A call has been made for local enterprise partnerships to have a new contracting process that’s “fair and transparent” if they’re dealing with cash from the adult education budget, following allegations that board members are allocating valuable contracts to their own companies.
An investigation published by the Mail Online has alleged that LEPs have made more than 270 payments to companies or other projects connected with their own board members, with sums for example ranging from £13,000 to £1 million.
Conflicts of interest like these will be of concern to the sector, as LEPs already control much of the funds available to FE providers for capital spending – while last month’s autumn statement confirmed that the government is pushing ahead with plans to devolve the AEB.
The investigation prompted Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, to hit out at “a system set up in a manner that leads to institutional bias”.
LEPs continuously seek ways to improve transparency and share best practice
“We expect a local commissioning model, used by LEPs or combined authorities, to set out the needs of the locality and then to follow a fair and transparent contracting process for the whole adult education budget open to all eligible providers,” he said.
Dr Ann Limb CBE, chair of the South East Midlands LEP, previously tweeted that bodies like hers “should be transparent in their dealings and transactions”.
In comments to FE Week however, Dr Limb, the former principal of both Milton Keynes College and Cambridge Regional College, said: “I believe that financial probity, transparent governance, and public accountability lie at the operational heart of every organisation in receipt of government funding – LEPs or FE colleges.
“I can only speak for the LEP I chair, the SE Midlands LEP, where I am confident we have in place sound processes and procedures which I welcome being scrutinised and challenged.”
Meg Hillier (pictured), the Labour MP who chairs the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, said the issue was “of deep concern”.
“We have already raised concerns about the accountability of LEPs and the lack of basic systems in place to make sure interests are declared and where money is being spent,” she added.
A LEP-funded report published in October by Metro-Dynamics, called ‘Leading the way’, also came out in support of greater transparency.
It said: “LEPs need to continue to ensure that they are known for having the best possible approach to transparency and governance in terms of decision-making and spending.
“It is important to get the balance right, in being expected to spend £12 billion of public funding to 2021, and it is vital that accountability is, and is perceived to be, to the level required.”
The chairman of the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Enterprise Partnership, Mark Reeve, told FE Week on behalf of the LEP Network Board, that “all LEPs take any allegations of improper conduct extremely seriously”.
“LEPs continuously seek ways to improve transparency and share best practice,” he said.
“It is not the role of the LEP Network to monitor how LEPs allocate grant funding or assess conflicts of interest.
“The government has clearly vested that role in the democratically elected councils who are accountable for monitoring conflicts of interest and ensuring how grant funding is awarded by the LEPs.”
A government spokesperson said: “Our rules make clear the need for a published conflicts of interest policy and insist upon transparency in the way taxpayers’ money is spent.
“We won’t hesitate to act if any LEPs are found to have failed to follow our rules.”
The government has finally committed to establishing an apprentice panel for the Institute for Apprenticeships, in a move hailed by the National Union of Students as a victory for learners.
The panel was announced by apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon during the sixth sitting of the public bill committee for the Technical and Further Education Bill.
“I am pleased to announce that we expect the Institute to invite apprentices to establish an apprentice panel, which would report directly to the board,” he said.
“The panel would be made up of apprentices from different occupations and experiences. The panel would decide for itself which issues to focus on, and it will challenge and make recommendations to the board.”
However, the minister told the committee hearing on November 29 that he could not “go so far as to say there should definitely be apprentices on the board” of the Institute.
His announcement has broadly been welcomed by the FE sector – but some people still believe direct apprentice representation on the Institute’s board would be the ideal situation.
This is a victory for the apprentices and learners who called for better representation in the IfA
Shakira Martin (pictured), the NUS vice-president for FE, welcomed the move and praised “the minister’s acknowledgement that the board needs to listen to apprentices”.
She said: “This is a victory for the apprentices and learners who called for better representation in the IfA, and I look forward to working with the minister constructively to make this a reality.”
However, she pointed out that she wants Mr Halfon to “be clear about how he’ll make sure the board take the views of the panel seriously”.
