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Andrew Harden, head of FE, University and College Union

Andrew Harden can trace his activism back to a life-changing experience at school in Australia, when he led collective action with classmates that put a stop to a bully’s reign of terror.

It was a Eureka moment that has served the now head of FE at the University and College Union (UCU) well throughout his life.

“When I was in year nine, there was a particular class, and there was a kid in this class that was bullying everybody, basically,” he recalls.

“The teacher was doing nothing about it, so, at the age of 14, I organised for the rest of the class to go to the library and sent a note to the teacher to say we’re not coming back until it was sorted out. It was.”

The oldest of four children, Harden was born in 1970, nine months after the moon landing — he jokes about being a “moon baby” — in the small town of Balaklava, South Australia.

“It was a conservative town when we moved in, and in Australia voting is compulsory, so when the votes were being counted there were two extra Labour votes and they could tell it was mum and dad,” he says.

Harden first courted controversy at the tender age of five.

Look, I’ve got 40

angry blokes out

there with chainsaws

On his first day at Balaklava Primary School, Harden was taken to the school library and asked what book he wanted to read.

He shocked his teachers by asking for a book on how to make babies.

“So, in 1975, an hour and a half north of Adelaide, in a conservative farming community, they didn’t have such a book. They went on to have a staff room vote later that day, and decided not to get one.”

Harden was fascinated by politics from an early age.

He was nicknamed “Mr Prime Minister” by classmates, even before the incident with the class bully, and got involved with the Nuclear Disarmament Party aged around 15.

His formative experience of bad management practice and trade union representation came while Harden studied politics at the University of Adelaide.

“I had a part-time job at a department store at weekends and summer holidays selling computers, and in Australia at the time, on the day you turned 21, you would receive adult wages,” he recalls.

“But they actually rang me and left a message on my 21st birthday saying that I was no longer required and no longer rostered on — it was unbelievable.”

“Fortunately, the union stepped in and got me more rostered hours,” he says. “But it was quite clear that I was on my way out of there, so I learned a few lessons.”

Harden moved to an administrative role at the Federated Furnishing Trade Society soon after.

Then, he recalls, “by the time I was 25, the Australian Council of Trade Unions was basically training young people to be union officials and trade union organisers”.

“I applied and got a position with New South Wales Timber Workers’ Union, which meant going from an administrative role to actually being an official, and it was a 12-month traineeship, so that was quite a change,” he adds.

It meant “going into quite isolated communities where there’s like one pub, one major employer, which was the timber mill, one shop, and one school,” he recalls.

“You were being called in because the boss wanted to sack one of the workers,” Harden adds.

It meant having “a conversation with the boss when you say, ‘Look, I’ve got 40 angry blokes out there with chainsaws. You drink in the same pub. Your kids go to the same school. Are you really sure you want to do this?’”

Harden moved to London after two and a half years in that demanding post “for love”, he says, in 1997.

Any culture shock he might have felt on arrival — “somebody should tell you when you come through border control, that [TV hosts] Richard and Judy are an item” — was eased by knowledge that his skills and experience had left him well-placed to secure work with British trade unions.

His first job in this country was representing print workers through the Graphical, Paper and Media Union (GPMU) — which involved the unenviable task of opposing cuts enforced by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, whose empire had started in Harden’s home town of Adelaide.

“It was a bit like saying, ‘I’m from Adelaide, but I’m here to try and make up for it’,” Harden quips.

Nonetheless, he discovered that union organising in the UK was easier than back home.

“Trying to get people to join the union and do something about it in Australia is much harder, because if they’ve had a bad day at work and they’re pissed off, they go and have a lie on the beach and they feel a lot better.

“But over here, the weather is so miserable that there’s no feeling better about it,” he says.

Harden became the national official for FE at the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education in 2005 — the predecessor to the UCU.

Although this was his work FE job, it wasn’t his first FE experience.

That had come when he was younger, through his mum Gaye’s job teaching dressmaking back in Australia.

