Independent training providers (ITPs) will have to compete for Skills Funding Agency (SFA) contracts following changes to European Union law.

The document, Adult Education Budget: Changing context and arrangements for 2016 to 2017, published on January 28, said that contract arrangements would stay the same for the next academic year.

But it warned: “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 [adult education budget] will be subject to competition as part of a procurement process.

“We are working through the detail of this, including taking advice from our group of stakeholders and we will provide further information later in the year.”

The change is not expected to apply to apprenticeships, as the Government plans to introduce the levy on large employers from April 2017. However, it looks set to apply to the rest of the AEB.

Stewart Segal, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said he was aware of the planned change.

He said: “This will mean that the SFA will probably have to run an open tender process some time in 2016.

“Grant funded organisations can have a ‘roll-over’ contract without external tendering, but our view is that all providers should be treated in the same way.

“We also believe that the rules may also allow some budget for each ITP to be ‘rolled over’ without tendering.

“If this was the case, the majority of providers would retain their current contracts.”

He added that the SFA would be discussing how the procurement process should work in practice with AELP in the “next few months”.

An SFA spokesperson said: “We are developing our approach to the competitive procurement of AEB-funded activity in line with EU public procurement regulations, including taking advice from our group of stakeholders. We will provide further information later in the year.”

When asked if the changes would apply to apprenticeships, she added: “We are reviewing the impact of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 on how apprenticeships are delivered, following the introduction of the levy in 2017.

“We will confirm any procurement plans arising from this later in the year.”

An EU spokesperson declined to comment when asked why it was changing the procurement regulations.

 

The Government is propping up colleges to the tune of £100m, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ (AELP) has revealed.

AELP chief executive, Stewart Segal, said he was looking forward to college finances improving significantly through the Government’s post-16 area reviews.

He added that he hoped “we can save much of that £100m going into the sector to make sure it can continue” because of this.

FE Week asked the SFA about the £100m after hearing this.

An agency spokesperson did not deny that the Government had told sector stakeholders, including AELP, about the bailout figure before Christmas.

It did, however, say that the figure was “out of date”, but declined to provide a new one.

Mr Segal also said during the same webinar on January 26 that “various reports suggest up to 90 colleges may fall into the [serious financial difficulties] category” (see right).

This would represent a big increase on the 50 that FE Week reported in February last year could be in serious financial difficulty, due to a “perfect storm” of capital debt and 16 to 19 funding cuts.

Dr Lynne Sedgmore, then-executive director of the 157 Group, said at the time that the figure was a “sector rumour”.

Part of the problem, she added, was that SFA predecessor body the Learning and Skills Council had “encouraged” colleges to “take on ambitious capital redevelopment programmes”.

“Since colleges have to finance a major part of their capital development themselves, many have high borrowings and now face a ‘perfect storm’ as funding rates have been repeatedly cut for 16 to 19-year-olds in recent years and funding numbers slashed for adult provision,” said Dr Sedgmore.

When asked about the £100m figure mentioned by Mr Segal, an SFA spokesperson told FE Week: “These are out of date forecasting figures. We will reassess the position when we have financial plans later in the year.”

“We will soon be publishing a list of colleges under notice of concern and providers under a breach notice,” she added.

“The SFA considers FE college exceptional financial support on a case-by-case basis, depending on the type of exceptional financial support requested.”

Notices of concern are issued in response to SFA concerns over a college’s financial health and trigger interventions from the FE Commissioner. The agency issues breach notices if providers fail to meet terms of its contracts.

 

Training providers have branded “ridiculous” the overdue news that many of their 16 to 18 apprenticeship and traineeship growth requests have not been funded in full by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA).

The SFA announced today that it had awarded an additional £25m to colleges and training providers to deliver 16 to 18 apprenticeships – but there was no extra cash for 16 to 18 traineeships.

The announcement, which should have been made on January 8, is in response to growth requests submitted by providers to help fund apprenticeships and traineeships in 2015/16.

It comes just a week after FE Week exclusively revealed that the delay in confirming the growth requests was due to an overspend by the Department for Education.

Stewart Segal, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said he was “very disappointed” at today’s announcement.

“This will also mean many young people will not be able to take up their apprenticeship opportunities. When we are looking to engage more employers to deliver the target of 3m apprenticeship starts, this decision not to fund growth will put out a negative signal,” he said.

“Providers have made a significant investment in generating this additional interest and can ill afford this stop-start approach to developing the programme,” he added.