“If the government truly wants apprentices to be listened to, the panel should be part of the bill,” she said.
“We still believe that, ultimately, the only way to be serious about learner voice and apprentice representation is to give them two full seats on the board itself.”
Shane Chowen, the head of policy at the Learning and Work Institute, said the new apprentice panel would be “a useful addition to learner and apprentice representation throughout the Institute’s structures”.
However, he voiced similar concerns to Ms Martin about board representation, saying: “I stand by my comments at the bill committee, where I said that meaningful involvement of learners and apprentices will add tremendous value to the improvement of apprenticeships and technical education.
“This means involvement at every level – including the 15 route committees and the Institute’s board.”
He continued: “Learners and apprentices have an important perspective and contribution to make; they are the ones experiencing work and learning, applying for jobs and experiencing the outcomes.”
Mr Halfon said that apprentices won’t be put on the board “in part… because board members need to have experience and they carry a great deal of governance responsibility” he also argued that “they come under press scrutiny, which is not easy”.
Speaking to FE Week after the meeting, the shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden said Mr Halfon’s decision to appoint an apprentice panel was “a reasonable response” which justified Labour’s recent push for greater representation of the views of apprentices in the work of the IfA.
Mr Halfon confirmed during the hearing that the IfA would ensure the first panel “is in place before the institute goes live in April 2017”.
A college for people with disabilities and learning difficulties has become the first in the UK to receive a new national training award.
National Star College in Cheltenham was awarded the Princess Royal Training Award for its two-week induction training for staff, which involves a mix of classroom and workplace learning, and a tailored learning plan for each member of staff.
Launched by the City and Guilds Group, the Princess Royal Training awards aim to recognise the positive impact training and skills initiatives can have, and encourage best practice in skills development.
Other recipients of the award include BAE Systems, Starbucks, IMB UK Ltd and Transport for London.
City & Guilds Group chief executive, Chris Jones said: “I hope these awards have shone a light on how important it is for businesses to invest in training to boost their productivity, address skills gaps and develop their leaders.
“This has never mattered more than in today’s uncertain economy. I hope this year’s winners inspire other organisations to share their experiences, and put forward their training and development success stories.”
Featured picture: Dawn Macey-Norris, Head of Continuous Professional Development at National Star, with the Princess Royal
A single produced by Blackpool Sixth Form college to raise money for children living in poverty has climbed into the iTunes and Amazon charts and, with a host of celebrities backing it, has a shot at hitting Christmas number one. Samantha King reports.
Since Blackpool Sixth Form college released their single ‘A Christmas Miracle’ on December 2, their campaign to reach Christmas number one has taken off, with a whole host of famous faces pledging support.
Comedian Peter Kay, double act Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, as well as the cast of Coronation Street have all pledged their support for the campaign on social media, with Blackpool tower being lit up in pink – the colour of the song’s artwork – to show the town’s support.
Composed by students and staff at the college, and recorded by children from 10 schools across the Fylde Coast, the track is currently selling on iTunes for 79p and on Amazon for 69p. Its lyrics aim to raise awareness of the struggles faced by children living in poverty.
All proceeds from the song are to be donated to the Children’s Society, a national charity which runs local projects to help vulnerable children and young people aged 10 to 18.
The track has made it into both the iTunes and Amazon charts and spent some time in the Top 20. Currently, the song is positioned between Chris Rea’s ‘Driving Home for Christmas’, and is overtaking the Pogues’ classic Christmas track ‘Fairytale of New York’.
There have already been a host of glowing reviews on Amazon, with buyers saying the track is “perfect for listening to while you put the tree up” and “a beautiful song for a worthwhile cause”.
The song came about when Blackpool Sixth Form music teachers Ash Goodinson and John Stevens teamed up with English teacher Steve Spencer.
Mr Goodinson said: “We have been overwhelmed by all the support on social media by people from all around the country.
“We really want the song to be shared far and wide, to spread awareness of child poverty, reach Christmas number one, and raise as much money for the Children’s Society as possible to help the children that need it most”.
We really want the song to be shared far and wide, to spread awareness of child poverty
The percentage of children living in poverty is 30.6 per cent in Blackpool, far higher than the national average of 21.4 per cent, according to Public Health England.
The Children’s Society’s chief executive Matthew Reed said: “We’re absolutely thrilled that the Blackpool Sixth Form college and so many schools and community groups in Lancashire have teamed up to launch this uplifting song to raise awareness and support vulnerable children this festive season.
“Christmas can be a particularly difficult time for so many young people and we are truly grateful to everyone involved in putting this single together and also those who buy it.
“Funds raised from this single will help us continue our life-changing work with children and young people who have nowhere left to turn.”
As part of the college’s campaign to top the charts, schools and colleges across the UK are being encouraged to download the sheet music for the song, record their own versions and share it online with the #BeTheMiracle hashtag.
The former FE commissioner Sir David Collins earned just under £500,000 for doing the job part-time, it has been revealed, though he also did twice as much work than had originally been planned.
The role was advertised in 2013 with a rate of £800 a day for an average of two days’ work a week.
A Freedom of Information request by FE Week revealed that Sir David (pictured) worked for a total 618 days over the three years he was in the job, which equates to an average of four days a week.
He earned £494,400 in consultancy fees, and tendered £44,310 in expenses.
The extra workload is understood to have come about from the area reviews of post-16 education and training, for which Sir David took a hands-on approach.
He discussed his punishing schedule during FE Week’s area review summit at the Festival of Skills in July.
He said: “I have done 15 steering group meetings in different parts of the country in 15 working days, which doesn’t make me very popular at home but which does make me really popular with Premier Inns, where I seem to spend a lot of my time.”
As reported by FE Week in 2013, the original job listing for the FE Commissioner role said: “The post is offered on a two-year fixed-term contract, with an expected commitment of around 80 to 120 days each year.”
The role was created to tackle failing colleges and to drive improvement across the sector through the intervention process – although it was widened in 2015 to include the area reviews.
Sir David worked on 49 interventions and 22 area reviews between November 13 2013, when he was appointed, and November 11 this year, when he retired
These began in September 2015, and are due to finish by March 2017.
The majority of the 37 reviews have been chaired by either the FE commissioner or the sixth form college commissioner, Peter Mucklow.
Sir David has also been part of the overall area review advisory group.
FE Week’s FOI showed that Sir David worked on 49 interventions and 22 area reviews between November 13 2013, when he was appointed, and November 11 this year, when he retired.
Despite Sir David’s heavier-than-planned schedule, the workload was advertised unchanged when the search for his successor began earlier this year.
That advert said the role was “being offered on a two-year fixed term contract, up to a maximum of 330 days. The role will be remunerated at £800 a day.”
It is thought this is because the work of the commissioner is likely to slacken off as the area reviews wind down.
The Department for Education announced Richard Atkins, the former Exeter College principal, as the new FE commissioner in October.
According to information published by the DfE, he is leading four of the eight reviews in the final wave, and is understood to have taken over any unfinished reviews from earlier waves that were previously led by Sir David.
During his first major speech since taking over the role, Mr Atkins told delegates at the Association of Colleges conference in November that he hoped to be much less busy once the reviews were complete.
He said: “I hope that it’ll be lighter after March. I hope the workload will become more manageable and I’ll have the chance to spend more time out and about sharing with you the lessons we’ve learned.”
He also joked about having had “one of those very short apprenticeships we don’t approve of” with Sir David as his “master”.
“He left me with the two essentials for this job – the Network Rail map of England and a guide to very best Premier Inns,” he said.
There is just one week to go for employers and training providers to enter the sixth annual Brathay Apprentice Challenge.
Teams of nine apprentices can enter the competition which will see them undertake a series of hands-on work-related challenges to develop new skills, while promoting the benefits of apprenticeships.
Entries can come from a single large or small employer, a group of small businesses, an industry sector, supply chain, or training provider. There is no limit to the number of teams that can be entered per organisation.
The winning team will then be declared as the apprentice team of the year.
