Departments within CLS

Community Learning and Skills Departmental Overview

Community Learning and Skills is comprised of a range of specialised departments, each contributing to the effective delivery of high-quality educational services across Kent. These departments operate collaboratively to support learners, staff and stakeholders, ensuring that CLS remains responsive, inclusive and innovative in its approach to lifelong learning. 

This section provides an overview of the principal departments within CLS, outlining their core functions and strategic importance. 

SMT Support Team

The SMT Support Team is responsible for providing a comprehensive and co-ordinated efficient business support to the Core Senior Management Team and members of the Wider Management Team across CLS, and managing vital communications across the service.

The Support Team deal with general staff and support enquiries, are responsible for CLS staff records stored on The Hub, manage customer complaints and enquiries through CRM mailbox, support Observation of Learning, Teaching and Assessment (OLTA) scheme and the staff training and development for teaching and non-teaching staff.

Data and Administration Team

The Data Team are committed to maintaining up-to-date and validated information within Unit-E, supporting tutors to submit complete and correct programme documentation, and ensuring registers are accurate and fully maintained.

By working collaboratively with tutors and curriculum colleagues, we proactively identify and resolve missing or incorrect data, ensure timely processing of learner completions and withdrawals, and secure robust audit evidence.

With this attention to detail, and strong partnership working, our curriculum team can be confident in decision-making and contribute to delivering an excellent learning journey for every learner.

Exams and Learner Services Team

The Exams and Learner Services team complete course enrolments and provide learners with information, advice and guidance on concessions, eligibility, initial assessments and course options. They liaise with site maintenance teams and contractors, and take a lead role in ensuring building health and safety compliance.

They are responsible for managing exams in accordance with Awarding Body regulations. This includes registering candidates for exams, delivering exams, and recording accredited achievements. The team also support Access Arrangement requests for exam candidates, working closely with the Access Arrangements Coordinator and SENDCo to ensure that all required documentation is submitted to the Awarding Body.

Curriculum - County Education Managers/Area Education Managers/Community Education Managers

County Education Managers have countywide responsibility for steering the curriculum areas that they manage. They manage a team of Area Education Managers/Community Education Managers, who in turn manage tutors as well as planning and managing the local programmes, which are split as follows:

• Response
• Subcontracting
• Skills 
• Family Learning
• Study Programmes

Quality and Compliance Team

The Quality and Compliance Team collaborates with the Curriculum and other supporting departments within CLS to drive compliance and uphold quality standards in line with both internal and external benchmarks, such as Ofsted, Matrix, JCQ and Awarding Organisations. The team leads on various aspects, including Quality, Safeguarding and Prevent, Learner Support, Access Arrangements, Exams Compliance and Marketing. This diverse team is able to draw on their collective, extensive experience to support CLS in driving continuous improvement, thus aiming for a high-quality learning experience and successful outcomes of our stakeholders.

Learner Support

Additional Learner Support (ALS) at CLS is provided through a coordinated approach involving the Safeguarding and Prevent Manager, the Access Arrangements Coordinator (AAC) and the SENDCo.

The SENDCo (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator) offers guidance and support to staff working with learners who have SEND or Additional Educational Needs (AEN) across CLS. This includes responding to general enquiries, advising on reasonable adjustments within teaching and learning, and identifying any additional resources that may be required. In addition, our team of Teaching Assistants works closely with tutors to provide targeted support to learners in the classroom. 

The Access Arrangements Coordinator (AAC) leads on the Exam Access Arrangements process. This includes facilitating requests for access arrangements for learners' exams and assessments, while ensuring full compliance with awarding body and regulatory criteria. The AAC reviews submitted evidence and provides escalated advice on appropriate arrangements and resources where required.

There are many opportunities to provide additional support for learners, and in suitable cases, we can apply for Additional Learning Support (ALS) funding. This funding may be used, for example, to provide additional staffing within the classroom or to purchase adaptive or specialist resources.

Marketing

The Marketing team is responsible for promoting the services of CLS to the residents of Kent and all marketing materials. This happens through research, analysis and understanding our learners. The Marketing team are responsible for all three CLS websites (Kent Adult Education, Kent Training & Apprenticeships and Community Learning and Skills). They strive to ensure the right message reaches the right audience at the right time, utilising both online and offline media channels.

Finance Team

The Finance Team manages core transactional finance activities, including refunds, transfers, standing orders, write-offs, bank and fee income reconciliations, purchase cards, cash, balance sheet control and year-end close-down. The team also oversees financial management and reporting, including budget setting and monitoring, budget reporting, transaction list management, funding processes (DSL, access funds and bursaries), Access to Work funding and external invoicing.

Management Information

The Management Information Team is a service department within the Finance, Funding, Information & Systems Team (FFIS). They are ultimately responsible for the production of all our government Individual Learning Record (ILR) funding returns and for ensuring that the ILR data we submit meets funding and contractual obligations. The team is responsible for ensuring that CLS remains up to date and compliant with all rules relating to ILR, funding and audit. They are also responsible for development and production of all management information for the service as well as areas such as learner residency eligibility checks, unique learner numbers and personal learning records. They provide regular and ad-hoc support as well as continual development of reporting to all staff, primarily from Unit-E and pro-achieve. This includes both financial and qualitative reporting as well as providing expertise on DfE funding rules and regulations.

Information Systems (IS)

The IT (Information Technology) Services, is part of the Finance, Funding, Information & Systems team and provides reliable and secure digital services to support business operations, communication and teaching and learning. We ensure customers, learners and staff have the digital systems and tools they need to work and learn effectively. We manage online customer communication channels, support virtual learning environments, and deliver digital platforms that improve staff productivity and efficiency. We oversee all IT suppliers and partners for business and education systems, ensuring third-party services meet performance, contractual and security standards. We also manage all centre-based and community-based ILT (Information Learning Technology) provision and ILT networks. We design, test and implement system solutions, provide staff training and guidance on new technologies, and offer ongoing maintenance, troubleshooting and user support. We also lead on IT governance and procurement, uphold information security, data protection and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliance, and ensure online safety and digital accessibility. We work closely with the Quality and Compliance team to support safeguarding within digital environments.