Using data from a three-year project funded under the ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme, this article examines two major questions: (1) How has the organisation of the learning and skills sector (LSS) in England changed as a result of recent policy? (2) What are the implications of these reforms? We draw on the theoretical work of policy analysts such as Ball and Newman, as well as our own conceptual work, to make sense of 15 major policy documents and over 130 in-depth interviews with European, national, regional and local policy-actors carried out during the period 2004-2007. Having described recent reform in the LSS, we argue that the government appears to have moved from a "planned" and unified to a more directive and market-oriented model of governance. We discuss the implications of this policy shift and introduce the concept of a "devolved social partnership system" as a possible way forward for the sector. (Contains 3 figures and 9 notes.)