More than 700 apprentices from 80 teams entered last year. They spread the word about apprenticeships by visiting nearly 400 schools, recruiting more than 400 new apprentice employers, and delivered 45 community projects.
The eight teams that made the 2016 final in and around Lake Windermere, in the Lake District in June, competed in events including orienteering, coracle boat building, an assembly line puzzle, and a whaler boat race.
On winning the title UKAEA team leader and electronic engineering apprentice, David Godden said: “Winning the title has supported our efforts to inspire young people and to use our journey as an inspiration for themselves. Hard work, determination and self-confidence are key to success.”
Apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon has offered his support to the competition.
Robert Halfon
“The Brathay Apprentice Challenge is a brilliant opportunity for apprentices from all backgrounds to showcase their talents while learning the skills they need to get on the ladder of opportunity to a better future,” he said.
“It is always fantastic seeing how many top class employers get involved in this challenge every year. It demonstrates a commitment from business to quality apprenticeships that are essential if we truly want a country that works for everyone.”
Over the last five years of the competition, 360 teams, involving nearly 3,000 apprentices, have carried out 219 charity projects and have promoted apprenticeships to an estimated 2.5m people, through more than 12,000 pieces of media and social media.
Godfrey Owen, chief executive of Brathay Trust, said: “The challenge provides apprentices with the opportunity to develop a huge range of skills with previous entrants reporting improved team building, leadership, logistical and communications skills. The apprentices taking part also become more confident and ultimately more employable.
“We look forward to both apprentices and employers gaining these benefits in the search for the apprentice team of the year 2017.”
Visit www.brathay.org.uk/challenge for more information on the Brathay Challenge and to enter a team. Registrations close at midnight on December 16.
The Chartered Institution for Further Education has appointed Dan Wright as its new chief executive officer, with plans for him to step into the role from early January.
Mr Wright (pictured below) will take over on January 9 from Ed Quilty, the current chief executive and secretary, whose secondment from the civil service to the Chartered Institution will end in the New Year.
The Institution for Further Education, led by Lord Lingfield, was granted chartered status in October last year and opened its doors to members the following month.
Its aim is to develop the standing of the FE sector, bringing together training providers to promote and celebrate good practice.
Colleges and training providers with an overall Ofsted grade one or two and in receipt of public funding from the Skills Funding Agency are eligible to apply for membership to the institution.
So far four have gained chartered status, including Hawk Training, Blackpool and The Fylde College, and Bridgwater College.
Furness College was the latest to join, becoming the fourth member of the body for “high-performing” FE colleges and training providers on November 15.
The institution’s new chief executive, Mr Wright, is currently CEO of Kennedy Scott, a ‘welfare-to-work’ provider designed to help long-term unemployed people, which he joined in 2014.
Prior to that he spent nine years as the chief executive of a major skills provider and was a also member of the independent panel of the review of Professionalism in Further Education, published in October 2012.
He began his career as a secondary school teacher and then moved into the hospitality sector where he spent 24 years working for UK public limited companies in the UK and abroad.
In May 2009 he was appointed to the Board of WorldSkills 2011 and continues to serve on the audit committee of WorldSkills UK.
His other positions include Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality, Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufacture and a place on the board of The Institute for Employability Professionals.
The government has set aside almost three quarters of a billion pounds to cover restructuring costs emerging from the area reviews, FE Week can exclusively reveal.
The Department for Education has finally come clean on the figure after we made repeated attempts to get it to reveal the size of the restructuring facility pot via Freedom of Information requests.
In its response, the DfE said: “We have estimated the cost of implementing area review recommendations will cost no more than £726 million over the Spending Review period [ie up to 2020] – consisting primarily of loan funding – and expect it could be far lower than this amount.”
It promised that “every pound will be subject to scrutiny”, adding that money “will only be paid out subject to applications meeting realism, affordability and need.”
Most of the cash will be available through the restructuring facility, to help colleges to cover the costs of implementing area review recommendations.
