How employers, providers and local leaders work together to equip people with the skills their areas need is about to change.
Work is underway across England to produce the next round of Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs), with updated government guidance just published.
This refresh matters to the economy. With the country facing well-known productivity and unemployment challenges, LSIPs offer an opportunity to deliver skills plans that make tangible inroads.
As we look to 2026, the question is whether LSIPs can now prove their value. There are four factors at play that will shape the answer to this challenge.
Navigating complexity
LSIPs sit within a patchwork of policies and plans that point to the same goal: boosting productivity and growth. There are now several government initiatives that come forward together alongside LSIPs; the new industrial strategy with its associated sector plans, skills packages and now jobs plans, emerging local growth plans and the Get Britain Working white paper.
This is a complex landscape for LSIPs to navigate. LSIPs are expected to face two ways at once: driving productivity by responding to the industrial strategy and their area’s local growth plan, while supporting efforts to re-engage people in the labour market through Get Britain Working.
These two missions are not the same. The sectors at the heart of growth strategies – digital, engineering, green technologies – are not typically the ones providing large numbers of accessible jobs for unemployed or economically inactive people.
Balancing those priorities requires careful judgement and clarity about what each LSIP needs to achieve. Their task throughout is to stay focused on occupations where training can address local needs.
Engaging providers to shape provision
Good LSIPs also bring clarity for providers about what their strategic authority and employers expect of them.
The focus in the refreshed LSIP guidance on identifying priority occupations is therefore welcome, because this better enables providers to identify relevant technical education provision.
Collaboration is key here and LSIPs provide the bridge towards this. Under the Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022, providers must engage with their local LSIP. This statutory footing means LSIPs should take precedence over overlapping local skills and labour market strategies that many colleges already juggle. This clarity is no bad thing for providers.
Providers’ expertise about technical education delivery, curriculum design and funding mechanisms is essential for delivering skills plans that local areas need to thrive.
Sitting alongside an area’s local growth plan and Get Britain Working plan, LSIPs bring post-16 education and training into a more central role in the drive for local growth and opportunity.
Employers at the heart of skills planning
As LSIPs evolve, one principle must remain constant: employer leadership. LSIPs were created to ensure local training and qualifications reflect real business needs.
The new guidance expects employer representative bodies to be at the heart of skills planning. These bodies learned a great deal from the first phase of LSIPs. Many will be determined to make the next generation of plans more practical, focused and better connected to local priorities.
Beyond this, it’s essential to LSIPs’ credibility that employers are at the forefront of skills plans. Strategic authorities should consider these bodies the lead for employer-facing activity on skills.
Governance of LSIPs should also be employer led. Without this, LSIPs risk being seen as another bureaucratic layer rather than a bridge between education and the economy.
Making collaboration work
The best LSIPs will blend collective strengths between employer insight and provider expertise. For the first time, there is a structure through which employers, providers and local political leaders can co-own a shared plan for skills that supports growth and inclusion.
Strategic authorities should see strong LSIPs with actionable priorities as a step forward for devolution, because it helps post-16 education and training meet local needs.
To make that work, the next wave of LSIPs needs constructive engagement by providers, employer representative bodies and regional leaders to shape clear priorities and build a curriculum response.
Lots has changed since LSIPs were first published in 2023. LSIPs have the right statutory basis, political backing and policy direction.
The challenge is to take this opportunity by prioritising employer leadership, strengthening collaboration, and delivering the skills that support local growth.
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