Most of the people his mum taught were women on “their first foray into the outside world from being a mother or that kind of thing,” Harden says.

“For some of them, it meant they had the confidence to get out of abusive relationships and things like that. I remember thinking ‘this really makes a difference’. So it feels quite good that I have been able to be here at this time and hopefully help someone in FE.”

He speaks with obvious pride about his involvement in the UCU’s work on lesson observations, which he describes as a “different approach”.

“It was evidence-based, we got the research done and it actually shifted things,” he says. “I guess we realised if you’re going to change to ungraded lesson observations, you can’t just take the grades away and think that’s the job done; there’s actually a whole cultural change around it.”

Harden remains as committed to the sector as ever after 11 years in the post.

He says: “People don’t choose to work in FE to not deliver quality. They have chosen FE because they believe in its transformative qualities, and it’s actually heart-breaking for a lot of our members to not be able to do the extra.”

Click on the image for a larger version

It’s a personal thing

What’s your favourite book?

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach. It’s not just about a bird, but it is. It’s a story told through this bird that gets ostracised from the flock because he was spending too much time on perfecting flight, finding out how fast and how far he could go, and loops and all this kind of stuff, which was just seen as weird and odd and different. I picked up on its message growing up, which was, you know, don’t be afraid to be different, and when you know you’re onto something and you know you’re right, don’t be afraid — be who you are.

What do you do to switch off from work?

Music, eating out and city breaks. You can’t spend a weekend in Verona from Sydney

What’s your pet hate?

People who think, as they are leaving a tube station, that it’s a good time to read a text or text someone, and they have no regard for the hundreds of people behind them. Where do they think we all went? I think that makes me a real Londoner now

If you could invite anyone to a dinner party, living or dead, who would it be?

Gough Whitlam [Australian prime minister who introduced free education in the 1970s]. There was a great Aussie band called The Whitlams named after him. I think George Orwell, though it might be a bit depressing. But then I wouldn’t mind having Frida and Agnetha [from Abba]. When I was growing up in Australia, Abba were bigger than The Beatles.

Curriculum vitae

1970: Born in Balaklava, South Australia

1975: Started at Balaklava Primary School

1983: Started at Gawler High School, South Australia

1990: Began a politics degree at University of Adelaide

1991: (Part –time while studying) Administrator role for the Federated Furnishing Trade Society, Adelaide, South Australia

1995: First union official role at the New South Wales Timber Workers’ Union, part of Australia’s Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, Sydney

1997: Moves to the UK

1998: Starts role at the Graphical, Paper and Media
Union as Organiser, Deputy Head of Organising and Elected Regional Official

2005 – present: Initially National official for FE at National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education, UCU’s predecessor union. Now UCU Head of FE

Morgan made controversial call over growth requests

Nicky Morgan, the Education Secretary, has made the controversial decision to only part-fund providers’ 16 to 18 apprenticeship growth requests, FE Week understands.

The revelation comes less than two weeks after many providers were left short-changed after the Skills Funding Agency announced on February 5 that £25m additional funding would be available for 16 to 18 apprenticeships.

The extra cash, which should have been announced on January 8, was in response to growth requests submitted by colleges and training providers to help fund apprenticeships and traineeships in 2015/16.

However, many providers received significantly less than they had requested for apprenticeships, and there was no extra money for traineeships.

As exclusively revealed in FE Week on January 29, the delay in announcing the funding was due to the Department for Education (DfE) over-allocating its discretionary fund for 2015/16.

An unnamed source told FE Week that this overspend had led Ms Morgan to have to make a ministerial decision over which areas would be cutback.

When asked by FE Week if the allegations were true, a spokesperson for the DfE said: “We have allocated an additional £25m for 16-to-18 apprenticeship recruitment this year in support of this government’s commitment to deliver three million apprenticeships by 2020. This will ensure all current apprentices can be funded. We will review the position again in April.”