“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.

FE Week understands that many providers have been left short-changed by today’s announcement, with some providers receiving significant less than what they asked for.

@FEWeek @NickLinford Just rec’d 16-18 Growth reqst feedback, we’ve only got 50% of P1-8 & 0 for P9-12-I’m furious!19+ apprvd but not 16-18!?

— Corrina Hembury (@CorrinaHembury) February 5, 2016

Corrina Hembury, managing director at Access Training, based in Nottingham, said they had received just over half of their 16 to 18 apprenticeships growth request for the period from August to March, and zero of what they’d 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”, she said.

“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.

Today’s announcement “means we have no capacity for any new 16 to 18 apprentices” until around April, she said.

“We’ll continue to support all the learners we currently have on programme now, and obviously we don’t want to not engage any new ones.

“We need to look at balancing that risk of disengaging learners and employers from apprentices altogether with us having to start working with and potentially not being able to draw down funding for them. Which is a tough decision,” Ms Hembury said.

One provider also took to Twitter to vent her anger. @Bmcleish01 said: “we have sig volumes of learners now without funding! 3m apps target is a joke without funds”.

Another training provider has told FE Week their 16-18 apprenticeship growth request was over £1m and they have been awarded less than 10 per cent of that figure.

Teresa Frith, senior skills policy manager at the Association of Colleges, said: “It is very disappointing that the funding they are providing to colleges for isn’t large enough or flexible enough to cope with demand.

“A priority for the Skills Funding Agency must be to learn from this in developing the new system which comes into effect with the introduction of the levy in 2017.”

In a statement, the SFA said: “We assess all provider growth cases to ensure they secure high quality opportunities for young people. Where we are able to support increases in funding we allocate this equitably to providers. The process for doing this is set out in our Operational Performance Management Rules.

“We have made it clear, that the funding we have been able to allocate, will enable all apprentices who had started their apprenticeship (at the time providers submitted their growth requests) to be funded.”

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has published a list of live notices of concern and serious breach of contract for the first time.

The information contained in a table unveiled today on the agency’s website features 62 providers in total.

That number includes 47 general FE colleges, nine local authorities, five independent learning providers and a single specialist designated institution (download full list from here).

An SFA spokesperson told FE Week: “It is the first time a list has been published. We will be publishing updated data on the first working day of every month from now on.”

A note on the table added: “When a notice is lifted, or a schedule of a notice is lifted, it will not be included in the next published list.”

It comes after Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive, Stewart Segal, said in a webinar on January 26 that “various reports suggest up to 90 colleges may fall into the [serious financial difficulties] category”.

He added that he hoped “we can save much of that £100m going into the sector to make sure it can continue” through the Government’s post-16 area reviews.

FE Week asked the SFA about the 90 colleges and £100m fund on the same day.

It took them two days to send over the following response that did not deny the Government had told sector stakeholders, including AELP, about the 100m figure before Christmas: “These are out of date forecasting figures. We will reassess the position when we have financial plans later in the year.”

It neglected to respond over the 90 colleges that Mr Segal said were in financial difficulties.

We asked repeatedly for further information over the following week, which led to an SFA spokesperson adding the following before FE Week went to press last night: “We will soon be publishing a list of colleges under notice of concern and providers under a breach notice.”

“The SFA considers FE college exceptional financial support on a case by case bases depending on the type of exceptional financial support requested, as detailed in the government’s FE College: Exceptional Financial Support document,” she added.

Here’s a summary of the type of institutions the notices were issued to:

Colleges	47
Local Authorities	9
Independent Training Provider	5
Specialist Designated Institution	1
	62

Five FE and sixth form colleges involved in a pilot review of post-16 provision in Norfolk and Suffolk last year will be revisited in November, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has confirmed.

The news of the revisit as part of the region’s planned area review comes as 11 colleges in Norfolk and Suffolk this month announced a collaborative partnership aimed to improve the quality of education across the area.

BIS confirmed to FE Week that the upcoming area review would be broader than the pilot, looking at post-16 education and training provision across the two counties, how that meets local need and the extent to which colleges may need to make further changes.

Lessons learned from the pilot have been incorporated into the area review framework, BIS told FE Week.

Following the pilot, which was carried out during the first five months of last year, the five colleges involved announced merger plans.

Great Yarmouth College, Lowestoft College, and Lowestoft Sixth Form College said they are looking at forming a partnership, “designed to combine their strengths but still protect the individual identity of each college”.

