An Ofsted report into the nation’s largest college has still not been published more than four months after it was inspected due to a row over the result, FE Week has discovered.

According to several sources who wish to remain anonymous, NCG (formerly Newcastle College Group) is actively disputing the overall grade-three, or ‘needs improvement’, rating it is understood to have received.

In public, neither Ofsted nor NCG is commenting on the dispute, which has meant a delay of 118 days and counting to the release of the final report.

FE Week understands that the week-long process involving 15 inspectors went smoothly, and that the college had been told to expect a second consecutive overall result of grade two, or ‘good’.

Inspections all go through Ofsted moderation, and concerns raised during this process meant the overall grade was lowered to a grade three at best.

The delay – 118 days when FE Week went to press on Thursday, September 8 – is double the previous longest wait for an Ofsted report since the new common inspection framework (CIF) was launched last September

A delay of this length is especially unusual as Ofsted typically publishes its reports before the complaints procedure has been concluded.

In a statement, the spokesperson for NCG simply said: “We are in the quality assurance process.”

For its part, Ofsted stated that it “does not comment on an inspection while it is going through quality assurance processes”.

The inspectorate’s handbook says, however, that “providers will receive an electronic version of the final report within 17 working days of the end of the inspection”, while “in most circumstances, the final report will be published on Ofsted’s website within 19 working days”.

In cases where Ofsted decides that a report “requires further quality assurance, or finds the provider is provisionally inadequate, the provider will usually receive an electronic version of the final report within 26 working days”.

The final report, it explains, will in such circumstances “usually be published within 28 working days”, although Ofsted does not normally delay publication of an inspection report “while complaints are investigated”.

This previous longest wait after inspection under the new CIF was 59 days, for a report on Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College. The average wait is just 35 days.

This is not the first time NCG has clashed with Ofsted.

FE Week revealed in July 2012 that Ofsted inspectors had been asked to leave Newcastle College, after staff complained of “troubling incidents” during an inspection.

Ofsted’s visit had to be cut short, although they returned several weeks later, eventually downgrading the college’s overall rating from grade one to two.

The body’s former principal Dame Jackie Fisher is understood to have lodged a formal complaint running to over 600 pages.

An inspector subsequently told FE Week that “it was never going to be easy inspecting a college that had outstanding etched into its windows”.

Since then, Ofsted has introduced new scrutiny panels for complaints about inspections, but this mechanism is unlikely to have been the cause of the current delay; a spokesperson for the inspectorate said that such panels “would normally take place following publication of the inspection report”.

The delay is more likely down to disappointing recent retention and overall achievement rates.

For example, NCG’s overall retention rate for level two 16- to 18 year-olds in 2014/15 stood at 15.6 per cent below the national average for a general further education college, while the overall achievement rate at level three (formerly known as the success rate) for that age group was negative 7.5 per cent.

NCG insisted that this data was “misleading” because it was “for all NCG provision including national charity Rathbone, which works exclusively with young people not in education, employment or training, and national private training provider Intraining, both of which have national performance benchmarks lower than those of FE colleges.

“The disaggregated data for the four NCG colleges shows performance is at the national level for FE colleges.

“Rathbone and Intraining were not in scope for the inspection. Intraining was inspected separately in May and provision was found to be grade two.”

A University Technical College (UTC) developed in partnership with Burton and South Derbyshire College will never open, despite the government spending more than £8m setting it up, the Department of Education (DfE) has confirmed.

Approval for the Burton and South Derbyshire UTC was withdrawn “following low pupil recruitment numbers” a spokesperson for the department said, adding that the institution would have been “financially unviable for the taxpayer”.

The latest set of accounts for the year ended August 31, 2015  show that that UTC was given over £8m of funding by the Education Funding Agency, all of which was subsequently spent. 

Built in Burton on Trent, it included a range of new equipment for learners and was set to specialise in biomedical science and engineering.

The DfE spokesperson added: “We will be undertaking a full assessment of future plans for the site looking at all possible options while taking into account local circumstances.”

Alongside lead sponsor Burton and South Derbyshire College, other partners of the UTC project included Coventry University, Nestle, and hospitals in Burton and Derby.

According to the Burton Mail, the de Ferrers Trust, which oversees the de Ferrers Academy in Burton, has expressed an interest in taking on the building previously assigned to the UTC. 

FE Week contacted Burton and South Derbyshire College for comment, but was told that the college “no longer handles media enquiries for Burton and South Derbyshire UTC” and this responsibility has now been handed over to the DfE.

A spokesperson for the Baker Dearing Trust, the organisation established to develop and promote the concept of UTCs, commented: “The minister took the decision not to proceed with this project in May 2016. Baker Dearing regrets this but accepts this was the right course of action on this occasion.”