When asked to confirm or deny Ms Morgan’s actions, the spokesperson said it had nothing to add to their statement.

Access Training, based in Nottingham, was one of a number of training providers that contacted FE Week following the SFA’s announcement to say it had been left out of pocket.

The managing director, Corrina Hembury said that it had received just over half of their 16 to 18 apprenticeships growth request for the period from August to March, and zero of what it had requested for the period from April to July.

She had been told by her SFA adviser that “I’ve actually done quite well compared to a lot of other providers that he looks after.”

“It is ridiculous that we’re in a state where the government have set a target of 3m apprenticeships and there is a commitment to train more people and help move them into employment and they are now putting that at risk and not funding things,” Ms Hembury said.

Stewart Segal, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said that many providers “can ill-afford this stop-start approach” to developing apprenticeships.

“The position on traineeships is even more disappointing as the programme is still in its early stages and needs continued support to establish the credibility of the programme,” Mr Segal said.

Treasury sets aside £560m for college restructures

> Plans leaked to FE Week reveal ‘facility’ at Treasury until April 2019
> AoC welcomes ‘necessary’ support for area review transitional costs

The Government is planning a fund worth more than £500m to help colleges put in place any area review recommendations, FE Week can reveal.

But colleges will still be expected to shoulder at least part of the bill for any changes themselves.

Information on the fund, described as a “restructuring facility”, was included in draft guidance to the Area Review Advisory Group on 27 January and seen by FE Week.

In a section headed “Current thinking on the restructuring facility” the paper reads: “There will be a restructuring facility available to support, where necessary, the implementation of the recommendations of area reviews by further education and sixth form colleges.”

It goes on: “The objectives of the facility and the criteria and processes for considering applications for access to the facility remain to be finalised and approved by ministers.”

The document does not give a size for this facility, but FE Week understands it to be £560m.

Unusually, the college fund will be administered by the Treasury.

When asked why this was the case, a spokesperson for the Treasury said it was due to “uncertainty over which institutions may need access to the facility and the timing of this funding”.

Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, welcomed news of the fund.

“Area review restructuring funding is necessary to underwrite transitional costs and with early reviews now approaching the final stages, there is a need for the Government to publish details of how a restructuring fund facility might operate,” he told FE Week.

According to the draft guidance, one expected objective of the fund is “that the cost to government of implementing any given change is minimised”.

As a result, colleges, supported by local authorities and local enterprise partnerships, will be expected to foot the bill themselves “wherever possible”.

“Where access to the restructuring facility is required, there will be a strong presumption that any funding will be by way of loan,” it continues.

A “transaction unit” of experts across both the Skills Funding Agency and the Education Funding Agency will consider applications.

“Any approvals will be made by ministers as part of a governance process which will include external as well as internal consideration,” it continues.

The Treasury will also have to approve applications.

A spokesperson for the Treasury confirmed that the fund would be available from April this year until April 2019, but declined to comment on the size of the pot.

Any loans provided would be on “commercial terms” and would cover just “a proportion of the total costs identified”, the spokesperson said.

The first wave of the government’s area reviews of post-16 education and training were announced in September, with each review expected to last three to four months.

However, as reported by FE Week in January, the process has been running behind schedule.

Further details of the fund will be published later this month, the Treasury spokesperson said.

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Editorial : Area reviews won’t be cheap

Setting aside £560m until April 2019 for restructuring and mergers is a bold move at a time when many will question whether it could be better spent on frontline provision.

Slashed budgets for non-apprenticeship courses have caused huge distress and anger, which came to a head recently with protests over English for Speakers of Other Languages cuts.

And the announcement coming in the same month as disappointment over 16-18 growth requests won’t go unnoticed.

But the long game here is to stabilise colleges’ financial footing which for many is looking ropey at best — as this edition’s investigation into the dramatic increase in financial notices of concern has exposed.

And the Treasury is right to keep a close hold on the purse strings, making sure the money is spent as intended.

