Government is making dangerous errors on apprenticeship assessment

Although the new policy on assessment organisations is intended to drive down overall costs, it’s likely to impact quality at this critical time in the reform programme, says Rob May

Imagine you own a plumbing business.

Your business is contracted to fit the water supply for a newly designed hotel complex. The plans look challenging, but it’s all very exciting and you want to get involved because this is the kind of job you’re really good at.

Naturally, you will want to take great skill and pride in your work. After all, that’s how you’ve earned the trust of the public over decades of trading. At the very least the plumbing system you install will need to meet a minimum standard of regulations as set out by an independent body, which is focused only on the safety and reliability of the water supply, irrespective of what’s going on with the rest of the build.

Sounds straightforward…

But then, you learn the client and the building company have got together and agreed a price deal on the project without consulting you at all. They’ve squeezed the cost of the build right down, and now they simply expect you to accept less money for the same work.

Getting it wrong could have devastating consequences for learners

Not only that, but because there is less money, you may no longer be able to meet even the minimum specifications demanded by the regulator within budget, yet alone make any profit to re-invest in new tools.

This is the situation facing awarding organisations today.

Previously, the guidance issued to assessment bodies was to charge a maximum of 20 per cent of the funding amount allocated for the specific apprenticeship standard being delivered. Now they can only charge 20 per cent of actual price agreed between the employer and the training provider.

A new policy directive on apprenticeships from the Department for Education says exam boards must base their fees for apprenticeship end-point assessments on deals negotiated between employers and training providers, which are likely to take place without their input. With some employers seeking to drive hard bargains with training providers that are eager to secure funding, this could mean a race to the bottom.

The basis for the earlier guidance was itself unsubstantiated and even that model looked challenging for awarding bodies, many of whom were not included in assessment development plans but were left grappling with how to design some fairly impractical tests.

To give employers more control over the content and assessment of apprenticeships, every new apprenticeship standard has an assessment plan produced by ‘trailblazers’ (employer-led groups). This employer panel creates an assessment plan, independent of the workplace and off-the-job training provided.

Employers are certainly well-placed to identify the knowledge, skills and behaviours that apprentices need to have, and they are already used extensively in our qualification development, but most employers readily accept that they do not necessarily have the relevant technical experience in ‘assessment’.

Awarding organisations are experienced in ensuring that assessments are manageable, fair and reliable. It’s what they do day-in, day-out, and under close regulatory scrutiny.

But now delivery and assessment have been merged together when it comes to setting a price for the apprenticeship, which could make the assessment plan desired by employers unworkable.

High quality or low price?

Decoding assessment plans is a complex task. In some instances there is little guidance from trailblazers on core principles such as the required size of the test, the frequency of testing, how to aggregate marks into a final grade and the required size of the question bank needed to avoid predictability over time. Make no mistake, these apprenticeship assessments are highly technical products in a high-profile, high-stakes landscape. Getting it wrong could have devastating consequences for learners starting out on a career. Awarding bodies know this.

The new rules are unviable in an open market

To help make the case on the cost and complexity of translating the trailblazers’ assessment plans into reality, and in the spirit of transparency and co-operation, a number of awarding organisations (including YMCA Awards) presented their fully-worked costings to the Skills Funding Agency, an exercise which now appears to have been a wasted endeavour.

Although the new rules are intended to drive down overall costs, it’s likely to impact quality at this critical time in the reform programme, with the employer levy about to kick in from April. It could even slam on the brakes as awarding bodies which were already thinking twice, must now take a long hard look at the financial feasibility of developing end-point assessments.

What separation?

Another defining feature of the reforms is that assessments will either be delivered by an independent third party, or in such a way that no party who has been involved in delivery of the apprenticeship can make the sole decision on competence and passing the end-point assessment. In other words, quite rightly ensuring separation between provider and assessor to avoid a conflict of interest in the assessment decision.

However this independence doesn’t seem to count when it comes to price-setting. Assessment organisations will want to collaborate closer than ever before with training providers to ensure that appropriate pricing models are used.

