Common use of Carers Clause in Contracts

Carers. The staff and student populations of each college have people with key responsibilities as carers. The colleges are committed to supporting such Carers to carry out their respective roles effectively in line with the Scottish Government’s Carers Positive initiative. The colleges will ensure that by 1 April 2018 there are all the relevant approaches in place to meet the requirements of The Carers (Scotland) Act 2018, aimed at supporting Carers in the workplace. The colleges have several hundred carers in their student population in 2015-16 and expect that by the time all the enrolments have taken place for 2016- 17, this will grow. The colleges recognise the importance the Government has attached to the protection and furtherance of the Gaelic language through the National Gaelic Language Plan 2012-2017. Consideration is being given to initiatives such as the promotion of Gaelic (and Scots) language usage through appropriate signage and also through the college websites and short courses where appropriate. Over the past years the colleges across North & South Lanarkshire have had extremely positive Education Scotland reviews, a host of SQA awards, awards from Scotland’s Colleges, Homes for Scotland, and two UK Green Gown Awards. South Lanarkshire College is the only college in Scotland to be formally accredited as Leader in Diversity at level 3, has Platinum Investors in People and won a second UK Green Gown Award in November 2016. It has the highest attainment rates in Scotland for HE full-time students and for students from the most deprived 20% SIMD areas. New College Lanarkshire has been awarded “Best in the UK” at the recent Worldskills event. This is the third “Best in the UK” award at Worldskills over the past four years. The success of students in the region is underpinned by a strong and determined approach to excellence in all aspects of the colleges’ activities. The colleges promote the development of the highest level of skills among their students. The significant achievements of students in a wide range of vocational areas is a key indicator of success and one of the most important KPIs identified in this outcome agreement. Students from Lanarkshire have demonstrated highly successful levels of skills in competitions at Scottish, UK and European level across a broad range of vocational subjects. This Outcome Agreement contains a commitment from each college to contribute towards overarching regional outcomes and targets. It should be read in conjunction with each college’s strategic, operational and other plans in order to provide a ▇▇▇▇▇▇ view of how the colleges will deliver outcomes for the population of North and South Lanarkshire and beyond. The colleges have in place robust arrangements for joint monitoring of outcomes in the current year’s Regional Outcome Agreement. A full self-evaluation report will be published in October reporting on progress towards targets. As publicly-funded bodies we are committed to meeting national priorities and responding to the needs of employers, industry and stakeholders. We aspire to support Scotland in its delivery of the four priorities for sustainable growth identified within the Scottish Government’s Economic Strategy. Investment, Innovation, Internationalisation and inclusive growth. Our ambitions are aligned with the Scottish Government’s post 16 education reform priorities to: improve life chances; support jobs and growth and ensure sustainable post 16 education. The next three academic years will see a particular focus on: Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) and Senior Phase vocational pathways in response to the Government’s Youth Employment Strategy; addressing the needs of protected characteristic groups through the promotion of equality and diversity, addressing gender imbalance, improving employment chances for young disabled people, and supporting looked after children and care experienced people; enhancing employer engagement and participation in teaching and learning; providing high quality work placement and experience; promoting and driving attainment in Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) based subjects; developing a more capable and diverse workforce to support a growing early years and child care need; and contributing to the development and delivery of high quality Modern Apprenticeships. This will be built on pro-active collaboration and partnership. At its heart is engagement between learners, teaching staff, employers, schools, universities and partners such as Skills Development Scotland (SDS), local government and local enterprise organisations. Working collaboratively we will also strive to maintain relationships with our valued partners in the European Union. We seek to deliver the impact needed locally and nationally to realise our ambition. In its interim report the Commission identified a key systemic issue which required to be addressed. The need to align educational pathways between schools, colleges and universities. The report clearly identified a number of steps in which colleges can play a central role including: Gathering robust information to comprehend the articulation landscape in Scotland. Understanding if there is scope to expand the number of articulation agreements and places, and why differing patterns of articulation exist across the sector. Exploring the possibility of bringing more uniformity to credit awarded by universities to students with HE qualifications achieved in colleges. Outcome 1: A more equal society and Outcome 2: An outstanding system of learning within this Outcome Agreement have been developed to directly support addressing the issues identified by the commission and will work to deliver its next steps. The detailed outputs outlined provide clear vision, direction and ambition in delivering this national vision.