Four organisations between them manage the LandSkills East Project and each have a role to play. This is an explanation of the role that they play.

Defra provides the funding for the economic elements of the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) in this region. The RDPE supports projects which make a positive contribution to rural development. The development of the farming and rural skills base is seen as a key element of achieving the region's priorities. EEDA tendered out the provision of skills and knowledge transfer in 2008 and awarded the grant to the LandSkills East consortium to start in January 2009. In July 2011 the responsibility for delivering RDPE moved from EEDA to Defra. The accountable body of LandSkills East is Norfolk County Council, and Defra's main role is to manage the funding arrangements with Norfolk County Council, ensuring that structures and planned activity comply with EU and UK guidelines.

Chris Knock
Rural Development Manager
Defra
T : 03000 600545

The LandSkills East team is based at Easton College and is accountable to Norfolk County Council, for managing the delivery of the project across the East of England. The delivery team is the first point of call for delivery partners and for trainees. It is committed to ensuring all trainees have a quality experience in accessing LandSkills East delivery, and in ensuring clear information is communicated across all partners of the programme.
Delivery of the project includes responsibility for:

• Liaising and giving advice to delivery partners and potential delivery partners
• Managing course applications and course approvals
• Discussing with trainees future training needs and matching them to courses
• Recording of all information related to the project for reporting purposes and reporting to NCC , Defra and Lantra
• Marketing the project and the courses available
• Dealing with all enquires with regards to the programme

Mike Mack
LandSkills Manager
T : 01603 748844 extension 4

Norfolk County Council is the Accountable Body for the LandSkills East programme. This means we are responsible for the following:

• Contracts with Delivery Partners
• Processing claims and making payments
• Undertaking monitoring visits and compliance inspections
• Making claims and reporting progress to the RDA

Eliska Cheeseman, Partnership & Delivery Manager
Norfolk County Council
T : 01603 222302

Lantra are committed to helping land-based and environmental businesses access the training, qualifications, skills and knowledge they need. They are the UK’s Sector Skills Council for land-based and environmental industries and their mission is to maximise the impact of investment in world-class skills and business development, so that we have a competitive, dynamic and professional sector.

Lantra is a full and committed partner of LandSkills East. Their role in this project is

• to gather the views of the farming industry and identify areas in need of skills development and to communicate this to the Delivery Project team at Easton
• to monitor the progress and outputs of the Delivery Project, compile reports and make recommendations for how the project could develop or be improved
• to co-ordinate meetings of the key stakeholders and strategic partners who take collective responsibility for steering the strategic development of the project
• to work with all parties in the skills sector to bring added benefit to the industry

Ben Hogben
Lantra
T : 07789 920231

All four organisations are members of the Course Approval Panel, which meets weekly to assess course applications.

If you have any questions relating to the LandSkills East programme please contact Debbie or Sue:

Debbie Brown
Tel. 01603 748844

Sue Hamilton
Tel. 01603 748844

landskills@easton-college.ac.uk

Rural Enterprise Hub
Easton College
Norwich
NR9 5DX

Tel. 01603 748844