Most of the organisations involved in DfE’s recent wave of workshops on ‘How to become an end-point assessment organisation’ have been training providers, looking to set up an ‘independent’ trading vehicle for assessment. Never mind the fact that there are already 160 recognised awarding organisations. Apparently government wants fewer of them and more new, untested and unrecognised assessment organisations.

The move demonstrates yet another fundamental misunderstanding of the education system by policy makers and a lack of knowledge of what’s involved in developing and maintaining high-quality assessment throughout its life-cycle.

The new rules are unviable in an open market, and with only around half (81 out of 159) of standards with at least one assessment organisation in place, the latest directive is not likely to see a surge of apprenticeship assessment organisations entering the market. And if it does, the Institute for Apprenticeships must ask searching questions on the quality of assessments being offered.

Instead of an apprenticeship system that is built to last, is the government building one destined to fail?

I sincerely hope not. The principles underpinning the overhaul of our apprenticeships system are laudable, and we will work hard with government departments and training providers on finding ways to make it work, but in return the DfE must start to listen to the experts and make some sensible decisions, urgently.

 

Rob May is director of YMCA Awards and a board member at the Federation of Awarding Bodies

First sixth form college converts to academy status today

Hereford Sixth Form College has won the race to become the first to convert to academy status.

The provider, which was rated outstanding by Ofsted when it was last inspected in 2008, completed the process to become a standalone academy today (March 1).

It comes almost 16 months after former chancellor George Osborne first announced that SFCs could convert to become academies to avoid paying VAT.

Jonathan Godfrey, Hereford SFC principal, said he was “delighted” to win the race to academise.

His college’s new status will “allow us to formalise some of the collaborative work we are involved in with our excellent local 11-16 partner schools” while “the VAT refund will enable us to direct additional resources to the education of our students”.

“As the first SFC to take this step, we have been able to help shape the conversion process and we hope this will benefit other SFCs that become academies in the future,” he added.

James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said Hereford’s conversion marked “the beginning of a new chapter in sixth form education in England”.

“By becoming an academy, SFCs like Hereford will be able to forge closer links with local schools and invest more money in the education of their own students,” he said.

Mr Kewin added that not all SFCs would want to academise “but it is right that they have the option to do so when it is in the best interests of their students”.

SFCs were first given the option to convert to academy status in November 2015 as part of the government’s spending review.

Mr Osborne said at the time that becoming an academy would mean that SFCs would no longer have to pay VAT – which is on average £385,000 for each college, according to the SFCA’s latest figures.

It came after a campaign led by the SFCA to bring SFCs in line with school sixth forms, which don’t pay VAT.

At the moment, the option to convert to an academy is only available to SFCs through the area review process.

Hereford SFC was part of the Marches and Worcestershire review, in wave two, which completed in May.

The recommendation to emerge from that review for the SFC was to “remain stand-alone and develop its proposal for academy conversion whilst continuing to provide its core, good quality offer”, according to the report into the review published in November.

The 2,100-learner provider held a consultation on its plans to convert from September to November, with the initial aim of converting on January 1.

Its consultation document said that conversion would give it “additional funding of between £200- £300k annually”.

An estimated 70 per cent of the country’s 93 SFCs are understood to be actively considering academisation.

FE Week reported in January that a fifth of SFCs had started formal negotiations to convert to academy status.

Other SFCs understood to be close to converting include Priestley SFC, New College Pontefract and Rochdale SFC.

FE Week reported in January that Priestley was planning to convert on April 1, while Rochdale’s website says that it intends to academise on the same date.

Meanwhile, New College Pontefract is expected to convert in the coming months after its application to become a 16 to 19 academy was approved in principle by the Lancashire and West Yorkshire headteacher board on November 30.

 

Breaking: Hull College Group chief executive departs after financial mess exposed

Hull College Group has announced the departure of its chief executive Gary Warke, bringing to an end weeks of speculation after the FE Commissioner exposed a £10 million deficit there over four years.

A statement was sent to FE Week 15 minutes ago on behalf of the chair of governors Pat Tomlinson.

She said: “On behalf of the college corporation, I can confirm that Gary Warke, group chief executive, has decided to leave the college to explore new career opportunities.

“This coincides with a point where the area based review process is virtually complete and the group embarks on a new strategic plan.

