£1.6 billion bids for ‘markedly oversubscribed’ non-levy procurement

The total value of bids lodged through the now-paused procurement for apprenticeship provision allocations for non-levy-paying employers was around £1.6 billion, almost four times more than the sum available, FE Week has learned.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency announced on April 12, that the decision over funding allocations relating to this procurement had been be paused, to allow more time for the situation to be reviewed.

Providers had been bidding for a share of a funding pot worth up to £440 million. But FE Week has now learned that interest in this funding stream appeared to be much higher than the government had anticipated, with actual bids amounting to around £1.6 billion.

The ESFA said, when it announced the pause, that “this procurement was markedly oversubscribed, a sign of the significant level of interest from the training provider market in the apprenticeship reforms.”

“In response, ESFA intends to pause the current competition. This will allow us to review our approach to ensure that we achieve the right balance between stability of supply, and promoting competition and choice for employers.”

The ESFA confirmed at the time that it would extend existing contracts held by current providers, to help minimise resulting disruption.

It said: “In order to maintain stability in the system through the start of the next academic year, in the interim period we will extend existing contracts held by all current providers until the end of December 2017.

“To maintain our quality standards, current providers with extended contracts will be able to undertake new starts on those contracts provided they are on the new Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers.”

The government also announced at the time that it would notify providers of “specific arrangements shortly”, so that amended contracts are in place ahead of May 1.

FE Week asked the Department for Education and ESFA this morning, for clarification on when it would be providing the sector with any new guidance.

But a spokesperson said it could not at this time give a specific date, only that it would be published “shortly”.

The DfE, which had previously been due to release the non-levy paying procurement results on March 14, would also not confirm or deny the accuracy of the £1.6 billion figure.

A key area of extra guidance expected would relate to whether the EFSA will be delaying its planned rule changes towards subcontracting, and how the system will work in the interim.

The procurement pause left many of those who were applying for a contract for the first time frustrated, as reported in FE Week, with them claiming they now found themselves facing an uncertain future until further announcements are made.

FE Week estimates that as it stands over 400 main providers on RoATP (a third of the 1,303) will now not be able to directly deliver to over 98 per cent of the non-levy employers from May.

All main providers on RoATP without existing contracts, will be able to continue to subcontract with a lead provider to access the non-levy funding.

However, there has been no indication yet that the tighter subcontracting rules from May, whereby the lead provider must deliver some training for the employer, are being paused or delayed.

Reflecting wider concerns, when the announcement was made on April 12, FE Week reader Lee Morris also commented: “Does anyone know if non-levy employers will still have to make the 10 per cent contribution?”

This concern was reflected today by Mark Dawe, who warned this morning: “We need confirmation as soon as possible for the providers on the register that the co-investment rules will apply from May 1.”

The government announced last August that nearly all employers will only have to contribute 10 per cent to the cost of an apprenticeship from April 2017.

This meant the government would pay 90 per cent of the costs for 98 per cent of employers, those with annual wage bills below £3 million and thus not paying the levy.

Mr Dawe added today: “We believe that a pause in introducing the new subcontracting rules alongside the pause in the non-levy apprenticeship procurement does not involve a change in government policy and the ESFA can implement this by informing providers during the [general election] purdah period.  Now is not the time to destabilize the provider supply base and good existing relationships between employers and providers.”

He spoke out amid sector concern that key apprenticeship reform announcements and other reforms could be disrupted and delayed, following the imposition of civil service purdah which FE Week understand will come into play from Friday.

This came after Prime Minister Theresa May announced today that she will call a snap election on June 8 this year, with resulting purdah limiting how the civil service announces politically sensitive matters until after the public ballot.

 

Editor asks: Halfon answers three key questions after snap election announcement

Tonight, the Institute for Apprenticeships held a launch event in London at Mansion House. The apprenticeships and skills minister, Robert Halfon, was there to deliver a congratulatory speech. Afterwards, against a backdrop of the snap election announcement and as the event continued around us, I had the opportunity for a short interview and asked him three topical questions.

  1. Future of the 3m apprenticeship starts target

The Conservative manifesto in 2015 committed to three million apprenticeship starts by 2020. Given the snap election announced today, I asked the minister what happens now to the target.

The minister said he “wasn’t going to comment on that” as he “didn’t know what was going to be in the manifesto” but went on to say: “I’m very proud that we’ve got 900,000 apprenticeships in our country at the moment. Highest on record”

I pressed him on whether he wanted an apprenticeship starts target to be in the new manifesto, even whether it should be increased to 4m. He said it was “a very good question” but would only add that he “would love millions of quality apprenticeships – definitely.”