However, mergers and restructures can prove expensive and reap few immediate rewards.

So the Government may not get its ‘loan’ back, but if it serves to incentivise the college leadership team to implement difficult but necessary decisions then so be it.

Nick Linford

Row over make-up of new policing body

The Government has come in for criticism after rejecting attempts to ensure representatives from FE providers and trade unions sit alongside employers on the new apprenticeships policing body.

Labour tried unsuccessfully on 11 February to get a clause inserted into the enterprise bill, which would have ensured the Institute for Apprenticeships, which will monitor standards and quality, was “broadly based”.

The rejected clause stated that the make-up of the institute should “take into account the experience and contribution of all interested parties”, including employers, FE providers and trade unions.

The government, which indicated the planned body would be “employer-led”, claimed this was too prescriptive.

It caused Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges to say: “While the institute should, quite properly, be employer-led, there must be some representation from colleges. We would like to see at least two members of the institute with direct experience of delivery in the FE sector.”

Andrew Harden (pictured), national head of FE for the University and College Union, added: “Employer engagement is essential, but government should ensure the full range of stakeholders is represented on the board.”

Shakira Martin, National Union of Students vice president for FE, said it was disappointing the Government had denied apprentices and providers “a guaranteed voice”.

But chief executive of the chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), Stewart Segal, said he was confident “those involved in creating the institute will see the benefit of the involvement of providers”.

Kevin Brennan, the Shadow Business, Innovation and Skills Minister, also raised concern during the 11 February debate about the make-up of the Apprenticeship Delivery Board, charged with advising the Government on how it could achieve the 3m apprenticeship starts target by 2020.

He said: “It’s made up of members who are all able people, I’m sure, but drawn from a relatively narrow section of business.

“It is therefore crucial the remit and board of the Institute [of Apprenticeships] are broadly based.”

Anna Soubry, the Minister for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise, replied: “Once the opposition have had the opportunity to look at the institute, I am sure they will welcome that wholly independent body, which will not be overly prescribed by this place.”

She added: “I am afraid that the opposition are really showing their true face. It is the old, state-heavy way of doing things. If they want to do something, they have a long,
long list.”

Membership of the ADB was unveiled on 18 January, five months after its creation was first announced.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said it would be chaired by the Prime Minister’s apprenticeship advisor Nadhim Zahawi, Conservative MP for Stratford-Upon-Avon, and businessman and apprenticeship champion David Meller.

Other board members announced include David Abraham, chief executive of Channel 4, Mike Thompson, head of apprenticeships at Barclays, and Andrew Parmley, an alderman for the City of London.

When asked to respond to concerns that the institute would be over-dominated by employers, a government spokesperson told FE Week: “At the heart of our reforms lies the principle that employers must be in the driving seat.

“Independent of government and employer-led, it will be for the institute to decide who they work with.”

The enterprise bill does not specify what backgrounds institute members should come from. It stresses that they could set up a committee to advise core members over the quality of apprenticeship assessments.

The majority of such committee members “must be persons who appear to the institute to have experience of the assessment of education or training” and “not members of the institute”, it says.

DfE unveils guidance for sixth form college academy applications

The government has spelled out what sixth form colleges (SFCs) need to do to convert to academies, in a document published this morning.

The guidance, which comes after Chancellor George Osborne announced in the government’s autumn statement that SFCs could become academies “so they no longer have to pay VAT”, was welcomed by the Sixth Form Colleges’ Association (SFCA).

Conversion to academy status will be available as part of the area review process, the guidance says, and applications will be judged “alongside other recommendations arising from the review” so that all recommendations “are considered as a coherent package”.

“The opportunity does not exist at the moment” to convert outside of the area review process.

The key assessment criteria for conversion is the development of “stronger partnership and collaboration between the college and schools with which they will work”.

Colleges that propose to “establish or join a multi-academy trust (MATs) should be well-placed to meet the partnership criteria”, the guidance states.

