LATEST: Nescot accepts former £360k a year principal was unfairly dismissed

The college with the best-paid principal in the country initially understated her salary to the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) by £27,000 — before accurate figures revealed that she earns £358,000 a year.

The salary of Sunaina Mann, principal and chief executive officer of the North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot) Group, was initially listed as £331,000 in 2014/15, according to data made available by the SFA in March.

However in updated data released on May 11, Ms Mann’s salary took a considerable jump of £27,000, up to a total of £358,000.

This figure — which the college has confirmed to FE Week is still being paid — makes Ms Mann the highest-paid principal in the SFA’s college accounts.

Her salary is almost three times the average wage — around £130,000 — paid to college leaders over the same period.

A spokesperson for Nescot confirmed that there had been no recent changes to Ms Mann’s role, and claimed that the initial, lower figure had come from “the college’s draft financial statements at the time”.

She said: “In the first version of the college accounts data, released in March 2016, the salary of the principal and chief executive was shown as £331,000, which was the figure included in the college’s draft financial statements at the time.”

Ms Mann’s current salary has risen 139 per cent since 2013/14, when she was paid £150,000, according to the SFA.

Nescot is currently in its third year of involvement with the Saudi Arabian Colleges of Excellence programme.

In September 2013, Nescot set up a female college in Jeddah as part of the scheme, which promotes technical and vocational education in the region.

FE Week asked Nescot about the programme when the original salary figures were released in March.

At the time, a spokesperson for Nescot said she was paid more.

“Sunaina Mann is the principal and CEO of the Nescot Group, which includes Nescot and the Jeddah College of Excellence. Her salary in 2014/5 was £363,000,” she said.

Clarifying the situation this week, the spokesperson confirmed that the £363,000 “referred to in March 2016 included £5,000 of benefits in kind, as confirmed in the published audited financial statements. These benefits relate to private medical insurance”.

Natalie Bennett, the leader of the Green party, meanwhile complained about college principals’ salaries at a parliamentary event on Wednesday (May 11).

She said: “There’re a few people in FE who really haven’t got much to worry about.

“Some college heads are on more than £200,000 a year. I’d love to know how you could possibly think about justifying that.

“They’re actually paid more than the Prime Minister. I know running an FE college is a very difficult job, particularly at the moment, but I’m not sure it’s more difficult than being the Prime Minister.”

A controversial new data dashboard could cut costs incurred by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) by almost two thirds — but FE leaders fear the extra financial burden will simply fall on them.

The Qualification Achievement Rate (QAR) data dashboard was branded a “fiasco” by sector bosses in an FE Week story last month, when they suggested the changes had been a waste of money.

In its answer to FE Week’s Freedom of Information request over development costs, the SFA said that the QAR’s ‘Birst’ data dashboard cost a one-off sum of £153,000 to develop in 2014/15, but would subsequently require only £58,000 per year to run.

The SFA claims that this should result in annual savings of 65 per cent, when compared with the £164,000 the old system cost in 2013/14, using multiple PDF annual reports that were sent out to providers.

However, sector representatives told FE Week that they are worried the new dashboard could shift the burdens of time and expense onto them.

One college principal, who did not want to be named, blasted the new database, saying: “This may have produced a significant cost saving for the SFA, but savings for the sector as a whole including the providers might not be so clear.”

There is a possibility, he insisted, that the new system would actually create more work for providers, as they hunt for the relevant information among listings for many other organisations.

If this were the case, he said, “all the SFA have done is made central savings and passed the expense onto the provider, with the net effect that the sector is actually worse off because of these changes”.

Meanwhile Stephen Hewitt (pictured below), strategic funding and examinations manager at Morley College, said that the length of time that “senior management spend looking for things on the portal that previously would have been clear in front of them on old PDF-style reports” could add major time costs.

In April, FE Week reported that the SFA would be improving its tool for viewing QARs, following complaints from providers about missing information.

Graham Taylor, principal and chief executive of New College Swindon made his feelings known in an article for FE Week in April, when he described the changes as a “fiasco” which have arrived after “an interminable delay”.

“It’s full of unnecessary terminology changes,” he wrote.

A spokesperson for the SFA said the 2014/15 QAR reports were developed through the data dashboard “as part of on-going SFA budget constraints and drive for efficiency savings”.

She said: “Traditionally providers would have received approximately 900+ PDF reports via a large zip file hosted on the provider gateway.

“This method of production and deployment was both inefficient and costly.”