  1. Lack of English and maths policy shift

Last November the minister and Secretary of State Justine Greening indicated at the AoC annual conference that the policy on forced GCSE English and maths resits for grade D students wasn’t working. The following month the Ofsted annual report was also critical of the policy that was introduced last year.

So, I asked why, as reported in FE Week, the 2017/18 rules on mandatory GCSE English and maths resits remain unchanged.

After a long pause, the minister would only say: “If there wasn’t an election [announcement] today I would say there is a lot more work to do and watch this space.”

  1. Impact of the pause to the non-levy procurement process

The Education and Skills Funding Agency was due to share the results of the £440m non-levy funding procurement process on 14 March, but after a delay of nearly a month they announced last Wednesday they were ‘pausing’ the process until the end of 2017.

Those already holding an SFA contract would have it extended during the pause. But, as reported in FE Week, there are estimated to be around 400 providers (typically subcontractors) that in May will not have direct access to funding for more than 98 percent of employers, those that do not pay the levy. Many are hoping the agency will also pause changes to the subcontracting rules to allow existing arrangements to continue. Some, those with current allocations that did not make it onto the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers are also calling for its use to be paused.

Despite the promise of further guidance and clarification, nothing has yet been published.

So I asked the minister, about the “concern, confused and worried” providers after the pause was announced and what happens now.

He said “Well, exactly what we said in the press release that went out. It’s been paused until December”.

I pressed the minister on the hundreds of providers that applied for an allocation and now won’t have direct funding to non-levy funding in May. Do they go bust?

The minister repeated “we paused it until December and we will set out… well… again… election. If there hadn’t been an election [announcement] we would set out what was going to happen.”

I pressed again, asking what FE Week readers really want an answer to. Does the minister accept that following the procurement pause there are now several hundred apprenticeship providers that don’t know if they have a business from May?

“What I accept is that we’ve listened and we’ve extended this until December to make sure that we listened to the concerns that were set out and that’s exactly what we’ve done” said the minister.

Government to ‘formally intervene’ at 35 providers with achievement rate failures

More than 30 private training providers, colleges and councils have been slapped with a notice of concern or serious breach, for falling below qualification achievement rate thresholds.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency has today published an update list of providers given the notice, which for the first time lists those providers now subject to formal intervention for failing 2015/16 achievement rate minimum standards. Twenty private training providers have been given a notice of serious breach and 15 colleges and councils a notice of concern (see list compiled by FE Week below).

The Approach to Intervention document states for training providers: “We will identify the colleges and other training organisations that have failed to meet minimum standards in apprenticeships or classroom and workplace provision. We will then decide whether to intervene formally.”

It adds: “If we issue a notice of serious breach, it will set out the conditions necessary to continue to receive public funds. Failure to meet the conditions in the notice will lead to contract termination.”

For colleges and local authorities that receive the notice of concern, it says: “We would not usually refer a college or institution to the FE commissioner for review if the only trigger it fails is minimum standards, but we reserve the right to do so.”

The qualification achievement rate minimum standard qualification achievement rate thresholds for 2015/26 for can be viewed here, and are repeated below.

No information has been published as to whether the notice was issued for apprenticeship and/or classroom delivery, nor if it relates to the revised achievement rate calculations that led to an overall fall, as reported in FE Week.

The National Achievement Rate Tables should have been published last month, which includes the rates for qualifications at providers. When asked this week about the 2015/16 NART publication delay, the Department for Education would only say they would be published “in due course”.

See next edition of FE Week for more information and reaction.

 

I have made member feelings abundantly clear to the Agency’s leadership about the non-levy pause

Statement to members, reproduced here with permission

Although most of the feedback from members that I have received about yesterday’s ESFA announcement supports AELP’s initial response welcoming the paused non-levy procurement, I am acutely aware of the level of frustration at the latest turn of events and that not all providers are happy about it.  Last night I made those feelings abundantly clear to the Agency’s leadership.

We were hoping for some more clarity in a further statement today from ESFA.  Arguably the biggest issue concerns the position of the new main providers who will be denied new direct business while the pause is in place.  These providers can still deliver levy payers’ apprenticeships but we urgently need a statement on the subcontracting arrangements that will be permitted after 1 May.