Only SFCs that are “financially and educationally strong [assessed by the department and Ofsted as good or outstanding for both]” will have the option of converting to become a standalone academy.

Funding will be available to support SFCs converting to academies from the £560m restructuring facility, details of which were revealed by FE Week today.

James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the SFCA, said they had “pressed for, and we are pleased to see, the inclusion of an option for SFCs to establish a single, standalone academy trust”.

“We continue to make the case for SFCs in waves one and two [of area reviews] to have a greater degree of flexibility in developing proposals for academy status. Some SFCs in wave one have been given a matter of weeks to provide information (identifying potential partner schools for example) that colleges in wave five will have almost a year to prepare,” he said.

“More detail is still required on the financial implications of conversion,” he added.

All applications for conversion will need to be approved by the relevant area review steering group, then by the Sixth Form College Commissioner and the relevant Regional Schools Commissioner, on behalf of the Education Secretary. In some cases, a decision may need to be made by a minister.

Leaked government guidance for the area review advisory group, seen by FE Week, makes it clear that MATs are the government’s preferred choice for SFCs converting.

“Decisions will be taken in the context of wider post-16 provision in the area. Proposals involving formal partnership within a multi-academy trust will be particularly well-placed in this respect,” it says.

Investing in maths and English

Sam Parrett explains how her college met the challenge of a 300 per cent increase in the number of English and maths GCSE students by investing £500,000 in improving provision. She advises other providers to adopt a similar a “whole college” approach.

The recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report, Building Skills for All: A Review of England, painted a worrying picture regarding maths and English skills of young people in this country.

The majority of
the spending has been on resourcing and facilities — including a dramatic expansion of staff in our maths and English department to almost 20 per cent of the college’s total staff

Around a third of 16-19 year olds were deemed to have low levels of literacy and numeracy.

There is no doubt that lack of core skills leads to unemployment. Effective teaching and learning of English and maths is fundamental to both our education system and UK industry as a whole.

Responding to this issue in 2014, the Government made it a condition of funding that all full time 16-18 year olds who do not hold a maths and/or English GCSE grade A*-C must enrol on these courses.

Then, in 2015, a further condition was introduced that all students with a grade D in maths and/or English must enrol “on a GCSE course, rather than an equivalent ‘stepping stone” qualification.

This has had, and continues to have, a major impact on FE.

At Bromley College, the number of 16-18 year old students studying maths GCSE has risen from 115 in 2013/14 to 636 in 2015/16.

For English GCSE, students numbers have rocketed by 525 (from 179 to 704) in this two-year period.

The number of students doing both English and maths GCSE has increased by over 300 per cent, with 1,340 currently studying for both qualifications.

These huge figures have seen no matching increase in study programme funding.

We opted to tackle this challenge issue head-on with a £500,000 investment to ensure our maths and English provision is of the highest possible quality.

The majority of the spending has been on resourcing and facilities — including a dramatic, threefold expansion of staff in our maths and English department to around 120, almost 20 per cent of the college’s total staff.

We have changed the management structure, employing separate maths and English heads rather than just one overseeing both areas.

We have also put expert senior managers in place to develop staff, implement training and encourage very best teaching practice.

Our new maths and English Hub provides a centre for students of all ages and abilities to develop their knowledge.

Lecturers refer learners here as well as drop-in sessions being available for anyone wanting or needing extra support.

Ensuring the Hub is fully staffed all the time has not been easy. To help address this particular challenge, I have even managed to persuade my stay-at-home husband (with his three maths A-levels) to come and pitch in.

We are also developing our volunteer service — encouraging members of the community to come and assist with additional learning support can take the pressure off staff while giving learners encouragement.

Embedding maths and English into a vocational curriculum and making learning relevant is widely referred to in FE.

We have turned this approach on its head and embed the vocational elements into the maths and English scheme of work, rather than the other way around.

I would urge FE colleges to take a “whole college” approach to maths and English provision rather than simply having a “department”.

