* Greater transparency:

* Learning and Skills Council must be more transparent at local and national level, so colleges can be confident about policy, strategy and resources.

* There should be annual statements outlining “agreed” funds and targets.

Tracking Progress

* LSC should create independent panel to monitor progress on the task force recommendations

* Scrutiny of new demands

* LSC should set up a scrutiny group of practitioners and senior council staff to keep bureaucracy demands in check

* The Department for Education and Skills should replicate the “star chamber” that controls admin demands on schools Professional Development

* A staff development programme should be planned for LSC and college staff, to help speed up the culture change Planning

* The LSC should ensure better planning by local councils and for capital projects, such as new buildings

* Cutting the data collection burden

* Councils should allow greater margin of error in data collected for individual learner records

* Speed up work in progress to simplify data collection through the Web

* Simplify the database for learning aims (formerly for student qualifications) MEDIUM TERM (WITHIN TWO YEARS)

* Cutting and paying for new admin requirements

* The LSC should ensure new requirements carry the least necessary demands for data, admin reporting and accounting

* Core data demands on colleges should be spelled out and properly costed

* Intervention in inverse proportion to success

* Audit and quality controls should be cut radically as colleges improve

* Top-performing colleges should be inspected once every six years

* Better relations are needed under LSC “concordat” with inspectors and extended to other providers such asJobCentrePlus Professional Development

* Implement staff development programmes for culture change, identified in the short-term recommendations Simplifying funding

* The LSC should provide three-year budgets to improve planning

* Clawback of cash from colleges which miss targets should be phased out

* The LSC must work with colleges to identify changes to student census data, the triennial reviews and so on, to make them more efficient Common core of data

* Agree core of data colleges need to work effectively

* Adapt management informationsystems to suit core demands

* Consider cost implications

* Best use of data

* The Adult Learning Inspectorate, The Office for Standards in Education and other external bodies must improve their use of data, information and judgments

* Multiple demands from externalagencies for the same information must cease

* The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and awarding bodies must streamline demands for achievement data and use common format Exam and assessment demands

* The QCA and exam bodies reduce demands on college staff and streamline admin and registration systems

* Exams should be scrutinised to ensure they are “fit for purpose”

* Frequency of tests, particularly for NVQs, must be reduced LONG TERM (WITHIN FOUR YEARS)

* Simplifying funding of colleges

* Funding reforms started in the medium term must be completed by 2006. In this period, the task forcerecommends, all colleges should be given a much freer hand to plan long term.