ABSTRACT
Prime Minister in May 2007 the Department for Education and Skills (qv) was closed down and replaced by two new bodies, the Department for Children, Schools and Families (qv) and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (qv), and as part of the same reorganisation heavy hints were dropped that much of the LSC ’ s work might be transferred to local authorities (qv). No doubt matters will have clarified by the time this is published. 2 Meanwhile, the LSC is one of a proliferating tangle of organisations falling over each other ’ s feet in trying to coordinate and oversee the Government ’ s programme of vocational courses. Others include the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (qv); the Quality Improvement Agency (qv); the Training and Development Agency for Schools (qv); 25 Sector Skills Councils (qv); and several more. If England ’ s youth unemployment problems could be solved by creating ever more bureaucracies, outcomes in the UK would be exemplary. Alas, they are not – see for instance New deal: employment. 3 As of 2008, useful references include the following. For publication details see the bibliography. ● THE COMPETITIVE ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE OF ENGLISH CITIES, a 263-page report by Professor James Simmie of Oxford Brookes University and others, criticises bodies such as the LSC for being expensive and ineffective.