In July Ofsted’s former chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw slammed UTCs, telling them that they need to make “radical improvement” if the model is to survive.

It followed FE Week research in February, which found that forty per cent of UTCs opened between 2010 and 2013 saw student numbers fall for the last academic year.

Many have now been forced to close, such as UTC Lancashire which said in a statement on May 3 that it would close for good just three years after it opened — due to difficulties in enrolling enough students “to secure future financial viability”.

Meanwhile Central Bedfordshire UTC had announced in March that it would close in August — after admitting it had not been able to attract “sufficient pupils”.

Hackney UTC closed in July 2014, also following problems attracting learners, and Black Country UTC shut in the summer of 2015 after a “disappointing” Ofsted inspection and, again, low student numbers.

In April, Burton and South Derbyshire College fell from an Ofsted grade 2 to a grade 3, due to factors such as the quality of teaching, learning and assessment being “not consistently good across the range of the college’s provision”, and leaders and managers failing to “use self-assessment sufficiently well to identify aspects of teaching, learning and assessment that require improvement”.

A curriculum head at one of London’s largest colleges sent a string of racist, homophobic and abusive tweets but was allowed to keep his job despite an internal investigation.

Glen Maybury, who was head of leisure, health and public services at the City of Westminster College, used his personal Twitter account to make a number of unpleasant public posts, as well as retweeting a number of Islamophobic and anti-Semitic comments made by others, for several years.

According to the college’s senior leadership, a disciplinary investigation was launched in May this year after other members of staff made complaints about Mr Maybury’s conduct.

However, while the former curriculum lead is no longer an employee at the college, evidence seen by FE Week appears to prove that he had been allowed to return to his full-time role until at least September 7 this year, almost exactly around the time that this paper got in touch.

Senior staff were told suddenly on September 8 that Mr Maybury would be leaving at “lunchtime”, just a couple of hours after FE Week rang the college, anonymous whistleblowers have said.

These same sources confirmed that Mr Maybury had been seen in college this month, though its principal Keith Cowell insisted that this would just have been while he packed up his desk.

“I can confirm to you that he is not an employee at the college. He may have been in college to hand over and pick up personal effects. I don’t know what his movements are, but he is not employed by us,” said Mr Cowell.

When pressed as to whether Mr Maybury was no longer an employee of the college on the morning of September 8, Mr Cowell replied: “Yes. Yes. That’s what I said.”

Graphic tweets sent by Mr Maybury, seen by FE Week, include him insulting other Twitter users with comments like “you f****** r*****asaurus c***” and “you p***o”, as well as slurs against London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Jewish people, and offensive images of black people and genitalia, which were posted from 2013 to 2015.

The City of Westminster College, which has 7,000 students at two sites in Paddington and Queen’s Park in north London, is ethnically diverse, with 17 per cent of students coming from an Asian background, seven per cent from an Arab background, and 26 per cent from an African, black or Caribbean background.

“When these types of action take place in an institution that is meant to prevent discrimination, radicalisation and promote British values, how can these students have faith in the system?” asked the whistleblowers, speaking to FE Week.

Mr Cowell admitted that a disciplinary process had been launched earlier this year to investigate the incidents, and confirmed that this was “concluded in July”. The principal insisted that he could not confirm the outcome of the investigation owing to “data protection” issues.

Despite this, one source told FE Week that Mr Maybury had been working in his usual role from the start of term on August 23, at least until September 7 and possibly even on the morning of September 8.

This claim is backed up by an email sent to staff and seen by FE Week, which shows a “Glen Maybury” discussing college matters from an official account on September 8 – possibly indicating that any disciplinary procedure that had been carried out by the college earlier this year had indeed not led to him losing his job.

Lyndon Sly, the director for culture, media and sport – whose department Mr Maybury belonged to – also called for an emergency staff meeting on a “private” matter which was scheduled for the morning of September 9, FE Week can confirm.

Mr Cowell told FE Week that staff were confused about the situation surrounding Mr Maybury’s position.

“What I’m saying is it’s perfectly feasible that he might have been in the building,” he said. “But your contacting today has been useful as far as that’s concerned, because it seems we were unaware that there was confusion on the issue.

“If there is a sense of confusion we can certainly clarify that with the relevant staff.”

The first day back from parliamentary recess saw education secretary Justine Greening challenged over widespread apprenticeship funding cuts uncovered by FE Week.

Shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden lodged a series of written parliamentary questions yesterday, following up on FE Week research which revealed proposed funding reforms would mean around 30 per cent cuts for 16 to 18 year-old apprentices.

That figure could rise to over 50 per cent for those in the poorest areas of central London.

Mr Marsden asked if Ms Greening would “discuss with the treasury the potential to fully fund apprenticeships for 16-18 year olds from savings accrued as a result of the introduction of the apprenticeship levy”.