To all providers who understandably feel that their considerable time and effort was wasted on the ITT, there are two things to say in response.  Firstly in the Agency’s own words, this is a ‘formal pause before they recommence it’.  In other words, the scoring of your bid may still be taken into account in the final outcome.  But the important point to recognise, especially in the case of current main providers, is that the £440m tender was massively over-subscribed.  So even if your bid scored top marks, there would have been very little chance of getting what you bid for.  Yesterday’s announcement may even allow for contract growth between now and the end of 2017 and therefore most main providers will benefit from the pause.

We were hoping for some more clarity in a further statement today from ESFA 

Some providers have been critical of AELP’s position but we would argue that we have been entirely consistent given what we have been told publicly and privately in recent months.  We have regularly said that the DfE and ESFA have been far too ambitious in trying to introduce too many funding, quality, standards and assessment reforms for apprenticeships at the same time.  Our watchwords were ‘evolution, rather than revolution’ and MPs on the joint Business and Education select committee for skills clearly agreed with us in their sobering report a fortnight ago.  The decision to run the ITT certainly fell foul of those watchwords and AELP said months ago that existing contracts should be extended at least until August of this year.

With regard to the specifics of yesterday’s announcement, it is obvious that the government simply ran out of time and hence the lack of detail in it.  No one should be in any doubt that the reaction to the publication of the first RoATP list had a direct impact on the planned release of the non-levy allocations.  In fact it threw everything up in the air.  Ministers and officials have burnt the midnight oil on a Plan B but in the end they had to concede that the pause was the most sensible solution available to them.

Some providers have been critical of AELP’s position but we would argue that we have been entirely consistent

Senior AELP colleagues and I have been literally in daily contact with DfE and ESFA officials since the Register was published and we have been trying to get answers to the questions arising from the RoATP application process being reopened immediately and the implications for non-levy contracts.  They have been willing to share some information with us but, fearful of leaks to the press, not all.  Any pertinent information has been passed on to members in Countdown.  The problem though with the limited information being shared is that we are not always able to point out any obvious pitfalls in the government’s line of thinking before an announcement is made.

We said to the ESFA last night that they need to say something at least about the subcontracting rules.  Without a pause in the changes to subcontracting rules, the proposed way forward will be significantly undermined.  AELP has made this view very clear and the ESFA fully understands the concern.  Having said that, we are unlikely to get clarity until next week.  With the support of the AELP Board’s Funding Group, we are already logging some very important questions to put to officials early next week.  If you have any that you wish us to consider plus any other views, please email: apprenticeships@aelp.org.uk.

We said to the ESFA last night that they need to say something at least about the subcontracting rules

Only a few months after the huge concerns arising from the August consultation proposals for funding 16-18 apprenticeships, I recognise that for some members your Easter break has been spoilt by these latest developments and that your strategic business planning has to be revisited again when all you want to be doing is going out to engage with new employers and take on new apprentices.  But on balance, we feel that the ESFA announcement yesterday was the correct option and AELP will now do everything it can to work with the government to ensure that there is a long-term solution that is sustainable for employers of all sizes, those wishing to start an apprenticeship and for providers without whom the whole programme reform process would collapse. 

I urge members to keep feeding us your views via the email address above and in the meantime, I hope you have a pleasant weekend.

 

Government adds Birmingham college to register of apprenticeship providers

After significant political pressure the Department for Education has added one of the Birmingham colleges onto the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers (RoATP).

At least one provider had already gone bust when the register was first published, so FE Week yesterday asked the Department for Education why there had been no revision to the list of providers with permission to start apprentices next month.

Today the register was quietly revised, something only clear from the file name which was previously roatp-2017-03-18 and is now roatp-2017-04-13, although the provider that went bust was still included.

However, three new ‘main’ providers had been added, including South & City College Birmingham. The other two are private training providers: Norfolk Training Services Limited and The IT Skills Management Company Limited.

It is understood the change of heart follows a new DfE process to revisit applications in exceptional circumstances. In this case, we understand the rethink came about because of pre-existing Treasury Transaction Unit funding arrangements, which were agreed on the basis that apprenticeship delivery would be needed for a viable future.

In the case of Norfolk Training Services Limited, a source has told FE Week that the decision to overturn the rejection related to the way the RoATP Ofsted grade rules were being interpreted for an inspection which has yet to be published.

FE Week was first to report that none of the eligible major colleges in Birmingham (Birmingham Metropolitan College, Bournville College, South and City College and Solihull College) had made it onto RoATP when it was first published in March.

