In The Loop – 29 Nov 2013

Adult and Community Learning ‘in the loop’

Issue 15 November 2013

Hello everyone and welcome to ‘in the loop’

This is a weekly bulletin to let you know about all the changes and actions that are being taken to save and strengthen our treasured Adult Learning Service.

Our mission:

We can say ‘hand on heart’ we believe adult learning in Bristol can continue to improve and grow and we are working really hard to make sure that happens!

Things we’ve done this week:

• We are busy finishing off our progress report for the Neighbourhoods and Communities Scrutiny Commission on 10th December. The formal function of scrutiny is to hold the City Council executive (ie the Mayor and his cabinet ) to account. Watch this space as we will be providing a link to the final report very soon.
• You may have seen the Mayor’s ‘Vision for Bristol’ released this week. We were delighted to see the top priority to ‘Keep Bristol working and learning – A learning city where everyone is able to acquire the skills they need to join our world class workforce’. Obviously the budget proposals present some difficult choices with the aim to reduce total spending. One proposal you may have seen is that to ‘eliminate subsidy to St Pauls Learning and Family Centre and explore other options’. As a service we use the centre for classes. We hope to be involved in exploring options with other Council teams and with external organisations such as St Pauls Unlimited. The Mayor has made it clear that no decisions have been made he is keen to listen to your views. Click here to see the full details on the proposed budget and use the online survey to have your say.
• There has been an intensive period of listening to learners and staff, and also analysing a range of service information. The results are being used to inform our business development plan which outlines our phase 1 priorities, actions and milestones to enable us to become fully self-financing. We will be sending round a link to our final draft very soon.
• Our Jargon Busting Workshop – ‘understanding tablets’ was set up after suggestions by you on our online survey. It has proved really popular and we will to continue to set up courses and workshops in response to your ideas.

If you would like to receive ’in the loop’ by email please send your email address to jenny.wilkes@bristol.gov.uk