“The corporation would like to thank Gary for his service to the college and commitment to FE and wish him every success. In turn, Gary wishes the college well for the future.”

She added: “Michelle Swithenbank, as deputy CEO, together with the leadership team will lead the college forward to develop and deliver those new plans.”

It comes after FE Week reported on February 14 that the group had repeatedly refused to publicly back Mr Warke, after he was urged to resign following a damning FE Commissioner report.

Commissioner Richard Atkins’ team was sent in to carry out an emergency assessment, after the Skills Funding Agency issued it with a notice of concern last November.

The resulting report, published in early February, warned that the senior leadership team had not succeeded in addressing a steady decline in financial performance, recognising a “cumulative deficit of around £10 million over the past four years” with its operating performance.

It added that “a further deficit in excess of £1m is forecast for the current year.”

It sparked widespread dismay and a call by the University and College Union for Mr Warke  to stand down.

A spokesperson for the union claimed at the time that “at an extraordinary staff meetings held at the college today, the chair of governers Pat Tomlinson was vague about CEO Gary Warke’s position.”

UCU regional official, Julie Kelley, told FE Week this morning: “The recent report from the further education commissioner made it quite clear that Mr Warke’s position was no longer tenable.

“Staff and students need a new management team in post prepared to put the educational needs of local people first. A good college is one that offers a varied curriculum and we hope that Hull College will now reassess its primary function and focus on supporting staff to deliver education to students.”

The SFA issued Hull with a notice of concern on November 11 last year, triggering the visit from Mr Atkins’ team.

The subsequent report explained that the notice was issued because the college had been rated ‘inadequate’ by the SFA for financial health (based on its 2016 to 2018 financial plan) and had also requested exceptional financial support.

It revealed that “the college intends to put in place a different management structure in early 2017”, including a newly appointed “‘turnaround director’ to help to deliver financial recovery”.

It added: “Although the senior leadership team has a range of skills and experience, it has not succeeded in addressing key issues facing the college, including steady decline in financial performance and loss of market share.

“There is concern at all levels of the organisation that the college lacks strategic vision and strong, resolute leadership and that this is frustrating and demotivating for staff.”

Mr Atkins’ report made a number of recommendations, including instructions for the corporation to “respond accordingly in relation to leadership and governance”.

FE Week previously reported, in May last year, that Mr Warke had been accused of trying to bully a member of the shadow cabinet for supporting a staff strike action.

Karl Turner, who is the MP for Kingston upon Hull, joined “angry and demoralised” Hull College workers on the picket that week in a row over pay and a controversial new lesson observation system.

He subsequently called for an investigation into Mr Warke, after he was allegedly sent a “threatening and derogatory” letter. Mr Warke declined to comment any further on the matter.

#SaveOurAdultEducation call for loans justice is raised in House of Lords

Leading government skills adviser Professor Alison Wolf has added her voice to calls, through FE Week’s #SaveOurAdultEducation campaign, for justice for learners saddled with large loans when training providers go under.

The author of the influential 2011 Wolf Report, on the future of vocational education, spoke out in the House of Lords yesterday.

This came just over an hour after our campaign was officially launched, in the Houses of Parliament, before 200 people.

#SaveOurAdultEducation is calling for advanced learning loans debt to be written off, where blameless adult learners have been left unable to complete their courses if their training provider goes bust.

The government is currently refusing to do this – despite FE Week reports revealing hundreds of learners have been left, for example, at least £8,500 in debt, but with no qualifications to show for it.

“It is extremely important to recognise that a large number of people are now taking out loans who are not in FE colleges and who receive very little protection,” Professor Wolf, who is also a Baroness and became a crossbench peer in 2014, said during a committee session on the Technical and Further Education Bill.

She urged government to extend the protection that will be offered to learners at FE colleges through the bill “to the many thousands of people who have loans and are with training providers, and where a continuation of this flux, collapse or reforming movement among these small organisations leaves them in an even worse situation than in the past”.

Speaking exclusively to FE Week after the session, Professor Wolf said: “I will definitely return to the issue at report stage”.