At the time David Hughes, AoC’s chief executive, said he was “concerned about the exclusion of some high-quality colleges from the register”.

And a spokesperson for South and City College said “we were very shocked to discover that our application had been unsuccessful, given our grade two Ofsted report and excellent track record.”

Several local Labour MPs had also expressed outrage, along with the shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden and the Labour mayoral candidate for the West Midlands Sion Simon, also reported in FE Week. 

Gisela Stuart MP and Jack Dromey MP raised questions in parliament with Ms Stuart, the MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, saying their absence from the register was “destroying technical education for 16-year-olds in the West Midlands”.

And Mr Dromey, the MP for Birmingham Erdington, asked the skills minister Robert Halfon to meet with the 10 MPs representing Britain’s second city to discuss the issue. Mr Dromey told FE Week that the decision to exclude the colleges “on the basis of the answer to one question is inexplicable”.

“The process is fundamentally flawed and it is essential that the SFA thinks again,” he said. Roger Godsiff, the MP for Birmingham Hall Green, said the process for applying to the register “smacked of a box-ticking exercise”.

He told FE Week that the Birmingham colleges had been “given to understand that the SFA would engage with them if their application was deficient in some form” but “all of them say that the SFA didn’t”.

Meanwhile, Richard Burden, the MP for Birmingham Northfield, said the omission was “shocking and out of order” – but added that it “can be nothing other than a mistake”.

Sion Simon, the Labour candidate for mayor of the West Midlands, has launched a campaign to overturn the decision, after just three of the county’s 16 colleges made it onto the register. “This decision will all but end technical education for young people in the West Midlands as we know it,” he said.

Although the RoATP application process was immediately reopened following its first publication, it is not believed these new additions are a result of a second attempt at applying.

At the time of publication neither the college nor the DfE had been approached for comment.

So see the next edition of FE Week for further information and reaction.

Excitement builds ahead of AoC Sport National Championships 2017

Excitement is building for this year’s AoC Sport National Championships as around 1,650 student athletes make their final preparations for the major event that kicks off next weekend.

The sporting stars will head to Nottingham to compete in the 39th national championships, described as the “pinnacle of the college sporting calendar”, after successfully battling through regional heats during the autumn term.

Competitions will run from April 21 to 23 and following tradition, the golf tournament will swing proceedings into action at around 10am on the Friday, shortly followed by the start of the 12 other sports – including squash, football and hockey.

That evening the opening ceremony will start at around 8pm and will this year be compered by ex-professional wheelchair basketball player, Jordan Jarrett-Bryan.

Jordan Jarrett-Bryan

Mr Jarrett-Bryan, who commentated on the Paralympics at Rio last year and is a sports reporter for Channel 4, will then be on hand throughout the weekend passing down his knowledge to athletes and volunteers working at the event.

Over the Saturday and Sunday the students from FE and sixth form colleges across England and Wales will compete in badminton, cricket, rugby, tennis, volleyball, basketball, cross country, netball, and table tennis.

While going for gold in their own sport, the athletes will also vie for points for their region.

The region whose teams and individuals accumulate the most points will win the coveted Wilkinson Sword trophy.

Last year’s competition, held across Tyne and Wear with over under 1,800 participants, saw the South West claim the trophy, with the South East in second place and West Midlands third.

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The winners of this year’s event will be awarded at the closing ceremony on Sunday afternoon which will start at around 2pm.

Looking ahead to the national championships, George Hutchings, a North West tennis player from St Mary’s College Blackburn, is hoping to replicate his brother Charlie’s success of winning gold at last year’s event.

“I was really pleased for Charlie to win it last year and it would be great to do the same this year,” he said. “Whilst there is always some rivalry between brothers, all I can do is play my best to beat what is in front of me.

“I am expecting the competition to be tough but I am confident that if I play my best I have a good chance of winning. I try to focus more on my performance than the result and I know from experience that matches are won on the outcome of a few decisive points.”

Meanwhile Dominic O’Neill, men’s basketball coach for Carmel College in the North West, is expecting a “fantastic experience” for his players.

Ahead of the event he said: “To have the opportunity to represent the North West region in only our second year of existence as a basketball program is a fantastic testimony to all the students and staff that have worked tirelessly to ensure these boys are successful on the court and off the court.

“Competing in the AoC Sport National Championships is going to be an excellent reward for not only the players and myself as a coach, but as a whole college going forward.”