But £12 million has been reserved for transition grants, which colleges can use specifically to bring in the expertise they need to put in place any changes.
Julian Gravatt, the assistant chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “It is good that the Treasury has made loans available to support colleges.
“The sums involved are large but colleges educate and train millions of people a year, so this needs to be put in context.
“Colleges have bank loans which total £1.6 billion, and although some colleges can borrow more if they want to invest or fund a merger, others can’t.”
However Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, sounded a note of caution, and stressed the importance of “full transparency” on where and what the allocations are for.
Mark Dawe, AELP chief executive
“The total sum is roughly the equivalent of the entire adult apprenticeship budget, and some of the money is being used to set up competing provision in an already effective high-quality market,” he said.
This is the first time anyone has been able to confirm how much money the government plans to spend on implementing the area review recommendations.
In January, FE Week revealed that the government was planning to introduce the restructuring fund.
At the time we understood it to be worth £560 million, but a spokesperson for the Treasury – which is administering the fund – refused to confirm or deny the figure.
In October it was the Department for Education’s turn to remain tight-lipped over the size of the pot – but it did admit that 50 transition grants had already been awarded, totalling £3.5 million.
But when we asked for an update this week, a spokesperson said the department would not give a “running commentary on the area review transition grants and restructuring facility”.
Nor would the DfE reveal which colleges have been awarded the cash.
However, FE Week understands that this information will eventually be published at some unspecified point in the future.
According to the minutes of the area review advisory group meeting on September 6, seen by FE Week, Paul Warner from the Association of Employment and Learning Providers asked if the DfE intended “to publish the amounts awarded in transition grants”.
The response, according to the minutes, was “yes – unless there are commercial reasons for not doing so.”
The £726 million set aside for restructuring will be additional to the costs for the FE commissioner and his team’s involvement in the area reviews.
A separate FoI request by FE Week revealed that Sir David Collins had been paid almost £500,000 plus expenses during his time as FE commissioner.
The department also confirmed that the five deputy commissioners are all paid £700 for each day they work, while the team of 13 advisers all receive £600 per day.
FE Week understands that the whole team has been involved in the area review process, although it’s not clear how much work each individual member has done.
Sir David told MPs at the education select committee hearing on area reviews in October he expected the reviews to lead to “£200 million to £400 million-plus of potential savings to invest” each year.
David Russell, chief executive of the Education and Training Foundation, also announced this week that the DfE had set aside a further £5 million for 10 “significant new projects” designed to help the sector respond to Skills Plan implementation and area review demands.
The projects cover, for example, sharing outstanding technical teaching learning and assessment, and supporting finance directors, chairs of finance boards and clerks to meet changing responsibilities.
What is a transition grant when it’s at home?
Transition grants are made up of government cash given to colleges to pay for consultants, and are worth either £50,000 or £100,000.
They are part of a package of financial support available to colleges to help them to implement recommendations made in the area reviews, alongside the restructuring facility.
According to guidance published in April, “the grants are to ensure providers can access the best change-management skills and have the capacity to make the changes at the pace required”.
In order to access the cash, colleges have to state which skills or services the money will be used for and who will be providing them.
One grant is available per significant change, rather than per college.
The amount of the grant depends on the size of the colleges involved and the extent of the changes being made.
FE Week’s Freedom of Information request revealed the total budget for the grants to be
£12 million – meaning that up to 240 awards can be made.
When we asked in October, we were told that 50 grants had already been awarded, worth £3.5 million.
But our latest request for an update from the Department for Education was met with a flat refusal to divulge fresh information.
The DfE also won’t tell us who has been awarded the cash, or how much each college has received.
This is likely to fuel concerns, previously reported in FE Week, about a lack of transparency over the grants.
One director of a leading audit firm, who did not want to be named, called the lack of transparency “unacceptable”.
Since the transition grants opened for application in April, a number of consultancy companies have been promoting their services as being eligible for funding through the grants.
But it’s not clear which consultants have been taken on, or by which colleges.
The transition grants are administered by the transactions unit, run jointly by the Skills Funding Agency and Education Funding Agency.