Professor Wolf [pictured above] referred to FE Week’s recent stories on the demise of training two providers – Hampshire-based Edudo Ltd, and London-based John Frank Training – during yesterday’s committee session.

“People were left with student loans that were really sizeable—especially in relation to the incomes many of them were earning—but no recourse and no obvious regime to help them,” she said.

Private training providers had “been an extraordinarily ill-monitored part of the training sector” until now, she added.

The introduction of loans – particularly to learners at private training providers which can “get overstretched and many start up then close down as they do or do not get contracts” – had “dramatically changed the nature of post-18 education and training across the country”.

“We need to make sure that government accountability catches up with it,” she urged.

The call for unwarranted loan debts to be written-off is one of three demands of #SaveOurAdultEducation.

The campaign is also calling on the government to consult on a proper adult education strategy, one that does not disappear under the political weight of apprenticeships and devolution.

The third demand is for the introduction of FE maintenance grant loans for adult learners, which would make retraining possible for many more older people, by helping cover their living costs while studying, something that is already available to mature students in higher education.

FE Week revealed before Christmas that the Department for Education had indefinitely delayed a decision on whether to extend maintenance loans to FE.

Parliamentary launch for FE Week’s Save Our Adult Education campaign draws huge support

More than 200 passionate supporters of lifelong learning packed-out the official launch of FE Week’s #SaveOurAdultEducation campaign in the Houses of Parliament today.

The event saw powerful speeches from influential politicians, including apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon, and FE sector leaders.

The packed room at today’s launch

#SaveOurAdultEducation is demanding three things from the government.

First of these is that advanced learning loans debt should be written off, where blameless adult learners have been left unable to complete their courses if their training provider goes bust.

It comes after FE Week reported last month revealed that the Skills Funding Agency was investigating the demise of John Frank Training.

The provider went into liquidation on November 30, leaving no assets, despite recording a profit of £1.3 million in the first half of 2016.

The collapse meant that hundreds of students who had taken out FE loans to train with the London-based provider were left with hefty debts but no course.

Asim Shaheen confronts Robert Halfon

One of these, Asim Shaheen, 49, who was unable to complete a level three hospitality and catering course which he had funded with a loan for over £8,000, confronted Mr Halfon about this just before the event started this afternoon.

Mr Halfon told him: “I will talk to the SFA about your particular case, I know they are doing everything they can on this.”

Asim, who later addressed the full room asking “how can they not have had a contingency plan in place for this?”, then requested that the minister should look into the wider issue for all learners affected. The minister agreed.

Mr Marsden referenced the issue of student loans left with unwarranted debts in his speech, saying: “The numbers are really mounting up. Action must be taken to help them.”

The campaign is also calling on the government to consult on a proper adult education strategy, one that does not disappear under the political weight of apprenticeships and devolution.

Sue Pember

Ms Pember said in her speech today: “It’s really wrong now that we don’t as a society understand the benefits of adult education.

“We know as educators that it works. It improves not just productivity, it helps to improve health. If you put people onto adult education classes instead of putting them on anti-depressants, its saves the government money for example.

“We need a proper cross-government adult education strategy that lasts 20 years.”

Her words were echoed by Ruth Spellman, chief executive of the Workers’ Educational Association, who said in her speech: “Adult education is so important. The government needs to understand it is something that benefits the vast majority of the population.”

The third demand of the campaign is for the introduction of FE maintenance grant loans for adult learners, which would make retraining possible for many more older people, by helping cover their living costs while studying, something that is already available to mature students in higher education.

FE Week revealed before Christmas that the Department for Education had indefinitely delayed a decision on whether to extend maintenance loans to FE.

Gordon Marsden

Mr Marsden told those at today’s event: “Extending maintenance loans to FE would be of key importance to achieving parity of esteem with higher education.”

David Lammy, an MP who was minister for skills in 2007 and 2008, and who has recently called for a return to widespread “night schools”, also spoke at the #SaveOurAdultEducation launch.

According to government figures, there are around 1.5 million fewer adults aged 19 or over participating in FE, than there were during Mr Lammy’s stint as minister, when the figure stood at 3.75 million.

He also led an adjournment debate in the House of Commons this afternoon on the future of adult education.