The AoC Sport National Championships 2017 will be run in collaboration with Nottingham Conferences – the event delivery arm of the University of Nottingham – as well as Sport Nottinghamshire, Nottingham City Council and tourism agency Experience Nottinghamshire.

Marcus Kingwell

The University of Nottingham’s brand new David Ross Sports Village will host a number of sports throughout the weekend, while others will take place at the Nottingham Wildcats Arena, Trent Bridge, Nottingham Hockey Centre and Nottingham Tennis Centre.

AoC Sport managing director, Marcus Kingwell, said: “We are delighted to be able to confirm the University of Nottingham as hosts for the 2017 AoC Sport National Championships.

“Ours will be the first major multi-sports event to take place at the David Ross Sports Village, and we believe the standard of the facilities will provide students with an incredible experience.

“We could even see a future Olympic champion in action at the championships.”

FE Week headed to Tyne and Wear for the 2016 National Championships last April and will once again be there for the full weekend, as media partner, reporting on all of the developments with around 1,650 competitors expected.

AoC Sport is a membership organisation launched in August 2014 which campaigns for every college student to participate regularly in sport or physical activity.

New Ofsted chair unveiled

A former university vice-chancellor has been appointed as the new chair of education watchdog Ofsted.

Professor Julius Weinberg will replace the current interim chair James Kempton, education secretary Justine Greening announced today.

She said Professor Weinberg, who will now step down from his current role as Ofqual’s deputy chair, brings a “wide range of experience from organisations in the education sector” and can form a “strong partnership” with chief inspector Amanda Spielman.

Ms Spielman said Professor Weinberg’s experience touches on the “full range of Ofsted’s responsibilities and I know he will be a tremendous asset to the organisation”.

As well as his Ofqual role, Professor Weinberg (pictured right) has served as a board member for various university organisations, including the Universities and Colleges Employers Association, and London Higher.

Professor Weinberg said: “I am honoured to be asked to take on the role of Chair of Ofsted and look forward to working with Ofsted in its important work of raising standards and improving the lives of children and young people.”

He fills the role vacated by David Hoare, who resigned following a backlash over controversial comments he made to teachers about the Isle of Wight.

He resigned in August last year after comments the Isle of Wight was a “ghetto” where “there has been inbreeding” at a TeachFirst conference in July.

Despite being backed by Ofsted’s board, which said Mr Hoare had made a “swift and unreserved apology”, he stood down a day after a meeting with Ms Greening.

According to earlier job adverts, the role pays up to £46,800 a year for two days’ work a week.

It means Ofsted now has two relatively new figures at the helm. Ms Spielman took over from Sir Michael Wilshaw as chief inspector in January.

BREAKING: Procurement paused for apprenticeships with smaller employers

The decision over funding allocations for apprenticeship provision for non-levy-paying employers has been be paused by the government, to allow time a careful review.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency today revealed that the recent procurement process had been significantly oversubscribed, due to overwhelming interest from the training provider market in the apprenticeship reforms.

It said pausing the competition would allow it to “review our approach to ensure that we achieve the right balance between stability of supply and promoting competition and choice for employers”.

READ MORE: ESFA pause was the right thing to do

The announcement acknowledged that “it is important that we fully consider how best to achieve these outcomes in a way that achieves the best value for employers and apprentices, as we move to a fully employer-led system”.

In the interim period, the ESFA will extend existing contracts held by all current providers until the end of December 2017.

Current providers with extended contracts will be able to undertake new starts on those contracts provided they are on the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers.

It comes after FE Week revealed last month that allocations worth up to £440 million, for delivering apprenticeship training to non-levy employers, had been delayed by the government.

A key meeting that the former Skills Funding Agency was supposed to hold on March 8, to reach final decisions on which providers would be allocated a non-levy employer funding allocation, was also cancelled.

Mark Dawe

The ESFA said today it would notify providers of specific arrangements shortly, to make sure amended contracts are in place ahead of May 1, and confirmed that provision for existing learners would not be affected.

It also said it intends to engage further with the market to about its approach to the procurement process, to ensure it “meets the government’s wider objectives of securing stability in the market, good sectoral and geographical coverage of provision, and a market which meets the skills needs of employers”.

FE Week understands that further guidance will be issued “shortly”.

READ MORE: Why the pause will destroy good specialist providers

In response to the ESFA’s announcement, Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Mark Dawe said: “AELP fully supports the government’s welcome announcement which is right for the sector and right for the apprenticeship programme.