This echoed comments by FE Week editor Nick Linford on September 4, when he wrote: “The Treasury will make a £1.5bn annual saving by switching the total source of apprenticeship funding to an employer levy.

“Perhaps half of this £1.5bn saving could be used to improve social mobility by fully-funding 16 to 18-year-old apprentices?”

Mr Marsden also called on Ms Greening to release the publication date for the impact assessment produced by the Department for Education (DfE) in developing current proposals for changes in the apprenticeship funding rates for colleges and providers.

He asked Ms Greening in particular “what discussions she has had with large employers” about the impact of the new funding arrangements on their take-up of apprenticeships.

He requested she “make a statement about the implications for apprenticeship take-up by 16-18 year olds as a result of the Department’s current proposals for changes”.

Finally, Mr Marsden sought information about what assessment Ms Greening has made of the “disproportionate impact” of the department’s proposals on both small employers and young people in deprived areas.

He also wrote to apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon earlier last week, warning the funding proposals “offer a damaging lack of support for young apprentices and further weaken proposed attempts to widen participation”.

Mr Marsden claimed the plans showed “little awareness of the equality implications” or the risk of “potentially putting off more small employers from taking on young people in this age range”.

A further 53 Labour MPs signed another letter to Mr Halfon, urging him to scrap the same apprenticeships funding cuts.

The group, led by David Lammy, former minister for higher education and MP for Tottenham, called on the minister “in the strongest terms to think again” and “reverse” the cuts, which could be “devastating” for apprentices in deprived areas.

It sparked widespread national media interest with the issue reported on by The Guardian, Independent and Mirror over the weekend.

The Association of Colleges joined calls for a rethink, with assistant chief executive Julian Gravatt warning the “funding reductions currently go too far and need more consideration”.

“We urge the government to spend time working through and examining all the funding options,” he added.

Speaking on behalf of the government, Mr Halfon said: “We want to encourage employers to take on young people.

“That’s why they won’t have to pay more to give a 16 –to 18-year-old their first step on the career ladder and why we’re proposing to give employers an extra £1,000 for every young apprentice they take on.”

The DfE was unable to comment by the time of publication.

The apprenticeship reform programme risks repeating the fraud that plagued Individual Learning Accounts without more robust risk planning, the National Audit Office (NAO) has warned.

The stark message came in a damning report from the NAO, published today, on delivering value through apprenticeships – which revealed the Department for Education (DfE) has still has no contingency plan for if levy and funding reforms do not work out as planned.

The failure of the Individual Learning Accounts scheme – which was scrapped in 2001 after abuse by unscrupulous providers led to a reported £67m fraud – was blamed on poor planning and risk management by the government.

But today’s NAO report raised concern that lessons had not been learned — as it warned the DfE had not done enough to identify how providers, employers and assessment bodies might react to the apprenticeship reforms, raising the risk of “market abuse”.

It said: “DfE now needs to expand its work on behavioural risks, and also ensure it learns lessons from previous initiatives which have not turned out as planned, such as Individual Learning Accounts.”

Phil Hyde, one of the team behind the report, told FE Week: “We’ve flagged this [behavioural risk] up as a separate section, because we do think from past experience that this is something that’s very important for them to be on top of.”

The report found that although a delivery team had been set up to “consider the risks of fraud and gaming” it was “too early to say what impact this group will have”.

It urged the DfE to “do more to understand how employers, training providers and assessment bodies may respond to ongoing reforms, and develop robust ways of reacting quickly should instances of market abuse emerge”.

The report urged the government to develop contingency plans for key parts of the reforms – particularly the introduction of the levy.

As previously reported by FE Week, the government has so far been silent on the matter of contingency planning if the levy systems don’t work out as planned.

But according to the NAO report the “DfE believes that, in general, initiatives are progressing sufficiently well that no contingency plans will need to be drawn up before October 2016”.

It said that in July a team had been commissioned “to prepare contingency plans if elements of the programme should not progress as expected”.

It continued: “However, the contingency planning for funding reform, including the introduction of the levy, needs to continue to be developed.”

Mark Dawe, chief executive of Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “The NAO is right to highlight that further progress is needed to manage the risks involved in the reform programme because if we don’t get the transition process right, there’s a real danger that quality of apprenticeships will be adversely affected.”

Sally Hunt, University and College Union general secretary, said: “We have to avoid the unfortunate scandals of private for-profit firms ripping off the taxpayer that we have seen in higher education.”

Apprenticeships and Skills Minister Robert Halfon said: “Our apprenticeship reforms give young people a ladder of opportunity, provide employers with high quality apprentices and deliver real benefits to the economy.

“The new Institute for Apprenticeships will ensure that apprenticeships are even more closely tailored to the needs of employers.”

A DfE spokesperson said it would consider the NAO’s recommendations.