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.”

Joint strike action will be taken by members of the University and College Union (UCU) and Unison working in FE colleges on February 24 in response to an ongoing row over pay.

The industrial action is set to follow an earlier rejection of a pay freeze for 2015/16, proposed by national employers the Association of Colleges (AoC).

It comes after Unison announced on Saturday (January 29) that almost two-thirds (65.7 per cent) of its members who took part in a ballot last month had voted in favour of strike action, with a further 79.8 per cent said they supported action short of a strike.

The UCU previously held strike action over the same issue in November, after three-quarters (74 per cent) of members backed strike action in a ballot.

Michael MacNeil (pictured above), UCU head of bargaining, said: “Staff in FE colleges are understandably sick of the employers’ refusal to deal with the real-terms pay cuts that blight the sector.

“Our members demonstrated in November that they are prepared to take action on this issue and are delighted that colleagues from Unison will be joining them on the picket lines.”

Jon Richards, Unison head of education, said: “After years of flatlining wages across much of the economy are slowly picking up, but not for those in FE.

“Faced with the prospect of yet another year with no pay rise, staff have understandably decided that enough is enough, and have taken the difficult decision to take action later this month.

“College workers will be hoping that the announcement of strike action is enough to get the Association of Colleges back around the table and in meaningful negotiations.’

An AoC spokesperson said: “The pay recommendation made by the AoC reflects the feedback we have had from colleges about the stringent financial circumstances in the sector in 2015/16.

“Strikes are very disruptive for colleges and more importantly for students. We would encourage UCU and Unison to consider how we might better work together to represent our respective members collectively and position the FE sector to remunerate more effectively in the longer term.

“There is a willingness from the employers’ side to continue to engage with our union colleagues to protect the prospects of further education, its skilled workforce and the students it serves.”

The spokesperson added: “The employers ‎note the support for strike action however we are not in a position to recommend general uplifts on pay where specific financial challenges are faced by our members. The employers have outlined clearly that colleges are facing increases to pension and national insurance contributions during 2015/16 and this coupled with reductions in funding mean that a recommendation to members to increase costs is not sustainable.”

Almost 90 per cent of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) FE staff members have ‘often’ or ‘sometimes’ faced barriers when seeking promotion, a new survey by the University and College Union (UCU) has found.

A total of 185 BAME members of the union who work in the sector responded to the survey between March 31 and May 31 last year.

Some 88 per cent of them said they had faced barriers to promotion, either ‘sometimes’ or ‘often’.

And 68 per cent said they were ‘often’ or ‘sometimes’ subject to bullying and harassment from their managers.

Two-thirds also said they had been bullied and harassed by colleagues.

Anthony Bravo, principal of Basingstoke College of Technology, has previously shared with FE Week some of the challenges he faced in progressing with his career.

And commenting on the UCU survey, he said: “I am disappointed to hear that this still seems to have been the experience for so many colleagues.

“I believe education does best when it pulls skills and talent – at all levels – from diverse sources.

“I would encourage all colleagues with the skills and enthusiasm to lead, regardless of their background, to continue pushing for excellence in education.”

Just over half of the BAME respondents from the sector also said they had not been fully informed of the process of applying for promotion, and six out of 10 did not feel they had been supported by senior colleagues in seeking progression.

In England’s FE colleges in 2013/14, 10 per cent of teaching staff identified themselves as non-white, while for senior managers the figure was half this amount.

The report, which also explored the same issues in higher education, concluded with suggested ways to tackle problems in the workplace.

Respondents rated effective sanctions against perpetrators as the most effective measure for challenging racism.

The UCU has called on colleges and universities to take a more proactive approach to tackling discrimination and racism in the workplace.

The union’s general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: “All institutions must be prepared to radically examine their structures, policies and procedures and make changes.”

A spokesperson for the Association of Colleges said: “Colleges take allegations of bullying and harassment very seriously and would seek to redress issues which might undermine effective working relationships between staff.”

Tough new rules requiring a 40 per cent threshold for strike action in key public services will not apply to support staff working in colleges, FE Week can reveal.

The government’s Trade Union Bill is set to introduce new rules meaning that teaching and leadership of “pupils aged five to 16 in state-funded schools” will be subject to a 40 per cent support threshold for strike action.

However, University and College Union (UCU) head of bargaining Michael MacNeil (pictured right) complained to FE Week last month that the Department for Education had failed to explain how the rules will affect FE colleges that teach young people aged 16 and under.