East Norfolk Sixth Form College and Paston Sixth Form College announced plans to merge and work towards becoming part of a multi-academy trust.

Christina Sadler, merger project manager for Lowestoft College, Great Yarmouth College and Lowestoft Sixth Form College, said: “While we are unclear as to the extent of our involvement, we are happy to co-operate with and engage in the area review as required.

“In the meantime, we are continuing to work on our merger plans to secure our future for our learners and for the businesses in the east coast region.”

Dr Catherine Richards, principal of East Norfolk Sixth Form College said: “East Norfolk Sixth Form College and Paston Sixth Form College have announced our intention to merge and work towards becoming part of a multi-academy trust.

“Merging was one of the recommendations from the pilot review and this is being implemented. We are aware that wave five of the area review is due to return to Norfolk and Suffolk towards the end of the year. However, we are expecting to have significantly progressed our plans by this time.”

Last year’s pilot review was overseen by the FE Commissioner, Dr David Collins and Sixth Form College Commissioner, Peter Mucklow during the first five months of the year.

A report published last July by Mr Mucklow said that it was “clear from the evaluation, that it would be difficult for all five [colleges] to stand alone in the longer term.

“Doing nothing has already been determined not to be a viable option,” the report added.

“There is the strong likelihood of the collapse of some of the local provision within the next two years if nothing is done.”

 

The responsibility for telling learners about new FE loans will lie with providers after the government admitted it had no budget to promote them.

Meanwhile, it remained tight-lipped on how much it will be spending on its latest apprenticeships campaign, despite repeated enquiries from FE Week.

Loans for learners aged 19 and older are due to be introduced in 2016/17, as announced during the government’s spending review in November. However, as with loans for learners aged 24 and above, launched in 2013, there will be no national awareness campaign.

“I can confirm there is no marketing specific budget for advanced learner loans,” a spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) told FE Week.

“There is support to ensure providers have the resources they need to be able to inform learners about the availability of loans,” the spokesperson added.

Advanced learner loans have had low take-up from their launch.

The government scrapped loans for apprenticeships soon after they were launched, after the Student Loans Company, which administers the loans, received just 404 applications in seven months.

As revealed in FE Week, figures published in October showed that just 38 per cent of the £397m budgeted for FE loans in 2014/15 was awarded, meaning that providers missed out on £250m in loans cash. 

The latest figures, published by BIS on January 28, showed that loan take-up had effectively stalled, with 52,610 applications for the year to date, compared to 52,670 for the same time last year.

In a report published on Monday, the Learning and Work Institute said that awareness of FE learner loans needed to be developed further.

The Shadow Skills Minister, Gordon Marsden criticised the government for its “head in the sand attitude” towards promoting FE loans, and urged it to learn the lessons from the 24+ loans.

“They know very well how the failure to promote effectively the 24+ advance learning loans either by marketing or by directly encouraging and engaging with colleges has lost the department millions,” he said.

Meanwhile, BIS has refused to tell FE Week how much it will be spending on a communications campaign to promote apprenticeships.

The campaign, which was due to have been launched last month, according to the government’s English Apprenticeships: Our 2020 Vision Report, “will bring together messages about apprenticeships, traineeships and work experience to encourage employers to consider in the round their pipeline of skills”.

The Skills Minister, Nick Boles (pictured above) has indicated that this year’s campaign will be similar in size to that campaign, which cost £6m and included TV, radio, posters, print and digital advertising.

“We had a big campaign last year and will have another campaign this year,” Mr Boles told the Education, Skills and Economy Sub-Committee last month.

“We do not often get sign off for marketing budgets in Government anymore, but we do for apprenticeships,” he added.

A BIS spokesperson said that information about the marketing budget for the new campaign would be published “in due course”.

 

Andy Wilson (pictured above) has been appointed as the new chief executive designate of City and Islington and Westminster Kingsway Colleges.

Mr Wilson, who has been principal of Westminster Kingsway since 2004, was selected for the role after an interview process with the appointment panel of the colleges’ shadow board, including an external advisor.

The shadow board, consisting of governors from both colleges, was launched in January, marking one of the first moves towards the merger of City and Islington and Westminster Kingsway Colleges, which was initially announced in December 2015.

As chief executive designate, Mr Wilson will lead both colleges. He will carry out this role alongside his responsibilities as principal of Westminster Kingsway until July 31, 2016, after which he will take on the new position in full.

Read an FE Week expert piece by Mr Wilson on marketing for colleges here.

Sir Frank McLoughlin, who has served as principal of City and Islington College for 14 years, reportedly decided not to put himself forward for the role of chief executive of the new college group. He will remain in post as until the end of July 2016.

Sir Frank gained his knighthood in the Queen’s 2015 birthday honours list and you can read FE Week‘s profile of his life and work here.

City and Islington and Westminster Kingsway Colleges are expected to merge on August 1, 2016. In a previous interview with FE Week, Mr Wilson said of the merger: “It could be seen in some ways as a federation, but there is only going to be one corporation, because that’s a lot more efficient way to operate … we’ll have a single corporation but it will be like a group of colleges.”

The corporation will take the name of the Central London Colleges Group, subject to approval by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, and further appointments will be made nearer to the time of the merger.

Based on 2014-15 figures, the two colleges will enrol 26,500 students, of which 7,500 will be aged 16-19 and 2000 will be apprentices, with a combined total income of £84m. The governors of the colleges have confirmed that the existing brands of both providers will be retained.

City and Islington College was rated as ‘outstanding’ across-the-board by Ofsted in 2008 and Westminster Kingsway received a ‘good’ overall rating in 2011.

The shadow board of the colleges has also appointed Alastair Da Costa as chair and Ruth Duston as vice chair.

Mr Da Costa is currently the chair of City and Islington College while Ms Duston is currently the chair of Westminster Kingsway College.

Commenting on the changes, Mr Da Costa said:“Frank has been an outstanding principal and national leader within the FE sector. City and Islington College owe him a huge debt of gratitude for his inspiring and dedicated leadership.

“We are delighted though, that Andy will become the new chief executive. He is an experienced and proven college leader and governors have full confidence that he will be able to meet the substantial challenge of leading the two colleges into the next stage of their development.”

 

“Outstanding” GCSE English results have helped a formerly ‘inadequate’ sixth form college surge to ‘good’ in less than 18 months.

A hundred per cent of Hartlepool Sixth Form College learners entered for GCSE English achieved a grade C or above in the most recent exams, according to its Ofsted report published today (February 5).

The results are “significantly higher than similar providers” and “outstanding”, the report found.

“Around half of learners achieve grade C or above in their GCSE mathematics, which is better than for similar colleges,” it added.

“Since the last inspection, the proportion of learners achieving their qualification has significantly increased, and is now high,” the report continued.

“The success rates have rapidly improved, to such an extent over the last year that they are now above the national rate for sixth form colleges.”

The sixth form college, which has 928 learners, had been slammed by Ofsted at its previous inspection in November 2014, when it was hit with an ‘inadequate’ overall rating.

Alex Fau-Goodwin, Hartlepool Sixth Form College principal, said he was “very pleased” with the inspection result.

“There has been a significant focus on teaching and learning which has had a huge impact upon student success. All of our staff development has been focused upon teaching, learning and assessment, this has changed everything,” he said.

“The response for teachers has been incredible. The same teachers judged to be inadequate, 15 months later, have now been judged to be good with outstanding. It’s absolutely fantastic.”

Changes to student tracking and monitoring arrangements has allowed the college to view live data on students’ performance, Mr Fau Goodwin said.

“The availability of live accurate data allowed teachers to ensure interventions are timely, whereas in the past we have not been able to respond as effectively” he said.

According to today’s Ofsted report, the college’s leadership had “responded exceptionally well” to the previous inspection.

“They have restructured the senior leadership and middle management teams and put improved teaching, learning and assessment at the heart of college improvement,” it said.

Teachers were praised for being “enthusiastic and passionate about learning”.

“They are innovative in the classroom, making good use of a broad range of teaching techniques that stimulate learners and develop their knowledge,” the report said.

Safeguarding at the college was found to be effective, the report said.

“The ‘Prevent’ duty has been very effectively delivered across the whole college through a dedicated morning of activities in which teachers and learners participated enthusiastically and consequently raised their awareness of these important issues,” it said.

The chair of governors, Jonathan Brash, said: “This is a great result  and is as a result of the extraordinary hard work of the dedicated staff we have at the college.

“Over the last 18 months we have seen an unprecedented transformation in the quality of what we provide, making us truly the gold standard for a-level provision in the town. Most importantly the students in our care reach their potential.”