Running activities such as cross-college maths and English weeks not only increases student engagement, but really reinforces the message as to the importance of these skills.

Students’ needs vary hugely — what works for one person will not work for another. The expansion of our teaching resources is enabling us to offer each and every student a personalised learning experience.

There is no doubt that FE colleges have a tough jobs. We are trying to turn around many years of under-achievement in maths and English, often in just eight or nine months.

However, the year-on-year improvements in both GCSE maths/English and functional skills that we are seeing at Bromley College provide early evidence that our head-on approach is working.

Good core skills are key to career progression and success, which means that high-quality maths and English provision simply must be a priority in FE.

Sam Parrett OBE is principal of Bromley College

Linking learners with employers

Brian Lightman, who stood down from his role at the ASCL last month, is now a board member helping develop the employer-led, government-backed Careers & Enterprise Company. He explains here how it can help colleges link-up better with employers for the benefit of their learners.

Improving destinations for young people continues to be a key concern for all FE institutions.

Of course, this isn’t a simple task. However, research has found at least one factor that can have a huge impact.

Our aim is for
every college to have its own adviser to galvanise local programmes and employers and make it simpler for them to engage

Young people who have multiple encounters with businesses before they leave education are significantly less likely to become NEET (not in education, employment or training) and earn, on average, 18 per cent more than their peers who have not.

While this is encouraging, and some colleges, as well as schools, do have strong links with business, it’s clear that this is not happening consistently across England.

This is the primary reason for the launch of The Careers & Enterprise Company, to simplify the process for local businesses and education providers to work together.

The difficulty in establishing relationships with local business is made worse by the lack of consistency of experiences across England.

As you may have found, some colleges are inundated with offers from careers and enterprise services and employers, while others have none.

But this doesn’t stem from a lack of commitment.

The many conversations the Careers & Enterprise Company’s board and staff have had, have highlighted employers’ commitment to working to address the skills gaps, and we’ve had a really excellent response from businesses of all sizes since we launched.

The company’s role, therefore, is to improve the interface between education and businesses to allow pupils to progress to worthwhile and meaningful routes that lead, at the right time, to employment.

To do this, the company created the Enterprise Adviser network.

This brings together senior business volunteers and education providers and is being co-led with local enterprise partnerships (LEPs).

Our aim is for every college to have its own adviser to galvanise local programmes and employers and make it simpler for them to engage.

The network also has no cost, making the tremendous resource totally accessible to colleges.

High quality mentoring is another important part of delivering the full scope of the careers provision and in the spring we’ll be announcing our strategy around mentoring.

One of the very exciting aspects of the Enterprise Adviser network is that it has real potential to improve the outlook for young people by giving them better access to employers.

These encounters both inspire them and help them make better and more informed choices about their next steps.

We’ve seen this in action across the country already and it is expanding.

The Enterprise Adviser network is up and running in more than 30 LEP areas, and the company will be in Leeds on
23 February to celebrate their official launch of the partnership.

It will increase information available to education leaders and students about the local labour market and how the curriculum links to careers.

This information is hugely valuable in a number of ways, not least in tackling the myth that vocational routes are in some way inferior to university.

As we continue to grow, we’ll build on what works, facilitate the scaling-up of the best programmes and work nationally while tailoring locally.

I know, from first-hand experience, just how inspiring encounters with employers can be for young people in bringing the curriculum to life and galvanising their ambition.

I strongly recommend that college leaders embrace this opportunity and give us feedback about what more we can do to improve the life chances of the young people in your care.

Brian Lightman is a board member of the Careers & Enterprise Company, and former general secretary of the ASCL

Freeing-up prison education could benefit more providers

The Prime Minister has spoken this month about plans to give governors more freedom over prisoner education budgets, as part of a keynote speech on wider prison reform. Alexandra Marks looks at how this could affect the FE sector.

