees Valley.
The HCA Academy has identified priorities in
each region and the programme is under way in several places.
It is designed to improve the generic skills base of the HCA's
delivery partners, as well as improve multi-agency and cross-professional
working. This is being achieved through facilitating partnership
working, developing a shared vision of place, and fostering a
holistic approach towards place-making.
The programme is being delivered in two phases:
— Diagnostic—The HCA Academy works
with delivery partners to identify their challenges and needs,
gather intelligence on local activities, agree a set of learning
aims and objectives, identify resources, clarify roles and responsibilities,
and agree an evaluation framework to measure the impact of the
HCA Academy's work. Tailored delivery plans are developed to meet
the needs of individual places, comprising a blend of interventions
including: delivery of HCA Academy learning programmes, commissioning
of learning programmes from partner organisations, delivery of
other providers programmes and commissioning of new interventions
where gaps exist in provision.
— Delivery—The HCA Academy manages
the interventions; evaluates the achievement of milestones, outcomes,
and impacts; levers in funds for delivery, where available; and
provides seed funding, where appropriate.
NATIONAL SKILLS
ACTION PLAN
In June 2009, I launched the HCA Academy's national
skills action plan in conjunction with HCA Chief Executive Sir
Bob Kerslake. The action plan—Delivering Better Skills
for Better Places—comprises more than 20 skills and
employer organisations, including the Royal Town Planning Institute,
the Planning Advisory Service, HCA Atlas, the National Planning
Forum and the Town and Country Planning Association.
Unprecedented in scale and ambition, the action
plan is accelerating the development of a flexible, highly skilled
workforce and ensuring that there are enough people with the technical,
specialist, and transferable skills to deliver sustainable communities.
The main aims of the action plan are to:
— Attract new entrants and retain existing
people in the core professions like planning.
— Develop generic skills in areas like
low carbon, climate change, empowerment, community cohesion, risk
sharing and place leadership.
— Ensure technical and specialist skills
like planning, urban design and skills for changing economic markets
are updated in line with new processes, standards, legislation,
and economic conditions.
Under the HCA Academy's leadership, the partners
are currently working together to:
— Extend the Diploma in Construction and
the Built Environment to include planning, housing, surveying
and valuation skills.
— Embed generic skills in new learning
programmes—apprenticeships, foundation degrees, undergraduate
and post graduate courses and continuing professional development.
— Explore the potential for an apprenticeship
in planning.
— Develop and promote an online distance
learning package for urban design.
— Develop competencies frameworks for green
skills and embed carbon management into the training provided
by partners.
— Develop and promote a learning module
for development economics.
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