Connexions: Staff cuts at Learning and Skills Council to threateneducation

Connexions chief executives are worried that cuts of about two-thirds in the workforce of the local learning and skills councils will remove a vital link in their efforts to reduce disengagement.

The 47 councils, which share boundaries with Connexions partnerships, plan and contract out education and training provision for over-16s, acting as a link between Connexions advisers and learning providers.

But in the recent restructuring plan of the England-wide Learning and Skills Council, it was revealed that local councils will be scaled down in size, replaced by 148 local partnership teams working alongside children's trusts. Operational services such as finance and contracting will be delivered by nine regional offices in the shake-up, which will cost more than 1,300 jobs.