It’s great to see the Government supporting prison education from the very top, as it has been a neglected aspect of FE for too long.

But what are the opportunities and risks for the FE sector through the reform plans identified by David Cameron in his speech (made on 8 February)? If we were marking the Prime Minister’s work, what would he get?

The Prisoner Learning Alliance (PLA), a coalition of 23 expert organisations, has called for the end to meaningless “output” measures.

This reflects wider FE thinking, following the Wolf Report, that mechanisms focused on drawing down funds for individual accredited qualifications can result in perverse outcomes.

If satellite
tracking is increased, as suggested by the Prime Minister, more prisoners could spend their weekdays learning in the community and come back to prison at the weekend

We, therefore, welcome the announcement by the Prime Minister to develop meaningful outcome-based metrics such as re-offending levels, employment outcomes after release and educational progression during a sentence.

The PLA has been critical of the fact that governors’ lack control over education in their prisons and that the current education contract lacks sufficient flexibility to enable providers to deliver what they would ideally like.

We have also highlighted the difficulties caused by the lack of officers to unlock and escort prisoners to classrooms and workshops, not to mention the other limitations a severely overcrowded system imposes on the creation of a learning culture across the whole prison.

That is why we called for greater autonomy for governors and are pleased the Prime Minister intends to do this backed by a promise to protect prison education budgets in cash terms of £130m per year.

Of particular interest was the announcement of a pilot of six “reform prisons” giving governors total discretion over the budget, the ability to opt-out of national contracts and to choose their own suppliers.

But what does this mean for the current providers and the wider FE sector?

Although the details of Dame Sally Coates’s review have not yet been published, it would appear from Cameron’s speech that the Government may be moving towards a more fragmented and diverse market place for prison education provision.

This would create opportunities for a wider range of local FE colleges, voluntary sector organisations, private companies, academy chains, universities and other experts.

If satellite tracking is increased, as suggested by the Prime Minister, more prisoners could spend their weekdays learning in the community and come back to prison at the weekend.

This would also allow them to access apprenticeships which are not available in prisons.

The risk for the current education providers is that rather than bidding for large regional contract areas, they may need to make their case to individual governors, or smaller clusters of governors, with increased competition.

The PLA’s members know that engaging prisoners in learning so they can transform their lives takes skill, enthusiasm and creativity.

The PLA have called for a focus on excellence in prison teaching, so is delighted to hear the Prime Minister will develop a new social enterprise, led by David Laws, to recruit high quality graduates to teach in prisons, similar to the Teach first initiative in schools.

However we continue to call for more professional development opportunities for current teaching staff and officers, support to recruit and retain experienced teachers and vocational instructors, and greater access to resources, including technology, that you would find in mainstream FE provision.

The Prime Minister cannot cover everything in a speech of a few hundred words, but it marks a significant step in re-framing the purpose of our prisons, putting rehabilitation and learning at the heart.

It offers both risks and opportunities for the FE sector and we wait to hear more details from Dame Sally Coates in due course.

Muddled implementation against the background of limited resources and prisons under pressure could undermine the Prime Minister’s ambitions.

But as a statement of purpose and direction, the Prime Minister’s speech is heading to the top of the class.

Alexandra Marks is chair of the Prisoner Learning Alliance

Area reviews won’t be cheap

Setting aside £560m until April 2019 for restructuring and mergers is a bold move at a time when many will question whether it could be better spent on frontline provision.

Slashed budgets for non-apprenticeship courses have caused huge distress and anger, which came to a head recently with protests over English for Speakers of Other Languages cuts.

And the announcement coming in the same month as disappointment over 16-18 growth requests won’t go unnoticed.

And the Treasury is right to keep a close hold on the purse strings, making sure the money is spent as intended.

However, mergers and restructures can prove expensive and repeat few immediate rewards.

So the Government may not get its ‘loan’ back, but if it serves to incentivise the college leadership team to implement difficult but necessary decisions then so be it.

Nick Linford is editor of FE Week