He conceded today: “Successive government have failed to get adult education where it needs to be.

David Lammy

“Many people across the country in their 30s and 40s can’t afford to leave their job and go to university. They need to retrain through adult education.”

Ruth Spellman

He claimed Mr Halfon had previously played a “trick” by implying spending on adult education was in a healthy state, because that would also entail including apprenticeships funding in the calculations – which often aren’t relevant to older people.

Mr Halfon denies this and told guests at the campaign launch that the government’s industrial strategy, released on January 23, which committed to exploring “ambitious new approaches to encouraging lifelong learning”, showed he supported their aims.

FE Week editor Nick Linford spoke of his pride in the “fantastic turnout” today.

He said: “The government has been too quiet for too long on adult education. I really hope our campaign will make a big difference.”

BREAKING: Ofqual challenges ‘blurred’ responsibilities in apprenticeship programme

The government exams watchdog has voiced fears that responsibilities within the current apprenticeship system have become “blurred”.

In its response to the operational plan for the Institute for Apprenticeships, published this morning, Ofqual branded the “responsibilities and accountabilities” in the system “blurred”, adding that it was “crucial” to make the landscape “clear and easy to navigate”.

“We consider it essential that the operational plan draws effectively on the strengths of the partner organisations and minimises duplication”, the report said.

“This is crucial if we are to enable apprentices, employers and those involved in developing and delivering apprenticeships to understand the system, use it effectively, and have confidence in those securing quality.”

The government’s consultation on how the Institute for Apprenticeships proposes to carry out its functions ran from January 27 to February 27, and feedback is currently being analysed.

Ofqual’s response particularly highlighted the need for “immediate clarification” of the role of external quality assurance.

It said: “The operational plan fails to make the distinction between the EQA function and the substantial regulatory powers that are uniquely available to us as a statutory regulator.

“Where an apprenticeship end point assessment falls within a regulated awarding organisation’s scope of recognition, we will regulate the EPA, no matter who is providing the EQA.

“In doing so, we will provide the same degree of quality assurance to EPAs that we give to the qualifications we regulate.”

The Institute for Apprenticeships should be working with Ofqual and other key partners in the system to develop “an appropriate EQA landscape”, it added.

The aims of this would be avoiding “duplication of responsibilities”, minimising “regulatory burden” and securing “value for money”.

The regulator also proposed the building of “productive working arrangements” with sector and professional bodies, where they are chosen to deliver EQA, in order to provide “assessment expertise and regulatory powers”, and help the system of quality assurance to be more “consistent”.

“Where Ofqual is not involved in regulating EPAs, the Institute will want to be satisfied that the quality assurance function enables similar levels of assurance and control over standards to be applied,” it warned.  

Sally Collier, Ofqual’s chief regulator, said: “Our response to this important consultation underlines our commitment to support the IfA in ensuring that assessments within apprenticeships are consistent and of high quality.”

Currently, when employer Trailblazer groups submit their assessment plans for new apprenticeship standards, they must choose one external quality assurance organisation out of four options: Ofqual; the Quality Assurance Agency, which generally deals with higher education qualifications; a professional or sector body, which the Trailblazer group can create themselves if desired; or the Institute for Apprenticeships itself (see slide below).

On February 7, FE Week reported that the Institute for Apprenticeships would charge apprenticeship assessment organisations for external quality assurance of new standards, despite Ofqual keeping the service free.

Speaking during a webinar on January 6, Peter Lauener, shadow chief executive of the IfA, said that it was acceptable for the Institute to charge for the service because “the principle of a regulator charging bodies in the industry for regulation is not uncommon at all”.

Mr Lauener confirmed that if the Institute was chosen by employers to provide this service it would charge, but “any end point assessment the Institute provides itself would be provision of last resort”.

In the recent 200th edition of FE Week, Gemma Gathercole, head of funding and assessment at FE Week publisher Lsect, argued that the assessment community is calling for Ofqual’s role in apprenticeships to be extended.

She warned that “it is not common for the regulated to be calling for their regulator to have more power”, adding “we are adding further complexity into a system that almost everyone already thinks is too confusing”.