As publicised on gov.uk, this is led by Matthew Atkinson, who is on secondment from the audit firm PwC, which provides financial services to 26 colleges, according to 2014/15accounts published by the SFA.
A spokesperson for PwC told FE Week: “As far as we are aware we are not engaged to provide any services funded by transition grants.”
Grants of up to £100,000 are available for the closure of a college, a merger involving more than two institutions or where the merging colleges have a combined turnover of more than £25 million, or to set up a multi-academy trust of two or more colleges.
For a single sixth form college academisation, a merger involving two colleges with a combined turnover of less than £25 million, or any other significant change expected to have upfront costs, grants of up to £50,000 are on offer.
Picture caption: Richard Atkins, as FE Commissioner, will oversee college access to the restructuring grants
Colleges have hit out at an “incredibly unfair” flaw in the notorious English and maths condition-of-funding rule – which makes it impossible to achieve 100 percent compliance, and could cost them funding.
An Education Funding Agency rule states that any study-programme learners who don’t already have at least a C in English and maths must continue studying those subjects – or their provider will lose cash in the future.
According to the EFA, last year the sector “maintained compliance at around 97 per cent”, but it insisted that progress still “needs to be made in achieving full compliance”.
It also requires “any school, college or provider that isn’t fully compliant to submit a robust compliance plan”.
However, exclusive FE Week analysis has demonstrated a glaring flaw in the EFA’s own methodology, which effectively makes it all but impossible for colleges to comply in full, even when all learners are enrolled on English and maths courses.
The problem emerges when a learner drops out of their course after 42 or more “days in learning” – the length of the qualifying period – for their main study-aim, but with fewer recorded days for English and or maths.
The EFA’s own system qualifies learners like these as ‘funded’, because they passed the qualifying period, but not as complying with the rule, even if the last day of attendance on each course is a few days apart.
If more than five per cent of learners don’t comply, the EFA starts to withhold funds.
However, if a learner drops out before completing their main study-aim as well, they aren’t recorded as funded – meaning the college doesn’t lose money.
FE Week has spoken to many colleges about the impact, and we estimate that as many as 9,000 college learners across England could be affected by this failure in the system.
Sarah Molyneux-Walker, director of MIS and exams at Peterborough Regional College, told FE Week that 18 of its students had been directly affected.
“For us 100 per cent compliance would be impossible,” she said.
Lesley Valentine, head of management information at Luton Sixth Form College, said eight of its students had fallen foul, adding: “It seems incredibly unfair that we are penalised because they stop attending their maths/English GCSE before their main aim.”
Mark Ashton-Blanksby, head of internal audit at ICCA Education, Training and Skills, which provides internal audit services for more than 40 colleges, insisted that the system is at fault – not colleges.
“The EFA funding methodology itself is preventing colleges achieving the target of 100 per cent compliance, so it is inherently unfair to hold providers to account,” he said.
This revelation has prompted some to call for the five-per-cent threshold for compliance tolerance – first introduced for the 2016/17 allocations, and now extended to 2017/18 – to be made permanent. This means that if less than five per cent of a college’s learners are non-compliant, the college will not lose funding.
Julian Gravatt, the assistant chief executive at the Association of Colleges, agreed that the tolerance should be made “a permanent part of the funding method”.
A college manager, who did not want to be named, warned of what might happen if the tolerance were removed, saying that they believe that some colleges “might be tempted to be less than honest with their end dates in order to ensure that all such students meet the condition of funding”.
They continued: “This certainly seems counter to the spirit of the guidance within which we all work, and it would surprise me if this is the actual intention of EFA rather than just an unfair quirk.”
The DfE denied its systems were at fault – but then appeared to contradict itself by admitting the existence of the quirk.
A spokesperson told FE Week: “There is no systemic reason why an institution cannot be fully compliant with our English and maths requirements.”
However, she added, “we recognise that in ‘exceptional circumstances’ that may be outside the institution’s control, a student may not comply with the funding requirement. This is why we allow a five-per-cent tolerance.”