The SFA consulted with providers in September last year on “the design of an alternative reporting solution”.

The result of this consultation, she said, means that “the cost of the new reporting solution, although higher in the first year, still offers significant savings over the traditional reporting method.

“Hosting Birst through the HUB is part of SFA’s strategic solution of which QAR is but one product that uses this service.

“Therefore there are no additional costs in hosting QAR in the HUB.”

> ‘Valuable analysis’ shows 20 per cent of adult funding being spent on learners outside region of the provider
> Skills Minister warns SFA that ‘contracts spanning multiple geographic areas…may become less appropriate’

Ahead of funding devolution, exclusive FE Week analysis of Skills Funding Agency figures published this week has found close to £300m (20 per cent) of adult funding, excluding apprenticeships, is being delivered to learners living outside the region in which their provider is based.

The average out of area funding for colleges in 2014/15 was 16 per cent, with ten colleges using more than half of their budget for learners not living in their region.

This revelation comes after Nick Boles also said in his grant letter to the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) that Adult Education Budget “devolution deals will provide specific localities with the power to make their own funding decisions and it may become less appropriate to let large national contracts spanning multiple geographic areas”.

The warning was passed onto providers by SFA boss Peter Lauener when he shared the out-of-area figures and said in his 2016/17 allocation letter to providers that: “As we move to local commissioning and devolution, commissioners will expect local resources to be deployed to support their local area.”

The figures, shown here for the first time by provider type, also show more than half (58 per cent) of all private provider learners came from beyond their head office areas — which amounts to £115.5m funding.

The figures produced a passionate reaction from providers highlighted by FE Week as most vulnerable to the reforms, and bolstered the Association of Colleges’ call for delay to the reforms.

Janet Meenaghan, principal and chief executive of New College Stamford, which had 72 per cent of funding for out of region learners, said: “As a college which is sited in the south of Lincolnshire, but located close to the borders of four other counties, devolution poses particular issues for us.

“Employers, students and parents don’t recognise boundary lines on maps. They want to access high quality education and training which best suits their needs.”
John Taylor, joint managing director at Birmingham-based Access to Music Ltd, which had an even higher proportion of learner funding out of region (87 per cent) warned: “This could lead to a ‘postcode lottery’ for students studying with us.

“We would strongly urge a pause on implementation to allow further consultation.”

James Bishop, managing director of West Berkshire-based The Skills Partnership Limited, with 100 per cent out of home region learners, said its administrative hub office location was “generally of secondary importance”.

This compared to “establishing if we could demonstrate we were able to respond effectively to a particular region’s priority training requirements”.

The highest proportion (76 per cent) for a college was for Eastleigh College, and principal Jan Edrich said: “It’s in the interests of employers and economic growth that this delivery is not compromised by the implementation of overly restrictive commissioning arrangements.”

But Dan O’Keefe, managing director at TQ Training, which had 99 per cent out of area learners, said: “We have been based in Northamptonshire for 21 years, and the location was chosen as it’s in the middle of the country, so it enables us to service clients across England.

“The proposed [devolution] approach is not dissimilar to regional contracts which existed until 2010, where providers would have up to nine contracts for each of the nine different regions.”

Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association for Employment and Learning Providers, said: “FE Week’s valuable analysis clearly shows the complexity of local and national provision, which includes specialism and the need to meet the demands of regional and national employers.

“It’s very important devolution and the area reviews take account of this.”

The Association of Colleges would not be drawn on the matter this week, other than to say: “It is up to each college to decide how they deliver their non-apprenticeship adult courses to ensure the most suitable provision for their students and employers.”

But its assistant chief executive Julian Gravatt admitted in Edition 173 he was concerned the government had not finalised how devolution would work for provider groups based in multiple regions.

He said: “It would be better to delay the budget devolution rather than move ahead with half-completed plans.”

It is unclear the extent that the out of region figures result from subcontracting, but Mr Lauener also told providers: “In understanding the pattern of delivery, you should give specific consideration to the provision you sub-contract and how much of it is outside your immediate commissioning area(s).

“We will share information on where your sub-contracted provision is delivered with areas that have a skills devolution agreement or a skills incentive pilot.”

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Editorial: Out-of-area but not out-of-time

Those of us in FE with even short memories will remember that the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) was scrapped, along with 47 local LSC councils, to remove their planning role.

It is therefore something of a return to the past with devolution of the Adult Education Budget (AEB), with providers facing even greater learner postcode scrutiny.