Another 100 students left with FE loans and no courses after demise of provider Edudo

Another 100 learners appear to have been left with heavy student loans debt but no qualifications to show for it, after their training provider under investigation by the Skills Funding Agency went bust.

FE Week is demanding justice for them and hundreds of others left in the lurch – through our new #SaveOurAdultEducation campaign which is calling for all students’ advanced learning loan debt to be written off, if they are unable to complete courses after training providers go out of business.

The latest case affecting 100 students is with Hampshire-based Edudo Ltd. It went into voluntary liquidation in January, after the company’s “assets and business” were sold to Learning Republic Group Ltd last November.

Edudo boss Ronan Smith is also the only director listed on Companies House for Learning Republic Group, which was incorporated last July.

FE Week asked the SFA if it was checking out the circumstances surrounding the demise of Edudo, which was launched in 2011 and allocated £500,500 in advanced learner loans by the SFA as of September, and what it was doing to help the students affected.

A spokesperson said in response that there are approximately 100 learners affected, and it is “working closely” with the SLC to ensure they complete their learning.

This indicates that each of the students have been left on average with just over £5,000 loans debt.

It comes after FE Week last month revealed that the SFA was investigating the demise of John Frank Training.

John Frank Training campus

The provider went into liquidation on November 30, leaving no assets, despite recording a profit of £1.3 million in the first half of 2016.

The collapse meant that hundreds of students who had taken out FE loans to train with the London-based provider were left with hefty debts but no course.

Now commenting on the demise of Edudo, an SFA spokesperson told FE Week it had terminated its loans agreement with the provider.

“Our priority is to support the learners affected to complete their learning with minimal disruption, working closely with the Student Loans Company,” she added.

The SFA said it will look carefully at any irregularities with the case.

A statement was also released to FE Week on behalf of the former board of directors of Edudo.

It said: “In recent years, the trading environment for the company was increasingly difficult given funding changes.

“The board of directors of Edudo, on professional advice and with great sadness, appropriately concluded that the company could no longer continue to trade.

“On November 24, 2016, the company’s assets and business were sold to Learning Republic Group.

”This was considered by the board of directors of the company, on independent corporate advice, to represent the best outcome for creditors and learners.

“Additionally, it secured the jobs of the company’s staff who transferred to the new business, providing an opportunity for Learning Republic to offer continuity for and to the benefit of each and every student under its the care of Edudo.”

The statement added that “for some months” the board of directors, and its advisors, have been and remain in “proactive engagement” with the SFA.

The agency, though, told FE Week Learning Republic Group is not a provider on the register of training organisations, and does not hold a loans agreement with them.

This means it is unlikely Learning Republic Group will be able to complete the training of former government-funded Edudo learners.

A spokesperson for liquidators RSM said the company was formally installed in the role on January 13 and “during the period of its engagement, RSM have received and responded to requests for information from the SFA”.

“The liquidators have received the full cooperation of the directors of Edudo Ltd in responding to such requests.”

The SLC declined to comment on Edudo’s demise.

The parliamentary launch for #SaveOurAdultEducation, which will have both skills minister Robert Halfon and his shadow Gordon Marsden speaking, takes place this afternoon.

Former ‘outstanding’ college’s Oftsed rating slumps after first inspection for decade

A college that went a decade without being inspected by Ofsted has crashed two grades.

Bury College was rated as ‘requires improvement’ by the education watchdog in a report published today, following inspection from January 16 to 20.

That inspection came almost exactly ten years after its previous full inspection, from February 5 to 9 2007, when it was awarded a grade one.

As previously reported by FE Week, Bury was one of five colleges to have reached or passed the 10-year mark between inspections.

Ineffective self-assessment, together with inconsistent teaching and low achievement rates, were among the issues that led to the new Ofsted verdict.

Leaders and managers were found to have “not been successful in accurately evaluating the quality of provision” and “do not accurately identify what teachers can do to improve their teaching practice or focus clearly on the progress that students and apprentices make”.

“Consequently, the quality of teaching, learning and assessment has deteriorated, resulting in students not making the progress expected of them given their starting points,” the report said.

