Citizenship post-16 letter to QCA

Sir William Stubbs
Chairman
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority
83 Piccadilly
LONDON
W1J 8QA

22 September 2000

Dear Bill

Professor Bernard Crick's group on citizenship published its report yesterday. I met the group to discuss the report, and am glad that David Hargreaves was able to join me in doing so. I am writing to update you on our discussions.

I very much welcome the report. It is clear to me that our efforts to develop citizenship among young people during compulsory schooling should not end there. That would be unsound educationally; and it would fail to build on the fact that in the crucial years immediately after 16 young people begin actively to exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizens - to vote, to take part in voluntary activities, to work etc - for which the National Curriculum prepares them. I am therefore much attracted by the report's view that we should work towards an entitlement to active citizenship development and see this as an aim for the future. Not only will this help develop responsible citizens, but it will also provide opportunities for young people to put into practice the skills they have learned in the classroom. In this spirit, I am accepting the thrust of the report and will wish over the months ahead to move forward on a staged implementation. I will be looking to the new Learning and Skills Council (LSC) to take forward the ideas of Professor Crick's group in this respect, as well as supporting the appropriate organisations and community groups to develop their capacity, building on initiatives such as Community Champions.

I sympathise with the report's conclusion that any form of unitary provision of citizenship development will not easily mesh with the voluntary nature of post-16 education, as young adults pursue increasingly specialised education and training. That is why the report advocates a framework concentrating on the skills of ‘active citizenship', which can be developed in a wide range of education and training contexts.

As a first step, I believe that we should gain some experience through mounting a developmental phase to stimulate active citizenship. We will want to engage those able to exemplify the existing best practice and to seek, initially, voluntary participation within the post-16 sector, for preparation for active citizenship. This will involve clarifying the relationship between citizenship and key skills.

In order to ensure relevance and emphasis on participation, the engagement of existing practice should include the involvement of community and voluntary organisations. Increasing such links would not only provide opportunities for active citizenship, but also offer young people practical means of applying their social, communication and organisational skills in a real life and useful context, and of seeing how these can help their communities as well as themselves.

Developmental projects would help us in determining just what is involved in forging such links, enthusing young people to take advantage of them, and in establishing models of staff development – a point emphasised in the group's report.

I would envisage that such projects might themselves act as the vanguard of a wider staff development initiative, through the dissemination of their approaches, community links and materials, and through subsequently extending the schools, colleges and training providers involved.

I intend to make resources available for both developmental projects and the preparation of appropriate materials and staff training. I would like the QCA to be centrally involved in this work. Indeed, it may be right that your Authority should take the lead, working with my Department and relevant organisations in the field. I am asking my officials to liaise with yours to determine the best way forward, and to report back in January 2001 with concrete proposals as to how providers of post-16 education and training wishing to bid for such projects might access a fund that I would propose to establish for the purpose. I would be grateful if all concerned would continue to involve Professor Crick in order to draw on the expertise and links developed by his group.

I am sending copies of this letter to Professor Crick, to all the members of his group, to David Hargreaves, to Bryan Sanderson at the LSC and to Dr Terry Melia at the Further Education Development Agency. It will be important that both the LSC and the FEDA are involved in this initiative; I have particularly in mind that FEDA will have much to offer in terms of the staff development dimension.

Best wishes

DAVID BLUNKETT