But new SFA figures crunched by us this week expose the challenge new local commissioners will face.

When they get their hands on the budget, why would they want to pass it on to providers spending it on learners living in another area?

They won’t, so in the absence of a national provider funding system we can expect major upheaval, particularly for colleges and training providers based near to area boundaries.

The end result may be a better one, with less subcontracting and more focus on colleges, in particular, supporting their local community.

But the SFA figures understate the issue, as they are based on the nine regions in England rather than the near 40 commissioning areas.

Any provider expecting a degree of stability over the coming years from the £1.5bn AEB budget will be sorely disappointed.

Devolved commissioning will be complex and the potential for unintended consequences are great.

So before opaque chaos reigns, if not delay then let’s at least be sure there is sufficient time for well-run consultations and pilots.

Nick Linford

The apprenticeship levy could be used to train the next generation of Church of England (CoE) vicars.

The CoE is in talks with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) about how it can use its levy funding, it has told FE Week.

The move comes after second church estates commissioner Caroline Spelman told MPs that the CoE would “very much” like to use the levy for training.

She was responding to a question lodged by Mark Spencer, the Conservative MP for Sherwood — who asked if church commissioners had made an assessment of the effect of the apprenticeship levy on the CoE.

The levy, due to be introduced in April 2017, will be set at 0.5 per cent of a company’s payroll, and will be payable by companies who pay out more than £3m in annual salaries, a group which will definitely include the church.

Ms Spelman, an official go-between for the church and the government, said: “The CoE supports the government’s drive to increase the number of apprentices.

“Apart from some of the central bodies and larger diocesan offices in cathedrals, most church bodies will not be affected by the levy, because their payrolls fall below the £3m threshold, but the church is in the rather unusual position of having 8,000 office-holders out of its total 24,000 employees, and would very much like to see the levy being used to train more ordinands.”

A CoE spokesperson told FE Week that it was in “very early stage discussions” with BIS about “how we can work with the apprenticeship levy”.

In order to become a member of the clergy, candidates must currently undergo two or three years of higher education paid for by the church — through pre-ordination training, depending on their age and previous theological study.

This is followed by up to four years of post-ordination, on-the-job training as a curate, before they finally become a fully licensed minister.

The church offers grants to cover the cost of pre-ordination training courses, which can be up to £15,000 a year for residential courses, according to information on its website.

The spokesperson would not be drawn on details, such as the stage of an ordinand’s training at which the church would like to use future levy funding, or whether it was planning to develop an apprenticeship standard, telling FE Week that he “wouldn’t want to second-guess” the discussions.

A senior charity sector figure meanwhile warned last week that charities were caught in a “conflict of legislation” over the apprenticeship levy, insisting that obliging NGOs to pay would conflict with their legal requirement to spend funds on beneficiaries.

A BIS spokesperson said it welcomed “expressions of interest in developing new apprenticeship standards at any time”, but that it had not received a bid to develop a standard for members of the clergy.

A former chief executive of Stoke-on-Trent City Council, who reportedly received a £230,000 voluntary redundancy pay-off from the local authority just six months ago, has been appointed to lead two merging colleges.

FE Week has exclusively learned that John van de Laarschot will start as chief executive on August 1, when the merger between New College Nottingham (NCN) and Central College Nottingham (CCN) is complete.

It is understood the new institution will be called Nottingham College.

A spokesperson confirmed today that the announcement of Mr Laarschot’s appointment had been made to staff and students at both merging colleges, but added the “legal contractual process” was ongoing.

Mr van de Laarschot left his previous £200,000-a-year post at Stoke-on-Trent City Council last year.

This followed an ‘Extraordinary City Council Meeting’ on November 11 to discuss the “extended leave arrangements that had reportedly been sanctioned for the council’s chief executive”, according to council minutes.

His departure stirred controversy at the time, as he reportedly received a £230,000 pay off.

FE Week asked leader of Stoke-on-Trent City Council David Conway if the council would expect Mr van de Laarschot to repay this, now he was taking up a new position in the public sector — but he was unable to respond by the time of publication.

In July 2015, FE Week reported that governors at both the Nottingham colleges had voted to merge, following a review of FE provision in the city by commissioner David Collins.

Dr Collins launched the review in May following recent grade three Ofsted inspection results for both colleges and financial difficulties which led to a £12m rescue package from the Skills Funding Agency so NCN could complete a campus revamp.

