The head of the National Audit Office has welcomed plans aimed at securing a more "strategic leadership" for the learning and skills sector in England.

Sir John Bourn reported on Wednesday that frameworks that the Department for Education and Skills and the Learning and Skills Council have put in place to plan and monitor the further education sector are "likely to support systematic planning and provide reasonable assurance". 

But Sir John said that as the new further education frameworks develop, they could be used more effectively.

He said: "The learning and skills sector is complex. Getting effective and efficient frameworks in place to support strategic planning and provide reasonable assurance is very challenging."

Sir John suggested there also needs to be clearer responsibilities and accountability of college governing bodies and improved communication with college governors.

Improved relationships would help address concerns about the perceived lack of autonomy of colleges to set their strategic direction, and would support open discussion of the tensions between national, regional and local priorities.

And he said increased collaboration at regional level would aid planning and information collection and he advocated development of joint audit and inspection regimes that better explain the results to those subject to the audit.

The report concluded that the key has to be getting the governance right at local level, and that college governors – most of whom are unpaid volunteers – need to be well supported, including by organisations such as the Learning and Skills Council. 

Sir John added: "There also needs to be some serious thinking about the future of performance improvement and review. 

"In the longer term, some form of robust peer review of colleges might prove the best way of guaranteeing that they provide and sustain appropriate, high quality learning."