Future Skills Sussex
Local Skills Improvement Plan
What is a Local Skills Improvement Plan?
Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) were introduced in the Skills for Jobs White Paper in January 2021 and now form an integral part of the Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022. They are a key part of the Government’s transformational vision of the skills system where businesses, particularly SMEs, are given a much stronger voice in local skills planning. The plans will help ensure provision is more responsive to emerging and changing skills needs and being locally driven, can be tailored to the challenges and opportunities most relevant to the area.
What area does the Sussex LSIP cover?
The Sussex LSIP incorporates the local authority areas of Brighton & Hove, East Sussex and West Sussex.
It covers a large and diverse geographical area encompassing a lengthy coastline stretching from Chichester in the West to Rye in the East, large swathes of rural land to the north and a highly populated and productive spine running north through the centre of Sussex from the city of Brighton & Hove through to Crawley, the home of Gatwick Airport.
More detail on the local strategic context of the Sussex LSIP area can be found here.
Local Skills Improvement Plan –Annual Progress Reports
Each year, the Sussex Chamber of Commerce publishes a Progress Report to review and reflect on delivery of the Future Skills Sussex Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP). These reports assess what has been achieved so far, what impact the LSIP is having, and what still needs to be done to ensure post-16 technical education and training in Sussex remains responsive to the needs of local employers and communities.
The Progress Reports are developed in collaboration with employers, education providers and wider stakeholders across Sussex and include supporting annexes with labour market insights, sector analyses, survey findings, and case studies. You can explore each year’s report below.
2025 Progress Report
Published: June 2025
The 2025 Progress Report provides a comprehensive update 10 months on from the publication of the full LSIP in August 2024. It highlights the impact of Local Skills Improvement Fund (LSIF) projects, improved collaboration between providers and employers, as well as research undertaken into green skills, Equality Diversity and Inclusion and inclusive recruitment for Neurodivergent individuals.
The Annual Progress Report 2025 can be found here.
• Annexes
- Annex A – Priorities and actions (Roadmap): Future Skills Sussex Improvement Framework
- Annex C - Overview of Sussex Labour Market
- Annex D - Key Sector Analysis
- Annex E - Summary Overview of Existing Skills Reports
- Annex F - Business Survey Analysis
- Annex G - Skills Provider Survey Analysis
- Annex H to N – Sector Deep Dives (2025 refresh)
Progress Report 2024
Published: June 2025
The 2024 Progress Report was the first annual update following the launch of the Sussex LSIP. It provided an overview of early progress across the five LSIP priorities and featured high-level reflections on workforce development, sector collaboration and employer engagement. It also included detailed annexes capturing local labour market data and the voice of employers and providers.
The Annual Progress Report can be found here.
To support this progress report there are also a number of annexes providing evidence and updates on data analysis and intelligence:
- Annex A – Future Skills Sussex Improvement Framework – Full Progress Against Actions
- Annex B – LSIP Case Studies
- Annex C - Overview of Sussex Labour Market 2024
- Annex D - Key Sector Analysis 2024
- Annex E - Summary Overview of Existing Skills Reports 2024
- Annex F - Business Survey Analysis 2024
- Annex G - Skills Provider Survey Analysis 2024
- Annex H - Skills Supply Analysis 2024
Future Skills Sussex - Full Report
What's is its purpose?
Its purpose is to:
- Provide a comprehensive and accessible evidence base for Sussex, giving an overview of the labour market and setting out the skills needs of the key sectors.
- Deliver a unified approach to meeting the skills needs across Sussex, adding value to existing provision and promoting the importance of lifelong skills development and careers education.
- Promote and facilitate collaboration with employers to embed their role in the development of an appropriately skilled Sussex workforce.
- Identify skills initiatives that support businesses and residents in Sussex through the cost-of-living crisis, the ongoing impact of COVID, whilst addressing the opportunities and challenges brought about by Brexit.
- Articulate the skills, capabilities and expertise needed for jobs in Sussex that directly contribute to or indirectly support Net Zero targets, adaptation to Climate Change or meet other environmental goals.
- Encourage and promote best use of public and private sector investment into the existing and future Sussex workforce.
Future Skills Sussex Improvement Framework
We have developed the Future Skills Sussex Improvement Framework to address the Sussex-wide skills challenges, gaps and needs emerging from the LSIP.
The framework themes are Intelligence, Conversation, Innovation, Offer and Talent.
We have worked with partners to clearly define the area of focus for each theme and agreed that there will be close interdependencies between the themes and that each will inform the development and progress of the others. For example, findings from the Intelligence theme will be fed into the Conversations with businesses and also into the development of initiatives, programmes, and courses within the Innovation, Offer and Talent themes.
Each theme within the Framework has its own accountability in the form of a partnership framework and an overarching set of principles developed collaboratively by the Future Skills Sussex partners. These will set the parameters for each theme and provide the assurance that partners will need to participate in the associated activity.
Each theme has a lead partner/s to provide leadership and support for other partners. Through their existing networks across Sussex, these lead partners would:
- Liaise with core partners through their networks.
- Develop and own a partnership framework and action plan.
- Provide a link into the LSIP governance.
- Take the lead on any relevant task and finish groups.
Each theme will also have core partners, although this may changeover time and other partners will be involved as and when relevant.
The full Framework sets out the action plans for each theme, expected outcomes and progress to date.
Future Skills Sussex LSIP report and annexes
Below is the LSIP report for Sussex, and associated annexes, which have been approved by the Secretary of State.
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LSIP Trailblazer Reports
Below are the Sussex LSIP Trailblazer reports, which were developed in 2022. These have now been superceded by the refreshed LSIP reports.
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Join us on our Journey
We’d love you to join us as we continue to deepen our understanding of the skills most needed to support local economic growth, boost productivity and improve prosperity.
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