The result of the merger will be one 40,000-learner “Nottingham College” in the heart of the city, with a new £60m skills hub reportedly planned for land near the Broadmarsh Centre off Canal Street set to be the home of the new establishment.

NCN was rated as grade two by Ofsted in January this year, while CCN received a grade two in February.

FE Week contacted Mr van de Laarschot for comment on his new position, but received no response ahead of publication.

A college hit with two inadequate Ofsted ratings in three years has been told by Skills Minster Nick Boles that it is “failing too many of its students”, following an FE Commissioner report.

Dr David Collins’ team visited City College Coventry in February, following its most recent Ofsted inspection in November.

The report, dated April 2016, was published today.

In the accompanying letter to college chair, Maggie Galliers, Mr Boles said: “The key finding is that the college is clearly failing too many of its students through a combination of poor teaching and weak curriculum management”.

But he added: “It does, however, have a number of strengths which, deployed vigorously and over time, could turn the institution around.”

Today’s report comes after Dr Elaine McMahon took over as interim principal in January, following the departure of previous principal Steve Logan after just 18 months in charge.

He was appointed in July 2014, the same month that the college received a grade three rating from Ofsted.

Mr Logan replaced previous interim principal John Hogg, who was appointed following the departure of long-standing principal Paul Taylor in May 2013 after an inadequate-across-the-board rating from Ofsted in April 2013.

Dr Collins’ report found that Dr McMahon had “made an immediate impact on the health of the college and the coherence of its leadership.”

There was “clear evidence” of an “emerging quality culture among senior managers” and “a belief that leaders are now taking more responsibility for improvements”, he said.

But he recommended that the college “aim to achieve stability in its key managerial and curriculum posts” and “clarify its strategic direction and its intended stronger vocational character”.

The report noted: “The board is clear the FE offer in Coventry is not organised such as to give maximum benefit to students and the local economy.”

It added: “The college itself is too small to sustain the current 14 areas of learning.”

There “appear to be no insuperable barriers” to a proposed three-way merger with Henley College and Hereward College, Dr Collins said.

He recommended that it worked with the two colleges “to consider methodically a full range of options for creating a robust FE curriculum for Coventry, including relationships with higher education”.

Dr Collins praised the college for its “good” financial control, and for acting “appropriately and promptly to address its financial deficit” which resulted in it returning to a satisfactory financial health rating “a year earlier than projected”.

While he recommended the college should “rebalance” its board to include “businesses relevant to the college’s vocational curriculum”, Dr Collins noted that “even as it stands it is a strong governing body”.

A spokesperson for the college told FE Week that it had been “involved in a fundamental review” of its priorities since November, and had taken advice from a “wide range of stakeholders” including the FE Commissioner.

“We found that process extremely useful and constructive and our improvement plan addresses all of the recommendations made in the report,” the spokesperson said.

Referring to the line in Mr Boles’ letter about the colleges’ strengths, quoted above, the spokesperson added: “We share that optimism and are working every day to ensure that happens as soon and as effectively as possible.”

Growth requests are being offered for the delivery of any of the new apprenticeship standards, FE Week can reveal.

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) announced this today as part of a “targeted growth exercise” to increase 16 to 18 and 19+ apprenticeship delivery.

An initial statement uploaded onto gov.uk by the agency said the offer would apply to standards — not existing apprenticeship frameworks — but did not specify which ones.

But when asked by FE Week if this meant providers needing more funding could lodge growth requests for “any of the new standards”, an SFA spokesperson said: “Yes, on standards, we have not been specific on sector areas”.

“Requests are subject to affordability and our normal credibility checks,” she added.

So far 96 new standards have been approved by the government for delivery, with more than 160 still in development.

The SFA also said on gov.uk that its “targeted growth exercise” would apply to other apprenticeship delivery — covering higher and /or degree level, food, farming and agritech, and those that are science, and technology, engineering and maths (STEM)-based.

A spokesperson said: “We will also fund credible growth cases on 16-18 traineeships and 19-24 traineeships.”

She said the SFA would consider providers’ final 2014/15 apprenticeship and traineeship delivery, along with 2015/16 delivery against year-to-date profiles, when reviewing growth requests.

The review process will also take on board whether they can prove there is immediate demand from employers or learners that providers “cannot meet from your current contract value”.

Providers must also “provide details of the frameworks /standards you will deliver on food, farming and agritech apprenticeships and/or other STEM based apprenticeships or a specific commitment from an employer confirming an agreed volume of starts,” she added.

