A new parliamentary campaign has been launched by the MP David Lammy to try and counter the sweeping cuts the government is making to adult education, after learner numbers fell by nearly 40 per cent since his time as skills minister.

The Labour MP has secured an adjournment debate in the House of Commons on the future of adult education scheduled for tomorrow (Friday 13), where he will launch a drive to massively expand part-time evening classes for adults who want to retrain.

According to government figures, there are around 1.5 million fewer adults aged 19 or over participating in further education than there were during Mr Lammy’s stint as minister between 2007 and 2008, when the figure stood at 3.75 million – a fall of 38 per cent.

Ahead of the debate, the MP told FE Week that he would be calling for a return to the traditional concept of “night schools”, which he wants provided either by local authorities or FE colleges.

“Working class people used to be able to do part-time courses after work to get new skills, move into a better job and build a better life for their family,” he said.

“The political class is obsessed with university but education isn’t one-size-fits-all, and I will be calling on the government to bring back night schools.”

He believes that too many people are trapped in low-paid work, and that “there is no real prospect of moving up the ladder” for those who “missed out as teenagers”.

Sue Pember, a former top civil servant for skills, welcomed Mr Lammy’s demands, saying: “I hope his debate starts a proper, in-depth, lasting conversation on how we invest in our people.”

Her new employer, the adult learning provider membership body Holex, has also previously called on the government to establish a new adult education investment strategy, setting out “a ‘grow our own’ approach to education, skills and employment from April 2017 to meet the challenges of Brexit”.

Meanwhile, Baroness Sharp, who contributed to report on colleges in 2012 that described them as “intimidating institutions” which seem as though they are “not for adults”, told FE Week that she did not believe the situation had improved.

“I felt at the time, and still feel very strongly, that we have lost sight of people being able to connect with their local college and do a course in the evening,” she said.

“At a time when we know many people are going to have to switch careers and retrain in their 30s and 40s, the opportunity to do this has reduced.”

And David Hughes, the chief executive of the Association of Colleges, agreed that creating more provision for older people to help them retrain was a good idea, but warned that “it would have to be paid for”.

He said: “In addition to more direct funding from the government, another solution could be expanding FE loans which are only for level three and above at the moment.

“Retraining, or preparing to return to work, can often require lower-level qualifications.”

Advanced learner loans were introduced in 2013 for those aged 24 and above and studying at level three and four. It was then announced in November 2015 that they would be extended to 19- to 23-year-olds, but not at levels one and two.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We want people of all ages to have access to skills and learning. Advanced learner loans are available to thousands of adults wishing to retrain, helping them to meet upfront fees and removing one of the main barriers to learning.”

Providers have been left in the dark about when procurement for adult education budget contracts will be launched for the first time, after the government admitted it has “no date”.

The Skills Funding Agency wrote to training providers in October and told them that their current AEB contracts will end this July – rather than be automatically renewed as before.

It stated that changes to contracting regulations, which came into force in February last year, meant that the SFA could no longer automatically renew contracts when they ended and instead “must procure future training provision”.

The exercise was first expected to take place this month, but the government has now told FE Week that there is no scheduled timetable for when it will happen.

A spokesperson for the Department for Education said yesterday: “There is currently no date for when this procurement process is going to be, and no date yet for when that date is likely to be announced.”

Any delay beyond January for the process is likely to cause significant issues for training providers who need to get contracts up and running for the summer.

Colleges – which contract with the SFA through a grant funding agreement – are in the clear as they are not affected by the changes.

Since hearing the news in October that there is to be a procurement process for private providers, Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, has lobbied for all providers – including colleges – to have to compete to deliver AEB provision.

At the time he said that without a tender, it would “seem the process is incredibly biased against large independent providers”.

Responding to the news that the government currently has no set date for the process, Mr Dawe told FE Week: “We have been pressing for the whole of the AEB to be put out to tender. If the delay is to organise this, we strongly welcome it.”

As previously reported by FE Week, the requirement to procure the AEB provided by private training providers is the result of changes to European Union law.

The changes were first revealed in an SFA document, Adult Education Budget: Changing context and arrangements for 2016 to 2017, published last January, which said: “In advance of 2017/18, changes to EU procurement regulations will require us to procure the adult budget provided to ITPs.

“This means that the AEB will be subject to competition as part of a procurement process.”

The new contracts would be for 2017/18 “with an option to extend contracts for a further two years, which we will review on an annual basis,” according to the letter sent to providers in October.