“It clearly shows that the government is as serious about the quality of the programme and the social mobility benefits of apprenticeships as it is about hitting the 3 million target.”

He added: “The decision also gives the new providers on the register [of apprenticeship providers] more time to prepare their offer for non-levy paying employers but more importantly, existing providers can continue to support their employers and start new apprentices while a more considered review of anticipated programme demand takes place in the context of the Industrial Strategy and the skills implications of Brexit.

“We recognise that some providers who invested a great deal of effort into last autumn’s procurement will be frustrated by the announcement but the programme’s reputation will be better served by this rethink of the government’s approach.”

David Hughes

David Hughes, chief executive at the Association of Colleges, said: “I am pleased that the pause on the apprenticeship procurement process has been announced by the ESFA. It is a sensible and helpful recognition of the scale and complexity of change which is happening at the moment.

“This provides welcome stability to colleges and providers as well as to employers and apprentices through the coming months; this will give more time to get the procurement process right.”

He added: “We know that there are many new providers wanting to enter the apprenticeship market, but the government needs to find a way to ensure that their introduction does not inadvertently undermine current high quality, trusted colleges and providers that have built strong employer relationships over many years and for which apprenticeships are a key opportunity for progression for their students.”

On March 14, FE Week reported that the allocations, worth up to £440 million for delivering apprenticeship training to non-levy employers, had been delayed by the funding agency.

A message was sent out to non-levy funding applicants via the government’s ‘Bravo’ e-tendering portal – seen by FE Week – which confirmed that the announcement of the allocations would be postponed.

The update stated that “the timetable for communication of results to applicants” had been “amended”, and further advice would be revealed “as soon as we are able”.

Previously on March 8, FE Week had also reported that a key funding agency meeting which was supposed to decide which providers would receive a non-levy employer funding allocation and how much they would get had been cancelled. 

 

 

 

Confusion and anger as hundreds of apprenticeship providers left disappointed

Training providers without a current apprenticeship contract have hit back against the government’s surprise announcement this morning to deny them direct access to non-levy funding from May, saying their time tendering has been “wasted” and their viability “threatened”. 

Earlier today the Education and Skills Funding Agency announced that the decision over funding allocations for apprenticeship provision for non-levy-paying employers had been be paused by the government, to allow the situation to be reviewed.

The government were due to release the results on the 14 March, and until today there had been no information about the delay beyond statements of “in due course”.

The recent procurement process for up to £440 million of funding was said to have been significantly oversubscribed, and the ESFA claimed the postponement would allow it to “review our approach to ensure that we achieve the right balance between stability of supply and promoting competition and choice for employers”.

The ESFA confirmed it will extend existing contracts held by current providers until the end of December 2017 to help continuity, but the hold up has frustrated those who were applying for a contract for the first time and now find themselves in limbo until further announcements. 

FE Week estimates over 400 main providers on the new Register of Approved Apprenticeship Providers (a third of the 1,303) will now not be able to directly deliver to over 98 per cent of the non-levy employers from May, owing to the pause. 

All main providers on RoATP without existing contracts will be able to continue to subcontract with a lead provider to access the non-levy funding. However, there is no indication that the tighter subcontracting rules from May, whereby the lead provider must deliver some training for the employer, are also being paused or delayed.

FE Week spoke to Liam Ryan, owner and commercial director at First Avenue Training, a specialist training provider for the early years childcare sector, about his concerns. 

Mr Ryan said: “Ninety nine per cent of our employers are SMEs [small- and medium-sized employers] so we only applied for RoATP to get the ITT [invitation to tender] contract.

“Like many others we spent a lot of time (and money for consultancy) which has been wasted and not a word of apology.”

He added: “We can continue as a subcontractor for the time being but I’m not sure that there is currently a viable business model in our sector when you combine cuts in funding rates, 20 per cent “off the job” [training] and mandatory 10 per cent contributions.

“I predict starts will plummet, particularly for 19+ learners, which is a great shame since we just spent two and a half years overturning the last government mistake in the sector (the mandatory GCSEs in early years).”

Mr Ryan said the refusal of the ESFA to grant Advanced Learner Loan contracts to providers that don’t have Adult Education Budget funding or apprenticeship contracts was a further problem for his company. “Once again this threatens our viability and I’m sure that we aren’t alone,” he said. 

Others took to Twitter to express their concerns about the ESFA announcement. Here are some of their comments: