Movers & Shakers: Edition 191

Your guide to who’s new and who’s leaving.

The chief executive of City College Brighton and Hove, Nick Juba, has been appointed as CEO designate following a proposed merger with Northbrook college.

Mr Juba will take on the role in addition to his responsibilities as CEO of City College, while decisions regarding whether the merger will happen are finalised; the ultimate decision will be made in December.

As CEO designate, he will oversee planning in the pre-merger phase, and at the point of merging will become CEO of the newly combined organisation.

In his new role, Mr Juba plans to develop a five-year strategy for the new organisation, alongside building a culture and set of values to unify the new college, which will span five different campuses.

Speaking of his appointment, he said: “I’m not sure we do enough in FE in terms of innovating with our curriculum.

“There’s a real opportunity for us to do something that provides a genuine alternative to the traditional A-level and university route and that’s something that I’m really excited about doing.”

Prior to taking up his role as CEO of City College, Mr Juba held a number of director-level roles across the higher and further education sectors, and served as a senior civil servant in the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

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Rob Kleiser has joined Learning Curve Group (LCG) as an executive director.

The training provider based in County Durham specialises in education and training for FE providers, employers and learners.

Mr Kleiser takes up the role from his previous position as vice principal for business development at Newcastle college, a role he has held since 2012.

During his time as vice-principal, he led on developing external relationships to positively position the college with employers and stakeholders.

Prior to this, he was head of curriculum at North Hertfordshire college, and held responsibility for strategic planning and implementation of provision.

In his new role he hopes to “capitalise on the upcoming opportunities around adult skills”, with a particular focus on supporting levy-paying organisations and exploring opportunities to use their apprenticeship levy to deliver effective workforce solutions.

He will also focus on “driving additional business growth” across the company’s training division and for its FE partners.

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Jessica Herbert has joined Askham Bryan college in York as the new head of horticulture.

The college is the largest provider of specialist land-based further education in England, and opened in 1948 as the Yorkshire Institute of Agriculture.

Before her new role, Ms Herbert was programme co-ordinator at a Northamptonshire college for nine years. In the role, she oversaw a number of disciplines, including agriculture, horticulture, arboriculture and general education.

She says she is most looking forward to “developing the college’s horticulture courses further” and working with other departments to improve the college’s environmental credentials.

Speaking of the new role, she said: “I want our students to have the absolutely best horticultural training there is, and to feel proud to have trained at Askham Bryan College.

“We will focus not only on the quality of the courses but also on making the most of the college’s resources.”

Ms Herbert began her career in education after gaining a National Diploma in Horticulture with Arboriculture at distinction as a mature student. She then worked as an arborist before being persuaded to teach at the college where she trained.

Outside of work, she has represented the UK in the World and European Tree Climbing Championships, and plans to use her contacts gained through this to help her students find work abroad.

 

If you want to let us know of any new faces at the top of your college, training provider or awarding organisation please let us know by emailing news@feweek.co.uk

 

Should colleges work internationally?

Internationalisation of our colleges is not an academic nicety but a fundamental necessity, and there are many ways to do it, says Tracy Ferrier.

 A lot of attention has been given recently to the challenges faced by UK colleges delivering large commercial contracts overseas. While some of this negative attention may be understandable, the danger is that it will put other colleges off enabling staff and students to reap the significant benefits of internationalisation.

Globally, the challenges faced by governments and skills stakeholders are strikingly common. The need to engage employers in training, to close the gap between education and industry standards, and to develop soft and technical skills – these issues matter in Kerala as they do in Kettering.

Internationalisation of vocational education means coming together to share best practice and tackle big challenges globally. It is also about responding to the increasing mobility of learners and attracting them to UK education and training.

But internationalism goes even further: it is also about instilling in the minds of learners a broad and empathetic understanding of a range of cultures, languages and contexts.

As the UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon said: “Education is about more than literacy and numeracy, it is also about citizenry.”

The diversity of different approaches provides a richer educational experience and is vital for preparing our learners not just for global work, but for global life.

I am reminded of a memorable conversation from a few years ago. I was lucky to meet a student from a college in Scotland, following her return from a vocational exchange opportunity in Dubai. She was enthused by her time abroad, proud of what she had achieved and referred to the exchange as a “life-changing” experience.

Diversity is vital for preparing learners for global life

Whatever the degree of personal transformation in the long term, it had clearly had an impact on her confidence and motivation. When she shared her story with fellow students, her message, saying “if I can do this, I can do anything, and so can you”, was very empowering. For me, this sums up the power of internationalisation.

We at the British Council know that various colleges in the UK have been involved in the successful delivery of all sorts of overseas commercial contracts and partnership projects in many different countries. This is a good thing but not necessarily the right approach for all colleges.

There are many different ways for colleges to work internationally, some which require very little investment and are low-risk, such as hosting visits, job shadowing and exchanges.

These all provide the opportunity to share ideas and best practice with counterparts from overseas and can provide a platform to build longlasting and profitable relationships.

The increased focus on combating extremism and radicalisation of young people, in particular the Prevent duty, has thrown intercultural challenges into sharp focus. Internationalisation is a key tool in building mutual respect and tolerance.

Harmful attitudes can dissolve on contact but simply learning about other cultures within training will produce significant gains. By fostering an open-minded, tolerant and curious environment we can supplement technical learning with skills on which employers and societies place a high premium.

There are a range of tools to aid internationalisation, such as college partnership opportunities, leadership exchanges and mobility opportunities for staff and students, to mention a few. Sometimes though, it is as simple as taking the time to think about how those in your position in a different culture and context are working, teaching or learning.

Looking at a map, exploring the Internet or sharing a technique used in a different country related to the learning programme can all spark innovation and make you view your own world differently.

Those at our colleges and training providers will be working alongside a range of cultures and using techniques learned from all over the world in the future.

Internationalisation of our colleges and curricula is not an academic nicety but a fundamental necessity. Let’s give our young people a head start.

 

Tracy Ferrier is global skills lead for the British Council

 

Collab Group: Ofsted isn’t the only marker of success

Ofsted does not “paint a complete picture” of success, according to a group of colleges which has just absorbed an institution with a grade three rating.

The Collab Group announced on November 21 that South Essex College had become its 34th member, the first in the group’s history to be allowed to join with a ‘requires improvement’ rating.

The organisation, formerly known as the 157 Group, enacted a change in its membership criteria to allow this in January, overseen by chief executive Ian Pretty (pictured).

South Essex was featured in FE Week two weeks ago, given the dubious honour of being the lowest scoring college in the 2015/16 FE Choices survey into student satisfaction.

Its principal Angela O’Donoghue said she was “thrilled” to join Collab, as “the group really does represent the best of the sector”.

The old membership rules, made under Mr Pretty’s predecessor Dr Sedgmore, explicitly invoked Ofsted ratings, including an “honourable agreement” among members that they would “voluntarily leave” if served with a grade four.

All previous members were a grade one or two when they joined.

But FE Week analysis of the group’s 30 English members has shown that while Collab currently has five grade one members, none have been rated ‘outstanding’ since the common inspection framework was launched in September.

It has 15 grade two colleges, nine grade threes, and a one grade four – Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College, which was allowed to stay on after receiving the rating last December.

Looking only at Ofsted reports published under the new CIF, of the 13 members inspected, 10 had seen their grade fall (see table below).

Asked about the basis on which its website describes members as “leading colleges”, a Collab spokesperson said: “We do not believe Ofsted paints a complete picture of the success of a college.

“We have widened our basket of measures of success and quality.

“Collab Group colleges have a variety of attributes; they are large and diverse, technically and professionally focused, and they have ambitious apprenticeship schemes.

“They are entrepreneurial and employer-facing with great engagement with local businesses.

“Crucially, they prepare their students for successful careers and help get them into work.”

FE Week exclusively revealed in January the group’s ambitious plans to expand from the total of 26 members it had at that point, following its strategic review.

Mr Pretty, who had taken the reins there seven months earlier, and whose previous roles included senior roles at HMRC, the Cabinet Office and Capgemini, claimed at the time that up to 15 colleges had shown an interest in joining.

When asked about membership criteria, he said at the time: “A set of new attributes have been agreed to assess any future requests from a college to join.”

But, he added: “Ofsted grades one and two are regarded as successful, but ‘inadequate’ is not; there are other factors to be taken into account.

“There are a number of indicators of success that could be considered, for example if a college has been given a Beacon Award or impressive success rates.”

FE Week’s National Index of Colleges also excludes Ofsted grades, as some were awarded many years ago.

Ofsted is due to publish its annual state of the nation report next Thursday, but has not yet commented on Collab’s remarks.

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What has Michael Gove done to A-levels?

If A-levels are big business, why don’t we allow more consumer choice, asks Graham Taylor.

 A-levels are still big business and the main choice for 16-to-18s at level three. Over six times more learners take A-levels than advanced apprenticeships.

Yet they are being gutted. Historian and author Simon Schama has described the cull as a “big dull axe wielded by cultural pigmies”. The latest A-level to be cut is History of Art, which follows Archaeology (despite howls from Tony Robinson and co), Classical Civilisation, Communication & Culture, Anthropology, Creative Writing and Electronics – quickly restored because someone pointed out it’s a STEM subject (I’m not making this up).

If we are restricting choice because it is expedient and cheap for the exam boards, this has a certain, if sad, logic to it. If we are restricting choice because we feel the subjects are not useful or vocational enough, this is plain short-sighted. Universities and employers like the breadth of A-levels – they also like the International Baccalaureate, where students continue to study as many as seven subjects. Once again, the biggest losers seem to be our students, whose interests are being thwarted at too young an age.

The AQA exam board says too few pupils take History of Art – the number was 839 at the last count – and they can’t recruit enough experienced examiners. Waldemar Januszczak, the Sunday Times Art critic, recently countered that by claiming he has enough qualified art historians on speed dial to mark all the art history papers in the country.

Only 107 schools offer the subject (including my college); 90 of these are fee-paying.

Focusing on the Department for Education’s English Baccalaureate (Ebacc) core subjects – English, maths, history or geography, the sciences and a language – means that the rest of the curriculum suffers. Schools will concentrate on Progress 8 scores that count in the performance tables, which include English, maths, three other EBacc subjects (sciences, computer science, geography, history and languages); and three further subjects, which can be from the range of EBacc subjects, or can be “any other approved, high-value arts, academic, or vocational qualification”.

Teaching for the rounded individual may wither, to be replaced by targeted withdrawal in peripheral non-core arts and humanities subjects. But who should judge what core and non-core subjects, or learning and skills really should be? Digital skills, anyone?

The biggest losers seem to be our students

While we’re focusing on how the drive for more academic learning has hurt A-levels, it might be time to ask the question: what’s so great about linear courses of study?

Some claim that it is a good thing: AS exams can eat into teaching time. And given the level of skill required at AS may be the same as at A-level, some argue learners will struggle to get to this standard in one year, thus increasing the fail rate and putting some learners off completing the full A-level.

Despite this, however, and despite my college’s financial interest in supporting the policy – we would save £150k a year if we scrapped AS exams – I am still not convinced about the value for learners.

AS is a stepping-off point for many, who take four AS-levels in their first year, then drop one subject to focus on 3 A-levels in the second year. The AS grades are also a good lead indicator for UCAS and university gatekeepers, holding far greater value than, saying ‘Jonny is making good progress on his A-level’.

And perhaps most importantly, after one year, the results can function as a valuable reality check and wake-up call for learners and staff alike. Without milestones, we may be setting some learners up to fail.

Rather than add to the voices raging against the post-Govian bias against soft arts subjects (which seem to have been depressingly ineffective), I would make the argument from another angle: consumer choice. If a subject dies a natural death due to lack of take-up so be it, but if learners young or old want to study it, why not? And if some learners or colleges function better with a modular approach, was it really necessary to decree that one path was best for everyone?

 

Graham Taylor is principal and chief executive at New College Swindon

 

Brokerage of apprenticeship funding to be banned next year

The use of public funds to pay brokers’ fees will be banned, thanks to an award-winning FE week investigation which forced the Skills Funding Agency to take action.

Our exposé of this secretive industry in April (pictured) – the first of its kind – blew the lid on the underhanded way in which brokers matchup subcontractors with government funded providers and earn millions by charging up to five per cent commission on any agreed deal.

When it was first presented with compelling evidence, the SFA said it would “review” funding agreements in an effort to “limit the use of brokers”.

However, following an inconclusive answer from the agency in September when we first checked in on this review’s progress, FE Week asked again after our investigation won the prestigious CIPR award for Outstanding Further and Vocational Education Journalism last week.

This time, the answer was crystal clear: civil servants now plan to wipe out the practice.

“The SFA is strengthening the rules so that from May 1, 2017, no government money can be used to pay brokers’ fees,” an SFA spokesperson said, warning: “We will take action against any provider we find has broken these rules.”

Brokerage is not specifically mentioned in the draft apprenticeship funding rules for training providers, which will also apply from May 2017, but the Department for Education confirmed that it would be covered by section 67.11.

It states: “Funds in an employer’s digital account or government-employer co-investment cannot be used for specific services not related to the delivery and administration of the apprenticeship; including company induction, bespoke or additional training or assessment not needed to meet the apprenticeship requirements.”

Mark Dawe, the boss of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, welcomed the SFA’s newly tough stance.

“With the levy’s arrival and the new subcontracting rules, no one should complain if brokerage fees become a thing of the past.

“As much public money as possible should be reaching frontline delivery and in this respect the apprenticeship reforms should make a very positive difference.”

David Hughes, head of the Association of Colleges, agreed, saying it was “good to see them delivering” on the initial pledge the SFA made to FE Week seven months ago.

“As the apprenticeship levy changes start to be implemented, it is important that the SFA, alongside the new Institute for Apprenticeships, monitors the system to ensure there is no abuse,” he said.

Our April investigation found a number of brokers advertising subcontracting opportunities through closed groups on LinkedIn.

In one notorious example of the practice, FE Week found an advert with Essex-based consultants EEVT Ltd, attributed to a company called The Funding Brokers Ltd, which we tried unsuccessfully to contact.

The advert said: “We have been providing this service for over three years, securing in excess of £100m in the process for our clients.”

At five per cent commission the brokers could have earned up to £5 million over this period.

The ad continued: “We work on a no-win no-fee basis, whereby we will provide our support free of charge to the point of contracting.”

Birkenhead-based funding4training was one of the few brokers found with an official website.

Its services were also publicised by Essex-based consultants EEVT Ltd.

One of its newsletter adverts stated that its five per cent broker fee was “negotiable depending on the provider”. The firm’s director of sales and business development, Benn Carson, told FE Week at the time that his firm was different to other, more disreputable competitors.

He said: “There are a lot of cowboys doing this work and it’s easy to be tarnished with the same brush, which is why I set myself high standards and make sure the presentation is right, by running a professional looking website.”

FE commissioner’s plea to rescue Hereward College

The FE commissioner is attempting to drum up support for a three-way merger that was cancelled after one of the colleges involved was handed a grade four rating from Ofsted.

The education watchdog gave Hereward College, based in Coventry, its lowest possible rating in a report that was published November 21.

It had been in talks with two neighbours, City College Coventry and Henley College Coventry, earlier this year about a possible link-up.

But the Coventry and Warwickshire area review, which was part of wave three of the reviews, finished by proposing that just City and Henley should join forces.

However, FE Week understands that the FE commissioner has visited both colleges in order to persuade them to add Hereward back into their plans.

It is also understood that City College governors were due to discuss the proposal at a board meeting last week, though a spokesperson for the college declined to comment on this.

This intervention follows the sudden departure of Hereward’s principal Sheila Fleming.

She is understood to have left due to illness during Ofsted’s visit in October, and has not returned to the college since.

FE Week understands that the Association of Colleges Create, the commercial arm of the AoC, has failed to find an interim principal for Hereward despite a search that has now lasted two weeks.

The AoC declined to comment on the status of the search.

Hereward Colleges played host to around 570 learners during the last full-contract year, and provides full-time learning programmes at pre-entry level to level three for around 270 learners with high needs. Of these, 26 are in residential provision.

Ofsted inspectors were particularly damning in their assessment of safeguarding at the college, which was deemed “ineffective”.

Their report said: “Governors, leaders and managers have not ensured that the college meets its responsibilities.”

It said that its performance self-assessment is inaccurate, and found that governors, leaders and managers had underestimated the significance of serious weaknesses in safeguarding learners, and had failed to comply with the Prevent duty.

A spokesperson for Hereward confirmed that Ms Fleming, who took the top job at the college in 2011, was on sick leave but gave no further details on her current situation.

The spokesperson also said in an email dated November 22 that a temporary replacement for Ms Fleming was expected to be appointed “this week”.

The new appointment will be an interim principal, as it is believed that Ms Fleming may yet return to the post.

As reported by FE Week in May, the three-way merger involving City College Coventry, Henley College Coventry and Hereward College was endorsed by the former FE commissioner Sir David Collins (pictured above).

City College Coventry, which has 6,000 learners, was itself given a grade four in its most recent Ofsted inspection in November 2015, while 3,350-learner Henley College Coventry was given a grade two in January 2014.

Henley College and City College confirmed in a joint statement that their merger plans were still going ahead.

“Both colleges are open to possible future strategic developments and have an open dialogue with Hereward College whilst their board considers its options,” the statement said.

“Any proposal for a wider merger would be a separate matter for our boards to consider.”

The Hereward spokesperson said the college had not been aware of merger talks with the other two Coventry colleges.

The Department for Education was also unable to comment ahead of publication.

Stockport College plunges back to grade four Ofsted

A struggling Greater Manchester college has dropped back down to ‘inadequate’, Ofsted inspectors have found.

Stockport College was hit with the grade four verdict in a report published today.

It leaves the college’s future looking as uncertain as ever after the report stated: “The college is still in administered status and will be dependent on funding agencies’ continued support to ensure that it can continue to operate in the future.”

The college, which was rated ‘outstanding’ by the education watchdog in 2008, originally fell to a grade four in 2013 when former FE commissioner David Collins said it could be forced to make up to 150 redundancies to “balance the books”.

Stockport then climbed out of administered status when it was rated ‘requires improvement’ in January last year and was lauded for making “rapid improvements” by the inspectorate.

But today’s damning report leaves the 4,400-learner college in deep water.

“Leaders and governors have not halted the decline in standards since the previous inspection,” the report said.

“Managers have not rectified areas for improvement noted at the last inspection; they do not identify gaps in college performance, nor do they take effective action to tackle them.

“Managers and the quality improvement processes they use have failed to identify significant weaknesses in the quality of the provision.”

Inspectors found that the “very large majority” of apprentices at the college do not complete their programmes “successfully within their planned time” and the “rate of achievement has declined significantly”.

They also found the quality of teaching, learning and assessment is “weak” with teachers failing to plan “effective learning to meet the specific abilities of all learners”, especially in English and maths where teachers “do not ensure that learners develop the skills they need”. Attendance in these subjects is also “significantly low”.

But inspectors did find that governors are having a good impact on the college.

“Well-qualified and experienced governors now offer effective challenge to the senior leadership team,” they said. “They have shown very effective strategic leadership during the area-based review and are committed to ensuring continuing further education for the local community.”

Simon Andrews, who took over from Ian Clinton as principal of Stockport College in February last year, said the report does not “accurately reflect” the improvements made at the college over the past 12 months and he would be appealing the judgment.

“We are naturally extremely disappointed with the outcome of the Ofsted inspection,” he said.

“The inspection judgement does not accurately reflect the distance the college has travelled over the past 12 months, nor does it reflect upon the hard work, effort and enthusiasm both learners and staff have put in to improvements across all aspects of what we do.

“We will be appealing Ofsted’s judgement.”

“We have many areas across the College to be proud of, for example; we currently have the best maths GCSE A* – C results of all Greater Manchester colleges, as well as being fourth best in English.

“Indeed, FE Week in their overall college league table rank Stockport at 117th out of 214 colleges which puts Stockport College ahead of around 50 per cent of colleges in the sector.

“The college is committed to providing high quality professional and technical education for the local community and is engaging positively with the agencies and stakeholders to do just that.”

Autumn statement: £200m levy pot reduction forecast by Treasury

Fresh concerns have been raised about apprenticeship funding in England, after predictions on what the levy would raise were revised down by £200 million.

In the Phillip Hammond’s autumn statement on Wednesday, government forecasts suggested that the levy would raise a projected £2.8 billion in 2019/20.

However the Treasury had predicted in last year’s statement that the levy would raise £3 billion in that financial year.

The Office for Budget Responsibility had already revised the Treasury’s original figures down by £100m for 19/20 during its economic and fiscal outlook in March this year.

However, these latest projections have sparked fresh alarm from Mark Dawe, the chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers.

“Without assurances, we are really concerned that non-levy paying employers will be feeding off scraps, which will not be good for the social mobility of young people in areas where there aren’t big employers,” he said.

“The quality of the apprenticeship programme must be our foremost concern, but we do need to make sure that enough apprenticeship opportunities are available for young people.”

The original £3 billion levy pot in 2019/20 was to be split, seeing £2.5 billion going to apprenticeships in England, and the remaining £500 million left over for the devolved nations.

A Department for Education spokesperson confirmed to FE Week that funding for apprenticeships in England was still planned to increase to £2.5 billion in 2019/20 “as set out at the spending review” published by the government last November.

But this stops short of the guarantee that has been given to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

A levy funding deal for the three countries, published by the Treasury on November 14, stated: “The devolved administrations will be provided with funding certainty, as the UK government will manage any difference between the levy forecast and actual levy revenues.”

This appears to suggest that the chancellor would need to plug the gap from any shortfall.

This new shortfall is part of a gloomy overall picture of the state of the economy following this year’s vote to leave the European Union.

The OBR’s latest economic and fiscal outlook, published alongside the autumn statement, also downgraded its predictions for earnings growth.

The drop in apprenticeship cash relates directly to these new lower growth figures, as levy funding will be raised from a tax on PAYE.

The levy is due to be introduced in April 2017 and is set at 0.5 per cent of an employer’s paybill, provided that’s above £3 million.

Recent government figures have forecast that around  1.3 per cent (19,150 employers) of employers will have to pay the levy.

And Keith Smith, director funding and programmes at the Skills Funding Agency, told delegates at the Association of Colleges annual conference this month that just 400 employers would be responsible for around half the total levy payments.

All apprenticeship training in England will be funded from the levy pot from May 2017.

Levy-paying employers will have their own accounts to pay for any apprenticeship training, which they will access through the new digital apprenticeship service.

Funding for employers that don’t pay the levy, as well as all top-ups and additional payments, will come from the money that levy-paying companies don’t spend from the overall pot.

Also announced in the autumn statement were plans to devolve the adult education budget to London from 2019/20, and to increase the apprenticeship minimum wage from £3.40 an hour to £3.50.

Autumn statement: Government to devolve adult education budget to London

The government has announced that it is devolving the adult education budget to London, through today’s autumn statement.

Details emerged in the online document published on gov.uk following the end of chancellor Philip Hammond’s speech in the House of Commons this afternoon.

It said: “The government remains committed to devolving powers to support local areas to address productivity barriers.

“We will devolve the AEB to London from 2019-20 (subject to readiness conditions).

It added: “The government will continue to work with London to explore further devolution of powers over the coming months.”

The Association of Colleges called in May for wider devolution of the AEB to be delayed, because the Skills Funding Agency had still not decided how the system will work for providers that cross regional boundaries.

Provider groups based in multiple regions have been lobbying the SFA for different treatment under the now-imminent devolution plans.

When asked about this, an SFA spokesperson said the body would “consider how funding and commissioning arrangements will operate for colleges and other providers which deliver in multiple areas” in 2018/19, “as part of the programme of work being undertaken to support the devolution of the adult education budget”.

However, Julian Gravatt, assistant chief executive at the Association of Colleges, admitted that he was still concerned that the problem remained unresolved, telling FE Week: “It would be better to delay the budget devolution rather than move ahead with half-completed plans.”

When asked for AoC’s views following today’s announcement, chief executive David Hughes said: “The chancellor today confirmed that the Adult Education Budget will be devolved to Greater London in 2019-20. There are clear potential benefits if this leads to greater flexibility for colleges to meet local employer, community and student needs, but there is a lack of detail currently about how it will work in practice. 

“We will continue to recommend that the Department for Education and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) publish a Skills Devolution Green Paper to help clarify responsibilities and priorities and encourage debate about the potential benefits and risks.

“It is important for colleges to be given the flexibilities to deliver the learning that London and Londoners want and need but there are too many unknowns about how this will work for us to be confident of that outcome. ”

Control of responsibility had already been passed to the Greater London Authority LEP, FE Week reported in May 2015, for European Social Fund cash – although that will now change due to Brexit.

The government had previously planned to give Leps a “direct role” in decision-making over ESF spending for skills training schemes up to 2020.

But it wrote to LEPs telling them that only the London Enterprise Panel would now be allowed to “manage and take decisions” over ESF and other European Union structural and investment funds.

His letter said the commission had “advised that this approach is non-compliant” with European Structural and Investment Fund Regulations, which state that only the managing authority — central government in England’s case — could decide where the money goes.