Are LSIPs going to work?

Getting the policy right is key to Levelling Up regions across the country and unlocking business investment in skills. The CBI welcomes Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) as an opportunity to close skills gaps and make the skills system more responsive to the needs of employers at local level.

Led by the Department for Education, the LSIP project aims to help change the way education and training providers interact with local business to respond to regional requirements. LSIP pilots were trialled across eight regions.

The CBI worked with local Chambers of Commerce to promote the trailblazer pilots that ran from Autumn 2021 to Spring 2022 to businesses. We will continue to offer our support to designated employer representative bodies (ERBs) as LSIPs are rolled out nationally later this year.

More work needs to be done to ensure LSIPs boost the quality of engagement between businesses and providers

The aim of this report is to highlight what needs to happen to ensure that LSIPs will be a success. We believe that:

1. LSIPs must be directed towards businesses most in need of a voice in the skills system.
2. LSIPs should be given the scope to embrace cross-cutting sector issues.
3. Providers need to be equipped to deliver LSIPs.
4. LSIPs will need to be kept under regular review to ensure the plans remain current and useful.

We are calling for:

1. Effort to be directed at engaging businesses most in need of a voice in the skills system.
2. The information gathered via LSIPs to be reflected in and used to inform national policy initiatives via the new Unit for Future Skills.
3. LSIPs to help explain the local dimension to national priorities.
4. ERBs to complete major reviews of LSIP content on a 3-yearly basis.
5. A single LSIP hub on gov.uk so that all information relating to LSIPs is in one easily accessible place.

Published in January 2021, the