Leaders were also criticised for focusing on “developing partnerships and collaborations with other colleges and a local university”, which had “proved a distraction”.

Management information systems were “imprecise” with too many reports to senior managers deemed “overly optimistic”.

These included information presented at monthly business review meetings that showed apprentices to be “making good progress when in fact too many apprentices are making very slow progress”.

The “overly positive” self-assessment meant that governors were “unable to hold senior managers to account stringently for the progress students and apprentices make”.

Inspectors found that teaching, learning and assessment quality “varies considerably across subject areas and provision types”.

Teaching on study programmes was found to be pitched at mid-level, with the result that the “least able students find tasks too complex” while the most able are left with “a lack of challenge”.

Consequently, “students, particularly the most and least able, make limited progress”, inspectors noted.

But the college’s adult learning programmes and provision for learners with high needs were both found to be good.

“Adult learning provision meets the needs of employers, adults seeking employment and adults who want to progress to university,” inspectors found.

Charlie Deane, Bury College principal

Students with high needs were “well supported in their learning and make good progress,” the report noted.

Charlie Deane, Bury College principal, said: “We will build on the strengths that Ofsted inspectors recognised and we are already actively addressing the aspects that require improvement”. 

He added: “Our improvements will enable even more students to achieve their goals and progress to employment, university and further learning.” 

Other colleges to have gone 10 years between inspections include Cirencester College, which was rated grade one across the board at inspection in December 2006, and Bridgwater and Taunton College which was last inspected in November 2006.

Hills Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge was also last inspected in November 2006, while Woodhouse College had its last full inspection in January 2007.

The watchdog’s most recent FE and skills inspection handbook, for use from September 2016, states that providers judged ‘outstanding’ at their most recent inspection are “not normally subject to routine inspection”.

But it adds: “An outstanding provider may receive a full inspection where its performance declines or there is another compelling reason, such as potential safeguarding issues”.

 

School funding ‘done rather well’ and it’s cuts to 16-18 that’s the ‘bigger story’ claims Institute for Fiscal Studies

Researchers at the influential Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) have contrasted cuts to 16-18 funding with “spending shifting towards earlier in youngsters’ lives” in the last 25 years.

The IFS today publish a report into education spending and are keen to point out that despite school funding cuts hitting the headlines in recent weeks, in the last 25 years they “have done rather well in terms of funding per pupil” with spending “set to be at least 70% higher in 2020 than it was in 1990.”

By contrast, they say the “bigger story” is that 16-18 funding in school sixth forms and colleges has been “continually squeezed” with “spending per pupil set to be no higher at all than it was in 1990.”

The report, ‘Long-Run Comparisons of Spending per Pupil across Different Stages of Education’, was funded by the Nuffield Foundation and the IFS claims it is the first time “consistent data on day-to-day or current spending per pupil on different stages of education in England over a long time period” has been published. The report does not include research on adult further education funding.

Luke Sibieta, one of the report authors and an Associate Director at the IFS said: “The actions – as opposed to the rhetoric – of both Labour and Conservative governments suggest that they agree 16-18 is a low priority area for spending. Why they think that is unclear”.

The report concludes that “The overriding challenge for the 16–18 sector concerns the long-run stagnation in the level of resources available. By the end of the current Spending Review period in 2019–20, we expect that spending per student in further education will only be just above the level seen 30 years ago at the end of the 1980s.”

Angela Rayner MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, said “cuts to further education especially are leaving behind thousands of young people that want to pursue technical skills and education and the Tories are once again proving themselves to be the party of the few not the many.”

A Department for Education spokesperson commented on the IFS findings, saying: “We are transforming post-16 education and investing £7 billion to ensure there is a place in education or training for every 16 to 19-year old who wants one. As a result we have the lowest proportion of young people not in education, employment or training since consistent records began in 1994. This supports future economic growth, by meeting the needs of our economy and helping everyone, regardless of background, get onto the ladder of opportunity so they can fulfil their potential.”

The IFS report comes a little over a week before the Spring Budget on 8 March, with the Association of Colleges already calling on the government to increase the 16-18 national base rate as well as shift spending on education and training from 4.3% now towards 5% of GDP to “introduce fair funding for colleges.”