Manchester: Skills, Devolution and Accountability?

Skills policy has consistently played a central part in Greater Manchester’s (GM) vision for devolution. From New Labour in the late 1990s to the Conservatives following their General Election victory in May 2015, GM’s leaders have lobbied Westminster for devolved powers over a wide range of areas. Skills policy and funding has been at the heart of this vision for the city and its wider region. This paper explores the rationale for doing so as well as providing an account of how decisions have been made at both the local and national level. Key players and policy moments are described as this is an account of ‘policy actors’ and ‘policy windows’. From Sir Howard Bernstein and Sir Richard Leese to Tony Blair and George Osborne, this has been a story of preparation and persistence but also of the identification and seizing of key moments and opportunities. The paper also considers the present and the approaching future, the precise powers that are now being established and the new models of democratic accountability that surround them. Ultimately, the paper asks whether either are enough? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]