Key questions that remained unanswered following an FE Week report on January 25 were whether support staff and people who teach both people aged above and below 16 would be subject to the rules.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovations and Skills (BIS) has now confirmed to FE Week that: “The skeleton regulations only specify ‘teachers and persons appointed to fulfil the role of a head teacher’, so the threshold will not apply to support staff in the education sector.”

She added: “The 40 per cent threshold will apply to teachers in FE colleges if the majority of union members involved in the industrial dispute normally spend at least part of their time delivering an ‘important public service’ – teaching people under the age of 17.”

It comes after Dr Mary Bousted (pictured left), general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), called the policy “ill-thought through”.

She said: “The government has a poor understanding of how schools and colleges work.

“This will lead to a greater likelihood of legal challenges from employers which will prolong disputes, even when, like the wider public, union members want a resolution.”

The trade union bill, which was introduced by the Business Secretary Sajid Javid, is currently at committee stage in the House of Lords.

The government confirmed that FE colleges recruiting learners from the age of 14 would be covered by the new strike rules in a ballot threshold consultation response, published in January. At present, strike action can be called if a simple majority is in favour.

It comes as trade union Unison announced on Saturday (January 29) that almost two-thirds (65.7 per cent) of its members who took part in a ballot last month had voted in favour of strike action, in response to an ongoing row over pay.

A further 79.8 per cent said they supported action short of a strike.

The industrial action ballot followed an earlier rejection of a pay freeze for 2015/16, proposed by national employers the Association of Colleges. It covered members in colleges that had not reached a local agreement.

Unison’s FE and sixth form committee will meet on Wednesday, to consider the result and the next steps in the campaign for a pay rise.

A UCU spokesperson also confirmed to FE Week today that the two unions will be speaking on the issue and are likely to announce next steps later this week.

The UCU previously held a strike over the same issue on November 10.

Troubled Lewisham Southwark College is continuing to improve in all areas according to its latest monitoring visit report from Ofsted.

The college, previously named Lesoco, became the first FE and skills provider to be branded inadequate by Ofsted twice in a row last year.

In a report on an inspection last February, the college was criticised over the pace of improvement and a failure to raise standards after it was first given a grade four rating in January 2014 following a visit by inspectors in November 2013.

An initial Ofsted monitoring visit report published last May set out priorities for improvement, for example to the college’s curriculum planning, staff management, teaching and finances.

A second monitoring visit report published in August recognised “reasonable improvement for learners” in all areas.

Its latest monitoring report out today again recognised “reasonable improvement” for learners in all areas.

Principal Carole Kitching (pictured right) said: “I am delighted that Ofsted have recognised the ongoing positive changes taking place at the college.

“A lot of hard work has happened to ensure that the college is put back on to the path to success.

“We’re confident we can continue to build on these positive steps to the benefit of all our communities.”

The visit, which took place last month, noted improvement in governance, teaching and learning, sharing good practice in English and maths provision, learners’ attendance and punctuality and students’ achievements.

Today’s report said: “Teachers are learning to use technology innovatively to bring their subject to life and to provide learning in a way which suits their learners.”

It said the board of governors is now “established with the vast majority of the current board having been appointed in the last 18 months.

“The board contains a very good range of experiences and skills, and the governors are enthusiastic and keen to play an active role in supporting the college to improve.”

For maths and English provision, the report said the new team is “making progress towards improving the quality of teaching, learning and assessment for students, and working well towards remedying the areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection.”

It added that managers have ensured sessions are “timetabled as the core of all study programmes, with other classes being planned around these important subjects”.

Ofsted said for attendance and punctuality, staff have “rationalised the marking of registers so that students can now only be marked as present or absent. This has allowed senior managers to evaluate attendance fairly across all curriculum areas”.

The report said the “increased focus on students’ progress has led to improved achievements. Students are now achieving in line with other general further education colleges”.

But it warned that there are “still pockets of poor performance as yet to be resolved, a small minority of students continue to do poorly despite increased monitoring and better support”.

The inadequate Oftsed report last February for the general FE college, which had around 18,000 learners and Skills Funding Agency (SFA) allocation of almost £24m at the time, came after four Ofsted monitoring inspections since the initial inadequate rating.

A second visit last July followed the departure of former principal Maxine Room and the appointment of ex-Warwickshire College principal and former 157 Group chair Ioan Morgan to the position of interim principal.

An FE Week story in May also revealed that FE Commissioner Dr David Collins was overseeing a structure and appraisal review of the college, at the same time as nearby Greenwich Community College.