Providers have been asked to submit growth request forms relating to today’s announcement, via ProviderPerformanceManagement@sfa.bis.gov.uk by 5pm on May 20, which will be viewed by many as a rushed turnaround.

The funding will be added to 2016/17 allocations.

The SFA spokesperson added: “We will also review the baseline data used in calculating 2016/17 allocations and where more recent data shows evidence of increased performance, we may increase your allocation accordingly.

“You do not need to include reference to this within your growth request.”

It comes three months after training providers branded “ridiculous” the overdue news that many of their 16 to 18 apprenticeship and traineeship growth requests had not been funded in full by the SFA.

The SFA announced in early February 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, was in response to growth requests submitted by providers to help fund apprenticeships and traineeships in 2015/16.

It came 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.

The SFA was unable to say ahead of publication how much growth funding it has to distribute relating to today’s growth request announcement.

Bridgwater College in Somerset is the latest new member of the 157 Group, it has been revealed this morning.

The announcement was made by the college group via Twitter at 11am, and brings the total number of members to 32.

Bridgwater is the sixth college to have signed-up since 157 Group exclusively revealed its expansion plans to FE Week in January, following a strategic review.

Mike Robbins (pictured above), the college’s principal, said: “We are delighted to be joining, and look forward to the prospect of working with like-minded and forward thinking colleges to share ideas, learn from each other and jointly confront some of the challenges facing the sector.”

Bridgwater, which has 17,000 learners, was rated outstanding across the board when it was last inspected by Ofsted in November 2006.

Ian Pretty, 157 Group chief executive (pictured right), said he was “thrilled” to welcome a “world-class institution” on-board.

“They bring a wealth of expertise and a deep commitment to their students, which they develop through leading edge practice and partnerships with employers,” he added.

“Bridgwater College proactively works to maximise the skills, investment and career opportunities for employers and learners in their region, and is a leading provider of business training to employers across Somerset.”

Today’s announcement comes after FE Week revealed on March 14 that Middlesbrough College had become the fifth college to join the 157 Group as part of its expansion plans.

South Staffordshire College and South Thames College joined on March 7, and City College Plymouth joined the group on March 1.

Those announcements came a little over a month after Cardiff and Vale College became the first new member of the group following the review.

Bridgwater is currently involved in merger talks with neighbouring Somerset College.

A Bridgwater spokesperson said a final decision on the merger was expected soon, following a consultation that ran from October 1 to November 2.

 

 

The government has announced the breakdown of £80m funding it has dedicated to creating five new national colleges — with one for high speed rail scooping half the total amount.

Today’s announcement revealed that the National College for High Speed Rail, located in Birmingham and Doncaster, will receive £40m from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) for the construction of new buildings and equipment.

Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and Sheffield Combined Authority and the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) will provide a further £6m each, alongside around £5m in equipment from industry.

It comes after FE Week reported in December that business proposals for seven different employer-led National Colleges had been considered — but only five had been given the go-ahead subject to due diligence checks.

This morning’s announcement was the first time BIS officially confirmed they had passed the checks, and a breakdown of where the £80m will be allocated had been provided.

Skills Minister Nick Boles said the approved “national colleges have been designed with employers, for employers. They will produce the skills needed now and into the future to ensure the UK remains innovative and at the forefront of pioneering industry”.

The National College for Nuclear in Somerset and Cumbria will gain the second largest slice of the BIS funding — securing £15m for buildings and equipment, together with a further £3m from the South West LEP and £4.5m from Bridgwater College.

These new institutions for high speed rail and nuclear, along with the National College for Onshore Oil and Gas, in Blackpool, will open in September 2017.

The National College for Onshore Oil and Gas will also get £5.6m from BIS, with equipment donations from industry.

The National College for Digital Skills, set to open in September, will receive £13.4m from BIS and £18.2m from the Greater London Authority and the London Enterprise Panel.

And the National College for the Creative and Cultural Industries, which will also open at the start of next academic year, will get £5.5m from BIS, £5,000 from Creative and Cultural Skills and £1m in equipment from industry.

All five of the new national colleges will focus on delivering high-level technical skills at levels four to six.

BIS originally pitched the idea of national colleges in June 2014.

It released a document, named ‘National Colleges – a call for engagement’, which stated they would “set a new standard for higher level vocational training” and “deliver the higher level technical skills that businesses need”.

The government department called on interested parties who saw the opportunity for a national college in their sector, industry or profession to apply, stating that it had £50m to invest in match funding from April 2015 up to March 2017.