The change will not affect apprenticeship provision, which will be procured separately through the new register of apprenticeship training providers.

A senior Ofsted inspector has apologised after the inspectorate accepted multiple challenges to the wording of a report on Yeovil College, which included factual inaccuracies and insulting comments.

The words “college leaders have tackled the lack of pride and ambition that existed in the college” appeared on the front page of the ‘good’-rated report, which was first published in November and which has since been amended.

Principal John Evans, who took up the reins in January 2014, lodged a number of appeals to change the report’s wording, including a comment alluding to criticism of the leadership team that had been in place before he arrived, which had offended a number of remaining staff.

Following an investigation, Ofsted upheld three of the seven complaints, as Mr Evans also explained in an exclusive expert article.

In the letter Ofsted sent to report on the outcome of the investigation, seen by FE Week, senior inspector Rieks Drijver apologised for the trouble the original report had caused the college.

In regard to the comment on lack of pride and ambition, he wrote: “On behalf of Ofsted I am sorry that you have concerns about the wording on the front page of the inspection report and that it may cause offence to managers and governors who were employed at the time.”

Ofsted conceded that the inspector’s conclusion needed to be reworded to “better reflect the leadership and management” at the college.

The wording has now been amended to read “college leaders have improved the quality of provision.

“They have created a culture in which staff work resolutely in the best interests of their learners and the college is a purposeful community.”

However Mr Evans, who is himself an Ofsted inspector, admitted that he had mixed feelings about the outcome.

“I am pleased that Ofsted has proved to be what I always thought it was – a quality-assurance organisation,” he said.

“However, I am disappointed that the initial report went public with an unfair flavour.

“I had asked to have the report suspended until the investigation was completed, as I felt the emotive words would upset many of the excellent existing staff and governors.”

Mr Evans also said that Ofsted’s assertions on low attendance in English and maths did not “reflect the situation at the time of inspection”, and that claim was also overturned.

He successfully argued that although attendance in the subjects had been low in the previous year, it had increased and was no longer a weakness in the current one.

“There was no evidence base for the assertion about poor attendance in English and maths,” he writes.

He also complained about the prominence of a separate recommendation, that there were “lower levels of success for the small group of 16- to 18-year-old learners with mixed heritage”.

The total group of mixed-heritage learners at his college was small at 22, and that the percentage difference in success rates to other groups was down to just two learners.

“This is important but hardly significant,” he said; as a result of the complaint, the mixed-heritage recommendation was also removed from the report’s front page.

An Ofsted spokesperson told FE Week that “this is still a live complaint and as such, Ofsted doesn’t comment until all stages of the complaint process have been completed.”

…………………………………………………………………

Editorial: Well done Ofsted, but…

Paul Offord

Ofsted should be congratulated for admitting that it got it wrong with the wording of important extracts of its report on Yeovil College.

No individual or organisation is flawless by any means, and while Elton John may have said in his famous song that ‘sorry seems to be the hardest word’ – it shouldn’t be.

Questions need to be asked though about the complaints process, if publication of reports such as this one go ahead before a decision has been made on whether the content is indeed inaccurate and insulting.

This is wrong.

It would save both the inspectorate future embarrassment and providers unwarranted upset if the rules were changed.

I sympathise with the view that reports should be published as soon as possible after inspection.

They shouldn’t be delayed unduly while concerns are considered.

But this shouldn’t be a problem, so long as there’s a strict time limit on the appeals process.

The government’s decision to publish today a “customer service” guide explaining what colleges can expect from area reviews – despite more than half of them having already finished – has been described as “beyond parody”.

Release of the guidance came among a flurry of reports and recommendations from wave three of the area reviews, also published this afternoon.

The new “statement of customer service to institutions” says participants should expect, for example, “the timetable and milestones of the review to follow a standard pattern clarified at the start of each review”, a “clear delivery plan be communicated in advance of the first steering group”; and a “dedicated delivery team” from the Joint Area Review Delivery Unit.

But the timing of the guide’s release has been slammed, as three of the five areas reviews have already been completed.

James Kewin, deputy chief executive at the Sixth Form Colleges Association, told FE Week: “This document is beyond parody.

“Leaving aside the highly questionable idea that colleges are ‘customers’ in the area review process, to issue a statement of customer service just as the process draws to an end makes little sense.

