So it took long enough, and we spoke to lots of civil servants in the Government about it, but it’s finally arrived:

Guidance for colleges on "consultation with learners" has now been published and is available on the government "Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills" (DIUS) website.

Back in 2006/7 NUS carried out a lot of campaigning and lobbying work to ensure that the Government required colleges to listen to learners much more than in the past, and so in a new law passed last year Colleges are required to take notice of the guidance that the Government has only just now got around to publishing.

The guidance, whilst not perfect, is helpful. It guarantees that every college must have a learner involvement strategy in place. It recognises that "learner committees" and similar bodies are actually students' unions in law and their funding and treatment by a college must reflect that. Most importantly, it requires all colleges not just to have "top down" consultation like focus groups, but all colleges must help you to build and maintain structures that allow "learner led" approaches, so that students themselves get to raise issues about their education at all levels and have them listened to and acted upon.

It is fantastic that we now have the departments' guidance, given this means we now have something tangible to use when your college are refusing to budge on their interpretation of the policy.

Whether you are an FE student officer, an FE student Governors, or just an interested FE student, there's lots you can do with the guidance.

• Read it and think- is my college applying this properly? If not, tell them.
• Raise the guidance with your SSLO or support staff. They need to read it and make its principles come alive.
• Talk to your Principal about it. It's a legal requirement for the college take notice of it.
• Make sure it's on the agenda at a future corporation/board meeting. It is guidance for the corporation and the
• Make sure your college has a good "Learner Involvement Strategy". We've published a model one.

Of course just publishing guidance doesn't change everything overnight, and NUS is able to help you to get it implemented. You can contact me or your local NUS Development Worker. We'll support you every step of the way in using it to make sure your college becomes more "learner focussed".

Finally, for me one of the most important parts of the guidance was this:

“The Act requires colleges to take reasonable steps to secure that students’ unions operate in a fair and democratic manner and are accountable for their finances.”

I know how hard it can be for you to truly become autonomous, with some colleges holding onto your purse strings, and so this should give you ammunition to ensure that that your bank account is really controlled and spent by the democratic mandates of your students.

All the best.

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