Learning and Skills Council to cut red tape

Education and employment secretary David Blunkett told the Labour Party conference this week that the Learning and Skills Council replacing the Further Education Funding Council and the training and enterprise councils would better manage the Pounds 5 billion of money spent in the post-16 education and training sector. It would cut out duplication and bureaucracy, he said.

But college leaders were expected to warn today that college autonomy must not be sacrificed to centralisation in Mr Blunkett's reform of post-compulsory education.

It is understood that the Association of Colleges' response to the white paper Learning to Succeed will argue for a "bottom-up" approach to further education planning.