“Nor does focusing on the smooth implementation of a policy that has so many obvious flaws, not least the absence of school and academy sixth forms.

“This is a distraction – the government should focus instead on reviewing the funding available to 16 to 19 year olds – that is the surest way of ensuring our members can remain sustainable and provide young people with the high quality education they deserve.”

The customer service guide also states a number of other review-related services that can be expected from DfE, which more than 160 providers who have already completed their reviews would no doubt have appreciated knowing in advance.

It said that colleges play “a central role in the review process and should expect confirmation of information required from colleges in advance of the review”.

An FE or sixth-form college adviser team can be expected, it explained, to visit each one to “gather contextual, financial and quality information, and discuss options being considered”.

It also stresses that “each adviser works to a written code of conduct that stipulates the standard for their engagement and requires each adviser to act with integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality”.

Today’s release comes after the government published 13 wave one and two area review reports and recommendations in November.

The reports for the London area reviews have however still not yet been published.

The capital was split into four sub-reviews, two of which were originally part of wave two, but were put back to coordinate with the other two reviews in wave three. None of these are yet available for public consumption.

Waves four and five, which started in September and November respectively, are in the midst of being completed and are expected to be finished by the end of March.

The Association of Colleges declined to comment.

A college in Sussex is bearing the full brunt of staff strikes at Southern Rail, having to shell out up to £10,000 on replacement buses while the dispute continues.

Train drivers from the ASLEF union began industrial action today and will continue the walkout tomorrow and Friday, over a row to do with driver-only trains.

Sussex Coast College in Hastings is having to fork out thousands of pounds to cover alternative travel costs for students to attend lessons because of this.

The college is using two buses to transport students 23 miles from Eastbourne to Rye, which costs £500 every strike day.

A college spokesperson told FE Week that since October, the college had spent more than £8,500 to put on the service for 15 days of strike action, including this week.

He added that with more strike days expected for the week commencing January 23, the college could “well top £10,000 by the end of that week”.

The college now wants compensation from Southern Rail.

Justin Rollings, head of marketing and communications, said: “We have had to put in some emergency measures which requires additional buses to and from Eastbourne, Bexhill and Rye, to enable the students to get to college.

“Without these measure, these strikes would affect our students and their studies them quite dramatically.”

Southern Rail said services are expected to be “severely disrupted every day until further notice” due to the drivers refusal to work overtime, with more strikes expected for another three days later this month unless an agreement is reached by both sides.

A spokesperson said: “We are deeply sorry for the utterly unnecessary and unwarranted disruption this industrial action is causing.

“The unions’ response is utterly disproportionate to our reasonable proposals to modernise the way we operate our services to improve customer service and reduce delays and cancellations.

“We want nothing more than an end to this dispute as quickly as possible.”

ASLEF was unable to comment ahead of publication.

An investigation has been launched into whether the civil service code has been breached, after a former Skills Funding Agency senior manager was embroiled in an alleged Israeli plot to bring down a Conservative minister.

Maria Strizzolo has reportedly departed from the agency, where it is understood she was a key adviser to apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon.

This followed reports in the national media, and the online unveiling of a covertly filmed video, thought to show her in conversation with controversial former Israeli embassy official Shai Masot.

He can be seen making an apparent threat to target Sir Alan Duncan, the Foreign Office Minister and a vocal supporter of a Palestinian state.

FE Week asked if the agency or Mr Halfon, who Ms Strizzolo was also chief of staff to when he was deputy chairman of the Conservative Party until last summer (according to LinkedIn), would like to comment on her departure.

No comment was forthcoming, but the Department for Education spokesperson explained this was because an “active investigation” had been launched into whether the civil service code had been broken.

The video comes in an Al Jazeera film claiming to expose the way that the Israeli government has ‘infiltrated’ both the Conservative and Labour parties.

An Embassy of Israel spokesperson said that it “rejects the remarks concerning Minister Duncan, which are completely unacceptable; the comments were made by a junior embassy employee who is not an Israeli diplomat, and whose employment with the embassy has terminated”.

Ms Strizzolo’s LinkedIn page still said that she was a senior manager at the Skills Funding Agency and Apprenticeship Delivery Board ahead of publication. She was unavailable for comment to FE Week.

However, she told the Mail Online that her conversation with Masot was “tongue-in-cheek and gossipy”, adding: “Any suggestion that I…could exert the type of influence you are suggesting is risible.”